Pet Shop Boys Community

I think there is the potential to create a really interesting musical from the PSB back catalogue, as there are so many songs about so many topics that you've pretty much got a song for any 'life event' you want to integrate into a story.

The issue, however, is that any PSB musical of this type would have to include the greatest hits, so an obscure B side that might fit perfectly into the story would be left out for a Go West.

CroMagnon wrote: Mon 12 Aug 2024, 9:59 pm I think there is the potential to create a really interesting musical from the PSB back catalogue, as there are so many songs about so many topics that you've pretty much got a song for any 'life event' you want to integrate into a story.

The issue, however, is that any PSB musical of this type would have to include the greatest hits, so an obscure B side that might fit perfectly into the story would be left out for a Go West.

There is not problem if you want to include an obscure B side that might fit into the story but just like an exception to the rule in this case. Obscure B sides work for a minor musical like Closer to Heaven.

But a big musical for cinema should include the classics in a cohesive way.

actually, they already have a movie - it couldn´t happen here - that stars the pet shop boys :Domino dancing

I'm a playwright and around 2016 I spent a few weeks developing such a musical, the gimmick being that each scene would be a bit of a medley of tracks touching on any particular topic (politics, jealousy, escapism, guilt, and so on). I had characters, plot, an outline, a tracklist, the whole plan. I even fully wrote the first few scenes AND handed two printed copies of the draft to Neil after one of the Royal Opera House concerts (the first batch). I wrote to Angela Becker's office and I remember getting a one-line reply that they were not accepting external projects, it felt very perfunctory, not like they had given it a look (though I can't seem to find that email anymore). Anyway, the whole thing may not have worked - I was frankensteining pieces of songs in my head together without any musical knowledge. Probably a musician/composer would have looked at me like I was out of my mind, but I was willing to put in the work and make any necessary rearrangements so that the music would flow and the lyrics made sense in the scene. I had fun doing it.

Fair play for having a go and approaching Neil. How did he react?

There was a small bunch of us asking for autographs, so he very nearly signed the script before realizing that it wasn't any official merchandise I quickly explained I had written it for them to look at, so Neil passed it on to someone standing next to him (an assistant or security). It felt like a bit of a shrug-off, to be honest

ABBA's pop was made for melodrama and romcom and the story wasn't even original.

PSB's music has already been used for 80s based shows and the Always on my mind used in the smash hit Baby Reindeer was unexpectedly poignant and chilling.

If someone wrote a great musical about friendship through the decades, like how Being Boring flows, it could be an interesting premise

dequesi wrote: Fri 23 Aug 2024, 9:51 am There was a small bunch of us asking for autographs, so he very nearly signed the script before realizing that it wasn't any official merchandise I quickly explained I had written it for them to look at, so Neil passed it on to someone standing next to him (an assistant or security). It felt like a bit of a shrug-off, to be honest

The sad truth is that many artists feel they can't take original material submitted by fans because of the risk of being burned by plagiarism lawsuits (the artist releases new material and the fan then sues, claiming that the artist "stole their ideas" from the material they gave the artist). Maybe it was a bit of that?

petshopgrrl wrote: Fri 30 Aug 2024, 4:33 amThe sad truth is that many artists feel they can't take original material submitted by fans because of the risk of being burned by plagiarism lawsuits (the artist releases new material and the fan then sues, claiming that the artist "stole their ideas" from the material they gave the artist). Maybe it was a bit of that?

Yeah, it crossed my mind, but I don't think so. If that were the case, he wouldn't have taken it at all. As it is, if they ever came up with a musical with a similar concept, I could still try to sue -which I wouldn't-, whether they read it or not.

It's probable mere saturation: I'm sure they have enough projects of their own, and reputed professionals to collaborate with, while a random fan is an unknown quantity. Worth a shot, I'd say, but hey, I don't make the decisions!