Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?- Page 2
Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#25
Posted: 1/25/07 at 8:36pm
I read once they had a live horse on stage. The horse did what horses do on stage & Scarlett either rolled into it or just missed it
Would love to have heard the Japanese Version. I remember Presnell got rotten reviews. it tired to make the jump to Broadway & started on the West Coast where it died. It starred
Pernell Roberts Rhett & Leslie Anne Warren as Scarlett
How about Wildhorn writing it? He already wrote for the period in The Civil War
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#26
Posted: 1/27/07 at 1:32pm
About "burning Atlanta onstage"...
Maybe that was part of the problem with the first musical version all along? As I said in the first post, the temptation to turn a musical GWTW into a special-effects extravaganza has to be strong. But for all its reputation as an epic, GWTW is actually just an intimate human drama played out against the backdrop of epic events. Surely, the Atlanta fire could just be suggested with lighting effects? Sometimes, the audience's mind can fill in the gaps far more effectively than any over-the-top sets or special effects could.(In some ways, the movie also avoided that temptation. GWTW is a Civil War movie that never shows a single battle scene, unless you count that quick shot of Sherman's siege cannons. We only saw the aftereffects of battle and the war's effect on civilians.)
That's the reason that I think the helicopter in Miss Saigon actually worked AGAINST the show. Everyone focused on the eye-popping special effect and overlooked how emotionally gripping the scene was even without it.
And it's part of the reason I think Les Mis works so well. I think Les Mis's reputation as a huge technological spectacular is, in some ways, unfounded. For all its epic sweep and huge barricade set, so many of Les Mis's songs and scenes take place on a nearly-empty stage with only one or two characters. I can very, very easily imagine Les Mis done on a small scale.
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#27
Posted: 1/27/07 at 1:37pmJennifer, have you ever thought of becoming a director? Because it appears to me you have the vision to become one. Excellent points.
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#28
Posted: 1/27/07 at 2:34pm
Jennifer---I think they did try everything from lighting effects to lighting a match.
That particular show just didn't work.
But I agree with D2---You sound like you'd make a good director. And focus would be the key, starting with the script, to making a show like this work, not spectacle.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Stand-by Joined: 1/7/07
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#29
Posted: 1/27/07 at 3:25pm
I personally don't think I would be able to sit and listen to an actor sing:
"Frankkkkkllllllly my dearrrrrrrr, IIIIII DOOOOONNNNN'''TTTT GIVEE AAAAAAA DDDAAAAMMMMMNNNNN!!!!!!! (curtain falls)
...leave it as it is. it seems like too many people now-a-days are running out of original material to create movies and shows and feel it is better to start re-making classics. sometimes the answer is simply NO!
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#30
Posted: 1/27/07 at 3:55pmSaw the horrible production back in the 79's. All I can remember is the lyric "How often, how often, the sudden thought of youuuuu...."
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#31
Posted: 1/27/07 at 5:18pm
I definitely think with the right cast and composer/book writer, it could be a great musical. Although more often than not, musicals based on movies are terrible, I really think Gone With the Wind could be a great musical.
re: Do you think Gone with the Wind could ever be successfully musicalized?#32
Posted: 1/27/07 at 7:22pm
Strictly speaking, Wicked, a musical GONE WITH THE WIND would not be based solely on a movie. It was and is a massive novel with a whole canvas of characters and situations that were not even hinted at in the film. It's been a while since I've read it, but just to start, are you aware that Scarlett has 3 children, one from each husband?
I agree with several people here who've posted that it would be an interesting project for Ahrens and Flaherty, but add Terrence McNally into that mix. His work was integral to making RAGTIME the gem that it is. Brilliant work taking a sprawling, epic story and making it work in musical terms.
Videos
