I have a dream

I thought for a long time about how I would like to present the musicals better and have now decided to present them individually and sometimes in a group.

Today it will be about the genre of jukebox musicals. Well who knows which musical the title of this post belongs to? You can find the solution at the end of the article.

Jukebox musicals are musicals that are put together based on existing songs. So a plot is written around various existing songs. There are three different types:

1. The artist biography.
   Many different songs from an artist or a group are used to tell your own life story. The person is then the main character of the entire story, which can be told fictionally or biographically. A well-known example is the film “Rocketman,” which was released in 2018. This is about the biography of Elton John.
2. Artist catalog.
   Here the songs are taken from different eras, genres and albums in order to tell a fictional story. The most famous musical that falls into this category is probably "Mamma Mia".
3. Epoch and genre specific.
   A collection of songs from a specific time is used here. These are then intended to evoke nostalgia or associations with this time. The plot is written around the songs. This type of musical often includes many different artists who are connected by the era.

Jukebox musicals I've seen:

The first musical I ever saw in London was the musical "We will rock you". When I went to London with my class in eighth grade, we saw this musical and it really impressed me back then. This musical belongs to the artist catalog category. It premiered in London in 2002. Many different songs by the band "Queen" tell the story of a group of rebels 50 years in the future. The future = a world without any individuality - everyone wears the same clothes, music always sounds the same, instruments are forbidden, only the rebels (Bohemians) fight for an individual world, freedom, fashion and music.
“We Will Rock You” is the ninth longest-running musical in the West End. 12 years in total.

“Mamma Mia” premiered in London in 1999 and still runs eight times a week. It is probably one of the most famous musicals in the world and belongs to the Artists Catalog category. The songs come from the world famous Swedish band ABBA.
"Mamma Mia" tells the story of Donna, who lives with her 20-year-old daughter Sophie on a small Greek island and runs her own hotel there. When Sophie wants to find out who her father is and invites three possible men to her wedding, chaos is complete.

"& Juliet" is definitely one of my favorite musicals. I have now seen it five times and after each performance I immediately wanted to go back. “& Juliet” premiered in Manchester in September 2019 and then ran in the West End from November 2019 to 2023. I would say you can divide this into two categories. Artist catalog and era and genre specific. The songs are all by Max Martin. He is a well-known music producer and songwriter. His songs are sung by stars such as Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Coldplay, Taylor Swift and many others. Accordingly, it can also be assigned to the pop/rock genre.
"& Juliet" is about the story of Juliet and Romeo. But what would happen if, after Romeo's death, Juliet didn't decide to die but wanted to continue living her life?

"Once" is a musical based on the film of the same name (highly recommended) and premiered in New York in 2011. The songs were written by both lead actors in the film. Glen Hansard, singer of the band "The Frames" and Markéta Irglová. The two received an Oscar in 2008 for their song "Falling slowly".
The musical is about an Irish street artist who befriends a Czech immigrant through his love of music. This encourages the artist who has already given up to continue with his music. After some time, a strong but complicated love story develops between the two.

The last jukebox musical I saw was “Jersey Boys.” This musical falls into the artist biography category. The story of the origins, success and dissolution of the band “The Four Seasons” is told here. The title of the musical refers to New Jersey, as all four band members are from there. The story is told from the perspective of the four band members. Divided into four seasons, each band member has the chance to tell the story from their own eyes.
It premiered on Broadway in 2005 and has since played in many different countries. It has always been on my list of musicals to watch. However, in the end I was rather disappointed. The story didn't really grab me and the songs, along with a few more well-known ones, weren't for me either.

There is always a lot of debate about the category of jukebox musicals. But I have to say that I am a big fan of these types of musicals. Whether it's "& Juliet" or "Mamma Mia", if you sit in the theater and have the desire to sing along or even dance, you have completely reached me. It also often helps to understand a story if you already know the songs and what they are about. You can also pay attention to completely different things during the play.
If you don't know the film or musical "Once" yet, I would definitely recommend the soundtrack. There are so many good songs there, it's really worth listening to.
And now back to the beginning. The title of this post comes from the musical “Mamma Mia”. Well, who knew?