February 1^st

On January 24 The Last Ship, by the famous award winning, Sting, (aka Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner) the latest pop writer to try his hand on Broadway, sank after a brief run beginning Oct 26^th.

Sting with his 2014 Kennedy Center Honoree Medallion, December 2014

He did everything possible to keep his autobiographical personal project afloat. Realizing the show needed a boost Sting himself joined the cast for the holidays (no stranger to Broadway Sting appeared in The Three Penny Opera as Macheath, 1989)

Perhaps the moist original and memorable occurrence was the intermingling of the casts of Last Ship and Jersey Boys which was playing across the street in the August Wilson Theater across the street, On Saturdays, when both casts were at the theater between matinee and evening performances, they began calling to each other from their dressing rooms which faced each other.

Soon the casts began to congregate on the street to the delight of the lucky theatergoers arriving for the evening show. Then the casts alternated performing musical numbers from each of their shows before curtain time. This new tradition hit its zenith when they actually combined to sing Christmas carols during the holiday weak up to New Year’s.

Here is a description from an article in Playbill:

Sting Hits the Street with Jersey Boys and Last Ship Cast to Perform Christmas Carols
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By Adam Hetrick
23 Dec 2014 
The casts of Jersey Boys and The Last Ship, which currently stars Grammy Award winner Sting, took to the street Dec. 20 to perform Christmas carols and spread holiday cheer in support of the 26th Annual New York Cares Coat Drive and City Harvest.Jersey Boys cast member Peter Gregus created the musical event that took place at 7:45 PM (just prior to the evening performance) in front of the August Wilson and Neil Simon Theatres, which are located across from each other on 52nd Street.

"Saturday Night Scream Christmas Carols is a way to expand on the joyous fun we have every week here on 52nd Street with our long-time tradition of 'Saturday Night Scream,'" he said in a statement. "The casts of Jersey Boys and The Last Ship combine forces to help the New York Cares Coat Drive and City Harvest. We will raise our voices together with some good old fashioned Christmas Carols and hope that our friends and fans show up with a coat or canned goods to donate while we sing. It's a win-win. We get to sing Christmas carols, and the fans get to hear us sing them. And we're helping others less fortunate during the holidays."

Alas! It couldn’t keep the show afloat but let’s hope a new tradition was born.

Hits and misses from other pop writers

Jessie Mueller                     credit: Joan Marcus 

Carole King’s score in the biographical musical Beautiful has been highly successful.

But Holler If Ya Hear Me, 2014’s Broadway season opener
with the music of rapper Tupac Shakur was a disaster from the start

Tonya Pinkins and Christopher Jackman (Photo credit: Joan Marcus)

A Night with Janis Joplin enjoyed only a short run and the attempt to move it to Off Broadway fizzled.

Jersey Boys featuring thee music of Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons
is becoming one of Broadway’s lsingest running hits

Motown: The Musical

                                                            Joan Marcus photo

which recently closed, was quite successful featuring well, you know, ALL the music of Motown

(Michael Brosilow)

Ring of Fire – The Johnny Cash musical soon became ashes along with
All Shook Up, a similar show about Elvis Presley which fared no better.

Cyndi Lauper is proving successful in her transition to Broadway with Kinky Boots, but she couldn’t do it without Harvey Firestein

Billy Joel had a hit with Movin’ Out, but its director and creator, Twyla Tharp had to rework it t save it.
Elton John soared with Billy Elliot, but he couldn’t save his next, Lestat.

Basically no matter how big the pop composer, its never a guarantee on Broadway.