Modernizing Damn Yankees does not work conceptually. Maybe there was more inferred from "inject a contemporary feel" than was intended, but I doubt that. Let's re-imagine some other musicals from 50+ years ago, shall we?

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying could use more iPhones and Blackberries, or maybe the secretaries could be Twitter fiends who check Perez Hilton non-stop. Let's spice up that Coffee Break song, "If I can't take--my MySpace break--something with-in me DIES...Lies down and something with-in me...DIES." Cross-media tie-ins, folks!

Guys and Dolls should probably ditch commie-infested Havana for Cancun or somewhere The Real World has taken place. It'd have to still be a period piece, set in...1993? The presence of cell phones and text messages would make it hard to largely copy and paste the whole thing.

Let's drop the name South Pacific (sounds too war-like) and re-set it in Iraq...Middle East, or maybe something jazzy like Enlisted!. Keep the guy French, but not quite so old. Add in an attempted rape subplot (to stay edgy and "real"). For god's sake, make the girl Lieutenant Cable romances exactly 18 and a wannabe-convert Muslim.

On a serious note, it wouldn't be crazy to remake Damn Yankees, How to Succeed..., South Pacific, or Guys and Dolls. If you alter these too much in terms of setting and content, you might as well throw out the entire musical score and start over. Re-setting any of these in the here and now is an idea a college theatre department should explore, but not a studio. Don't send the Musical packing just as Hugh Jackman has declared it "back."

Speaking of, if someone's backing remakes, go ahead and do Carousel with Hugh Jackman. The general public will buy in to Wolverine singing now, he did it on TV. Pair him with Anne Hathaway. The Oscar opening was the best public audition you could ask for, and maybe that's just what it was intended to be. Musical fans have been chomping at the bit for Carousel, give the people what they want.