8. Saw
Musicals work well when they are dealing with excess. Songs in a musical are generally the release of emotions that have been building up in a scene and need to be expressed in song. Most of the time it is a feeling of happiness or sadness, usually being some sort of expression of love. However, that is old. We should be exploring and mining other emotions that would be well suited for musical. Such as threat and terror. I actually think horror and musicals are perfect bed partners. Both celebrate excess, a release of tension and in your face emotions. In fact, I would have suggested Evil Dead would make the perfect musical if that didn't already exist. But instead, let me submit the idea of Saw. Saw was a franchise that lost its charm by the end of its first movie, let alone the seventh. Although, if you center a musical around the same story as the first, you might find some great musical content there.It opens with two people chained up in one room and have them sing at each other and trying to figure out why they are there and what they have to do to get out. This idea sounds like it has got legs to me.
Songs: "My last girlfriend was a feminist vegan punk" "Dr. Gordon, this is your wake-up call" "That clock. It's brand new." "He doesn't want us to cut through our chains."