The tales of unreleased music in Prince’s vault are legend. But now two music industry veterans who worked closely with the late Rock and Roll Hall of Famer are saying some of those unheard tunes could end up as part of a potential Broadway musical.
Just days after veteran music industry executive Charles Koppelman and the singer’s longtime lawyer/manager, L. Londell McMillan, were appointed to help administer Prince’s estate and handle his entertainment assets in the wake of his shock death at age 57 in April, Koppelman told the New York Post they have big plans. “We’re going to be having a good time,” Koppelman told the paper. “There is so much to be done with this estate. There are vaults full of music.”
Koppelman reportedly said one of the places some of that music could end up is a jukebox-style Broadway musical or, in a similar vein as the Michael Jackson: One Cirque du Soleil show or the Beatles LOVE spectacular, as a Cirque musical. “Prince was an icon on the level of The Beatles and Michael Jackson, and his legacy should be honored,” Koppelman added. “Though his name was Prince, I always thought he was the king of music.” No specific plans had been revealed at press time.
In a similar arrangement as the one set up to handle Jackson’s estate — in which two men who long worked with the singer, lawyer John Branca and music industry veteran John McClain were hired to help sort out his estate — the court-appointed special administrator of Prince’s estate, Bremer Trust, chose Koppelman and McMillan to handle affairs because of their long relationship with the artist.
McMillan, chairman and CEO of The NorthStar Enterprises Worldwide and owner of The Source magazine, worked with Prince for more than a decade, during which the star was freed from his Warner Bros. contract. Koppelman, chairman and CEO of CAK Entertainment Inc., signed Prince to EMI for his Emancipation triple album.
Bremer had already begun looking for ways to exploit the estate, with talk of potentially turning Prince’s Paisley Park studio complex into a Graceland-style museum in addition to the recent deal that brought 15 of his albums to the Tidal service.
Billboard has reached out to McMillan and Koppelman for further comment.
