Are all things King worthy of a Stephen King fan's attention? I don't know. I like to read Stepen King. Sometimes I like Stepen King movies. Audio books are good. What about. . . dollhouse books? Liljas Library has an interesting article on them. But those are still in the realm of his written work.
.Carrie The Musical:
.What about a Stephen King musical. . . again? Variety.com has an article that suggests "Carrie" might be coming back to Broadway. I really don't know what to say!
,The blog unsungmusicals.blogspot.com has a great entry on Carrie the musical. Here's just a bit of it, but go on over and read the whole thing, it really is funny:
.There is one musical that is considered the ultimate in flops. The ultimate in disasters. This show failed in every category above: Expectations were high (The composers of Fame, a Tony winning actress and choreographer, a bestselling author for source material), critics hated it, it closed in five performances and it lost around $7 million. And it has developed the ultimate of cult followings. Because the music is believed by many to be great. (I find there is a lot of unmotivated belting, but nonetheless there are several haunting melodies)
.Musical theatre geeks now know that I'm talking about Carrie. Yes, THAT Carrie. The one based on Stephen King's 1970s novel about a tormented high school girl with telekenetic powers. The 1979 film made stars out of Sissy Spacek and John Travolta. The musical version was developed by Michael Gore (music), Dean Pitchford (Lyrics) and Lawrence D. Cohen (book). The team was responsible for "Fame". They then teamed up with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Fame + RSC=CONFUSED.The show inspired the wonderful book "Not Since Carrie", which details the disaster of this show.
.A few highlights of the train wreck include a book very difficult to follow, an assault on eyes and ears with special effects to make up for said bad book, the fact that the high school kids were played by overworked thirty year old actors, and the insanity of the music (at the time audiences weren't as accustomed to mega belting, which Carrie was full of)...but it is hard for me to sum up his account here. It sounds like a "You had to be there" situation to really understand. Below is a link to one account of the show that I found.
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Pet Sematary Video Game:
,And, on the headlines today is that there is a new Pet Sematary video game. Interesting, indeed. Of course, it does cause me to roll my eyes. Why? I'm not sure. But I think a poster at Pocketgamer nailed it. "Spooky" wrote: "This seems like a bizarre choice for a Stephen King adaptation- surely a Pac-Man stye game in which an axe wielding Jack Nicholson pursues you through a maze would have been more fun? Or perhaps a twin stick shooter based on Carrie, complete with telekinetic powers and a townfull of enemies to exact your revenge upon... the possibilities are endless.."
.There's Stephen King comic books, Stephen King plays (Misery seems to be a favorite), Stephen King Monopoly, and so on.
.Now here's what I find myself wondering: If I really really like Stephen King's writing, but that doesn't always translate into enjoying the other venues that King's work leaks into -- does that make me less of a fan? Probably. Becuase the interest on my part is the story.
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No, I don't think that makes you less of a Stephen King fan,(your passion is evident everywhere in your Blog)but maybe a fan willing to ask "how far does it go?" I agree that "the story" is number one, as Steve himself says "it is not the teller of the tale ,but the tale itself".
ReplyDeleteHowever, I am sure that there are other fans who are also fascinated by the extend and ability for King's work to transcend so many other media and facets of today's popular culture. I can not think of any other "writer" to have such an impact...