The Projector #42: [Fill in the Blank]: The Musical (Patreon)

by Keith Phipps

When we first decided to do Working Girl on the show my mind went, as it often does, to an episode of Bob’s Burgers. In the 2014 episode “Work Hard or Die Trying, Girl,” Gene Belcher finds himself staging competing musicals with a classmate, Courtney. His choice: Die Hard: The Musical. Her choice: a musical based on another 1988 hit, Working Girl, in Gene’s words the “sassy sister-film to Die Hard.” It’s a funny episode whose joke has been dimmed only a bit by the existence of an in-development Working Girl musical currently set to begin out-of-town performances in 2021 or 2022. (It’s all a little vague, but Cyndi Lauper is doing the music so it might be worth the wait.)

I recently interviewed songwriter Glen Ballard, whose Back to the Future: The Musical premiered in Manchester shortly before theater shuttered in March. It’s not Ballard’s first time helping to turn a movie into a musical. He also worked on Ghost: The Musical, which has been running in one place or another since 2011.  

All of which raises a question: What can’t be a musical these days? None of the above seem like natural candidates, but in a moment when so much of what makes it to the stage is based on pre-existing properties, maybe it’s time to expand our notions of what makes good fodder for musicals and what’s better off left tuneless. So consider this a two-part prompt for comments: 1) What kind of movie makes a good musical? 2) What’s your dream movie-to-musical project? I’ll throw out one: We’ve done Hairspray and Cry-Baby. Why not A Dirty Shame? It would be perverse and disgusting, but maybe it would leave theatergoers with a song in their hearts?

On the other hand, it's a safe bet that no one's ready for a musical version of the film we paired with Working Girl in this week's episode: Kitty Greene's The Assistant. I don't even want to think about that.

Want something to read? Here are some possibilities:

• Did you know there’s a Tommy Wiseau documentary the director of The Room doesn’t want anyone to see? The Daily Beast recently chronicled the legal drama behind Roomful of Spoons.

• How’s Robert Pattinson doing in quarantine? Zach Barron checked in with the future Batman for GQ.

• How’s Michael Mann doing in quarantine? Bilge Ebiri checked in with the Blackhat director for Vulture.

• How’s Val Kilmer doing, just in general? Taffy Brodessner-Akner got the answer, and more questions, for the New York Times.

• Also for the New York Times, Kyle Buchanan dug into the long, tortured, fruitful creation of Mad Max: Fury Road.

• For Huffpost, Matthew Jacobs talked to Alfonso Cuarón about the 25th anniversary of A Little Princess.

• What happened to Josh Trank after Fantastic Four? He made the rounds this week talking to Polygon, Vulture, and Uproxx.

• For Polygon, our own Tasha Robinson talked to Gargoyles creator Greg Weisman about the history and legacy of the ’90s Disney series.

• For The Ringer, Keith Phipps considered the career of Mark Ruffalo and the difficulties of reemerging from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.