Special Report: First Public Staged Reading of Revisions to GHOST: THE MUSICAL Shows Promise

Superficially, GHOST: THE MUSICAL looked like a shoo-in for regional houses that wanted a name show. Cult-favorite film. Broadway music involving Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics and Glen Ballard. Book by original film writer Bruce Joel Rubin. So, now that it's eligible for licensing, why haven't regional theatres been begging to license it? That was the question asked by David Abbinanti and Sean Cercone of Theatrical Rights Worldwide, which licenses the show.

The answers came back rapidly: too large a cast for their stages, an all-but-two-and-a-half hour running time, a larger-than-not orchestra, and visual effects that regional houses couldn't handle. These were, in fact, some of the largest complaints by reviewers (including this one) about the original show, which on its Broadway run and its national tour received a number of extremely critical reviews. The movie was a slight, sweet paranormal romance in the midst of an era of huge films, yet the musical was on steroids, too big for the basic story line of four people - a ghost, his fiancée, the psychic who connected them, and the so-called friend ultimately responsible for his death.

In order to make GHOST a marketable property for regional and smaller-sized theatres, cutting back on the excesses that made the show a spectacle - huge cast, huge effects, huge music - appeared required. Cercone decided to call an old friend to see about making revisions to it, to scale the show down to a manageable level. Theatrical Rights has done this before, notably with RING OF FIRE and with THE ADDAMS FAMILY MUSICAL. The friend he called was director Marc Robin, a veteran of the Chicago musical theatre scene with a copious collection of Jeff Awards to his name, who's now in Pennsylvania as artistic director of the Fulton Theatre in Lancaster (where he's won a Broadway World Award for best director of a musical) and collaborator with Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theatre.

Robin sat down with the book, cut five scenes, reduced the entire cast to nine and, with Abbinanti's assistance for re-orchestration, reduced the orchestra to six pieces in his first presentable version of the revision (the work is still in development). To get a feel for the success of current and future development of the revision, Robin presented the current version of the revision as a staged reading at the Fulton Theatre on January 8 and 9, 2015.

The audience verdict? The deliberately small house enjoyed it thoroughly. The reviewer verdict? The reduced-scale show is far tighter than the original musical, and is much closer to the actual story line of the movie. Removing less relevant scenes, reducing the ensemble, and making some judicious song changes while re-orchestrating them gave the audience a two-hour run with a focused story, better stage and performer visibility for the audience, and improved sound. It became clear within minutes that the visual effects that made the Broadway original a spectacle are indeed in the way of the story, and do not service it; a strong, small cast is all that is required to bring the scope of the story back into that of the film, and to fill an audience with emotion rather than awe of amazing stagecraft: much of the audience was crying while watching, as they did when they first watched the movie.

Particularly telling is that the first stripped-down performance of the current version of the revision worked perfectly with no set, and with only a pianist. The famous visuals used in the Broadway version proved unnecessary, including the subway scene and the walking-through-doors effect; the cast was well able to act out the scenes convincingly without set and lighting gimmickry. The movie was re-envisioned as a musical that can succeed convincingly even as a chamber piece. According to Robin, who was pleased with the audience reaction on January 8, "any time I felt that the original version was straying from the movie, I tried pulling it back. This is a show about four people, and I wanted to focus on them."

He explained, "This is the continued development of an existing work. The Broadway run was a version of a beloved work. This version is my opinion - I've made changes to try to bring the heart of the movie on stage. The Broadway version had a lot of people, a lot of technical detail. It was a musical spectacle - not what people expected from it, or at least what I expected. Sean and Theatrical Rights are very much involved in new work and in development, and he knows I have a passion for changing things. I'm trying to memorialize the movie as a musical, not to produce a Broadway extravaganza. This also makes the show more accessible to regional and small theatres."

The premiere staging cast at the Fulton Theatre included Will Ray as Sam Wheat, Danielle Dalli as Molly Jensen, Steve Czarnecki as Carl Bruner, E. Faye Butler as Oda Mae Brown, and Kevin Faraci, Michael Fisher, Liz Shivener, Manna Nichols, and Jayne Trinette as the ensemble, who also played the various small roles including the subway ghost, Willie Lopez, and Oda Mae's assistants. The Fulton's musical director, Aaron McAllister, was accompanist for the production.

The performances featured talkbacks with the audience, Robin, the cast, and Theatrical Rights' Cercone and Abbinante; at the opening performance, much of the discussion revolved around the songs, and audience interest in the character of Sam having more songs of his own. The current revision has not been presented to the original writers, however, and more changes will certainly be made before it is presented to them as an option for a new version of the show. However, based on audience reaction during the production and in the talkbacks, Robin believes that his concept for the show is moving in the correct direction.

Robin and Theatrical Rights will continue on development of the revisions for the show. At first blush, they are on the mark for generating a version of the show that is likely to be far better received than the original. Although this reviewer was apprehensive about the revised version, remembering the original, the opening night staged reading at the Fulton displayed a completely new direction for the show that has changed her mind considerably about its possibilities.