Cameron Crowe has turned his semi-autobiographical 2000 movie into a musical because it’s 2019 and that’s what happens now. But… we’d like to suggest that making a musical of a film about music rather defeats the point of Almost Famous.
First things first: it’s making its stage debut in San Diego in September, Crowe’s written the libretto and the lyrics of the songs with composer Tom Kitt, and stage stars Russell Hammond and Casey Likes are in the lead roles.
But… why?
If you’ve not seen the film in a while, the plot is as follows: precocious teen falls in love with rock music after being denied it by his overprotective mother, unexpectedly goes on the road with a band for a Rolling Stone feature story, and learns all about life, love and music, if very little about actual journalism. Why do films have so few proofreading scenes, that’s what we want to know.
Also, Almost Famous (the not musical) most significant as The Movie Which Explains Why So Many People Have Unshakable Crushes On Kate Hudson, whose Penny Lane is the only character anyone can remember.
And most music-related films should be easy to take to the stage, right? We assume there’ll be loads of versions of ‘Fever Dog’. And ‘Tiny Dancer’, presumably.
However: the reason the film is such a beloved cult classic is that it stars Patrick Fugit as Crowe’s thinly-veiled William Miller, an outsider obsessed with the magical, transformational power of music who then becomes immersed in that world and discovers the (very stylised) reality behind the facade.
Miller is a blank slate with which the audience identify, and it’s through him they enter the world of Stillwater and the life of touring musicians etcetera etcetera.
Also, the film posits a fantasy world where music press exist, have budgets and send journalists off on the road with bands. In the media of 2019, that’s less realistic than singing lions.
Anyway: the problem with turning this into a musical is that it’s a bit hard for the William character to make the case that he’s an outsider to whom music is a tantalising mystery if he’s literally bursting into song the first time the audience sees him.
Almost Famous the Musical would be like a character sinking a three pointer while delivering a monologue about how basketball is a complete mystery that no-one can understand.
Mind you, maybe that’s the opening scene from Space Jam: The Arena Spectacular, which we assume will premiere in 2020. It makes at least as much sense.