BJR said: "There's another thread on BLUE MOON, which also failed to find an audience. But so did Julia Roberts' new Luca Guadagnino film, and even the extremely well reviewed PTA film starring Sean Penn and Leo DiCaprio - an early Best Picture fave, I've read - is going to lose 100 million."
Many have talked about how stars are no longer a driving force for a movie's success in this day and age. Although I did see someone mention on LinkedIn recently
quizking101 said: "I’m sure this will be a film people will rediscover as a “forgotten gem” decades from now, but seeing this flop so hard is kind of tragic."
As Dreamworks Animation alum Tim Johnson says, "I love making movies, I just hate releasing them."
Jeffrey Karasarides said: "Play Esq. said: "Similarly, I’d love to see a gothic or Grand Guignol concepthelmed by Guillermo del Toro."
Josh Parham of Next Best Picture, who actually has a soft spot for Joel Schumacher's film despite its flaws, once tweeted that "If we ever get another adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’sPhantom of the Opera(and I fully believe we should), my choice for a director would be Guillermo del Toro." If you ask me, that actually sounds like a great idea. He's not only such a visionary filmmaker, but he also has a good amount of experiences with monsters. Plus, the original songs in his 2022 Netflix adaptation of Pinocchio were staged so well that I’d like to see what he could do with a full fledged live action movie musical."
quizking101 said: "RAGTIME extending could help a nomination for revival, but it’s also going up against CHESS (the redemption arc), CATS: THE JELLICLE BALL (Critically acclaimed and awarded off Broadway) and possibly THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW (I talked to Sam Pinkleton at Oh Mary the other night and he seemed a little nervous, but that doesn’t mean anything necessarily)"
If Ragtime doesn't extend, I doubt that'll be detrimental to its chance
ACL2006 said: "DrMonicaDeMoneco said: "RW3 said: "JOSHUA HENRY, THAT TONY NOMINATION IS YOURS!"
Let’s hope he’s remembered by the time the Tony noms are announced"
I'd expect Ragtime to extend into June. Levy gets replaced. It's selling very well and now these near rave reviews. Also, LCT doesn't have the Beaumont booked for the Spring solely for the purpose of possibly extending Ragtime."
My playlist mainly consists of tracks from the original Broadway cast recording with the final three ('Lucky Molina,' The Warden's Office, and 'Only in the Movies') being from the replacements cast album. Although vocally, I do prefer Brian Stokes Mitchell to Anthony Crivello.
It should be interesting to see how Elgort fares in this. Of what I've seen from his film work, he doesn't have much range as an actor. I thought he worked best in Baby Driver, but in both The Fault in Our Stars and Spielberg's West Side Story, he just felt upstaged by his leading ladies.
Not surprised to see this flopping. Kiss of the Spider Woman hasn't been on Broadway since its original run in the 1990s and rarely gets produced anywhere. It's also a musical that many have never even heard of. Not to mention the fact that the subject matter has a very niche appeal.
I understand why the filmmakers wanted this to play exclusively in theaters, but I can see how it probably would’ve benefitted from a hybrid release. Like how Apple and Netflix gives
Steven Jamail is a composer, producer, and musical director. He has a new album out titled WITCH HUNT: THE MUSICAL, which he co-wrote with Krystin Crain Johnson. This enchanting release chronicles the tales of women who have been deemed witches for challenging the status quo, featuring 13 tracks with the voices of 16 powerhouse Broadway front women including Orfeh, the aforementioned Katie Rose Clarke, Teal Wicks and Liisi LaFontaine just to name a few.
Danielle Hope first came on the scene in 2010 when she won the BBC reality competition series, OVER THE RAINBOW, which led to her making her West End debut as Dorothy Gale in THE WIZARD OF OZ. Since then, she’s gone on to play many other great parts in London such as Eponine in LES MISÉRABLES, Cathy in THE LAST FIVE YEARS, The Narrator in JOSEPH & THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT, Maria in THE SOUND OF MUSIC, Sandy in GREASE, Sherrie in ROCK OF AGES, and Betty in IRVING BERLIN’S WHITE CHRISTMAS. I had the great pleasure of speaking with both of them about a lot of this and more.
I saw the film in theaters last night. I’ve never seen the stage version in person myself. That’s pretty much due to it being such a rarely produced Tony winner for Best Musical. Although I am a fan of Kander & Ebb’s score from having listened to both cast recordings countless times. I actually did catch a bootleg of the original cast, and it really left an impression on me. I also have seen Héctor Babenco’s 1985 nonmusical film version starring William Hurt and Raúl Juliá, which I found quite good. The fact that this movie adaptation of the musical was produced independently and is now being released in theaters should be considered a miracle.
Under Bill Condon’s direction, he creates two distinct worlds quite effectively. The prison storyline is quite a compelling one. It offers several emotionally enriching scenes as we follow the arc of Molina and Valentin’s relationship. Unlike William Hurt in the ‘85 film, the former character is played by a real-life queer latino. Tonatiuh gives such a mesmerizing portrayal. On the outside, he’s just this flamboyant guy trying his best to stay positive during his sentence. Although on the inside, he offers a great amount of humanity. Diego Luna is very good as Valentin, the more cynical character who doesn’t like musicals. Together, they really grow to care for one another in such a harsh reality.
As audiences love to take their minds off the world at the movies, that segways into the musical within the film. Visually, it’s very reminiscent of old school MGM musicals in large part thanks to Scott Chambliss’ production design, Colleen Atwood & Christine L. Cantella’s costumes, and Tobias Schliesser’s cinematography. The latter in particular especially does several continuous shots of these big dance numbers (with such incredible choreography by Sergio Trujillo). The editing by Brian A. Kates thankfully doesn’t overcut like a majority of musicals nowadays. Jennifer Lopez gives a very glamorous star turn in her roles, showing everyone the true triple threat that she is.
To those who’d love to bring some of the more lesser known stage musicals to the big screen, please take notes from this film. Rather than trying to get one set up at a major studio with risks of executives either pulling the plug or messing it up, produce it independently. I felt that approach worked wonders for Kiss of the Spider Woman. With that being said, this is still worth seeing in theaters regardless.
Just like the first film, Cynthia Erivo will be campaigned as lead while Ariana Grande will be going supporting for the upcoming awards run for the second one. https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Cynthia-Erivo-to-Campaign-for-Lead-Actress-for-WICKED-FOR-GOOD-20251010
On this week's episode of The World According to Glenn podcast, host Kevin Jacobsen discussed the Sunset Boulevard musical with Tom O'Brien. They also touched upon a hypothetical film adaptation, which Tom said would be very expensive to produce if it were inspired by Trevor Nunn's original staging. (@1:22:40)
Near the end of a recent episode of The Director's Cut podcast, Bill Condon revealed that he actually pitched to Sondheim his idea for a Follies film. His concept was to take the songs in the more realistic medium and make it about what he, Hal Prince, and Michael Bennett were all going through when they created the musical. Sondheim liked the idea, but one collaborator said "Over my dead body."
