A few interesting ideas for composers and production companies.
Carmelita is a new interpretation/adaptation of the Carmen story, set in the world of today. It is an audience favorite because of its timeless themes: desire, freedom, jealousy, obsession, and violence. However, it must not lean on Bizet and his music. It has original music, although the plot resonates with the story.
The idea behind this Medea is that she is here and now, a woman who escapes from Georgia (where ancient Colchis was) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colchis). The man she escapes with, Jason, is a Greek thief. Medea’s father was an oligarch with strong connections to the underworld. Medea helps Jason rob her father, then they leave together for a better life.
The Disney way to plunder a story and turn it into a musical
So, I thought about what production companies like and came to the conclusion that what they do is plunder fairy tales and things like that, especially pieces where the original copyrights have lapsed and pieces are in the public domain.
I’m not naive enough to believe that there are no thieves reading this, so I assume that you may be inspired by me to steal an idea and pretend to make it your own. You will find some excuse to justify your behavior, and the psychopathic amongst you will have no guilt feelings at all.
F**K YOU!
Sylvie and Bruno — Lewis Carrol — couldn’t find a musical for the story, but it seems like it can be plundered for both reality and fantasy. The real world of today. The fantasy world of where we would love to be.
The Golden Bird — Brothers Grimm — There seems to be a Kindermusical based on the story, but not a real stage production musical. I would say that this story can really be plundered, the plot simplified and Disney-fied, but brought back into the modern world we have today, like the Carmelita story.
The Riddle — Brothers Grimm — Das Rätsel — This is an excellent, open story that can be done in any number of ways. It also has the Disney-type of happy ending.
The Wonderful Musician — Brothers Grimm — Der wunderliche Spielmann — This has numerous possibilities, especially as an updated version, with the wolf being a manager type who wants to sign him to a dreadful contract, the fox is a record producer who wants to steal the master recordings, the hare is a groupie who thinks she can get the musician to give up all his money. Then, at the end, the woodsman comes along to protect the musician. Now who could that person be? True love? A mafia boss? His own self-confidence? — I like the True Love solution, with a woman so powerful that she can out-think any of the evil people coming for him.
If you are a creative person, you will be able to find lots of other ideas. Creativity is not the problem here, getting the piece to a composer for the music, then to a production company willing to spend money on putting together a production in a theater that will draw an audience, is the main hurdle.
Everybody wants to make money, not lose money. That’s the virus of capitalism in the bloodstream of society. There is no art for art’s sake.
Anyway, if there are some (fairly) honest people out there who would like to work with me to make any of these ideas come alive in the real world, please let me know. I’m not a great fan of capitalism, but, dude, I have to eat, and I have nothing against getting royalties.
Every time it rains, it rains pennies from heaven
