Is Desperately Seeking Susan a great movie? No, not by any means. But: Madonna's video for Into the Groove (from the Susan soundtrack and composed primarily of footage from the film) is probably the greatest made-for-MTV movie commercial of all time.
In condensing the film's disparate pleasures into a loop of shots, which are then used as padding for new footage of Madonna writhing around in a white teddy, the advertisement contains everything good about the film, but with healthy extra helpings of celebrity and sex. It is, in fact, too good--the video makes the film itself entirely superfluous. Madonna's star power was supposed to help sell Susan Seidelman's movie; instead, Madonna used the raw materials of the film to reify her own star image, which she then sold back to the record-buying public.
I bring this up because a deal has been struck to adapt Susan as a stage musical. Seidelman doesn't appear to be involved, but, as if someone is trying to rescue the source material from having been irretrievably re-contextualized by its second-billed star, all traces of Madonna's stamp on Susan have been removed. The Desperately Seeking Susan brand is basically being salvaged as a vehicle for a jukebox musical featuring the songs of Blondie. Debbie Harry, who is writing one new song for the show, says this:
It's a live show so it is going to be different to the film, probably more light-hearted. It's such a thrill to be part of it. It's about people making discoveries about themselves.
If Blondie want to be Abba, that's fine. But why would Harry--who has always struck me as one of the few individualists in the pantheon of 80s celebrities--be so eager to repurpose another iconic blondie's sloppy seconds?
Originally posted on:
SpoutBlog