NY could be ‘Ghost’ town

Michael Riedel

ON BROADWAY

The modern musicals this season aren’t exactly blockbuster central.

Douglas Carter Beane’s “Lysistrata Jones” is campy and gayety, but it’s not going to ~ over “The Book of Mormon.”

“Nice Work If You Can Get It” has Matthew Broderick, and I’m convinced he’s unhesitating for a musical comedy comeback. But it’s a Gershwin catalog harmonious at a time when baby boomers — Broadway‘s inner part audience — prefer catalogs from the ’60 and ’70s to those from the ’20s and ’30s.

“Bonnie & Clyde” has some good songs, but it’s a Frank Wildhorn tuneful, and that means the critics decree arrive with switchblades.

Geraint Lewis/Barcroft Media

Mixed reviews in London shelter’t spooked investors, who hope to imply the stage version of “Ghost” nearest year.

And that’s about it. As unit wag suggests, ” ‘Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark’ — nearest year’s Tony nominee for Best Musical!”

If you’re a canny producer with a new musical ready to proceed, now’s the time to take advantage of a weak field.

And that’s exact what the people behind “Ghost,” what one. opened in London last month, are looking to perform.

They’ve met quietly with New York theater owners and, sources reply, will try to get the bestow here in April, just before the Tony Awards cutoff.

Based on the hit 1990 movie starring Demi Moore, Patrick Swayzeand Whoopi Goldberg, what “Ghost” has going for it is its manager, Matthew Warchus, who’s been racking up a al~ of winners — “The Norman Conquests,” “God of Carnage,” “Boeing-Boeing.”

His slick produce of “Ghost” features cutting-edge videos and projections of New York in the ’90s — the subway, Wall Street, Times Square. The hole-night crowd was also impressed through his sleight-of-hand staging of ghostly comings and goings.

The musical closely tracks the movie, effective the story of a psychic who reunites ~y artist with her murdered boyfriend.

Warchus would like “Ghost” to real estate in New York in the fountain because he’s got another starting a~ show — the critically acclaimed “Matilda,” based forward Roald Dahl’s children’s account — lined up for 2013.

“Ghost” got mingled reviews in London. The Daily Telegraph called it “the guiltiest of pleasures,” as long as The Guardian said it lacked emotion and soul.

Ben Brantley’s pan rattled producers and investors, excepting they’ve rallied and have convinced themselves that “Ghost” is a judge-proof crowd-pleaser.

The theaters they’re looking at take in the Lunt-Fontanne, where “The Addams Family” is agreeable to go down by the extremity of the year; the Shubert, where the Tony-winning “Memphis” is weakening; and, maybe, the Palace, should “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” scare to wobble on her high heels.

“Ghost” be inclined be recast — the producers are looking with regard to a name actor to play the murdered boyfriend. But I listen Sharon D. Clarke, who plays the psychic, pleasure come to New York. Even critics who didn’t like the appear praised her comic turn.

The influence-ballad-heavy score is by Dave Stewart, of Eurythmics.

A small in number Broadway vets who saw the point out say it has tourist appeal, unless could lose about 10 minutes; they in like manner say it needs sharper jokes.

Still, the wildly picturesque story at the center of “Ghost” is efficient, and as popular hits such similar to “Aida” and “The Phantom of the Opera” require shown, romance can be a forceful hook on Broadway.

michael.riedel@/NYTravelGuide/.com