Botched Film Musicals

I actually love the On a Clear Day film. I don't think musical to movie transfers have to be carbon copies of what was on stage. What worked on stage might not work on screen.

Though I do have a list of butcher jobs:
A Little Night Music
A Chorus Line
Pal Joey
Rent

Agreed on Forum (I actually like most of Richard Lester's comic romps from this time, it's too bad that it didn't really work this time--great cast though). A shame too as Sondheim recently mentioned he wrote a brand new version of Free for the film (the lyric to which will be in his upcoming lyric collection).

Chorus Line tops my list--it's true that maybe it's the kinda show that never coulda worked on film (and reading all the ideas Bennett had to reinvent it, or seeing Fosse's masterful audition opening sequence to All That Jazz in comparison to this film is just depressing)--so we get a director who basically decides to film the stage play "realistically" straight on. Fine--then why get a gimmicky new choreographer and make nearly every single mistake in interpretating the material you could? A film of the stage material woulda been pretty uninspired but it woulda taken less effort to **** up.

I know A Little Night Music will be on the list hereby many but as I've said way too much on here already I think it's not as bad as its rep would have you think. It's not great either, but I wouldn't put it here, myself.

On the Town is a fun Gene Kelly movie musical. As an adaptation of the Bernstein/Robbins original though it nearly completely fails for me--so I think I'd call it bothced--ifnotan awful film on its own terms.

Does the King and I animated film count?

I have a feeling I'll be defending a number of picks people have for this list... I can't really think of a lot of musical adaptations I find AWFUL. Oh Rent of course--just a poor choice of director.

There are film versions I think aren't very good--Phantom of the Opera is one, Hello Dolly is another, but either I don't have much love for the originals, or I don't think they're bad enough to be complete debacles.

You can have Dolly, and I'll have Night Music

What about Mame? Man of La Mancha?

And the director refusing to give Verdon any close-ups.

A Chorus Line was physically painful to sit through. The original Annie movie is pretty bad too...I do like the 1999 TV movie starring Victor Garber and Kathy Bates though. Also Man of La Mancha, though I've never managed to sit through more than 15 minutes of it...it is that bad.

I have no Problem with Streisand in On A Clear Day . My problem was the gutting of the score. This show is ripe for a full scale revival.

I liked Dolly but she was too young for the role. The plus was of course her voice. Notice a really really young Tommy Tune.

A bit of trivia: Cary Grant turned down the Music Man

I like Damn Yankees except they took a few good numbers out & substituted inferior ones. At least most of the cast was intact & there was Fosse of course.

Chorus Line - No Comment
JCSS - Bizarre
Man of La Mancha - At least O Toole is a great actor but his singing made Vincent Price in Darling Of The Day sound like Sinatra

Just thought of Paint Your Wagon . A big musical & except for Presnell no one could sing. A reviewer once compared Marvin's singing like listing to water going down a rusty drainpipe.

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Updated On: 11/15/09 at 03:09 PM

Mr. Roxy, thank you for mentioning JCSS. If there is a bigger disaster of a musical film it is, in my opinion, that one. They tried so hard to make it hip and "look how cool everybody, it's a ROCK OPERA!" and it completely overpowers the score for me. So many incongruous visuals and horrific choreography - it's just a badly made film and I can't watch it. An abomination I tells ya!!

I always thought in my own twisted logic that it should be played like Cecil B. DeMille was directing with lavish settings and costumes and gorgeous cinematography and let the music create it's own mood.

How did you know?

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THE WIZ. Overblown on every single level. Some of the casting choices were very good: Michael Jackson as Scarecrow, Nipsey Russell as Tinman, Ted Ross as Lion, Lena Horne as Glinda the Good and Mabel King as Evilene. Diana Ross had no business in it her on the verge of nervous breakdown performance as "Dorothy" got old real fast.

Some of the concepts were interesting and I have to say that musically it was very appealing but it was a missed opportunity. Sometimes less is more.

"Man of La Mancha - At least O Toole is a great actor but his singing made Vincent Price in Darling Of The Day sound like Sinatra"

Peter O'Toole was dubbed in the film. The guy who sang for him wasn't too hot either, but apparently Peter's original choice sounded nothing like him.

Say what you will, I kinda like "Man of La Mancha". Sure, it's hampered by cutting some good stuff and casting people who can't actually, you know, sing, but for some reason I still like it. Though the movie does make me concerned for what little singing Sophia Loren will have to do in "Nine".

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My family used to watch Mame every Christmas together. No perfect but not as awful as some make it out to be.

"Gypsy (the TV version with Bette Midler) "

Can you elaborate a bit more on this :)?

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