754 replies to this topic

[Cactus]

Jon, on 01 June 2012 - 04:23 PM, said:

Jersey Boys if it can do another year will beat Mamma Mia's run as the second longest running show at the Prince Edward.

As for Viva, I'm unsure whether it can work, with Mamma Mia! the songs and the story just fit whereas the Spice Girls don't really have the same iconic status as ABBA.

And it's very much just one generation of people who actually witnessed the hype. Plus, while I'm a child of the 90s, I only know two, maybe three of their songs, whereas with ABBA... you just know them all even if it's not your type of music...

[Jon]

I think both Viva and The Bodyguard will run at least a year to 18 months, while I'm not a fan of the Bodyguard, I think it has better odds of running longer compared to Viva Forever.

[bickypeg]

And the latter is definitely another one for the hen parties!

[wickedgrin]

The Bodyguard will be a MASSIVE hit I think.

[djp]

Jon, on 01 June 2012 - 04:49 PM, said:

I think both Viva and The Bodyguard will run at least a year to 18 months, while I'm not a fan of the Bodyguard, I think it has better odds of running longer compared to Viva Forever.

Not sure of that - both may do well - or neither. .The Bodyguard story doesn't look like a great musical book to me, The film relies on suspense which is difficult post film , there's no high emotion like Ghost and i can't see much room for humour and I don't know if casting US stars will appeal that much. Viva may be able to pull in a ready made fanbase that turned out as recently as 2007 for the tour, and if the story is any good it may pull in more people. I would imagine if its a singing show setting with judges and the like and there's a mother role,   there's plenty of room for  casting known people  if they  wanted to. Jennifer should have made it funny enough if they wanted that. The difficult bit I should think is getting the vocals sounding right and getting enough emotional content in the songs  - and, if the Daily Mail piece is right about the workshops , they may have cracked that .I am intrigued what it will sound like and how they will do it.,

[Jon]

djp, on 06 June 2012 - 01:38 AM, said:

Not sure of that - both may do well - or neither. .The Bodyguard story doesn't look like a great musical book to me, The film relies on suspense which is difficult post film , there's no high emotion like Ghost and i can't see much room for humour and I don't know if casting US stars will appeal that much. Viva may be able to pull in a ready made fanbase that turned out as recently as 2007 for the tour, and if the story is any good it may pull in more people. I would imagine if its a singing show setting with judges and the like and there's a mother role,   there's plenty of room for  casting known people  if they  wanted to. Jennifer should have made it funny enough if they wanted that. The difficult bit I should think is getting the vocals sounding right and getting enough emotional content in the songs  - and, if the Daily Mail piece is right about the workshops , they may have cracked that .

I think The Bodyguard is relying on the Whitney factor with the songs. I've been relistening to Spice Girls songs and oddly they could work as musical numbers but I'm not sure if will be the next Mamma Mia! or WWRY, I don't think Viva Forever is a good title, Wannabe would be better.

[Titan]

I think its a good title if they are going for the girl power/friends forever type message to appeal to hen parties and other groups of women, which I think will be its main market

[KevinUK]

Viva Forever I think will be a big hit - the band had global domination, but unlike Beiber and One Direction, the spice songs were brilliant pop songs. They get a hard time from the media, but they sold out 17 shows in London just 5 years ago. I think this will work well for mothers and daughters wanting a night out, but won't pull in the older crowd - simply because it wasn't there 'era' musically.

But, The Bodyguard will. Everyone and their mothers know that film inside out - very simple plot that works because the songs make up for everything it lacks. I think as long as the female lead can pull off IWALY (and not just sound good, but be Whitney good), then this show will be a hit too.

[hitster]

The Spice Girls only released 11 singles and the songs were quite short so there will have to be some padding for the musical numbers unless a few of their solo hits are included or other songs from the era.

[KevinUK]

Absolutely - although 2 double A side singles brings the tally to 13 songs. I expect "Move Over" from their Pepsi commercial will feature as it was rather huge at the time. Luckily they sold 5 million albums in the UK, so I think album tracks will be used - my guesses are 'Love Thing', 'Naked', and 'Lady Is A Vamp'.