Ever since I've become a Prince fan, I've considered the concept of a Purple Rain / Prince musical. I've done theater for half my life and enjoyed the impact, spectacle and entertainment of Broadway musical productions. As I became more acquainted with Prince's music, I gradually began to craft a musical production based on it.

In the beginning, I thought of a production involving every sequence of his career... But ultimately, I tried to stick to a Motown philosophy that I believe deeply in - "Keep it simple, stupid". So I've come to the focus of centering the musical on the narrative frame of the Purple Rain film. The music, would include all of the Rain-era tunes, but is open to the inclusion of music from throughout all phases of his career. The style of the show would be reminiscent of recent "jukebox" musicals, particularly shows like "Jersey Boys". I would prefer that the characters retain their original names.

Themes and ideas I have been playing with include;

-Prince's ego, humorous and serious
-Prince's split personality - Gemini, Camille, sexuality
-All of those around Prince, Wendy, Lisa, Susannnah, Morris, family
-Prince's height
-Focus on the competition between groups in Minneapolis
-Essentially exaggerating the nature of Purple Rain's story, highlighting the ridiculous, while retaining the character's identities, the storylines themselves and giving them more depth
-Using music from all over his career in the context of Rain
-Incorporating a medley of music in the second act, or a medley in the first, involving all of the competing groups.
-Actually ghost-writing "Wally"

What do ya'll think? I'd love to hear people's ideas and thoughts on this. I'm sure this sort of thing would never ever be possible until Prince's passing, masters settling or him somehow deciding it might be a positive thing for him... but I'd love to hear what you guys think.
[Edited 3/10/10 9:09am]

I recently thought up a scene in which Prince was playing guitar or relaxing at home listening to a stereo, being interrupted by his mother or another character, forcing him to turn the stereo on and off constantly to humorous effect. Each time he turned it off and on, the music would be snippets of artists who have had significant influence on him... James Brown, Sly Stone, Chaka Khan and lastly Joni Mitchell; at which point the character speaking with him would react with surprise or confusion, leading to some dialogue about Lisa and Wendy / relationships with his band members.

I also forgot to mention the challenge of finding performers to play Prince. If the show were to attempt to emulate Prince as much as possible, ideally, leads would have to be quadruple threats. In the case of Prince, finding such a performer would be damn tough.

just don't present him with a cd of a the soundtrack at a concert soundcheck.

The truth? I think it's a terrible idea. The movie and all the material associated with it are so closely identified with Prince that you can't possibly do justice to it.

A better idea would be to come up with a totally different vehicle that (possibly) uses Prince music, but that doesn't steal from what's already been done.

Meh

I got it! a ballet set to prince music!

He's already done it: Sign 'O' the Times movie? That i think would make a great musical - with a few more acting bits segued in between songs.

or even the Lovesexy show. "Love. Can it be trusted?"

Cross The Line.

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