In recent years many musicians from other areas of the industry have been making the transition into music theatre. Whether they are looking for a change of pace, more steady work or income, theatre seems to be a safe haven for original artists.
The original pop star transition was Olivia Newton-John with her foray into Grease and then Xanadu. Many composers followed, Elton John and Phil Collins writing music for Disney Renaissance movies that were then transformed into Broadway shows.
From here writers entered a new territory of Jukebox musicals. Songs were pre-written and already popular, they just needed a story line. We Will Rock You (Queen), Mama Mia (ABBA), Jersey Boys (Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons) and Rock of Ages (80s music) all followed this trend. Usually these shows came out to give the lagging artists a revival, so how does that work for a recent act such as Green Day and their American Idiot Broadway show?
U2 also jumped on the band wagon writing the music for the infamous Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark and Justin Burford (The Sleepy Jackson, End of Fashion, Rock of Ages) arriving from the rock scene. That’s not including the straight actors who decide to try out singing (eg. Kate Kendall from the Matt Frank/Dean Bryant production of Next to Normal)
With all these people arriving in music theatre from other genres, it is good that their celebrity is lending cred to the ‘daggy’ repuation of music theatre, but at the same time it invalidates the need for tertiary theatre schools and the expensive fees to attend them.
To gain positions as a professional music director formal education in music is still expected in order to know the music shorthand trained instrumental musicians use, discern skills when recruiting a band and to knowledgeably review, edit and lead from a conductors score. The music director is expected to sight read and play an instrument proficiently themselves, most likely piano.
Tags: artists, Composition, creativity, fantasy, film, indie, instrumental, music, music theatre, musical, performance, project, recording, song writing, stories, story, story writing, theatre
