Apparently, we're in the midst of a Flashdance renaissance. Already the subject of a new VH1 Behind the Music and an E! True Hollywood Story, Adrian Lyne's 1983 smash film starring Jennifer Beals as a welder/exotic dancer who dreams of going to ballet school is about to become the latest Hollywood movie to jump to the stage.
"The film is so performance-oriented," Susan Weaving, vice president of William Morris' touring division, tells Daily Variety. "With Flashdance, you're not adapting a soundtrack to characters, which is always the challenge with movie-to-stage adaptations. The film is about live performance." She says the musical should be up and running for the 2002-2003 season.
Weaving, a longtime fan of the film decided to follow the advice of the movie's oft-repeated tagline: Take your passion...And make it happen!
Two years ago, Weaving discovered that Thomas Hedley Jr., who wrote the original story for Flashdance, was represented by a William Morris literary agent. "Once I found him, I found out the story on the rights," said Weaving. "That got things rolling." (Joe Eszterhas, who cowrote the screenplay but doesn't control the story rights, isn't involved with the stage version.)
The next person on board was Giorgio Moroder, the man who cowrote many of the tunes on the monster-selling soundtrack, including the Irene Cara-warbled title cut, "Flashdance...What a Feeling."
Moroder is working with lyricist Michael Kunze on at least 10 new songs for the musical version of Flashdance. The film's two hit singles, "Flashdance" (which won an Oscar for Best Song) and Michael Sembello's "Maniac", will be included in the stage version. So far, Moroder and Kunze have completed six other tunes.
There's no word on a cast yet, but unlike the original Flashdance, in which the routines were performed by Marine Jahan, Beals' uncredited dance double, Weaving says the star of the stage musical Flashdance would have no such luxury and would do all her own singing and dancing.
Over the past year, Broadway's seen a glut of movie-based musicals. The Full Monty and The Rocky Horror Show both opened to good notices and there's plenty of buzz over Mel Brooks' new The Producers, which is currently in previews and will premiere April 24. Meanwhile, Disney's Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King continue to pack houses.
Of course, not all celluloid-to-stage transitions score critically or commercially. The now-defunct Footloose and Saturday Night Fever were savaged by the critics. And Big was one of the biggest fiascos in Broadway history.