Best:
Chicago
Rent (prediction)
Worst:
Godspell (poorly done!)
Evita
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/12/04
BEST:
Chicago
The King And I
The Sound Of Music
WORST:
Guys And Dolls
Show Boat (I just didn't like the film version, the one with Ava Gardner)
A Chorus Line
The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas
Updated On: 8/22/05 at 10:43 AM
Sant, if you haven't already, check out the 1936 Universal SHOW BOAT. It's FAR superior to the 1951 MGM version.
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/12/04
which one is the Ava Gardner one? That's the one I've seen.
Chorus Member Joined: 8/1/05
Best:
Chicago
Worst:
Evita
Chorus Line
South Pacific (hated the color gels)
Am I the only one that thought they did a great job turning EVITA into a musical picture?
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/29/05
Best:
Chicago
West Side Story
Fiddler on the Roof
Worst:
Another vote for GODSPELL - I love it on stage, but that material just doesn't work on screen. The movie is rather terrible!
Best:
Chicago
West Side Story
Worst:
GOdspell
JC Superstar
And WonderBoy, you're not entirely alone. I thought they did a very good job with the movie version of EVITA also.
Leading Actor Joined: 5/16/03
BEST:
"The Sound of Music"
"West Side Story"
WORST:
Another vote for "Godspell"
"The Wiz"
I did like the film of "Evita". I think its the best ALW transfer to film
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/6/05
I thought Tommy was terrible, but I admit I have never seen it on stage so maybe it's just a bad show in general.
I think the movie of JCS is the worst adaptation to film I have ever seen.
Best:
Chicago
Oliver
West Side
Damn Yankees
Funny Girl
Worst:
Finians Rainbow
All Rodgers and Hammerstein (Except Sound of music)
Brigadoon
Gigi
Swing Joined: 8/19/05
I agree with Wonderboy...I too thought they did a great job with the Evita movie, it just did not like Madonna in it.
I'll go with three of each.
Best:
Hair
West Side Story
Chicago
Worst:
The Wiz
A Chorus Line
Godspell
Chorus Member Joined: 8/18/05
Best:
Sound of Music
Wizard of Oz
Singing in the Rain
Meet Me In St. Louis
Mary Poppins
The Music Man
Worst:
Tommy
JC Superstar
Grease 2
State Fair (1962 w/ Ann Margret)
I'll go with 5 of each:
BEST
WEST SIDE STORY
THE KING & I
CABARET
HAIR
GREASE
WORST:
A CHORUS LINE
THE WIZ
EVITA
FINIAN'S RAINBOW
THE BOYFRIEND
Best:
Sound of Music
West Side Story
The Music Man
Oklahoma
The King and I
Show Boat (1936)
Worst:
Godspell
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
Phantom of the Opera
Finian's Rainbow
Sant,
The Ava Gardner Showboat is the 1950's inferior production. The 1936 Showboat has Irene Dunne and Helen Morgan, et al. It is indeed far superior (excepting the "galavanting around" blackface number that Irene does in the 1936 version...*shudders*) version of the show.
Helen Morgan singing "Bill" is one of the treasures of cinema.
BEST:
-Sound of Music
-Chicago
-Evita
-The King and I
-Guys and Dolls
-Jesus Christ Superstar (it grows on you if you watch it more than once)
-Grease
-Fiddler on the Roof
WORST:
-Sweet Charity
-Hair
-Phantom of the Opera
-Cabaret
-A Chorus Line
-Damn Yankees
-West Side Story-for the following reasons:
- Switching Gee Officer Krupke and Cool,
-adding men to America-because now people think they have to do that in the stage version
-The singing-if you are going to dub the voices anyway why dub them in a lower key???? (Tony)
-Cutting the Somewhere ballet
-Casting actors who are not at all believeable as teenagers (Natalie Wood being the exception)
"1936 Showboat has Irene Dunne and Helen Morgan, et al. It is indeed far superior (excepting the "galavanting around" blackface number that Irene does in the 1936 version...*shudders*)"
Why shudder? This number is very typical of the kind of olio routine that would have been seen on show boats in the 1880s.
Hammerstein always intended the number to reappear at the end of the movie done by Kim and the cast of her play, first as a traditional dance then as a hot jazz number. In teh final editing all the modern section was cut, diluting the point but if you listen you still hear the tune unserscoring the first part of the dance.
The 1936 SHOW BOAT is as close as we will ever get to a document of the original production. Wasn't there supposed to be a boxed DVD set containing all 3 SHOW BOAT films?
Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!
I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/21/05
"Why shudder? This number is very typical of the kind of olio routine that would have been seen on show boats in the 1880s"
Because it wasn't as socially acceptable in 1936 to show it, even in film (we certainly wouldn't do that today). But I think Cabaret and A Chorus Line are two of the worst. 'Cabaret' hardly resembled the stage show, and save for a few songs purged most of the score as well.
BEST: Annie
WORST: The remake of Annie
BEST:
Yentl (although it was a little too long)
Star
Chicago
Summer Stock
Singin' In the Rain
Funny Girl
My Fair Lady
WORST:
Phantom of the Opera
The Wiz
JCS
Hair
Moulin Rouge (it was too overdone for me)
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/12/04
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