Pink Floyd Goes To Broadway

ChartAttack: The Great White Way is the new black. Forget crowded clubs convulsing with frenetic energy, do away with thunderous theatres tremoring as amped up instruments rock the foundations, put away your torn and tattered jeans, hang up your leather jacket and, for goodness sakes, tuck in that shirt. While good new music is coming out all the time, it’s beginning to feel like the best music is only available to the suit and tie crowd as Pink Floyd’s seminal rock opera The Wall is now in development to become the next Broadway musical.

Floyd’s Roger Waters conceived the original concept double album which was released in 1979. Many people are familiar with that screaming face thing that goes along with the 1982 film based on Waters’ music. For some of us, the movie was just a case of, “Woah, the pictures… they’re moving!”

Waters, who wrote the script for the Alan Parker-directed film, is also heavily involved twith he stage production of the show. Seeing how Waters owns the rights to the songs like “Comfortably Numb” and “Hey You,” there was no reunion process needed to sort out the business arrangements in the Miramax Films/Casablanca Records pact to create the project.

Selling the rights of the music to Miramax and Casablanca head Tommy Mottola, Waters will write the show’s book and he’ll also arrange and orchestrate the music for the entire stage production. Both Mottola and Miramax head Harvey Weinstein have previous experience on Broadway, producing such shows as The Producers and Gypsy and the duo are also bringing another rock musical to the stage in the form of All Shook Up, based on the music of Elvis Presley.

With musicals based on the music of Queen, Boy George, Billy Joel, Elton John and ABBA, it remains to be seen how an album that’s gone 23 times platinum in the U.S. will translate to the Broadway stage. Expectations are high, but with Waters at the creative helm, there is excitable anticipation that the show won’t be just another brick in the wall. [What Do YOU Think? Comment on this Post!] [Testify!]