New ABBA musical headed for Broadway?

Is the new ABBA musical headed for Broadway or is it destined to be sidelined in the courts? A court case involving script rights for the Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus musical Kristina från Duvemåla will determine the musical's Broadway future. (more)

If the lawsuit over the script rights goes well, they hope to try the show out in Minneapolis this fall with a Spring 2008 Broadway opening.


I really enjoy the music from ABBA's previous efforts (Chess and Mamma Mia) so I am interested in seeing what the result will be in this case.

Friday Tidbits

Two interesting theater tidbits ...

Guidestar a site that provides data from the IRS filings of all your favorite nonprofits. Ever wonder how well that nonprofit is doing?

and an excellent POV piece from playgoer that I'd like to bring your attention to: It addresses the director/production copyright issue that most recently surrounded Urinetown.

For more on the Urinetown situation (and other copyright issues) previously I've posted:
12-12-06 More Urinetown Legal Mess
12-04-06 Urinetown Copyright Fight Continues
11-28-06 More on Copyright and Theater

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Urinetown Copyright Fight Continues

A while ago I wrote about the lawsuit brought against a midwestern production of Urinetown and how the suit may have long reaching effects on community and regional theater. Well, the discussion continues with the following development:

"Creators of the two Midwest productions of Urinetown accused of plagiarizing the Broadway version's direction, choreography and design are fighting back. The Carousel Dinner Theatre in Akron, OH, has sued the Broadway team, and a lawyer for the Chicago production at the Mercury Theater sent the Broadway team a letter denying all charges.

The suit, filed Nov. 22 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, asks the court to declare that the Akron production is "not substantially similar" to the Broadway production and did not violate any laws." read more

More on this subject:

11-28-06 More on Copyright and Theater

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More on Copyright and Theater

In the continuing saga between who gets copyright protection for contributions to a show (Choreography as an example) There seems to be a dispute over a Chicago production of Urinetown. The problem is keeping between staying true to the original and not "ripping off" every detail. Chicago Tribute Story

So what does that mean for regional, community and school productions? It means that depending on how the courts rule it may become more expensive to produce shows with additional royalties for the direction, costume design or other creative. It may also become more difficult to produce a production without additional liability. And then there is the audience expectations - does that really fit into this picture as well?

Taken to an extreme, should every set of creative for a show be copyrighted? What would that mean to community and non profit theater?

Technorati tags: Hudson valley theater Broadway Music Musicals Blog Theater Hudson Valley Community Theater Movie Musicals Blogs Entertainment