Did a Film Version Ever Improve Upon Original?

[BobNC]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 10:46am

Lots of talk on the board about The Normal Heart and Jersey Boy. My all time favorite drama is a Torch Song Trilogy, my all time favorite comedy is Gemini, and my all time favorite musical is Nine (OBC with Raul Julia). The film versions of all three of my favorites left me extremely disappointed. My question: has anyone experienced a film version of their favorite Broadway show, drama, musical, or comedy which approximated or even surpassed the original?



Updated On: 6/1/14 at 10:46 AM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 10:50am

The Sound of Music

Amadeus

Hair

[darquegk]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 10:50am

The common answer is definitely "Reefer Madness," possibly "The Sound of Music."

[haterobics]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 10:50am

Chicago. Hedwig. Love Valour Compassion. History Boys.

Interestingly, though, I never saw Torch Song onstage, so I think the movie was wonderful. Again, with no basis for comparison...

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 10:51am

Movies and Plays=Apples and Oranges

The two mediums are never meant to compete with one another. The REAL question you should really be asking is "Does the stay true to its source material as well as successfully standing on its own?"

[Smaxie]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 10:52am

Oliver is an improvement on the stage version. Just for the placement of Oom Pah Pah alone, on top of its other virtues.

[BobNC]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 10:52am

I hope you one day get to see TST on stage. Yes, of the three favorites I cited, the film version came closest.

[jemjeb2]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 10:54am

Hair!

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 10:57am

Jeffrey does make a good point. There are things that can be done onstage that just don't translate to screen and vice versa. I still think it's impossible to make a movie version of A Chorus Line because the material demands intimacy that can't be achieved on film.

Also, you have to separate performer from the material. Sometimes a stage play is brilliant because the acting lifts the material. You get a different actor in the role and it sinks. (Yes, I'm looking at you Doubt. Meryl and Philip just couldn't make it work.)

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 11:09am

I totally disagree with Hair being better on film.

I think GREASE is actually a such better film than stage show. I'll second Sound of Music.

Wizard of Oz. (Did the stage show come first? I actually don't know!)

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 11:16am

With both Hair and Grease, you have to realize that the stage version and the movie are two completely different things.

The original stage version of Grease was meant to lampoon the 1950s. The movie did away with that aspect and turned it into a boys meets girl story. I like both for different reasons.

I think the Hair movie improved on the stage show because it made the piece more linear. It focused in more on the people and cut down on the stupid stuff like the Margaret Mead sequence, which I think still is a weak point of the stage show.

[Kad]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 11:24am

I think the film of WSS improves upon the stage version.

[tazber]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 11:24am

I thought the film version of Hairspray was better than the original Broadway production.

Special mention to Cabaret for being re-imagined and equally as brilliant as the stage show (although of course I never saw the original Bway incarnation).

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 11:27am

West Side Story is a winner on film. The juxtaposition of Cool, Gee Officer Krupke and I Feel Pretty. The expansion of America to include the boys....all vast improvements. 10 Academy Awards were richly deserved.

Updated On: 6/1/14 at 11:27 AM

[jnb9872]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 11:50am

AMADEUS is such a different beast on stage vs. the film, but both are amazing. So, in adaptation, Shaffer and Forman "improved" the play in such a way that works better for the film (the deathbed composition of the Requiem is an utterly astonishing cinematic accomplishment.) However, the "improvements" made for the film are difficult if not impossible to achieve onstage, while the stage script includes so much more direct address and the concept of the audience itself being Salieri's ghosts and confidantes. So I'd call AMADEUS a work that each iteration of is ideal for the form it takes.

Updated On: 6/1/14 at 11:50 AM

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 11:51am

Gaslight

Chicago

The Lion in Winter

Oliver!





Updated On: 6/1/14 at 11:51 AM

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 12:05pm

Funny Girl

The Sound of Music

Chicago

[mjohnson2]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 12:52pm

Chicago
Hairspray
Rabbit Hole
West Side Story

[The Other One]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 12:53pm

West Side Story (I've seen four stage productions and loved them, but the movie trumped them all)

Dinner At Eight

Frost/Nixon

I love the film versions of The Sound of Music and Oliver!, but have never seen them on stage (I am NOT counting the live TV version of TSOM) so I can not vouch for them being improvements. I do prefer their cast recordings to their soundtracks, although not by much.

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 12:54pm

The Sound of Music
West Side Story
Chicago
Grease

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 2:19pm

Oliver is another one that is different on stage and on film. In the film, you have pretty redhead Shani Wallis playing Nancy. She plays it like Gidget having boy problems. Who wouldn't want that life, living in the squalor of the streets of London. Such fun!

[devonian.t]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 3:03pm

Chicago? Absolutely not! It is a theatrical animal and the film suffocates it.

I agree about Hair and Hairspray. Spike Lee did a really nice job capturing Passing Strange, but it's great either live or on film.

But Phantom is the most wretched excrement ever committed to celluloid.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 3:11pm

"But Phantom is the most wretched excrement ever committed to celluloid."

If only Patti LuPone had said "yes" when Andrew Loyd-Webber wanted her for Madame Giry.

[iamjwk]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 7:59pm

I think that Gentlemen Prefers Blondes is a much better film than the stage production.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 6/1/14 at 8:12pm

The script for DANGEROUS LIASONS is tighter, more compelling, and more devastating than the talky play.