Stage Musical To Movie Translations

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 7:42pm

There are a ton of musicals that when they were made into films the results were not great. Most involved the score being butchered while others had to do with the actors in them etc or just the movie itself stunk for a variety of reasons
Some prime examples

Mame - Lucille Ball
Annie (original)- Butchered score
Nine - Butchered score
On A Clear Day - Butchered score but good cast
A Funny Thing ..... - Butchered score but great cast
A Chorus Line - Entire movie

Any others you can think of and why

Updated On: 10/23/14 at 07:42 PM

[ShakinBaconGirl]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 7:47pm

Les Miserable - Awful close-ups, Actors couldn't sing the roles, Orchestra sounded too thin, just plain wrong direction. That awful "Suddenly" song. Only good thing about that film was Anne Hatheway.

People seem to not like the Phantom of the opera Movie, but I'm not sure why. Updated On: 10/23/14 at 07:47 PM

[Musical Master]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 7:52pm

THE FANTASTICKS comes to mind as a bad film. Redundant acting and singing, shoddy production qualities and the fact that it's been a production nightmare being delayed from 1995 until 2000. Don't watch that, please.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 7:52pm

Rent. The score was great, I love that they used the majority of the Broadway cast. However, I think it was Chris Columbus' direction that ruined it. That, and Adam Pascal's mullet hair. Jesus.

Les Miserables was terrible as well, for all the reasons ShakinBaconGirl stated. Strictly Broadway actors that can actually sing next time, thanks!

Nine. It made me not want to see the stage production. Boring, awful, and completely unwatchable.



Updated On: 10/23/14 at 07:52 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 7:53pm

I didn't think the score of ON A CLEAR DAY... was so badly butchered in the film. Unless you are talking about Yves Montand, but he was a big French singing star and that was the original concept for the role.

Certainly, Streisand sang her songs beautifully and, unlike with DOLLY!, she was right for the part.

[Fantod]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 7:54pm

Hello Dolly! - Barbra Streisand
A Little Night Music - Way too somber
Phantom of the Opera - Boring!
Rent - Too vanilla

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 7:55pm

Jesus Christ Superstar

I would love to see this staged in the dress and settings of the period it takes place in. Jesus Christ & tanks? Jesus Christ indeed

Re On A Clear day, to me a score is butchered when 1/2 of the score is gone.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 7:58pm

I agree about THE FANTASTICKS. It was such a mess I gave up trying to figure out why.

***

To me, the "pastoral" Rodgers & Hammerstein works (OKLAHOMA!, CAROUSEL and SOUTH PACIFIC) all suffer from redundancy: Hammerstein's lyrics are built to evoke the natural world and when you show us the "meader", the clambake and the South Seas in Cinerama, it makes the song lyrics unnecessary.

These are to be contrasted with THE KING AND I (always an indoor story and arguably the best R&H film) and THE SOUND OF MUSIC (which moves the story outside to use the Alps as a backdrop; the play takes place indoors).

[Fantod]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 7:59pm

I think a lot more went wrong with Nine than just butchering the score, but yes the score was butchered. I also don't think that Lucille Ball was the main reason why Mame was bad. It was just a bad movie with a bad star, and though Angela Lansbury would have made it a lot better, it just was the wrong approach for the movie. Who knows, though. If Angela had been in it, they might have made the right decisions from the beginning.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 8:03pm

"Re On A Clear day, to me a score is butchered when 1/2 of the score is gone."

Burton Lane is one of my favorite composers, but I don't really miss "Tosy and Cosh", "When I'm Being Born Again" or "Don't Tamper with my Sister".

If you want a "complete" score of anything, you're better off staying with the stage version. It's a rare movie adaptation that doesn't cut some songs.

[Musical Master]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 8:06pm

I agree 100% Gaveston that THE KING AND I and THE SOUND OF MUSIC are the best adaptations of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musicals. I sort of like the others to but I see your point.

[ShakinBaconGirl]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 8:09pm

Oh and don't let me forget Evita. One word: MADONNA.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 8:10pm

I encountered Yeston in the audience of a show around the time Nine was coming out. I asked him about the rumor the score was being butchered and he got slightly defensive.He said people would be surprised. They were but not the way he was thinking. I guess money does indeed talk.

[Musical Master]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 8:20pm

I kind of disagree about EVITA ShakinBaconGirl, I think it's a very well made film and Parker's direction, Madonna's surprisingly good performance, and a really good cast makes this, so far, one of the better adaptations of Andrew Lloyd Webber's work. Butler's performance in PHANTOM is far WORSE than Madonna's in EVITA, believe me, I know.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 8:21pm

Don't even get me STARTED on the mess the is Nine the movie.

It wasn't even that Rob Marchall's CHICAGO gimmick wasn't right for it (it was a sound approach) the execution was just all wrong. Yes the songs happen in his mind but not in some bizarro fantasy soundstage world. And some of the songs need to happen in the real world too.

Take "A Call From The Vatican" for example. Of curse she isn't actually in a room somewhere seductively dancing, he is imagining her. But it should have been done with Guido in a room with all these people on the phone with her dancing around the oblivious people.

[Musical Master]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 8:26pm

Wow Mr. Nowack, that would've been BETTER for Cruz to dance on Day-Lewis than some cliche'd fantasy sequence, in fact, the entire film could've been a surreal piece but NOOOOOO instead the writers and producers wanted it to be the same as CHICAGO but 1000x worse.

We can agree that Rob Marshall is thankfully doing something different for INTO THE WOODS.

[theatregeek6]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 8:28pm

Throw rocks but I loved the Les Mis movie treatment

On a clear day. - if Streisand wasn't such an egotist and the score remained (yes, I love the Ss Bernard Cohen) the movie cod have been good

Best little whorehouse. Just no

Actually liked Jersey Boys. A lot. Surprised

Night music. The film was an abomination (ok. It's in my top 10 favorite shows and just HATED this-it just plays so much better on stage liked the Lincoln Center version recording the show much better)

Rent. I really wanted it preserved on file so the movie was ok but when the live recording of the final performance was released I was really happy with that instead

Dolly. Good film but hated Streisand in the role (and I like her in a lot)

I really like the captured live recordings better than movie versions - because Broadway musicals are meant to be performed on stage. Recreations for film don't work as well for me as capturing live performance. I wish it could be made financially viable to record and preserve live performance

[theatregeek6]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 8:28pm

Throw rocks but I loved the Les Mis movie treatment

On a clear day. - if Streisand wasn't such an egotist and the score remained (yes, I love the Ss Bernard Cohen) the movie cod have been good

Best little whorehouse. Just no

Actually liked Jersey Boys. A lot. Surprised

Night music. The film was an abomination (ok. It's in my top 10 favorite shows and just HATED this-it just plays so much better on stage liked the Lincoln Center version recording the show much better)

Rent. I really wanted it preserved on file so the movie was ok but when the live recording of the final performance was released I was really happy with that instead

Dolly. Good film but hated Streisand in the role (and I like her in a lot)

I really like the captured live recordings better than movie versions - because Broadway musicals are meant to be performed on stage. Recreations for film don't work as well for me as capturing live performance. I wish it could be made financially viable to record and preserve live performance

[ShakinBaconGirl]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 8:28pm

I disagree, Musical Master. Madonna did not have the gravitas to play Evita. That whole show depends on the star and the score. If you don't have a woman singing the songs as they should be sung...well...THUD. It's sort of like FUNNY GIRL, you need that STAR QUALITY or else the whole show fails. There was no bite to Madonna. She sang each song with hesitation. She simply could not sing the score. Honestly, if they are going to cast Madonna in Evita, they might as well have just done it as a non musical. That would have been better.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 8:51pm

Evita was great for the most part. The direction, the cinematography, so rich, so beautifully done. The weak spot was, of course, Madonna who has no talent except to shock people. An actual actress or trained singer was needed to make the show flawless.

[ShakinBaconGirl]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 8:57pm

Agreed, Sutton. I had no problem with the direction or Cinematography..but ugh Madonna. Apparently Liza Minnelli was up for the role and her auditioned blew everyone out of the water. I'd kill to hear it. Barbra Streisand was up for the role but turned it down.

[Fantod]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 9:09pm

Liza as Eva Peron?

[Musical Master]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 9:11pm

RENT could have been a good movie if it had a different director and an entirely different cast (I hate that the original Broadway cast played in the movie, it screams BAD fan-service and they were to OLD as well).

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC was horrendous as well. A really miscast Elizabeth Taylor, awkward direction, and a butchered score didn't help.

Sorry to hear that ShakinBacon, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree about Madonna in EVITA then. Which was, in my opinion, her only good film role she ever did, but she wasn't GREAT, but GOOD.



Updated On: 10/23/14 at 09:11 PM

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 9:47pm

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC is an idiotic, style-free abomination. It looks like a mediocre TV movie and it has just as much grace, charm, and depth, and frankly the casting is the least guilty part.

Also, a major failing on the part of NINE is that they doggedly kept going back to 8 1/2, which is a really spectacularly bad idea when the big question on everyone's mind is why you'd make a music out of 8 1/2 anyways, not to mention it makes it horribly boring for everyone who's seen and loved 8 1/2.

"We can agree that Rob Marshall is thankfully doing something different for INTO THE WOODS."

Now I'm imagining a sexed-up Jack prancing around a torn-up film set singing GIANTS IN THE SKY while a thousand cabaret girls do high kicks behind him.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 10/23/14 at 9:49pm

THE FANTASTICKS comes to mind as a bad film. Redundant acting and singing, shoddy production qualities and the fact that it's been a production nightmare being delayed from 1995 until 2000. Don't watch that, please.

But if you must see it, go the route of the "fan edit," which restores the deleted scenes and makes it slightly less like ass.

The "Extended Edition"