Last Spring, Glenn Frey, the co-founder and lead vocalist of the Eagles, admitted that he’d been spending a lot of time in New York, especially in the precincts of Broadway. Although he was coy about it, Frey didn’t discourage speculation that he was exploring the possibility of a Broadway musical to be developed from the rock band’s sizable hit catalogue. Not for nothing had he checked out “Beautiful,” the Carole King musical at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, a durable hit based on a existing songbook, joining the ranks of “Jersey Boys” (The Four Seasons), “Mamma Mia!” (ABBA), and, now, “On Your Feet!” (Gloria Estefan).Frey’s death at age 67 on January 18 was greeted with universal and heartfelt tributes, not unlike those mourning the passing of David Bowie. Within the theater community, it also revived talk of an Eagles musical at the same time that chatter grew about a Broadway transfer of “Lazarus,” the David Bowie musical at off-Broadway’s New York Theatre Workshop. (Producer Robert Fox suggested that London would be the next step.)When a so-called “jukebox” musical is proposed, the first questions are whether it will it be a VH1 “Behind The Music” scenario (“Jersey Boys” “Beautiful” “On Your Feet!”)? Or an original story studded with past hits, and, in some cases, new songs (“Mamma Mia!”, “The Last Ship”)?There is no lack of drama in the backstage story of the Eagles. One of the most popular rock bands of the ’70s, co-founded by Frey and Don Henley, the group won six Grammy Awards, sold over 150 million records, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. After starting out as Linda Ronstadt’s band, they hit pay dirt with their eponymous first album, scoring three hits: “Witchy Woman,” “Easy Peaceful Feeling,” “Take It Easy” — songs accompanying the reefer tokes of a Boomer Generation. What followed was a “not-so-easy” collaboration among the volatile and at times hotheaded perfectionists. The drama was captured in ‘The History of the Eagles,” an acclaimed 2013 two-part documentary by Alison Ellwood and Alex Gibney that included footage of their spectacular break-up in 1980. At a Long Beach fund-raiser for California Senator Alan Cranson, Frey and fellow band member Don Felder got in a dust-up that played out onstage.“Just three more songs before I kick your ass,” muttered Felder to which Frey replied, “Great. I can’t wait.” The title of the band’s reunion tour in 1994 — “Hell Freezes Over” — was a cheeky reference to Frey’s previous insistence that they would never again play together. At the kickoff for the tour, he blithely announced, “We never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation.” A Broadway musical should take far less time.
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