Culture: Art: Theatre: Musical
Heavy Metal Broadway Musical   (+8, -5)  [vote for, against]
Hey, it worked for ABBA and Billy Joel, why not...

A "jukebox musical" featuring the music of a popular heavy metal band. In the grand tradition of "Jersey Boys," "Movin' Out," and "Mamma Mia," someone takes a bunch of songs by, say, Metallica, and strings them together using some kind of plot device. I don't enough metal to pick which band would be best or which songs, or what kind of story one might make, but it would be LOUD.

And did I mention that it would probably make a lot of money?
-- smendler, Feb 24 2009

We Will Rock You http://en.wikipedia..._Rock_You_(musical)
Queen - Heavy Metal Musical [zen_tom, Feb 24 2009]

Tommy can you hear me? http://en.wikipedia.../wiki/Tommy_(album)
Another rock-musical (Opera in fact) from way back in 1969 [zen_tom, Feb 24 2009]

Operation Mindcrime http://en.wikipedia...peration:_LIVEcrime
[jaksplat, Feb 25 2009]

Experts explain the differences between metal and rock http://answers.yaho...080411133414AAvB5ZE
"...rock is mellow, hard rock a little more exciting, heavy metal is metal, like death is metal, doom is metal...." - that pretty much covers it I think...doesn't it? [zen_tom, Feb 26 2009]

Lordi - Hardrock Hallelujah http://www.youtube....watch?v=TdItwaLrv1U
Eurovision, 2006 - what can I say - if this is rock, then what's metal? [zen_tom, Feb 26 2009]

ITV: Mighty Boosh could pen Alice Cooper Musical? http://www.itv.com/...ical-909068887.html
"Welcome To My Nightmare is basically about as close to a musical as you can get". Yep. [jutta, Feb 26 2009]

Brutal Legend http://www.brutallegend.com/home.action
YEAH! [bungston, Nov 18 2009]

Met Opera in HD http://www.metopera...events_current.aspx
Pretty much the ultimate in theatrical heavy and metallic. [csea, Nov 19 2009, last modified Dec 26 2009]

Rock of Ages: The MUSICAL http://www.RockOfAgesMusical.com
a*hem* [smendler, Mar 13 2010]

You mean like "We Will Rock You" - the musical where a number of Queen songs are loosely strung together around the semblance of a plot?

[marked-for-deletion] widely known to exist
-- zen_tom, Feb 24 2009


Pffft, those aren't heavy metal. I don't think this would go over well, anyway. It's just so...wrong.
-- Spacecoyote, Feb 24 2009


Define 'heavy' metal - if you played Queen to someone from the 60's they'd say it was pretty heavy. Continual Heavy "inflation" since the end of the age of Glam has been working to relatively lighten all manner of rock-combos, and someone might easily protest along lines that Metallica aren't truly "heavy", touting bands like Bathory, Cancer, Napalm Death, Carcass or Cannibal Corpse as possible candidates. Your Pfft is noted.
-- zen_tom, Feb 24 2009


//Your Pfft is noted.//
sp. "Pffft"
-- coprocephalous, Feb 24 2009


I stand corrected. Mentally replace my "aren't" with "are barely...by today's standards".

//sp. "Pffft"// [citation needed]
-- Spacecoyote, Feb 24 2009


// //sp. "Pffft"// [citation needed] //
See [Spacecoyote]'s first anno, above.
-- coprocephalous, Feb 24 2009


I consider it artistic license, unless you find a reputable source of a standard spelling.
-- Spacecoyote, Feb 24 2009


Make it a Horror show, and I might be interested
-- Dub, Feb 24 2009


Ooo, I feel a time-warp coming on.
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Feb 24 2009


While conceding that true metal affici - afician - enthusiasts would pooh-pooh Metallica as not heavy enough, I'd think that anyone much heavier wouldn't be able to attract folks to Broadway. I'd be surprised if one could build a viable vehicle around System of a Down or Tool... "OZZY - THE MUSICAL" maybe?

On the other hand, a stage version of SPINAL TAP could work....
-- smendler, Feb 25 2009


I think this would be a great thing to not do.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 25 2009


[zen_tom] Queen is nothing like Heavy Metal
-- simonj, Feb 25 2009


Close but not exactly the same cigar: Zappa's Thing Fish. It was pitched as a Broadway musical, but no one bought it. The CD is great, IMHO, but true Zappa fans say that it is mostly just a compendium of Zappa works published in other albums. Still, I loved it and listened to nothing else for about a month after a friend gave it to me.
-- luxlucet, Feb 26 2009


[simonj] Oh yes it is!! How else would you describe the vast majority of "Flash Gordon" (apart from "very very silly") And anyway, wikipedia says so, so it's out of our hands - a higher authority has spoken.

If the differentiator (as Ian suggests) is the metal/rock vector - (heaviness being a general given) then we have to examine what it is that can be classified along the metal/rock axis - but what is that?
-- zen_tom, Feb 26 2009


I think the life and works of Alice Cooper would be a prime candidate.
-- gnomethang, Feb 26 2009


We'll know that metal has finally died when it hits Broadway. Therefore [+].
-- wagster, Feb 26 2009


Isn't Ozzy doing panto these days?
-- zen_tom, Feb 26 2009


[gnomethang] I agree. Alice Cooper was one of my favorites. Very theatrical.
-- blissmiss, Feb 26 2009


[jaksplat] - that's a huge coincidence - I was reliving one of my youths just the other weekend, and Queensryche was a huge part of that - I'm listening to "Suite Sister Mary" as I write this annotation.

[Ian] obviously, there has to be a certain level of ferrous metal - the best metal, in my opinion, contains a large ferrous component - and even if that leans towards the positively rustic, if it manages to exude an irony flavour (whether intentional or not) then it can't be all that bad.
-- zen_tom, Feb 26 2009


Well, as long as it makes you happy.
-- Jinbish, Feb 26 2009


On one foot no less.
-- blissmiss, Feb 26 2009


MaxwellB: I don't not disagree, I think this would not be a great thing to not do, so I will not use my dullest tools to dash off an inane libretto or two... but do check me out.
-- lordoftheflood, Nov 18 2009


Having revisited this I have one Word:
Rammstein.
Make that two words.
Ram.
Stein
-- gnomethang, Nov 18 2009


Hasn't the German language had enough exposure in musical theater (300 years of opera)? How about something in English, please, for Tool's sake?
-- lordoftheflood, Nov 18 2009


I like this using the Brutal Legend vision of Metal: Frank Frazetta inspired / album cover art / chrome demon babes / technodark ages Metal. Now that would be Opera!
-- bungston, Nov 18 2009


I've recently attended a number of the live HD-to-cinema broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera (NYC), and find them very appealing. [link]

I actually don't like Opera much, and prefer singing / perfoming it to watching from an audience. But the addition of multiple camera angles, closeups, subtitles, backstage interviews, etc. is a great improvement.

I suspect this could be applied to any form of theatrical performance to good effect.
-- csea, Nov 19 2009


Stairway To Hell was done but I think that it was off-broadway.
-- outloud, Nov 19 2009


// chrome demon babes //

We have our title, I think.
-- smendler, Sep 29 2016


//Stairway To Hell was done but I think that it was off- broadway.//

But broad is the path that leads there, don't you know?
-- RayfordSteele, Sep 29 2016


Yes, and quite distinctive ... it's paved entirely with good intentions.
-- 8th of 7, Sep 29 2016


" Hasn't the German language had enough exposure in musical theater (300 years of opera)? How about something in English, please, for Tool's sake? — lordoftheflood, Nov 18 2009 "

[lordoftheflood] created their account on November 16, 2009, annoed on this idea two days later, and then was never heard from again.

Washed away in the flood, perhaps, or maybe just a bit player in a heavy metal play.
-- normzone, Sep 29 2016


I'd love there to be a heavy metal opera on Broadway. I live in Cambridge.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 29 2016



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