If there is a film series that has been crying out for a musical adaptation it is the Bill & Ted movie franchise. I have loved the series since I was a child, and still think it is Keanu Reeves's finest hour, I love the music and the story is so much fun it could easily be brought to the stage in this era of mega musicals. Of course the problem with converting a film to the stage is getting the rights. This is where Dean Collinson comes into the story.
Dean Collinson is a performer who started his career in the early 1990s by founding a boyband named 'Blue', not to be confused with the late 90s band of the same name, in 1993 at the end of his bands fame the members wrote the song 'Better the Devil you Know' for the popstar Sonia's entry into the Eurovision song contest of that year, it went on to win her second place.
Collinson says in an interview with billandted.org that he was first approached about the musical by his producer who had been in contact with a London musical producer. The London musical producer claimed he had the rights to produce a musical based on the film and commisioned Collinson to write the music. It soon transpired that the rights had not been given and the writers had a musical that they could do nothing with. Collinson says that they decided to take it to the Edinburgh Festival where it played to packed houses every night. The show was also produced in 2000 at the Greenwich Theatre for the 'Musical Futures' scheme. After the success of the Edinburgh festival Collinson says he has had an offer of £4 million pounds of investment in a West End production of the show. This time they went to the original writers who felt that the music should reflect the heavy metal nature of the films, however as Collinson himself says Metal in a musical doesn't really sell. I know 'Rock of Ages' is popular but the majority of the songs in that show are pop rock and not really metal and the same goes for 'We Will Rock You' which really cherry picked Queen's more pop orientated songs.
So Collinson alongside his friend Glenn Carter, yes he of Jesus Christ Superstar and Jersey Boys fame, recorded the music for a soundtrack CD which you can download from the following link... here. I love this soundtrack, it is incredibly 80s which works incredibly well with the storyline and allows nostalgia into this most excellent production. Collinson admits freely that he ripped off different artists to produce sound-a-like songs to give a sense of time, the best one is the homage to Tears for Fears in the Sigmund Freud song 'Relax'. My favourite track is the History Report/Anthem 3 which is just a wonderful finale song before the encore. Its a wonderfully constructed album and one of my favourites to listen to on a rainy day.
Will we ever see it produced? Doubtful is my answer, with a third Bill and Ted film on the way it seems the series will get another shot in the arm leading to BluRay and 3D film releases but I expect the owners of the rights will not budge on the issues that have led this piece of work to be shelved. I tried contacting Dean Collinson to see if he could update any of the information from the billandted.org website but he did not answer me, I understand that he is probably very busy as he is a working actor as well as a composer and I hope that one day he gets his due the respect he deserves because a lot of his work is fantastic. I highly recommend his website and the free mp3s you can get from there of not only his musicals but his pop career, if you like a nice big slice of early 90s pop.
