Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo hope their stage musical, Invinciblewill prove to be just that as they continue to work on it — amid several other projects the pair are doing, both together and separately.
The production, an adaptation of William Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet built around the pair's songs from Benatar's albums, it debuted to mixed reviews in late 2022 at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California — not long after Benatar and Giraldo joined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Now they plan to bring it to New York this fall — not to perform, but to make what they say will be major changes before bringing it back to the boards.
“The place we're at right now is to tear it up and start over,” says Benatar Advertising sign. “We have the freedom to do that because we haven't even been to Broadway or anything like that. So we're ripping it off, doing a similar show but with a lot of different elements.”
Giraldo predicts that his next incarnation Invincible — featuring Benatar favorites like “Hell Is For Children,” “Love Is a Battlefield,” “Heartbreaker,” “We Belong” and, of course, the title track — will be “different and the same at the same time. It will take it in a little different direction, maybe go back to square one. I think we got too far into the weeds with it, and it started to get a little messy. So maybe we'll go back to breaking the rules a little bit, trying to be brave.”
Benatar says the biggest lesson came in the way the duo's songs were covered in the original version of the show. “The goal for the production we did was to do a hybrid of taking our music and reinventing it in a more theatrical form,” he explains. “Some of the songs didn't really work that way. Some of them can be increased. “We live for love”, for example, “we belong”, such things work well in a theatrical form. But we learned that some of the arrangements that are in the original (recordings) are very exciting and work better (in the musical) if we keep them closer to the original. It was a surprise and a great lesson. But that's something you can't learn until you put it in front of human beings to see.”
However, neither is deterred by the need to restart. “It was a learning experience for us,” Giraldo acknowledges. “We made mistakes. We learned some great things along the way. It's a different kind of (effort) to be sure.” Benatar, meanwhile, confirms that “it was exciting. That was fun. You just keep evolving until we get to the place where we feel like it's time to put it out there.” They're not saying when that might be, but she has something in mind — Cleveland, which is Giraldo's hometown.
“We like it there,” says Benatar. “It's a home thing, as good as New York for us as a family place. It's always fun to go there. The audience is amazing, really receptive. So this is probably the first part that opens up in that (next) format.”
He revived it Invincible it's just one project Benatar and Giraldo — who return to the road Saturday, July 6, in Atlantic City with dates booked through mid-August — have their sights set on the near future.
Next year they will also release a children's book for which they are writing and composing songs. They're keeping details, including the title and publication date, under wraps for now, but it's inspired by the relationships they have with their three grandchildren, two girls and a boy. “It's about what we do and what they do…and it's about the music,” says Benatar. “It's sweet.”
On his own, meanwhile, Giraldo continues to work on two long-term endeavors — a memoir and an all-star holiday album he's working on with some of his musical friends. He is also recording an album with former Benatar drummer Myron Grombacher, friends from his early days in Cleveland and in Rick Derringer's band. The guitarist says the two plan to reunite after his tour with Benatar this summer, working as just the two of them, but are open to “having some guests on board” if they see fit. “We have about 21 songs,” reports Giraldo. “We were childhood friends, so that's what we do – just make music, have a great time playing and do your best.”
It's been a minute since Benatar and Giraldo released new music. Their last full album was I am going in 2003, while there were some one-off contributions to singles and soundtracks between 2015-2020 — most recently 'Together'. They also teamed up with Dolly Parton for her version of “Heartbreaker” last year. Rock star album.
“That's a possibility, if the time is right,” says Giraldo. “It's not that we don't have a lot of material. We have a lot of songs. Here's the deal… the best records, I believe, are made in 29 days. you just get in there, do it and you're done. You need to be able to block this time limit so that your main focus is on this record. This is the hardest part. As you get older…it's hard to find that block.”
Benatar, however, sounds ready for it. “We've got about 125 songs sitting around, waiting to be recorded,” she says, laughing as she adds, “If you can get my husband to do it, be my guest.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/pat-benatar-neil-giraldo-stage-musical-invincible-1235725376/