Best Translated Musical to screen?

Dreamgirls would make such a terrific movie musical, it's a wonder that it hasn't been made yet. On stage, with Bennett's staging, it had a cinematic, seamless feel.

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miss saigon

Updated On: 9/1/04 at 12:06 AM

I thought Chicago the movie was 100x better than the show. But of course that's just my opinion

LOL@Priest

Oh, hell, add me to the Dreamgirls chorus -- Bennett's staging was the closest thing to a movie on stage that I've ever seen with split second cuts between on stage and backstage, 20 locations, montages, zoom shots, jump cuts mid-scene to new locations (who can ever forget that mind-blowing 5 second quick change when the fringe curtain descended during the "Heavy" montage?) ...... Bennett already did 90% of the work for whomever the eventual film director is going to be.

Along the same lines (and it'll never ever happen) Bennett's staging for "Follies" would be an extraordinary challenge for a film director to chew on -- ghosts and flashbacks and dream sequences, with the past and present coming together and informing one another, huge Ziegfeld (Weisman) Follies - esque numbers, powerful dramatic scenes, solo turns, a cast of hundreds ..... it would either be the greatest film musical ever made or an absolute disaster. James Goldman's book has always been the show's Achilles's heel, but a great screenwriter might be able make it workable. In some ways, it's so complex, it actually (in the right hands) might be more coherent and make more sense as a film than as a stage show, but I can't imagine anyone being crazy enough to want to take it on.

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I would love for Secret Garden to be done just to get a movie style soundtrack of the score!

I agree, margo.

I would just like to see something that uses a Broadway cast. Too often you get crap like Evita with Madonna. I would love to see ragtime done as a movie, but only with actual Broadway artists.

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Not to mention that acting in the two mediums is totally different.

And in neither medium, can Madonna be described as an "actress."

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I would love to see some of Sondheims shows put on the big screen...but after what they did to A Little Night Music i'm skeptical about the possiblity of success...Sweeney would be very powerful, and i think Into The Woods would be fun, but maybe too scary for kids and too musical for the general public.
I would like to see a movie of Nine...a movie about movie-making set to music...itd be great...or we could hope so...
I think Company could work as a movie...and the music is upbeat enough that i think it could get a following from the general public...it would be an unconventional movie, but i think it could just work

warners owns the movie rights to "dreamgirls" and back in 1998 it was in pre-production. joel schumacher was slated as director. earlier that year warners released the all-black musical bio-pic "why do fools fall in love" starring lorenz tate as frankie lymon. when "why do fools" failed miserably at the box office, warners scrapped all plans for "dreamgirls" and put it back on the shelf.