IITB alum's musical wins Tony

IIT Bombay alum Vijay Vashee ('74) and his wife Sita are Executive Producers of the musical "Memphis" which was selected as "best musical" at the Tony Awards 2010.

At Sunday’s Tony Awards, the crowd-pleaser “Memphis” won best musical, beating out alternative fare like “American Idiot,” based on the music of rock band Green Day, and “Fela!” about Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti.

“Memphis” got off to a slow start in the fall. Though the show featured music by Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan, it did not have a major star in the cast or a headline-grabbing producer (“Fela!” had celebrity producers Jay-Z and Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith). Bryan says he wasn’t initially curious about doing a Broadway show, adding that when he was first approached about possibly doing musicals, he asked: “What are they?”

“Memphis” did get a boost in March when First Lady Michelle Obama took her daughters Sasha and Malia to a performance.

The musical, an interracial love story set in 1950s Memphis, will no doubt help inspire other rockers from aging bands to try for Broadway.

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"Memphis" entered Sunday night's Tony Awards with something no other best musical nominee had this year: an original score. Judging by past winners, that fact helped give "Memphis" the advantage it needed to take home Broadway's most coveted award.

Out of 10 original musicals this season, only two featured new music. "I don't think you can ever replace an original score," said Sue Frost, one of the producers of "Memphis," adding that it, along with the book, helped "give us an edge with the Tony voters."

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David Bryan, center, who wrote the score to 'Memphis,' with cast members Montego Glover (left) and Chad Kimball at the Tony Awards.
.This year's other best-musical nominees could not claim original material, though they had won critical praise—more so than "Memphis" in many cases—for using existing music in original or entertaining ways. "American Idiot" was based on the music of punk stalwarts Green Day. "Fela!" centered on the Afrobeat rhythms of Fela Kuti. "Million Dollar Quartet" used songs by Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins.

The only other show with an original score, "The Addams Family," was not nominated for best musical.

"This year certainly stood out as a very, very unusual year where there was a lot of material that was being reused," said Tom Gabbard, a Tony voter and president of the North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center in Charlotte, N.C. He added that some fellow voters found the lack of original music "bizarre."

Shows don't necessarily need an original score to win: "Jersey Boys," about the pop group the Four Seasons, won for best musical in 2006. "Ain't Misbehavin,'" based on the music of Fats Waller, won in 1978. In 1995, just one show, "Sunset Boulevard," met the criteria for best score, while in 1989 the best score category was scrapped altogether due to a lack of eligible nominees.

"Fela!" producer Stephen Hendel called the idea that his show lacked an original score "a very funny concept," since many theatergoers had never heard Mr. Kuti's music and the songs had new lyrics and arrangements. The show had a disappointing Tony night (11 nominations, three wins), but Mr. Hendel said there were no plans to close soon. "We'll have tickets for sale beyond the end of the year," he said. "There are plenty of shows that have lost the Tonys that are having outstanding runs on Broadway."

If early box-office returns are any indication, the win for "Memphis" promises to bolster its fortunes. After Sunday and Monday, the show's ticket sales jumped by 500%, according to producers. The show has announced plans for a national tour to start in October 2011.

Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan, who wrote the music and co-wrote the lyrics for "Memphis," said that producers can be tempted to avoid new scores, believing audiences are more willing to buy tickets to shows with recognizable tunes.

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