A tiny blurb appeared on the Matt Murphy Productions website, announcing that the production company (which is also responsible for bringing this seasons Memphis to the Broadway stage) has acquired the stage rights the best-selling 1986 novel Dances with Wolves by Michael Blake – and that it’s heading for Broadway. Winning seven Oscars – including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay for Blake, who is not expected to adapt his novel for this project – the film version of Dances with Wolves was directed by Kevin Costner, who also starred alongside Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene and Rodney A. Grant.
No other details have been officially released, but glean what you can from the following snippets that have appeared in various interviews with Matt Murphy:
From BroadwayWorld:
Dances with Wolves will be a uniquely spectacular and dramatic new musical. I envision a score that is inspired by Appalachian, folk, Civil War era, and Native American music, coupled with a production design that celebrates the spirit and ceremony of Native American culture amidst the awe-inspiring landscape of the American frontier. I am seeking a creative team who can make the epic story of Dances with Wolves sing for a new medium and a new generation of audiences.
From Playbill:
It’s a beautiful story set within a spectacular setting so that you get lush visuals along with a gorgeous romance along with something of cultural significance. I have never seen Native Americans on stage, I’ve never seen this story on stage…. There is no way to do Dances With Wolves, which is essentially a Western on stage, without it being spectacular and epic in scope…. Our goal is to honor the legacy of Native American culture.
Some further details are also reported in the article on Playbill: the composer with work in collaboration with a Native American musical expert, in the way that Lebo M worked with Elton John and Hans Zimmer on The Lion King to create a sense of musical authenticity in the show, while the animals, which are integral to the narrative, will given to the design team to handle ‘in a creative way’.
So… who wants to speculate on possible composers and lyricists for this production? Adam Guettel? Michael John LaChiusa? Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens? Who do you think might be most suitable?
Musical Cyberspace 
(Re)considering Musical Theatre Practice: Part 1
Six years ago I delivered a seminar at the University of Cape Town entitled “Musical Theatre Practice: a consideration of genre, form and the festival of renewal”. In that seminar, I set out to explore the major forms of musical theatre, how the genre functions as a displaced festival of renewal and what these frameworks offered to both theatre-makers and viewers of musical theatre. I feel that it’s time to revisit the topic now, because I’d like to expand the field of my exploration, particularly that around the idea of genre and musical theatre forms. This post is the departure point for that journey and I hope that, in some ways, it becomes a dialogue between readers of this blog and myself in our appreciation of this wonderfully eclectic, multi-modal theatrical form.
I think a good place to start might be in an exploration of the word “genre”, which seems to have a variety of meanings. The first place I I looked for a definition was in A Glossary of Literary Terms. What resonated most for me in the entry on “genre”, was an idea that has endured since the days of Plato and Aristotle:
Do we have a tripartite division in musical theatre that aligns with that broadest of definitions of genre? Let’s start by having a look at the first of these three genres for now.
Any other suggestions of musicals that might be categorised as “lyric”? Head over to the comments box.