By Shayna Toh
The “cockroach of Broadway” appears to maintain cashing checks. Regardless of the sneering time period that veteran theatre critic Jesse Inexperienced used to explain jukebox musicals, the style has dominated Broadway lately. In an trade that at all times appears to battle existential threats and large monetary losses—twelve present Broadway productions are slated to shut for good this winter—musicals within the jukebox type appear to be considered one of theater’s previous few buttresses in monetary viability.
Jukebox musicals—musicals the place the rating consists of current well-known pop songs as an alternative of authentic music—are extremely contentious in theater. Whereas they consistently invoke the ire of theatre purists for being business, banal, and stilted, their success can’t be downplayed. Mamma Mia, a pioneer of the jukebox in its present type, grossed greater than $600MM throughout its 14-year Broadway run. Moulin Rouge! The Musical swept the 2020 Tony Awards with 14 nominations and 10 wins. Prior to now few years, three completely different jukebox musicals have fallen into the fantasy or medieval theme alone: Head Over Heels, &Juliet, As soon as Upon a One Extra Time.
As the character of the jukebox musical has modified, so have the necessities of what it takes to provide one. Conventional jukebox musicals was once pretty easy. In its easiest type, the sort resembles a biopic: a musical telling the story behind the world’s most well-known artists whereas incorporating their biggest hits into the rating. Suppose Jersey Boys with Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons or Lovely: The Carole King Musical. One other sort of jukebox musical makes use of a singular artist’s catalogue and set their biggest hits to an authentic story. For instance, We Will Rock You makes use of Queen’s discography to attain a plot about Bohemians in a futuristic, Orwellian panorama; Jagged Little Capsule is in regards to the trials of a damaged suburban household set to Alanis Morrisette’s greatest songs.
To supply such a musical, a producer would want to acquire rights and a license for this artist’s full or partial discography. The world of music licensing has two important classes of rights: grand rights, and small rights. “Grand rights” are rights for dramatic performances, usually outlined by having a plot and characters, whereas “small rights” consult with music not particularly written for a dramatic presentation. Whereas the finished product of a jukebox musical is certainly a dramatic efficiency, an current non-dramatic composition or pop track, earlier than it turns into integrated into the dramatic work, will fall into the latter class.
To start out the dialog about utilizing an artist’s songs, a theatre producer must attain out to both their writer or to a copyright collective. If the inquiry is into a listing of a solo artist, because the aforementioned musicals had been, a producer would usually attain out to the particular writer themselves, which might imply contacting Morrisette, King, or Queen’s music writer or music property. The events will usually accumulate extra info, focus on doable areas of concern, and bear a negotiation course of. As soon as the request is accredited, up subsequent for dialogue are the licensing settlement and price. Such an settlement might be negotiated on a case-by-case foundation, usually differing based mostly on the character of the manufacturing: a one-night solely, small-venue manufacturing would in all probability see the writer obtain a small flat price. A manufacturing that has an extended run or is extra skilled may see the writer financial institution on the chances of success and attempt to struggle for a proportion of the present’s income as an alternative. The licensing settlement might be tailor-made to a really particular efficiency or run, and a brand new manufacturing would usually contain a rehauling of any earlier settlement.
That’s the simple route. Because the trade innovates, producers are searching for novel methods to make their reveals standout—for Broadway to “create the largest spectacle we all know.” The musical adaption of Moulin Rouge, based mostly on Baz Luhrmann’s Nineties cult traditional, encompasses a whopping 70 songs in its rating, accredited to 161 writers. Whereas jukebox musicals have been incorporating songs from numerous artists for many years, Moulin Rouge stands aside for the sheer breadth and number of materials the producers selected to work with, and it gives a blueprint by way of dynamism and innovation that budding producers might be taught from in the event that they’re striving for comparable success. The musical ends its first act with an bold love medley that mixes a minimum of 25 songs. The rating is anarchical and relentless in plucking songs throughout genres, areas, and centuries: one quantity dares to mash Marilyn Monroe’s “Diamonds Are A Lady’s Finest Pal” up with Beyonce’s “Single Women”, one other units The Police’s “Roxanne” up towards Mariano Mores’ Argentinian tango.
Whereas largely profitable, the producers of Moulin Rouge encountered quite a few obstacles. Courtney Love and Queen’s property refused to surrender the rights to “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “The Present Should Go On,” respectively. Whereas ten of the eleven songwriters on “Uptown Funk” initially accredited using the track within the present, Bruno Mars’ denial finally tanked the hassle. Moreover, the songs chosen for the present needed to be consistently reworked. When coping with composers or publishers who needed exorbitant licensing, the manufacturing workforce’s response was to be versatile with their repertoire. “A part of it was [us] saying we’re keen to stroll away,” stated producer Billig Wealthy. “Not one track has to make the present.”
Including 161 gamers to the inventive workforce as songwriters will increase the probability of issues by way of royalties and earnings that the inventive workforce usually endures. Essential gamers inside a theatre manufacturing’s inventive workforce usually embrace writers, administrators, choreographers, and a number of designers (e.g. lighting, sound, set). Because it stands, Broadway is no stranger to fights over what proportion of royalties every inventive calls for, usually exacerbated by who is taken into account part of the inventive workforce. A famed case from the mid-Nineties noticed the dramaturg of the smash hit RENT demand a share of the royalties as an alternative of the preliminary flat price, citing vital plot-line contributions to the present.
Sometimes, earnings from a manufacturing are funneled right into a “royalty pool” break up between buyers and the inventive workforce. Earlier than the manufacturing recoups, buyers and the lead producers usually take about 65 %, with the remaining shared among the many inventive workforce, and it could actually evolve right into a 50/50 break up after recoupment. Because the music creatives increase to cowl a whole lot of songwriters, the potential for future conflicts and litigation grossly will increase.
As a manufacturing like Moulin Rouge makes its method all over the world, it can provide rise to future issues based mostly on completely different cultural and musical requirements. For instance, a British songwriter of an enormous UK chart topper that didn’t fare as nicely in the USA may be comfy receiving much less royalties in a present on an American stage. Nonetheless, if the present had been to premiere on the West Finish, and audiences had been buying tickets to observe that quantity being carried out reside on stage, it’s not inconceivable for stated songwriter and their writer to request a extra beneficiant association.
And whereas getting consent for the precise music in a jukebox musical is a pertinent authorized problem, different challenges stay. Perversely, an artist’s broader acclaim might trigger hostile results. Within the above instance, the Nirvana and Queen estates denied the request to include their songs in Moulin Rouge as a result of there have been plans of an upcoming Nirvana stage musical and the then-upcoming Bohemian Rhapsody biopic. Conversely, take Britney Spears for instance: her writer appears to be liberal with authorizing licensing requests: Moulin Rouge performs considered one of her songs, &Juliet makes use of six of them, and As soon as Upon A One Extra Time is “wall-to-wall Britney Spears music,” clocking in additional than 20 songs. All three reveals are presently working on Broadway. No authorized points come up from this, however the thought of a number of reveals having comparable concepts and components may current different issues.
There’s an undoubtedly robust urge for food for jukebox musicals utilizing a medieval and fairytale idea, in all probability due to the interesting juxtaposition of that setting towards present pop hits. As this market saturates, overexposure of sure qualities, akin to Spears’ music or the medieval theme, might ultimately threaten to dilute the distinctiveness of every present. How a lot would an viewers need to see multiple present of the identical type, identical setting and idea, and identical tunes? Furthermore, realizing the recognition of manufacturing jukebox bio-musicals, what are the probabilities that music publishers and estates would relatively hold {the catalogue} for their very own functions, as an alternative of licensing them out to those multi-artist reveals? What affect will this have on the shape as an entire? Solely time will inform if such concerns change into extra salient, however as the massive phases of theatre embrace increasingly more jukebox musicals, these questions demand solutions, and shortly.
