CHRIS MCGINNIS | BOOK & CONCEPT

 

Today, as broadway theaters enter into a new era, we are beginning to notice a shift in the style of musical theatre- a shift that some would say would send Sondheim to his grave. Being an avid fan of Sondheim, I can both agree and disagree with this statement.  After growing up with the influences of modern musicals like A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd, the concept of a "jukebox" musical can be quite off-putting. They are often viewed as commercial and unintelligent, but is that really fair?

Albeit unconventional this new style is conforming in order to relate to new and younger audiences on a different level and to keep theatre alive. Now, what true artist can argue with that?

While conceiving this show, I struggled to find what it is that these new concept musicals are lacking to put them on the artistic level, so to speak, of one of the great modern musicals. When I finally realized what they were missing I knew exactly where to begin: the story. With most juke-box style musicals the main focus is usually the music, with some contrived plot added to link together the songs of a particular artist or group. Where I needed to start was with meaningful story, and important message, and developed characters. And thus began the search to find each individual song to tell every moment of my already thought out story.