Why not? Green Day did it with American Idiot and when you listen to ATS you can get glimpses of a story line, something futuristic maybe? Or am I crazy?
As long as the band themselves weren't the ones in the musical I could maybe see it. It'd definitely be interesting to say the least .
Nah, I can't see this idea working, at least not as a stage production. The music on ATS isn't accessible enough to really work in that kind of a setting, plus the storyline is so vague that there would have to be an enormous amount of artistic license taken with it to create solid characters and such. Looking at rock bands that have tried doing musicals, the only ones I can think of that were really successful were Green Day with American Idiot and The Who with Tommy/Quadrophenia. I know Smashing Pumpkins tried to do something like that with Machina I and II, and it never really got off the ground. When you consider the general demographic of people who actually go to theaters and watch musicals, in order for a rock-oriented musical to appeal to them, the music has to be of a pretty particular variety in order to go over well. Now, if they wanted to do an A Thousand Suns movie, I could see that working, as there's a lot more you can incorporate into a film than you can do with a stage production (this is probably why Pink Floyd's The Wall is better remembered for the film adaptation than the limited number of live performances they did of the album in 1980).
American Idiot only "works" as a musical because the album is a punk rock opera, while A Thousand Suns, well, isn't. I do agree with Dr. Octogonapus that it could work more in the lines of a movie though.
it'd be awesome. I thought about writing like a screenplay or musical based on their whole collection
The movie that always plays in my head is about this person nicknamed Robot Boy who burned the bridge with his rival for living in an enemy country and not trying ketchup or something. But then nuclear apocalypse breaks out, and then he witnesses the many stages the people around him go through as the world dies. They don't realize how meaningless their differences were until the riots only make the problem worse, the peace efforts are empty, ketchup resources dry up, mass blackouts happen, and people are left with nothing but pleading with their gods. Then he learns to forgive rival person after the two of them become the last living things on Earth. And they died miserable people, the end. Also, I find it interesting that the definition of musical is so narrow. People will reject a musical if the music is simply the wrong genre. Most interesting. If something silly like a musical were to happen, the thing to do would be to conform the musical format to the music, not conform the music to the typical musical format. I'd prefer a movie, anyway. I'd cast Mr. T as Chester.
I think it'd make for a great planetarium laser show. Especially with LSD. Call it LPSD. I'm a one-man genius committee.
I can maybe see an hour-long music video with the album happening in and around events. I thought they were going for something vaguely like that with their first three videos, since they form a loose triptych: "Burning in the Skies" is pre-nuclear, "Waiting For the End" is in the electric noise of the explosion, "The Catalyst" is in the apocalyptic aftermath. Then "Iridescent" happened, and I was all, "Huh?"
A few years ago around the time that Hybrid Theory was named the best selling album of 2001, Linkin Park were at an Awards Show post-show (MTV VMAS 2001 I believe) and were asked by the VJ if they ever planned on going the route of Pink Floyd's The Wall and making a concept movie and album all in one. At the time of the interview, they kinda laughed it off and didn't think they would ever be able to do something like that...but I've always felt they had the ability to. ATS already was a concept (which was new for the band), so there's no reason why a band that has a Movie/Video Director, and a guy experienced in film scores cannot make a concept movie. It's not beyond their artistic ability, and even though ATS is pretty much done, its a logical progression for a future album. With all the film and art school experience involved in this band, I'm honestly stunned it HASN'T happened yet.