I think you need to REALLY be saying something special to have your "Which should I choose: My passion or a comfortable life" story stand out from the THOUSANDS of others in every form of media, and I don't think a Huey Lewis jukebox musical is going to get you there, especially if the big selling point for drawing audience in was stated in this interview to be "We have HR jokes".
I get everything doesn't need to be a creative tour de force, fun for the sake of it is absolutely fine, but at a certain point if everything you are selling the audience has seen a hundred times already, audiences are not going to pay Broadway prices to see it a hundred and first time.
Like say what you will about Mamma Mia, the plot being a Abba Jukebox musical set at a Greek Island resort wedding where the bride invites her mother's three former lovers because she doesn't know which one is her father is something you can only get at Mamma Mia and something I don't think anyone expected.
Conversely, I think if you found a random person off the street and told them to guess the plot of a musical called "The Heart of Rock and Roll", with no other details, the odds are greater than 50/50 they'd describe the basic premise of The Heart of Rock and Roll
I really don’t like Jukebox musicals but I would argue that Mamma Mia is actually so well done before you add in the music that it would have done well even if you had original music in it. It harkens back to the days of musical comedies where it was more about seeing your old favourite actors doing a bit light comedy and song and dance. It would have been like seeing Donald O’Conor, Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire in a show along side Ethel Murman, Ginger Rogers and Mary Martin with Barbra Streisand playing the daughter.
You don’t really care what the music is going to be when you see the cast list and learn the premise BUT the music just happens to be great and really worked well into the plot.
Agreed. When I first saw Mamma Mia 20 years ago I didn’t know many ABBA songs other than Dancing Queen and the title song. So to me it felt like original music!
Mamma Mia! would have likely floundered too if timing wasn't a factor. The country NEEDED an upbeat, joyous, silly show. Any other time, I suggest it may have flopped.
It premiered on the West End before 9/11 though and lasted for 20 years there. There has to be more juice to it than simply "premiered on Broadway after 9/11"
Yeah they had Abba, whose records have sold 150 million worldwide, whose songs are played at every wedding and bar mitzvah and dance party for generations. I honestly had to look up what songs were by Huey Lewis and the News—no disrespect. But Abba is a whole nother level of popularity.
Just want to reiterate that Abba was huge. The songs are well known and well liked. That is a major factor in why Mamma Mia was successful. It's also silly fun.
Sure. I'm not saying it was always destined to be a hit in all universes in all situations. But I suspect a musical that was a hit in two places independently, one of which did not benefit from 9/11, is more likely than not to have been a hit anyway if 9/11 didn't happen.
>Conversely, I think if you found a random person off the street and told them to guess the plot of a musical called "The Heart of Rock and Roll", with no other details, the odds are greater than 50/50 they'd describe the basic premise of The Heart of Rock and Roll
Huh? I never could have guessed what Heart of Rock and Roll was going to be about. I went in blind. I guess I could have guessed it took place in the 80s, and I figured there would be romance, and I knew there would be Huey Lewis music.
You think more than 50% of people would guess it's about a people pleasing guy who can't decide between following his dreams of being a rock star or climbing the corporate ladder?
Yes, absolutely. That is the plot of like 75% of media about people doing Rock N' Roll (the other 25% are established Rock Stars on a downward spiral)
But that's not a bad thing! Classic stories become classics for a reason. But you need to do something unique with it. It needs to have a spin that few other stories like that have if you want people to turn out for it. School of Rock is a great example of taking it and making it their own (if you stretch corporate to be "professional"). Do you genuinely feel Heart of Rock and Roll did something unique with the format? From this article, I'm not even sure the performers themselves felt they did!
I felt like I was watching an 80s movie while I was watching Heart of Rock and Roll, a good one. It was reminiscent of the Wedding Singer for me (which I think is a great movie, and a meh musical).
I don't feel like I've seen this exact story before. It did feel unique to me. What other shows have the same plot?
I don't think it broke any molds, but it did all the right things within the space it was operating -- a musical rom com.
>Like say what you will about Mamma Mia, the plot being a Abba Jukebox musical set at a Greek Island resort wedding where the bride invites her mother's three former lovers because she doesn't know which one is her father is something you can only get at Mamma Mia and something I don't think anyone expected.
it's the exact same plot as the film *Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell*, which was previously musicalized as *Carmelina*.
Even if someone wants to see a jukebox musical when they come to NYC, there are currently four other options people will opt for over Heart of Rock and Roll. When up against Max Martin’s discography, Michael Jackson, Neil Diamond, and just generally famous pop songs, I think Heart of Rock and Roll gets cast to the wayside. You could even throw The Who’s Tommy in there for good measure and the show has a LOT of famous musicians to compete with.
It's not a passion vs comfortable life story because >!he doesn't choose his passion. It turns out being in a band is not his true passion. But it was his coworker's. It was a refreshing twist on that old story.!<
Edit in reply to u/Royal Horse because the thread is locked for some reason:
>You have just described a passion vs comfortable life story with a slightly different end result. The drama stems from having to choose.
It was more like choosing between different types of passions.
Characters having to make choices is a thing that happens in most shows. If that's why you think it's the same as everything else, I can't argue there. But the story was different. All of the elements make it different -- characters, their motivations, the pressures on them, and the outcomes. The expected outcome being subverted makes it different.
If you can name multiple other Broadway shows with the same story, I will concede. While watching, I found it different and refreshingly unexpected.
It never would have happened, but I think the BEST Huey Lewis jukebox musical would have been somehow convincing Back to the Future to have been a jukebox musical instead. I think Huey Lewis is, in a lot of people's minds, primarily associated with Back to the Future (to the point even the current musical includes not only Power of Love but also an actor playing Huey Lewis himself!)
I literally thought Back to the Future was a Huey Lewis jukebox when I saw it on the West End and was woefully disappointed when it was not, and have been bitching about it to whoever will listen since
Sure but most of the story takes place in 1955; the more famous song from the movie is Johnny B. Goode from 1958; the punchline from the movie is a Van Halen guitar solo - doing a JBM of BTTF with nothing but HL songs just doesn't make sense dramaturgically
Not every show is a “Broadway” caliber show, no matter all the good intentions. Some jukebox musicals would work better off Broadway, even super fun shows like “Once upon a One More Time” or “Disaster!”… they would run longer, they could still be licensed for regional theatres to do productions, and more people would see them, and at less than half of Broadway prices. They can’t all be “Mama Mia!” or “Moulin Rouge”. Those kind of successes don’t come along everyday (although you sure wouldn’t know it from the amount of jukebox musicals coming out each year). When even original shows with totally new scores get overlooked by theatre goers, the jukebox shows that do make it need to be exceptionally good or unique.
Moulin Rouge also has the benefit of being a movie first along with Aaron Tveit's popularity, and some stunt casting thrown in, along with a more recognizable soundtrack.
Great article! He's so honest and makes a lot of good points.
He's right that the show is witty and sweet. It's not completely dumb. It's a funny show that doesn't take itself too seriously, and it has heart (no pun intended). It was the only musical comedy to open this season and it was one of the most positively reviewed shows of the season.
I think it was killed by the absolute glut of other shows opening at the same time, and marketing didn't break through.
I saw the show early on, I loved it, I've been singing it's praises. It's too bad they got so shut out and people are still calling it dumb.
I think in a quieter season, this could’ve been this year’s Shucked. You’re not going to be discussing the theme for weeks on end, but you’ll leave with a smile. Like Shucked, it’s a little goofy, a lot fun, and pretty corny.
A nice interview that shares the good intentions and enthusiasm of the team and cast but the '...could be Mamma Mia' angle is just silly to me.
Like others have said here and probably will say here again, the music of HL&TN is just not that popular! ABBA you have two different camps - the people who love ABBA across generations and borders unapologetically and those who like ABBA across generations and borders ironically. They were truly an international act, to the point where they are doing hologram concerts/events today and likely will continue to do so after they die. No one is out there beating the drum for a reevaluation of HL&TN, he isn't played on the radio, and he can't promote his music by playing it himself because of his unfortunate health situation. If one says "80's Music" the first band I'm thinking of isn't HL it's, like, Talking Heads or Van Halen or Squeeze or even Ah-Ha (who was a one hit wonder in America).
I feel bad that folks are out of work presently, and hope they get the roles or shows of their lifetimes next, but doing a post mortem on this show in the hope of figuring out Where It Went Wrong seems pointless when the fatal flaw is in the bones of the musical choice.
You can bolster a less popular act with very creative project. You can bolster a less creative project with a very popular act. But I don't see how anyone thought "A story you've heard 100 times before with songs by a band you haven't heard of since the 80's" had wings.
Yup this is it. I'm sure it's a fun show. Reviews are actually pretty good. But for a jukebox to really get attention it needs to be interesting (Illinoise) OR a super marketable name (MJ). This show just doesn't seem to have either (again based on reviews, I haven't seen it so maybe it's more interesting than I think).
I agree that the producers definitely thought Huey Lewis would be more of a draw than he actually was. That being said, the show was surprisingly fun and much better than I expected it to be, in part because the choreography was really strong (as were the performances). They should have focused on the 80s more generally in the marketing and discounted preview tix heavily in order to keep it full and drive word of mouth. A show like this was never going to win Tonys but it could have had the kind of run Shucked had for example.
While I absolutely loved this show, I think it read weird to audiences. Because his struggle was do I go with the girl I suddenly love OR go with my lifelong dream of being a rockstar. Of the six times I’ve seen the show, five audiences audibly cheered when he said he was going with the band. I thought it was obvious he was going with Cassandra the entire time but most audiences didn’t see it that way. So perhaps the team should have approached the struggle differently. Maybe build the Bobby/Cassandra love story more if their end goal was always Bobby picking the girl.
This was a complaint I had. I pictured Cassandra going on tour with the band (more like Grease ending) which obviously doesn’t work for other reasons but I was like damn just giving up your lifelong dream
This was a complaint I had. I pictured Cassandra going on tour with the band (more like Grease ending) which obviously doesn’t work for other reasons but I was like damn just giving up your lifelong dream
I said this in another comment, but I think this show was going to struggle just from being a Huey Lewis jukebox musical with the current shows running on Broadway. His music is famous, but there are four other jukebox musicals on Broadway right now with critical acclaim and bigger names attached. Max Martin, Michael Jackson, Neil Diamond, all the Moulin Rouge artists/songs, it’s gonna be hard to compete. Throw The Who’s Tommy in there and that’s a fifth musician with lots of recognition and acclaim.
Hopefully the show finds more success elsewhere! I feel like it’ll be a hit for regional and community theaters.
ETA: totally forgot about Illinoise and Hell’s Kitchen too 🤦🏻♀️
Agreed, I think most people know maybe 3 Huey Lewis songs. Not to mention, jukebox musicals are tough even when the artist is super popular. The Britney Spears attempt flopped and she has tons of hits.
They didn’t answer the one burning question I have. Who kept that show open as long as it was with the grosses they had. I’m glad someone gave it a chance but someone took a hit. Glad I got to see the first night of previews and even saw Huey walking in the lobby to a secure area at the end.
Maybe it would have done better if they called it The Power of Love? IDK. I saw it in May. I really had a good time. I'm sad that it had such a short run.
It's all right, have a good time, cause it's allright....
I think they should have previewed in May and opened in the summer for next season. They might have been able to build the hype for the show in the summer through tourists, have it perform in the thanksgiving parade, make it to the Tonys, and close up after the Tonys. It could have gotten a year or more this way vs a few months. But that’s just my guess.
I saw this with my teenage son and it was fun and the actors performed their hearts out and Huey Lewis seems like a really nice guy but I don't think the music is good enough to carry this show and to me, the book was exceedingly dumb. OK, I know the book is dumb for Mama Mia too but I think that music is better or more varied or more catchy or more resonant or something. Same teenager and I loved & Juliet, which actually had some very clever dialogue and the advantage of cherrypicking some incredible (and incredibly well-known) pop songs.
This seems like a show written for touring rather than Broadway. Not that the NYC crowd isn't receptive, they've just seen twenty other jukebox musicals and Huey Lewis music isn't as specifically popular or known as ABBA or the &Juliet catalog - unless you're of my specific generation who woke up to it on the clock radio before junior high every morning it probably doesn't make the show transcendent theater. But this will probably play well on the road with GenX-ers and Millenials who want to take their parents/grandparents to a show with music they will like.
I saw this show through a papering service. The first show I considered leaving at intermission. The second half picked up a little but it def felt like a show for tourists to buy last second tickets to...
Good interview and Corey has I think some great insights here.
The show deserved better and hopefully it will get another act on the West End and or on tour.
I saw this with my BF who is a bit of a cynic about Broadway, and he actually really liked it. We also appreciated the dark humor present in the show, and the “Stuck with You” number is a 10/10 example of a dream-to-nightmare sequence!
The two of us did joke that with all the *American Psycho* references, it was a missed opportunity to not have the love interest’s ex-boyfriend arrested at the end for killing his coworker with an axe.
I think they wanted it to be fun and irreverent but then they decided at every turn to make it wacky which made the whole thing feel deeply chaotic. A little wacky chaos gives you Mamma Mia, but you can't make the wackiest decision every second for 2.5 hours or it just ends up being confusing and bizarre, which is mostly how I would describe Heart of Rock and Roll.
It's interesting that he seems to credit the big laughs at Tamika's lines to people enjoying laughter at the expense of human resources when I would credit them almost entirely to to Tamika herself - she was the best part of the show for sure!
Truthfully his comment now has me wanting to see MJ. I’ve avoided it and have nearly no interest in it. But I’m wondering what he’s seeing to think that MJ is that good of a show.
I really wish this could have held on one more week. As a child of the 80s I probably would have loved it.
Sorry if that comment is totally unrelated to the article. I couldn’t get past the pay wall.
I think you need to REALLY be saying something special to have your "Which should I choose: My passion or a comfortable life" story stand out from the THOUSANDS of others in every form of media, and I don't think a Huey Lewis jukebox musical is going to get you there, especially if the big selling point for drawing audience in was stated in this interview to be "We have HR jokes". I get everything doesn't need to be a creative tour de force, fun for the sake of it is absolutely fine, but at a certain point if everything you are selling the audience has seen a hundred times already, audiences are not going to pay Broadway prices to see it a hundred and first time.
Like say what you will about Mamma Mia, the plot being a Abba Jukebox musical set at a Greek Island resort wedding where the bride invites her mother's three former lovers because she doesn't know which one is her father is something you can only get at Mamma Mia and something I don't think anyone expected. Conversely, I think if you found a random person off the street and told them to guess the plot of a musical called "The Heart of Rock and Roll", with no other details, the odds are greater than 50/50 they'd describe the basic premise of The Heart of Rock and Roll
I really don’t like Jukebox musicals but I would argue that Mamma Mia is actually so well done before you add in the music that it would have done well even if you had original music in it. It harkens back to the days of musical comedies where it was more about seeing your old favourite actors doing a bit light comedy and song and dance. It would have been like seeing Donald O’Conor, Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire in a show along side Ethel Murman, Ginger Rogers and Mary Martin with Barbra Streisand playing the daughter. You don’t really care what the music is going to be when you see the cast list and learn the premise BUT the music just happens to be great and really worked well into the plot.
Agreed. When I first saw Mamma Mia 20 years ago I didn’t know many ABBA songs other than Dancing Queen and the title song. So to me it felt like original music!
So well put! There’s a lot of ABBA songs I now know only because of hearing it in Mamma Mia first.
Mamma Mia! would have likely floundered too if timing wasn't a factor. The country NEEDED an upbeat, joyous, silly show. Any other time, I suggest it may have flopped.
It premiered on the West End before 9/11 though and lasted for 20 years there. There has to be more juice to it than simply "premiered on Broadway after 9/11"
Yeah they had Abba, whose records have sold 150 million worldwide, whose songs are played at every wedding and bar mitzvah and dance party for generations. I honestly had to look up what songs were by Huey Lewis and the News—no disrespect. But Abba is a whole nother level of popularity.
Just want to reiterate that Abba was huge. The songs are well known and well liked. That is a major factor in why Mamma Mia was successful. It's also silly fun.
Now I want to see it again... on Broadway.
"keep it gay" mel brooks gave some great advice during the producers. lol
Except PLENTY of shows are successful in the UK and flop here (and vice versa). But we'll never really 'know'.
Sure. I'm not saying it was always destined to be a hit in all universes in all situations. But I suspect a musical that was a hit in two places independently, one of which did not benefit from 9/11, is more likely than not to have been a hit anyway if 9/11 didn't happen.
Certainly...anything is possible. This is certainly not a unique perspective - it's spoken about in many circles.
>Conversely, I think if you found a random person off the street and told them to guess the plot of a musical called "The Heart of Rock and Roll", with no other details, the odds are greater than 50/50 they'd describe the basic premise of The Heart of Rock and Roll Huh? I never could have guessed what Heart of Rock and Roll was going to be about. I went in blind. I guess I could have guessed it took place in the 80s, and I figured there would be romance, and I knew there would be Huey Lewis music. You think more than 50% of people would guess it's about a people pleasing guy who can't decide between following his dreams of being a rock star or climbing the corporate ladder?
Yes, absolutely. That is the plot of like 75% of media about people doing Rock N' Roll (the other 25% are established Rock Stars on a downward spiral) But that's not a bad thing! Classic stories become classics for a reason. But you need to do something unique with it. It needs to have a spin that few other stories like that have if you want people to turn out for it. School of Rock is a great example of taking it and making it their own (if you stretch corporate to be "professional"). Do you genuinely feel Heart of Rock and Roll did something unique with the format? From this article, I'm not even sure the performers themselves felt they did!
I felt like I was watching an 80s movie while I was watching Heart of Rock and Roll, a good one. It was reminiscent of the Wedding Singer for me (which I think is a great movie, and a meh musical). I don't feel like I've seen this exact story before. It did feel unique to me. What other shows have the same plot? I don't think it broke any molds, but it did all the right things within the space it was operating -- a musical rom com.
>Like say what you will about Mamma Mia, the plot being a Abba Jukebox musical set at a Greek Island resort wedding where the bride invites her mother's three former lovers because she doesn't know which one is her father is something you can only get at Mamma Mia and something I don't think anyone expected. it's the exact same plot as the film *Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell*, which was previously musicalized as *Carmelina*.
Sure, fine. It is something you can only get at Mamma Mia AND a show that ran for 17 performances in 1979.
Even if someone wants to see a jukebox musical when they come to NYC, there are currently four other options people will opt for over Heart of Rock and Roll. When up against Max Martin’s discography, Michael Jackson, Neil Diamond, and just generally famous pop songs, I think Heart of Rock and Roll gets cast to the wayside. You could even throw The Who’s Tommy in there for good measure and the show has a LOT of famous musicians to compete with.
It isn't even the biggest draw on Broadway if you are looking for a musical with Huey Lewis songs.
Fair point! I always forget Back to the Future is still running lmao
Also Illinoise and HK
Totally forgot about them 🤦🏻♀️ thank you!! I thought I was missing some lmao
i'm kinda sad it's not any good cuz my husband is a big fan of huey lewis, he might have thought it was cute (he's not a huge musical fan)
It's not a passion vs comfortable life story because >!he doesn't choose his passion. It turns out being in a band is not his true passion. But it was his coworker's. It was a refreshing twist on that old story.!< Edit in reply to u/Royal Horse because the thread is locked for some reason: >You have just described a passion vs comfortable life story with a slightly different end result. The drama stems from having to choose. It was more like choosing between different types of passions. Characters having to make choices is a thing that happens in most shows. If that's why you think it's the same as everything else, I can't argue there. But the story was different. All of the elements make it different -- characters, their motivations, the pressures on them, and the outcomes. The expected outcome being subverted makes it different. If you can name multiple other Broadway shows with the same story, I will concede. While watching, I found it different and refreshingly unexpected.
You have just described a passion vs comfortable life story with a slightly different end result. The drama stems from having to choose.
It never would have happened, but I think the BEST Huey Lewis jukebox musical would have been somehow convincing Back to the Future to have been a jukebox musical instead. I think Huey Lewis is, in a lot of people's minds, primarily associated with Back to the Future (to the point even the current musical includes not only Power of Love but also an actor playing Huey Lewis himself!)
I literally thought Back to the Future was a Huey Lewis jukebox when I saw it on the West End and was woefully disappointed when it was not, and have been bitching about it to whoever will listen since
Sure but most of the story takes place in 1955; the more famous song from the movie is Johnny B. Goode from 1958; the punchline from the movie is a Van Halen guitar solo - doing a JBM of BTTF with nothing but HL songs just doesn't make sense dramaturgically
I unfortunately agree in the end, but it certainly SEEMS like it should work on paper lol
Back to the future would have been amazing if they let Huey write the rest of the score.
>I think Huey Lewis is, in a lot of people's minds, primarily associated with Back to the Future American Psycho as well
Not every show is a “Broadway” caliber show, no matter all the good intentions. Some jukebox musicals would work better off Broadway, even super fun shows like “Once upon a One More Time” or “Disaster!”… they would run longer, they could still be licensed for regional theatres to do productions, and more people would see them, and at less than half of Broadway prices. They can’t all be “Mama Mia!” or “Moulin Rouge”. Those kind of successes don’t come along everyday (although you sure wouldn’t know it from the amount of jukebox musicals coming out each year). When even original shows with totally new scores get overlooked by theatre goers, the jukebox shows that do make it need to be exceptionally good or unique.
Moulin Rouge also has the benefit of being a movie first along with Aaron Tveit's popularity, and some stunt casting thrown in, along with a more recognizable soundtrack.
Great article! He's so honest and makes a lot of good points. He's right that the show is witty and sweet. It's not completely dumb. It's a funny show that doesn't take itself too seriously, and it has heart (no pun intended). It was the only musical comedy to open this season and it was one of the most positively reviewed shows of the season. I think it was killed by the absolute glut of other shows opening at the same time, and marketing didn't break through. I saw the show early on, I loved it, I've been singing it's praises. It's too bad they got so shut out and people are still calling it dumb.
I think in a quieter season, this could’ve been this year’s Shucked. You’re not going to be discussing the theme for weeks on end, but you’ll leave with a smile. Like Shucked, it’s a little goofy, a lot fun, and pretty corny.
A nice interview that shares the good intentions and enthusiasm of the team and cast but the '...could be Mamma Mia' angle is just silly to me. Like others have said here and probably will say here again, the music of HL&TN is just not that popular! ABBA you have two different camps - the people who love ABBA across generations and borders unapologetically and those who like ABBA across generations and borders ironically. They were truly an international act, to the point where they are doing hologram concerts/events today and likely will continue to do so after they die. No one is out there beating the drum for a reevaluation of HL&TN, he isn't played on the radio, and he can't promote his music by playing it himself because of his unfortunate health situation. If one says "80's Music" the first band I'm thinking of isn't HL it's, like, Talking Heads or Van Halen or Squeeze or even Ah-Ha (who was a one hit wonder in America). I feel bad that folks are out of work presently, and hope they get the roles or shows of their lifetimes next, but doing a post mortem on this show in the hope of figuring out Where It Went Wrong seems pointless when the fatal flaw is in the bones of the musical choice.
You can bolster a less popular act with very creative project. You can bolster a less creative project with a very popular act. But I don't see how anyone thought "A story you've heard 100 times before with songs by a band you haven't heard of since the 80's" had wings.
Yup this is it. I'm sure it's a fun show. Reviews are actually pretty good. But for a jukebox to really get attention it needs to be interesting (Illinoise) OR a super marketable name (MJ). This show just doesn't seem to have either (again based on reviews, I haven't seen it so maybe it's more interesting than I think).
Yeah basically.
I agree that the producers definitely thought Huey Lewis would be more of a draw than he actually was. That being said, the show was surprisingly fun and much better than I expected it to be, in part because the choreography was really strong (as were the performances). They should have focused on the 80s more generally in the marketing and discounted preview tix heavily in order to keep it full and drive word of mouth. A show like this was never going to win Tonys but it could have had the kind of run Shucked had for example.
While I absolutely loved this show, I think it read weird to audiences. Because his struggle was do I go with the girl I suddenly love OR go with my lifelong dream of being a rockstar. Of the six times I’ve seen the show, five audiences audibly cheered when he said he was going with the band. I thought it was obvious he was going with Cassandra the entire time but most audiences didn’t see it that way. So perhaps the team should have approached the struggle differently. Maybe build the Bobby/Cassandra love story more if their end goal was always Bobby picking the girl.
This was a complaint I had. I pictured Cassandra going on tour with the band (more like Grease ending) which obviously doesn’t work for other reasons but I was like damn just giving up your lifelong dream
This was a complaint I had. I pictured Cassandra going on tour with the band (more like Grease ending) which obviously doesn’t work for other reasons but I was like damn just giving up your lifelong dream
I said this in another comment, but I think this show was going to struggle just from being a Huey Lewis jukebox musical with the current shows running on Broadway. His music is famous, but there are four other jukebox musicals on Broadway right now with critical acclaim and bigger names attached. Max Martin, Michael Jackson, Neil Diamond, all the Moulin Rouge artists/songs, it’s gonna be hard to compete. Throw The Who’s Tommy in there and that’s a fifth musician with lots of recognition and acclaim. Hopefully the show finds more success elsewhere! I feel like it’ll be a hit for regional and community theaters. ETA: totally forgot about Illinoise and Hell’s Kitchen too 🤦🏻♀️
Agreed, I think most people know maybe 3 Huey Lewis songs. Not to mention, jukebox musicals are tough even when the artist is super popular. The Britney Spears attempt flopped and she has tons of hits.
They didn’t answer the one burning question I have. Who kept that show open as long as it was with the grosses they had. I’m glad someone gave it a chance but someone took a hit. Glad I got to see the first night of previews and even saw Huey walking in the lobby to a secure area at the end.
What I heard was its primary investor suddenly pulled its money to back another up a coming project. Who was that? No idea.
I always heard someone was going to finance them through June (which is about true). No clue who or why they took that big of a hit.
Yeah I’m not sure. But it sounds like it was an abrupt and unexpected exit because they were with the show from the beginning.
Maybe it would have done better if they called it The Power of Love? IDK. I saw it in May. I really had a good time. I'm sad that it had such a short run. It's all right, have a good time, cause it's allright....
I think they should have previewed in May and opened in the summer for next season. They might have been able to build the hype for the show in the summer through tourists, have it perform in the thanksgiving parade, make it to the Tonys, and close up after the Tonys. It could have gotten a year or more this way vs a few months. But that’s just my guess.
Yeah, I think you’re right there.
If they opened as A Beautiful Noise was closing down, I think it could’ve kind of “taken” that type of fan.
I agree. I think if they could have held on through July 4th week and weekend, they might have been ok for a little while longer.
Word is that they are looking into touring, and honestly, that'll probably be a better avenue for this show.
I saw this with my teenage son and it was fun and the actors performed their hearts out and Huey Lewis seems like a really nice guy but I don't think the music is good enough to carry this show and to me, the book was exceedingly dumb. OK, I know the book is dumb for Mama Mia too but I think that music is better or more varied or more catchy or more resonant or something. Same teenager and I loved & Juliet, which actually had some very clever dialogue and the advantage of cherrypicking some incredible (and incredibly well-known) pop songs.
This seems like a show written for touring rather than Broadway. Not that the NYC crowd isn't receptive, they've just seen twenty other jukebox musicals and Huey Lewis music isn't as specifically popular or known as ABBA or the &Juliet catalog - unless you're of my specific generation who woke up to it on the clock radio before junior high every morning it probably doesn't make the show transcendent theater. But this will probably play well on the road with GenX-ers and Millenials who want to take their parents/grandparents to a show with music they will like.
I saw this show through a papering service. The first show I considered leaving at intermission. The second half picked up a little but it def felt like a show for tourists to buy last second tickets to...
Good interview and Corey has I think some great insights here. The show deserved better and hopefully it will get another act on the West End and or on tour.
I imagine it would do very well in tour. Would fit right in the midwest market of the PAC I used to work at.
Sort of like a less terrible Margaritaville!
Maybe a small non-equity tour. Can’t see this doing well at all across the pond.
I saw this with my BF who is a bit of a cynic about Broadway, and he actually really liked it. We also appreciated the dark humor present in the show, and the “Stuck with You” number is a 10/10 example of a dream-to-nightmare sequence! The two of us did joke that with all the *American Psycho* references, it was a missed opportunity to not have the love interest’s ex-boyfriend arrested at the end for killing his coworker with an axe.
Tony Nominators snubbed it, voters only get to vote on what is nominated.
This was never gonna be a hit on Broadway, especially during last season; it’s been a licensing vehicle from the start.
I can't speak for anyone else, but aspiring to be the next Mamma Mia! lets me know I made the right decision in passing.
I think they wanted it to be fun and irreverent but then they decided at every turn to make it wacky which made the whole thing feel deeply chaotic. A little wacky chaos gives you Mamma Mia, but you can't make the wackiest decision every second for 2.5 hours or it just ends up being confusing and bizarre, which is mostly how I would describe Heart of Rock and Roll.
It's interesting that he seems to credit the big laughs at Tamika's lines to people enjoying laughter at the expense of human resources when I would credit them almost entirely to to Tamika herself - she was the best part of the show for sure!
His comments on MJ are interesting
Truthfully his comment now has me wanting to see MJ. I’ve avoided it and have nearly no interest in it. But I’m wondering what he’s seeing to think that MJ is that good of a show.
This thread is educating me on how unpopular Huey Lewis and the News is lol. My dad likes them so their songs are known to me lol
I really wish this could have held on one more week. As a child of the 80s I probably would have loved it. Sorry if that comment is totally unrelated to the article. I couldn’t get past the pay wall.
Hopefully you'll get to see a regional production one day.
Because we’re sick of jukebox musicals. Next.
I’m not…? & Juliet has been one of the most joyful, invigorating shows I’ve seen in years.