Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?
Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?
Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#1
Posted: 1/25/07 at 2:30pm
I've been re-reading and re-watching Gone With The Wind recently. Now, I know there was an unsuccessful musical of it years back (it started off in Japan and played other cities, but never New York, in a shorter English-language version). But do you think it could ever be successfully musicalized?
It's got the strong characters and the potential for great songs. But it would really have to have the right adapter and composer. David O. Selznick wanted to have a musical version, but all the respected composers he courted shied away from the project because they figured it would be compared with the original. Which is a shame, because what couldn't Rodgers and Hammerstein have done with it! If they could convey the "epic-ness" of James Michener in music, they could have done so with Margaret Mitchell.
Since Ahrens/Flaherty did such a good job with Ragtime, maybe they could take this on. Or Adam Guettel. But one thing working against it would be the inevitable comparison to the original music score...one of the best of all film scores. (Don't get me started on the corny lyrics somebody stuck on "Tara's Theme." "My own true love," indeed!)
Still...in just the right hands, it could be done, I think. It would also be important to resist the temptation to make it a special-effects extravaganza--it would need to be character-driven.
And if it couldn't be a musical...imagine the *opera* it would make!
So...your thoughts?
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#2
Posted: 1/25/07 at 2:37pm
Its been done twice. I guess if enough people attempted it it might someday find a successful adaptation. Sorta like leaving a group of monkeys in a room full of typewriters...someday one of will type out HAMLET.
On the whole, I think the subject matter/story background is a little out of place today. It is hard to sympathize with KKK members and believe in happy slaves. Though I do see why the tempation to have a singing Scarlett O' Hara is still strong.
I think it is best left undone.
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#2
Posted: 1/25/07 at 2:38pmYeah it would need to be A ragtime kind of adaptation to work. I'll tell you one thing -my Wife would freak if they did this.
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#3
Posted: 1/25/07 at 2:54pm
I think either a musical or an opera would work. Obviously it would need to be huge. Tara is almost a character in itself. And then of course there's the burning of Atlanta.You would need to capture the larger-than-life canvas of the civil war without swallowing up the characters.
But I think in the right hands it would be awesome. Flaherty & Ahrens could do it.
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/15/05
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#4
Posted: 1/25/07 at 2:56pmI have the London Cast recording - it's a hoot!
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#5
Posted: 1/25/07 at 2:56pm
I have the London Cast Recording too... I really like a lot of it.
I haven't heard the French adaptation.. I understand that is mostly sung-through
To me, a more intersting question is WOULD Flaherty/Ahren do it. Judging by the subject matter of their previous shows, I doubt it. They tend to meet the race issue head on where as GONE WITH THE WIND requires that you ignore it.
Broadway Star Joined: 7/20/05
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#6
Posted: 1/25/07 at 2:57pmThere was a major production done in London in the early 70s I believe. I still have the cast album. Harve Presnell played Rhett; don't remember who played Scarlett. Didn't see the production, but from what I've read, the story was just too big to be condensed successfully into a 2 1/2 hour musical. Production photos in the album jacket, however, looked terrific, but I think I remember reading that the burning of Atlanta scene was just laughable. The production was a huge failure.
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#7
Posted: 1/25/07 at 3:01pmI have the London Cast Recording as well and I really enjoy it.
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#8
Posted: 1/25/07 at 3:04pm
For a fun read pick up Rex Reed's PEOPLE ARE CRAZY HERE.
He has a chapter on the opening night of GONE WITH THE WIND in London. Makes you wish you'd been there.
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#9
Posted: 1/25/07 at 3:05pmThat's the one I was talking about...the one that started out in Japan and got shortened, translated, and played London and some American cities.
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#10
Posted: 1/25/07 at 3:12pm
The French production is mind-bogglingly hideous. Think Notre Dame de Paris. Pop and techno music, projections, and yes, acrobats. If we did that to Les Enfants du Paradise, they would villify us.
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#11
Posted: 1/25/07 at 3:22pmIf it did happen, such characters as Mammy and Prissy would have to be taken ULTRA-seriously so as not to offend anyone.
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#12
Posted: 1/25/07 at 3:27pmWhat if Sondheim wrote the score?
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#13
Posted: 1/25/07 at 3:28pmThere actually have been two US productions. One which was meant to be Pre-Broadway, and had Lesley-Anne Warren as Scarlett (She was great), and then one that I believe toured briefly that opened in Dallas a few years after the failed Pre-Broadway Tour.
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#14
Posted: 1/25/07 at 3:30pm
If Sondheim wrote the score, doubtless, it would be interesting.
But that still doesn't address the subject matter/race issue. That would have to be addressed by the bookwriter... and GONE WITH THE WIND requires that you ignore the race issue or have sympathy for those who support the KKK and slavery.
Also, GONE WITH THE WIND requires that you believe in happy and content slaves. Slaves that DIDN'T want to be set free.
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#15
Posted: 1/25/07 at 3:33pmGood point on the race issue Walk on. I didn't think of that
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/18/04
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#16
Posted: 1/25/07 at 3:39pm
The only other "version" of GWTW I liked was Carol Burnett's. Classic! 
Broadway Star Joined: 5/17/06
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#17
Posted: 1/25/07 at 4:05pmMister Matt, that French version sounds terrible! I'm a huge fan of the film and don't think I'd like a musical version unless Vivien Leigh could somehow come back from the dead to play Scarlett.
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#18
Posted: 1/25/07 at 4:07pmI could see it more as a ballet along the lines of Edward Siscssorhands
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#19
Posted: 1/25/07 at 4:12pm
I think there's a lot of story, and the race issue... and it could really easily all be terrible.
...but, if done correctly, I think it could be really interesting.
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#20
Posted: 1/25/07 at 4:33pm
The production which starred Lesley Ann Warren didnt star Harve Presnell, but Pernell Roberts of "Bonanza" and "Trapper John, MD" fame.
It is mentioned in "Not Since Carrie" and was supposed to be pretty good...just never made it to NY.
"In Oz, the verb is douchifizzation." PRS
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/23/05
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#21
Posted: 1/25/07 at 5:14pm
it would have to be majorly cut, good lord, that thing is long.
though it is one of my favorite films, it is such a fantastic piece of cinematography and the performances are just mind-blowing.
hm, i have never thought of this..
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#22
Posted: 1/25/07 at 5:17pm
I say leave it alone. You can say what you want about the classic story, but face it, it's not that different from any other love story. Yes, we all have our little love-hate reltaionship with Scarlett and Rhett.
Now, I can't speak for the novel, but I think 85% of the reason anyone sees that movie is the cinematography. I remember watching the movie recently and thinking, "This might be a good musical." Then, I just stopped myself.
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#23
Posted: 1/25/07 at 6:36pm
I'm curious about the discussion here about the "race issue". GWTW -- at least the novel -- treats the whole subject of slavery, both pre- and post-war, with a great deal of sensitivity. The characters of Mammy and Prissy were stereotyped in the film (which is to be expected for a film made in 1939), but in the original book, both have far more depth and texture as human beings. You can see Mammy's affection for Scarlett, almost that of a mother for a wayward and spoiled daughter. The slaves in the novel arent the dancing darkies that love their white masters, but people who are caught in enormous social change and unsure what to do -- arguably one of the book's greatest achievements from a characterization point of view.
I've heard the Japanese cast, and it is indeed laughable. The burning of Atlanta? Well, it was pretty awful because they just didnt have the technology to do it properly. Today, of course, it would be *the* scene to knock everyone out of their seats, and it probably would be an amazing piece of stagecraft. But the show itself? I shudder to think what it might be. No doubt reduced to the same kind of sappy romance we saw in the movie.
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#24
Posted: 1/25/07 at 6:43pm
I did "Sugar Babies" with a wonderful, brassy lady who had played Belle Watling in the pre-Broadway tour.
Every time I asked her about that show, all she said was... "Honey, YOU try burning the city of Atlanta on a proscenium stage and see how far YOU get."
She was a hoot!
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