Savatage heading to broadway

There is to be a Broadway musical based on Savatage’s 1989 album Gutter Ballet.This is currently being worked on by band vocalist Jon Oliva and producer Paul O’Neill, who hope to have it ready in the next two years.
O’Neill actually began working on the songs in the 1970s, with Savatage providing the outlet for hard rock versions of these via the original album.
“We want to take it back to the original blues, gospel, Motown sound,” O’Neill told thenewstar.com. “For Savatage, you’ve got to metal it up. Jon and I are kind of psyched to be doing it because Broadway is something we’ve always wanted to take on.”

This would be cool but I won't hold my breath. There was some talk about them bringing STREETS to Broadway back in the 90s but nothing ever came of it.

Wow, that's awesome!

Neat. I wish Paul and Jon all the luck bringing this to fruition. Peace.

Fat Freddy wrote:

This would be cool but I won't hold my breath. There was some talk about them bringing STREETS to Broadway back in the 90s but nothing ever came of it.

Like FF don't hold your breathe, Broadway plays cost millions of dollars to produce, and other more mainstream artist such as Paul Simon and Billy Joel have even managed produce Broadway musicals and failed, but it would be very cool.

manny wrote:

Broadway plays cost millions of dollars to produce, and other more mainstream artist such as Paul Simon and Billy Joel have even managed produce Broadway musicals and failed

Yup, I could see a small theatre group turning it into an off-Broadway workshop thing like the '80s "jukebox musical" "Rock of Ages" that's currently packing'em in, but I doubt any Broadway producer would want to gamble zillions of $'s on a show based on music by a relatively unknown band/album like Savatage.

Either way, I wish'em the best of luck. Who knows, maybe on a future episode of "That Metal Show" Eddie, Don and Jim will be the emcees for the opening night of "Streets: The Musical"

This will be TSO for the stage more than Savatage.

kmorg wrote:

This will be TSO for the stage more than Savatage.

Yep - if they use the TSO name, it will probably sell more seats....

If I recall correctly, bits of Gutter Ballet and most of Streets are based off the 'Gutter Ballet' musical Paul wrote before becoming associated with Savatage. Then Criss and Jon found the script and adapted the ideas in to something a bit more Sava. Presumably, this is going to be more of the original concept. It's a shame, because I'd love to see the hard-rock / metal of Streets turned in to a musical. Still, in the unlikely event they can get this off the ground, I'm sure it'd be an enjoyable watch.

Fat Freddy wrote:

This would be cool but I won't hold my breath. There was some talk about them bringing STREETS to Broadway back in the 90s but nothing ever came of it.

I imagine the money made from TSO will make this a lot easier this time. I know they made $500,000 from just the one show I saw. Obviously that's not all profit, but TSO is making a lot of cash in their few-months runs.

I just saw TSO last Saturday, and I believe I read something about it in the program. TSO is also doing a tour this spring. Broadway will be under TSO name.

Really curious to see how the non-Christmas tour turns out.

I hope it works out. Those two have amazing talent and it's great to see them succeed.

I'll go for sure to see the broadway show. I hope it does sound like the real songs at least