When Salvaging A Scrapped Musical

Ever since my last musical I wrote, I have been starting and failing to finish musicals. There are a few things that should make you drop a musical sooner than later.

1. It's Scene 2 and you are already sick of your characters. Sometimes I've made brilliant plots and characters, but after a while, they just start to rag on you. If you get sick of your characters, you can be almost positive that your audience will.

2. You realize that you didn't craft the plot carefully and you don't have enough stuff to happen between the beginning and end. Sometimes filler can fix this, but most of the time you want to AVOID filler, so when you have half a play without filler, you would be better off starting over, do some serious replot structuring, or just dropping it.

3. Whatever was motivating you to write this specific musical stops being an influence.

Regardless, a lot of the time when you scrap a musical, there are lots of beautiful parts that you just can't chuck in the trash. This article goes through each category and what you should and shouldn't keep.

(By the way this is assuming you are starting a new play. I put mine on infinite hiatus, which is different. Infinite hiatus is like "Oh, hey. I like the plot, I just don't like it right now..." I'll explain the difference in some of these categories)

PLOT:
It's really hard to salvage a plot by starting a new musical. In fact, it doesn't really make any sense. I put mine on infinite hiatus, which is different. Infinite hiatus is like "Oh, hey. I like the plot, I just don't like it right now..." Usually this is when you rewrite a plot later on. You can salvage some scenes and situations, but those probably were pretty loosely held by your original plot anyway. There isn't a lot you can do here besides take the same story and try again.

CHARACTERS:
Characters are so easy to salvage it isn't even funny. I had the first female admiral in the British Navy, Oliver Brown (not real) in three of my failed plays. Anything during that time period could conceivably involve her and it usually did. Names are something nice to salvage. I don't know about you, but I don't like to reuse names, so any name that I can use I will. Also some archetypes (Magician, pirate, etc.) can be reused if you had some great ideas for some sideplots involving them.
I know that if I ever scrap The Show Must Not Go On, I'm combing it for lines to use first. "Even gold has standards"? I got shivers up my spine when I wrote that. Maybe because I was sick, but still! Usually dialogue is like plot ("So Theylus, are you glad that you didn’t off yourself?") are contextually stuck in their original work. But you would be well advised to take your most golden lines. But you know what they say about gold...


MUSIC:
Much like dialogue and plot, lyrics are not salvageable. But melody lines totally are. And even some songs are too. I'm definitely including "Pennsylvania, It's The Best State" in one of my shows. The setting will just...have to be in Pennsylvania.


THEME:
You can always salvage your themes. Themes are universal and don't apply to one work alone. I mean, most of the time the subconscious theme is what's going to make you STOP writing a musical, but whatever. Oops. I didn't say that? Think for a minute about whatever work you just scrapped. Were you getting too involved with your own theme? Nod your head yes, because it's probably true. I mean, the above three reasons also happen sometimes, but the theme is the make it or break it. You most likely got too worried over if it presented gender plights or racial acceptance to bother to continue writing what flows in your mind.

As you can see, scrapping a musical isn't the end of the world or the end of your work. Every musical you write, failed or not, helps contribute to your overall writing ability.

Musical Review: The Producers

So, I could have reviewed American in Paris last week, except it had no validity as a musical. I was hard pressed to find a song that was actually relevant to the events that were going on around. It was an okay movie, but Gene Kelly should have gotten out of his little "Let's just tap dance all the time" phase. Even though I like tap dancing. Now I have a review for you of my favorite musical which I recently rewatched on DVD with my sister. The Producers. Before you shoot down the review because it's my favorite musical, I also recently learned that besides being the 20th longest running show on Broadway (And in the 21st Century no less), it won every single musical Tony that year, besides Best Revival and Best Female Lead (Since there isn't one, only a "featured"). That adds some validity to my rating. So without any more stuff: The review.

Plot: 20/20
I would be hard pressed to find ANYTHING in this musical that is filler. Every scene is essential to the plot. And how original the plot is to. A has-been Producer and his accountant realize that they could make more money by producing a flop than a hit, so they set out to get the worst play, director, cast, and anything else that will ensure their failure. Of course, this isn't as easy as it sounds. Just hearing the plot setup was enough for me to watch this movie. Just a note though, the movie is basically a filmed version of the stage production with better sets. So some stuff will seem to be over the top and hammy. Especially the first scene in the office.

Characters: 15/15
Every character in The Producers is a riot in themselves. And that's saying something considering all of the large parts in this musical. Besides Leo and Max, you have Ulla, Roger, Carmen, Franz as fairly large parts. Even some of the one shot characters seem to have very strong connections to the plot. As a female, I would feel bad about the lack of women roles, but oh well. It's hard to imagine that such unrealistic over-the-top stereotypical exaggerations can simultaneously seem so realistic.

Dialogue: 14/15
The dialogue is filled with dry jokes, clever puns, and references to things. I took off a point for the office scene at the beginning. Maybe it was poor translation from stage to movie, but it's almost unbearable for me to watch between "Opening Night" and "We Can Do It", since "King of Broadway" was a deleted scene, so I won't count that in the chronology.

Music: 20/20
The music is by far the best part of The Producers. I can listen to the whole soundtrack in order and frequently do, due to it's quality melody lines, great lyrics, and strong pit parts. Every song is catchy and good, two elements which aren't always present. There are about 20ish songs in this production, and only the rare repetition of themes. One of the best moments, however, is in the song "Betrayed", where Max Bialystock summarizes the whole musical up to that part in the space of about thirty seconds. Just the shock running down my spine from witnessing this feat was impressive. Not to mention that the songs are very well tied to the musical. You could sing a bunch of the songs standalone, but there would be no mistaking where it came from.

Adaptation: 10/10
This musical is an adaptation of a movie. A rather outdated boring movie. Well, it isn't that bad, but it shouldn't even be a question which one is better. This is the only reason why I don't completely bash adaptations. Retains most of the best lines from the movie and cuts the crap (LSD guy...).

Curtain Call: 5/5
The credit music added three MORE songs of original material. That's pretty intense for the CREDITS.

Theme/Underlying Social Message: 7/7
The only real underlying social message that you can get from this is that Max and Leo pick Springtime for Hitler because it's sure to offend people of all nationalities, religions, and creeds. The Producers itself could almost fall under the same category. A lot of the self referential humor make the musical almost a parody of itself.

Other Opinion Category: 7/8
That first office scene...

Total: 98/100

Well worth a watch. Just don't watch it with someone who will be offended easily.