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| From left, Phil Robertson, Jase Robertson, Si Robertson and Willie Robertson from the A&E series "Duck Dynasty."Zach Dilgard/A&E |
They are not exactly the von Trapps trilling about edelweiss, but the Robertson family of the fact series “Duck Dynasty” wants to sing to you about faith and food, joker calls and swamp moss. And they’ve convinced a team from Broadway to bring their story to the stage, in Las Vegas for starters.
Undertaking one of the more audacious theatre projects in recent years, the Robertsons - known for their long beards, duck-hunting merchandise as well as occasional inflammatory remark - are moving to expand their Louisiana-based multimedia system franchise with “The Duck Commander Family Musical. ” The 90-minute display, with actors playing the family members from A&E’s “Duck Dynasty” as they commemorate the family’s long history from rags to riches, hopes to open within February at the Rio hotel and casino, where the Chippendales show and Penn & Teller are now running.
Even before rehearsals start, the show is dating controversy. Several Broadway producers, many of whom are liberal, gay, or each, are aghast that colleagues would work with a family whose patriarch, Phil Robertson, has compared homosexuality to bestiality. Gay rights leaders are also eyeing the actual show with concern, while evangelical Christians - many of whom admire the actual Robertsons - might be hesitant to go to a Las Vegas casino and see whether Ny artists have fairly rendered the family.
“The show will end up challenging the sights and assumptions of people across the political spectrum, more than most theater does, ” said Michael David, the Broadway producer who is developing the show and it has mounted Broadway hits like “Jersey Boys” and flops like “Good Heurt. ”
“The Robertsons are so unusual, their story so juicy, and theatre shouldn’t be limited to telling stories about people you resemble or revere, ” added Mr. David, whose long gray beard could make him a good honorary Robertson.
Willie Robertson, chief executive of the Duck Commander company, which experienced $40 million in revenue in 2012 (a fraction of the sales associated with “Duck Dynasty” merchandise), said in a statement that the show had been “a excellent ride so far” for the family, which has approval rights over the script as well as casting.
“We’ve enjoyed the process of making a musical alongside the team who is interested in informing the Robertson family story from an outside perspective, ” said Mr. Robertson, whose 2012 book about the family, written with his wife, Korie, is the foundation for the musical and the source of its title.
If the project sounds too highbrow-lowbrow to be believed, too bayou for Broadway, remember that theater is a wholly unstable hit factory. The musical “Avenue Q, ” which looked like “Sesame Street” with foul-mouthed puppets, won the Tony Award for best musical to make millions. And no one could have guessed 17 years ago that a show with stars dressed as animals, “The Lion King, ” would achieve a record-breaking worldwide gross of $6. 2 billion this fall.
Yet the challenge for the makers of “The Duck Commander Family Musical” is not simply to create a widely attractive show from idiosyncratic material.
Unlike movie-to-musical adaptations that dominate Broadway (“Aladdin, ” “Kinky Boots, ” “Once” and many others in addition to “The Lion King”), TELEVISION characters have proved tricky to adapt to the stage. Past attempts happen to be mostly satirical sendups based on series like “Saved by the Bell” and “The Golden Girls. ” A big test will come next fall with “The Newly-weds on their honeymoon, ” a musical based on that CBS series.
Steven Morris, one of the composers of the “Duck Commander” show, said that he believed “the specificity and the strangeness of the family’s lives and home are a great fit for a compelling musical. ” The show is expected to feature video of the real Robertsons and joker hunting, interspersed among family anecdotes and a 14-song score that mixes nation, blues and show tunes. The likely opening number is “Faith, Food, as well as Family. ”
“I think the expectation is that it’ll be all chicken-pickin’ stuff and banjos, but what we’re trying to do is pull out as much cardiovascular, humor and sincerity as we can to keep people surprised, ” Mr. Morris said. His previous best-known work with his “Duck” collaborators, his brother Robert Morris and Joe Shane, was the musical “White Noise, ” a épigramme about white supremacists. (The artistic team, which includes the book writer Asidor Somers, was recruited by the Robertsons’ agents at William Morris Endeavor and it is not satirizing the Robertsons. )
Minting a Las Vegas success is another risk. Only two Broadway musicals have been major successes there, “Jersey Boys” as well as “Mamma Mia!, ” which both featured pretested hit songs. Plenty of other people struggled, like “The Producers” and “Hairspray. ” More typical is a lately announced musical revue featuring Broadway numbers, “ShowStoppers, ” which the casino prócer Steve Wynn is developing.
Mr. David said the success of “Jersey Boys” convinced him that a show with a familiar brand that appeals highly to men can do well in Las Vegas. (He said he expected the display to cost a relatively modest low seven figures. )
And Mr. Morris predicted that the fan base for “Duck Dynasty” - which has had as many as eleven million viewers, but only four million for its season finale in August -- would create a sizable audience for the musical. (The series’ seventh season starts next Wednesday. )
Mr. David said he had given no thought yet in order to bringing the show to New York, where its reception would probably be mixed when the reactions of several Broadway producers are any measure.
“It’s pretty revolting, but it’s also a reminder that Broadway is mostly about making entertainment these days - not art - even if it means getting involved with a family whose people say things that offend a lot of people working on Broadway, ” said Emanuel Azenberg, an experienced producer whose current musical is “The Last Ship. ”
The comments through Phil Robertson, in an article published in GQ, led the A&E system to suspend him last December. Like several family members, Mr. Robertson is really a self-described evangelical Christian who says his opinions come from Scripture. After an outcry from fans of the show, including some who accused A&E of anti-Christian bigotry, the suspension was lifted nine days later.
Sarah Kate Ellis, president of Glaad, a gay rights group that monitors depictions associated with gay characters in culture, said the musical would inevitably face examination.
“The family has become symbolic of a much larger and somewhat dangerous problem associated with what we’re seeing in America - this issue of homophobia being masked like a religious value, ” she said.
Both Mr. David and the musical’s movie director, Jeff Calhoun (“Newsies”), said they were offended by Mr. Robertson’s remarks, however they were already involved with the project by then, and decided to deal with the feedback by addressing them in the musical. (Mr. Morris said this was still becoming figured out. )
Mr. Calhoun is gay and was married three years back to his longtime partner. He said that his husband’s family members, who are through Florida and Texas, are “very much from this world” of the Robertsons, and made peace a long time ago with their differing outlooks.
“We’ve agreed to disagree on some points, but we’re family and we love and respect each other, ” Mr. Calhoun said. “I like to think that this musical could bridge some gaps, as well. ”
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