Five Legends Tom Waits Should Adapt Into Musicals

Tom Waits + director Robert Wilson = Magic. This equation has been proven time and again.

So we await Waits and Wilson's upcoming as-yet-untitled fourth musical with great anticipation. This time they're working with Martin McDonagh, who directed In Bruges, which starred Colin Farrell as a bungling hitman in hiding in Belgium.

Given Waits and Wilson have a pretty amazing track record together, nothing but good can come of this news. The play should premiere in Paris, France sometime next year, according to Paste magazine.

Waits and Wilson have produced three done musicals together: Alice, Woyzeck and The Black Rider.

The first is a reimagining of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures In Wonderland in which the female protagonist falls in love with the book's author, which later was released as 2002's Alice. The second is a reworking of Georg Buchner's 1913 play of the same name, while the last was a collaboration with author William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch, Junkie) that was based on German folktale Der Freischutz. Woyzeck's music was released on 2002's Blood Money, while The Black Rider's compositions came out on an album of the same name in 1993.

Since they've produced works based on myths and legends in the past, here's a potential list of subjects that we think would really, really work as Tom Waits/Robert Wilson productions:

1. Renard: This 1916 opera by Igor Stravinsky is based on a Russian tale about a fox who lies to a rooster, cat and sheep. They retaliate and try and punish the fox, but it continues to deceive them until they eventually strangle it to death. Given McDonagh has produced works about organized crime (garroting, anyone?) in the past and Waits is no stranger to penning tunes about tricksters this could really work.

2. Faust: This has already been done a ton, but it's also perfect. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe's 1808 tale involves Dr. Faust selling his soul to Mephistopheles, a.k.a. the Devil. Selling one's soul to the Devil or some kind of manifestation thereof has been part of rock 'n' roll from its early days. It's also intertwined with Delta Blues and Robert Johnson, both of which have heavily influenced Waits' work. (The "selling one's soul" legend goes as far back as 19th century violinist and composer Niccolo Paganini, but whatever.)

3. Fidelio: Beethoven's only opera is about a woman disguised as a man, who rescues her husband from death row in prison. Again, another trickster. Perfect for Waits.

4. The Flying Dutchman: This is a German legend about a ghost ship that's doomed to sail the seas until eternity. If you see it while you're out in the ocean, it basically heralds your doom.

5. The Bride Of Lammermoor: This historical novel by Sir Walter Scott is basically a Scottish Romeo & Juliet about two young people in love. The catch: they're both from feuding families. There's an amazing "mad scene" in which Lucy, the female protagonist, stabs the man her parents have hooked her up with (instead of Edgar, her love), then goes completely nuts and dies. But unlike Romeo & Juliet, it's supposed to be based on an actual event.