snap culture

From the New York Times, in their article about how young straight white men are flocking to see Spamalot, the Monty Python musical on broadway:

"If I were of frat boy age and I had $100, would I opt for a Broadway ticket or would I want to spend that on booze and drugs?" Mr. Fierstein asked. "Even I, and I am as gay as a pink leather piñata, would choose booze and drugs."

The quote is from Harvey Fierstein, who wrote the book for "La Cage Aux Folles". Apparently the demographics for Spamalot attendees is causing quite a stir on Broadway. Expect "There's something about Mary" and "Billy Madison" to be musicals in no time (note: both movies did in fact have some singing).

Also, and this deserves it's own post, if anyone knows anyone who has some money to put up for a Broadway show, tell them to email me. Here it is: "I Feel Good!" the musical based on the music of James Brown. There are musicals out there for the music of Billy Joel, the Beach Boys, ABBA, and a bunch of others, but none of these musicians are as catchy as the GFOS, nor does their music span the full oevre so perfectly for the trajectory of a three-act play.

Here's the gist: Boy woos girl ("Try Me", "give it up"), Boy gets girl ("Sex Machine", "I got the feelin"), Boy loses girl ("It's a man's world", "please, please, please"), Boy finds out about the other guy ("The Big Payback"), and then boy gets girl back ("I feel good"). Throw in some family stuff ("Papa's got a brand new bag", "papa don't take no mess"), and some group songs ("Hot pants", "Make it funky", "Get up offa that thang", etc.), and you've got yourself a 12 years on Broadway blockbuster. As long as you don't try to make it "The James Brown Story", which would be a disaster. Or let Puffy play the lead.

Whoever steals this idea from me owes me a crapload of money. ben