Thank God. I've always wondered what SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE would be like if it were 6 endless hours long and filled with Tom Stoppards masturbatory use of the english language thats only purpose is to put everyone but himself to sleep.
Yeah, it's a weird move on his part. Is he hard-up for cash or something?
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
One of my favorite Best Pictures in the past 2 decades, and one of the best screenplays as well.
I would love to see it adapted for stage, either as a play or a musical ... although I think the spoken word is so important in this work, I would hate to see that thrown out for a "power ballad" or a forced rhyme scheme. I'm leaning more toward the idea of a play, so I'm glad it's being approached that way.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
The only way I think they could possibly make a musical of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE work is to musicalize everything but Shakespeare's words. As Best12 says, its hard to musicalize Shakespearian verse to begin with, but the power and beauty of the film is in the excitement of a relationship inspiring the the spoken words of ROMEO AND JULIET. The climax of the story is hearing those words SPOKEN on stage for the first time; it wouldn't have the same impact if in their 'premiere' performance at the Old Globe, they were suddenly delivered as musical arias.
Its hard to imagine the film being topped in a straightforward stage adaptation, but I can see, if not the commercial prospects of the property (an open ended engagement of this on Broadway is probably not a good idea) the appeal it would have for regional, community and college theatres here and in Europe, not to mention the ever expanding number of Shakespearean theatre festivals who would probably welcome it as a viable title.
Come to think of it, I think the play WOULD be a lot of fun at the Delacorte as a summer spectacle with a starry cast.
It's also, I think, one of only two things he has written that I genuinely like (the other being Rosencrant & Guildenstern.. and I don't hate Arcadia). I think it's some of his strongest writing because he was undoubtedly being reined in by a co-writer and the fact it was a very commercial endeavor.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
One of my favorite Best Pictures in the past 2 decades, and one of the best screenplays as well.
Besty, I'm so glad to hear you say that, I feel like it gets such a bad rep for losing to SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. I also consider it one of my favorite Best Picture winners of recent(ish) years, and I think the screenplay is incredibly smart and just wonderful in every way. The only thing that would make me take some pause is seeing other actors in the roles just because the ensemble of the film is so brilliant, but at the end of the day, we see Shakespeare performed over and over by all kinds of great actors. It'd fit the spirit of the story to have it become that type of property. I'd love to see Carey Mulligan tackle Viola.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"