Monday, January 17, 2005

LAW & ORDER ON STAGE

Why? Because L&O rules, and it has a beautifully ritualistic structure, and because there are 1,000 scripts to cull from, if'n you don't just generate new ones on your own--half the playwrights of NYC work on the show, so it shouldn't be too hard to get some other folks to put something together.

Directions this could go-
  1. Straight adaptation--too hard, too many locales, too straightjacked.
  2. Camp--popular, no doubt, but feels overdone.
  3. Homage w/humor--better, not quite as tired, subtle jabs and conventions fucked with.
  4. RADIO PLAY--this is a winner--fixes many locale issues, opens up the show, feels appropriate for some reason (?) with the existing structure of the show.
I envision this being done with a new show every week--and if you really want to get crazy, do two episodes back-to-back each time, with an intermission between. Should run 1 1/2 hours, gives a good reason for a bigger price tag.

Bugaboos-
  1. Rights. Could be protected as parody? Probably not, unless we go whole hog into camp, which I don't prefer. Probably must be done on the down-low, ala Star Drek, but look how that ended.
  2. Scale...if this has to be low-key, I can't possibly put it together.
  3. Derivative--theoretically I am opposed to theater that exists to ape and copy TV, but I want to make an exception because I have this weird feeling that with its structure, L&O actually belongs on stage more than TV.
The real question is, do i actually have enough time for any of the BS? The answer to that is probably no, at the time being--but maybe if i post these random notes up at the site, someone will want to work with me on this. Write if this rings a bell for anyone.