Memphis wins Emmy, heads to the West End & silver screen

Memphis the Musical won a Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control for a Miniseries, Movie or Special -- to add to its list of accolades.

Here's David Bryan's statement from the Bon Jovi Facebook page:

The unbelievable journey of Memphis The Musical continues! I'm very proud of this award and grateful to all the fans for supporting my work. MEMPHIS will open on the West End in London next year and we just signed a deal to make Memphis the motion picture!! And my new show CHASING THE SONG is in development and coming to Broadway in 2014. Thanx again.... David

David Bryan on being a rock 'n' roll theatre composer

Arguably the forgotten man in Bon Jovi (out of the four "official" members anyway), David Bryan has forged another career in musical theatre, which he spoke to the LA Times' music blog about. Here's a snippet:

Musicals take years to get to the stage. Was that frustrating, especially for someone coming from the rock world?

It took us eight years to get to Broadway, and [that span of time is] two rock 'n' roll careers (laughs). It's such a long, painful road. Every time you put up the production you learn from it. You make it better.

You're currently working on another musical?

Our next one, about the '60s and the Brill Building songwriters, is called "Chasing the Song." We've started that process which is, once again, a long one. Hopefully, it's a little shorter because I have three Tonys on my mantelpiece.

Read the full interview here.

He also contributed a feature to Broadway Buzz:

Before Memphis, I had never considered working on a musical. But when Joe DiPietro sent me the script, I heard the entire score in my head. I love the Memphis sound. When I was 16-and-a-half, with my driver’s permit, I was playing New Jersey clubs in a 10-piece band; we had a horn section and would play great, great songs like “Hold On! I’m Comin’” and “Knock on Wood” and “Midnight Hour.” I read Joe’s script and thought, “This is not just entertainment, it’s entertainment that matters.” It had such a strong, important message, I knew I had to be a part of it.

I don’t find writing for the theater that different from writing a rock song. A song is always a character’s journey; it’s just in a different format when it’s played on the radio, with a chorus that has a repeating lyric and everything leads back to that. With Memphis, I knew right away with that we could tell this story in song in a way that wouldn’t be boring.

Read the full article here.

New musical project for David Bryan

David Bryan and Joe DiPietro, who have collaborated on Memphis and The Toxic Avenger are reportedly working on their next musical, currently entitled Chasing the Song. According to DiPietro, it's "about songwriters in the early 1960s at the time period prior to the Beatles emerging and changing everything".

You can read more about the new musical on Playbill.com.

Playbill.com also revealed that Memphis is set to be made into a film after receiving "serious offers from big Oscar winners". DiPietro expects an official announcement in the next couple of months.

Read about it here.

A movie! Well done, Dave! Being in the wrong country, I've never seen Memphis but it sounds like the type of musical I'd want to see even if David Bryan hadn't been involved in it. Not to mention it features a great soundtrack.