Best/Worst Musical Movies

#1

Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 9:39am

Best:
Chicago
Rent (prediction)

Worst:
Godspell (poorly done!)
Evita

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#2

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 10:43am

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

#3

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 10:45am

Sant, if you haven't already, check out the 1936 Universal SHOW BOAT. It's FAR superior to the 1951 MGM version.

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"Christ, Bette Davis?!?!"

#4

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 10:52am

which one is the Ava Gardner one? That's the one I've seen.

#5

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 12:00pm

Best:
Chicago

Worst:
Evita
Chorus Line
South Pacific (hated the color gels)

#6

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 12:09pm

Am I the only one that thought they did a great job turning EVITA into a musical picture?

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"For me, THEATRE is an anticipation, an artistic rush, an emotional banquet, a jubilant appreciation, and an exit hopeful of clearer thought and better worlds." ~ an anonymous traveler with Robert Burns

#7

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 12:13pm

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!

#8

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 12:19pm

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.

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"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.

#9

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 12:19pm

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

#10

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 12:33pm

sound of music = BEST

#11

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 12:45pm

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.

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But the secret ingredient is love. Dammit.

#12

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 12:47pm

I think the movie of JCS is the worst adaptation to film I have ever seen.

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"It's like children's theatre for 40-year old gay people!" - XANADU THE MUSICAL

#13

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 12:52pm

Best:
Chicago
Oliver
West Side
Damn Yankees
Funny Girl


Worst:
Finians Rainbow
All Rodgers and Hammerstein (Except Sound of music)
Brigadoon
Gigi

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"I'm an American, Damnit!!! And if it's three things I don't believe in, it's quitting and math."

#14

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 1:01pm

I agree with Wonderboy...I too thought they did a great job with the Evita movie, it just did not like Madonna in it.

#15

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 1:13pm

i LOVE Victor/Victoria

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Mind is Mantra.

#16

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 1:19pm

I'll go with three of each.

Best:
Hair
West Side Story
Chicago

Worst:
The Wiz
A Chorus Line
Godspell

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#17

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 1:21pm

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)

#18

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 1:27pm

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

#19

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 1:39pm

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

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"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian

#20

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 1:40pm

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.

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"My dreams, watching me said, one to the other...this life has let us down."

#21

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 1:40pm

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)

#22

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 2:10pm

"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?

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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

#23

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 2:16pm

"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.

#24

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 2:33pm

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)

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"It's the little things; the details, that distinguish the Barbra Streisands from the Rosalyn Kinds."~Gilmore Girls~

#25

re: Best/Worst Musical Movies

Posted: 8/22/05 at 2:39pm

justme2,

thank you!