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the subject matter, which on the surface appears
decidedly frivolous, yet is actually anything but.
“We’ve become a post-modern, post-MTV generation
able to process muchmore complexmaterial,” Symonds
explains. “We might watch a Rodgers and Hammerstein
show and glance back to a trouble-free recent past, but
our contemporary world demands somethingmore edgy.”
So
Psycho
as a musical isn’t such a crazy idea after all?
“It isn’t the kind of thing you’d expect to become a
musical, any more than
The Jerry Springer Show
would
become an opera,” explains Symonds. But that’s why it
works. Not only is there comic potential in this marrying
of two worlds – after all, placing the foul-mouthed white
trash guests of Jerry Springer’s talk show in a high-
culture context is so absurd it’s immediately funny – but
it also provides a platform to make serious points about
the world we live in. The opera highlights the tragi-
comic nature of the modern reality show.
In the same way,
Avenue Q
may look like
Sesame
Street
with
its cute, colourful puppets
,
but it’s no
children’s fable – the story unfolds to reveal these
characters’ disappointment with how their lives have
turned out, even questioning the American Dream.
And now – I guess – a singing and dancing Bateman
will underline the frippery of capitalist greed. For a
sophisticated, credit-crunched crowd, these black
comedies make the perfect outing.
It seems Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez, writers of
Avenue Q
have acheived their aim. It was they who first
explicitly talked about courting an “everyday” crowd to
musical theatre. “We wanted to create a musical that
would appeal to people who don’t necessarily already
like musicals,” they told New York online fanzine
Gothamist
back in 2004. “Audiences have a tendency to
say ‘oh please’ when a character breaks into song”.
Now the format the duo helped to create is massive
business. The best example of this is probably
Book of
Mormon,
Lopez’s collaboration with the creators of
SATIRICAL SHOWS
01
Book of Mormon takes
audiences to Africa
02
Jerry Springer the
Opera sparked a
trend in 2003
“AMERICAN PSYCHO ISN’T THE KIND OF THING YOU’D
EXPECT TO BECOME AMUSICAL,
ANY MORE
THAN
THE JERRY SPRINGER SHOW
WOULD BECOME
AN OPERA.” BUT THAT’S WHY IT WORKS
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