OK, so I've seen an earlier thread asking about if a film adaptation of a musical ever improved upon it's source material, I even posted in that thread this:
"Movies and Plays=Apples and Oranges
The two mediums are never meant to compete with one another. The REAL question you should really be asking is "Does the stay true to its source material as well as successfully standing on its own?""
Aside from all that, I was actually curious about starting a similar thread asking you guys if a musical adaptation of a movie has ever improved on its source material.
Newsies and Little Shop of Horrors are the first two that stand out to me. Also I think Legally Blonde and Hairspray work much better as musicals then their source films.
I personally think that the Lion King musical improved on the movie, which isn't to say that I have any negative feeling toward the movie, but what they did with the musical is just astounding.
Although the film of LITTLE SHOP isn't bad, by any measure, I don't agree it improves upon the stage version, even if only because the ending is so inferior.
I'm in the HAIRSPRAY film camp, however (and pun intended). I thought the movie had more heart and I like my camp mixed with a little honest emotion.
But the most obvious answer may be THE SOUND OF MUSIC. If only because it helps that the postulate isn't 50-years-old.
I think BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY the musical is a huge improvement over the movie. GREY GARDENS is fine work as a movie but I think the musical for the stage expands on the original so brilliantly, it actually makes it better. MY FAIR LADY is for me a huge improvement over the movie PYGMALION. (It's true the show is based on the Shaw play, but many of the revisions credited to Alan Jay Lerner were already seen in the feature film made in the 30's.) Updated On: 6/2/14 at 12:14 AM
I loved Billy Elliott as a film. I love the stage production more. It made an improvement only by giving a different voice to the characters. Instead of a "speech" we get a song or a dance. And when the coal miners go back to the mines off the back of the stage - or down into the stage - is a chilling moment that can't be captured on film. (Although, the film's sequence when the father breaks the strike line is more chilling and emotional on film).
After seeing Legally Blonde: The Musical, I can never see the movie version the same way again. I mean, the movie is still good, but the musical is just "So Much Better", pun intended.
I wouldn't say it is an improvement so much as a fresh perspective, but HEDWIG the movie allows us to see other characters and flashbacks in flesh, elaborating on the limitations of the stage production. However, for what it's worth, the stage production is an entirely different animal and could never be recreated in the same vein for film.
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For me, THE SOUND OF MUSIC (greatly improved), WEST SIDE STORY, THE MIRACLE WORKER and BYE BYE BIRDIE (as silly as the film is, it remains the most vibrant and best-choreographed production of it, I've ever seen, and that includes the original production). As for HAIRSPRAY, neither the stage nor the film version of the musical holds a candle to John Waters original film, imo. But, as a musical, I prefer it, on stage.
The movie was beautiful. The musical was dreary, made especially so by its miserable score.
As for the musical people will simply not stop shoving down our throats even after its wholly understandable demise, I didn't see the film, but I can't imagine it could possibly have been any drearier than its ill-advised musical adaptation, made all the more so by its dismal dirge of a score.
There are presently two threads with similar subject matter: one asking whether a film adaptation of a musical improved the source material, and this one, asking the inverse.
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