Bad Times for J.Lo and Musicals and Lightbulbs

Slightly better times for Bob Dylan.

Recently, my friend and fellow Broad Morgan drew my attention to two related and moderately concerning (for a lot of reasons) news stories. First, the Diego Luna and Jennifer Lopez-starring, Bill Condon-directed film adaptation of Kiss of the Spider Woman left Sundance without distribution. The reviews have been eh-to-decent, but even regardless of that, this is a big budget film with one very big star (who is, in fairness, also having a really bad year) directed by an Academy Award winner who knows his way around musicals, having worked on Chicago, Dreamgirls, The Greatest Showman and the live action Beauty and the Beast in either writer or directorial capacity, or both. (He also did the final two Twilight movies, both of which are bombastic enough to be musicals and which are my personal favorites of the series because they are so balls-to-the-wall BONKERS.) On the heels of Wicked’s massive financial success, it seems weird that a fresh take on a Tony-winner like Kiss of the Spider …