Has Broadway finally reconciled with popular music?

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In “Stereophonic,” “Hell’s Kitchen” and other shows this season, theater is harnessing the power of stories about fictional musicians.

NEW YORK — There are quite a few musical lives told on Broadway these days. David Adjmi’s critically acclaimed play with musicdissects the clashes that stir up a band’s recording process in 1970s California. “Hell’s Kitchen” introduces us to a teenage girl’s discovery of her musical talent.lightheartedly tells the story of a small-time rock quartet’s ex-singer torn between his day job and a potentially lucrative return to the stage — to the tune of hits by Huey Lewis and the News.

Style is where The Washington Post covers happenings on the front lines of culture and what it all means, including the arts, media, social trends, politics and yes, fashion, all told with personality and deep reporting. For more Style stories,musicians. Granted, “Hell’s Kitchen” is inspired by Alicia Keys’s life and it uses her songs, but the show takes such liberties with reality that it feels more autofictional than autobiographical, and that’s a big part of what makes it work.

And artistically speaking, that’s a lot more liberating than what the majority of bio-musicals enjoy, since those have to stick to an approved, usually sanitized version of someone’s life, work in the obligatory hits and abide by estates. The most famous example of a rock character on Broadway around that time was in the hit musical “Bye Bye Birdie” , where an obvious stand-in for Elvis Presley is depicted as an arrogant, hip-swiveling dolt. At one point in the show, a middle-aged couple comically lament the new generation’s shortcomings: “Laughing, singing, dancing, grinning morons!” they sing.

 

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