Movies Closest to Musicals?
May 6
2012, 11:04:01 AM
Surprised no-one has mentioned Hal Prince's film of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC as one of the worst film adaptions of a stage musical of all time. Shipped the story off to a whip-cream Viennese fantasyland thereby ruining the Scandinavian white night setting. The rewriting of "The Sun Won't Set" into the execrable "Love Takes Time." Tone deaf Liz Taylor's rendition of "Send In The Clowns." Only Frederika's gorgeous solo reworking of "A Glamorous Life" improves on the original.
And then there's
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Anyone seeing FOLLIES in LA tonight?
May 6
2012, 10:44:06 AM
To answer inlovewithjerryherman, we made a weekend trip last year from LA to the Chicago Shakespeare production of Follies on a Saturday evening and a matinee of the New York production on Sunday. Had huge hopes for the Chicago show compared to the east coast revival which we had already seen in DC, and just wanted a true compare and contrast.
Putting aside the wildly different scale of the 2 shows, we found the 4 Chicago leads horribly mean, cold, bitchy and frankly full of wounds not
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Other Desert Cities Film Version
Apr 29
2012, 08:50:56 PM
Is it heretical to ask: why would any studio go forward with a movie of ODC at all? It's one of the most UN-cinematic plays I've seen in a long time. (Finally caught Saturday night's show-- terrific performances of a minimally interesting play.) The only ACTION in the entire script occurs --SPOILER ALERT-- when Brooke tosses the manuscript into the air. Only a screenplay that spends LOTS of time in flashbacks to show the kids' upbringing could generate much excitement as far as I can see.
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"First Lady" of American Theatre
Apr 22
2012, 11:30:17 AM
Who dethroned our beloved Helen Hayes??
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Showtunes lovers, come to my aid!
Apr 17
2012, 09:38:10 PM
Sondheim's Por Le Sport (heard in MARRY ME A LITTLE)
Six Months Out of Every Year DAMN YANKEES
Another National Anthem ASSASSINS (bit of a stretch but the lyrics keep mentioning the ballpark)
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CHICAGO's 1975 TV Commercial
Apr 15
2012, 10:47:48 PM
Au contraire, Patti, "That commercial does have a seemingly smarmy early 70's xxx p*rn vibe." and that's what makes it SUCH a good fit with the debauched 1920's setting of CHICAGO!
(Little lecture here:) Both periods were about breaking free of repressive eras that had come before-- at the onset of the 20's women could suddenly vote, dress without corsets, show their calves ("and roll my stockings down"), and reject the values of their parents in a way unthought of a generation before.
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CHICAGO's 1975 TV Commercial
Apr 15
2012, 09:28:38 PM
I love it! It's basically Tony Walton's famous poster of Chicago come to life AND it feels like the p*rn palaces of Times Square (or more like 8th Avenue) that I remember from 1975 blended into one hot come-on. Ya gotta love the 70's!
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A Little Night Music- Protagonist?
Apr 15
2012, 11:45:15 AM
Fair enough. But I believe it's Desiree who takes most of the key actions in the play. It is she who winks at Frederick from the footlights, she who co-opts her mother into inviting the Egerman's to the Chateau for the weekend with the intent to free Frederick from his childbride, and she who makes the overt play for Frederick's affections in her bedroom. Frederick does take that fateful walk to her rented digs after the night at the theater, and he does choose to walk out of her bedroom after "
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A Little Night Music- Protagonist?
Apr 15
2012, 10:58:42 AM
You can analyze a script all you want, but the showstopper DID go to Desiree and for good reason. I've never seen a production where Desiree wasn't the most memorable character onstage, the one that shimmers and glows and lands all the good jokes, the one you're rooting for to come out a winner in the end. I can't even remember many of the Frederick's I've seen but the memories of Catherine Zeta Jones, Juliet Stevenson, Jean Simmons, Patrice Munzel, and the great Glynis Johns will always be ther
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Sunset Boulevard - Movie Dream Cast
Apr 14
2012, 12:11:39 PM
To answer a question a few pages back on classic movies that became broadway musicals and then successful movie musicals--
Off the top of my head, how about SWEET CHARITY (from Nights of Cabiria)?
HAIRSPRAY?
And best of all, MY FAIR LADY? (Lerner's ending is frankly based on the film of Pygmalion.)
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Musicals That Take Place on Ships...
Apr 14
2012, 12:56:07 AM
You might say it's the title character in PACIFIC OVERTURES, Commodore Perry's 4 warships that arrive to forcibly open up feudal Japan, on which key scenes with Perry, Kayama and Manjiro take place. Anyone seeing the original will never forget the sight of Aronson's magnificent design for the warship emerging from its Japanese woodcut waves with glowing dragon's eyes. The sight of the structure slowly unfolding as its metal masts and rigging descended from the flies, was one of those coups de th
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Mark Hellinger Theater/Times Square Church
Apr 11
2012, 07:27:31 AM
It makes my little heart go pittipat to see so many posters memorializing LEGS DIAMOND, the last show I worked on as assistant set designer on Broadway, lo those many years ago. We spent months and months at the Hellinger trying in vain to get that show right (another casualty of never going out of town to properly delouse the thing). Not only was the lobby a stunner, but the backstage was bigger than most, including an upstage well that was almost like a second stage behind the first. That's wh
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bieito
Mar 28
2012, 10:48:51 PM
I have vibrant memories of a production of Camino Real staged at Brandeis University's graduate theater program back when I was an undergrad there (around 1976-ish). Noteworthy for 2 things: the brilliant use of Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain for much of its score, and a dazzling performance by the young and stunningly beautiful Loretta Devine as the Gypsy Daughter Esmerelda (I hope I'm remembering the roles correctly.) Girl looked good in pair of harem pants!
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Sondheim's Hats
Mar 13
2012, 10:37:17 PM
I like the island Man-HAT-tan.
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Why has there never been a film version of the musical LA CAGE?
Feb 26
2012, 06:53:26 PM
The irony of Mike Nichols directing The Birdcage film is that he was originally the impetus to get the stage musical going back in '81 or '82, with a score by Maury Yeston to be set in New Orleans. That script existed with Nichols to produce (and I think direct as well) before the Fierstein- Herman collaboration ever existed.
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Your Most Hated Musical
Feb 18
2012, 03:58:03 PM
dramamama, you're not alone! CURTAINS was deplorable coming from the music-writing gods, Kander and Ebb. (Saw the LA pre-broadway run, could be it improved in time for Broadway?)
Other clunkers I actively detested:
Jerry Springer: the Opera
Avenue Q
Spamalot
The Producers
and the Most Hated award goes to:
The Scarlet Pimpernel. I was mortified to be a member of that audience.
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What roles Angela Lansbury could still play on stage?
Feb 18
2012, 03:43:51 PM
Of course, Angela has already played Claire Zachanasian on Broadway. I saw her in the straight play directed by Hal Prince-- in 1973. Sadly she was the perfect age for the role THEN, not so much 40 years later 
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Please recommend a musical for people with limited English.
Feb 12
2012, 07:59:13 PM
I vote for The Lion King-- great visuals, great music, who cares about the lyrics?
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The big ol' original musical debate
Feb 4
2012, 09:13:31 PM
^Have you seen it? That's like saying Book of Mormon is based on the actual Book of Mormon. You must admit there is no previous scripted Book, Play or Movie from which the musical's script is adapted. Basing it on the real character of Jerry Springer seems to me no less original than basing Bloody, Bloody... on the real Andrew Jackson.
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The big ol' original musical debate
Feb 4
2012, 08:59:08 PM
I've got a few more bona fide originals to add to Henrik's brilliant list:
Of Broadway shows I've seen:
Goodtime Charley
Rex
Ain't Misbehavin'
The Prince of Grand Street
Barnum
My One and Only
The Rink
Chess
Legs Diamond
City of Angels
Merlin
The Magic Show
Baby
Song and Dance
The Will Rogers Follies
The Life
Bring in Da Noise...
Putting It Together
Fosse
Jerry Springer: the Opera
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