Favorite Movies Adapted from Musicals

Since everyone spends a lot of time here bashing the movie musicals they don't like (Rent, Mamma Mia, Phantom of the Opera), just to name a few off the type of my head, I'm wondering what movies adapted from musicals everyone likes?

My absolute favorites are Grease, Chicago, and the Sound of Music.

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Updated On: 6/11/11 at 02:44 PM

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF..reason: more cinematic
WEST SIDE STORY..reason: more cinematic
CHICAGO..reason: more cinematic
KING & I..reason: DEBORAH KERR
CABARET..reason: BOB FOSSE/LIZA MINNELLI
SOUTH PACIFIC..(don't laugh i LOVED this movie)
FUNNY FACE..reason: AUDREY HEPBURN/KAY THOMPSON
('Think Pink')
SOUND OF MUSIC..reason: JULIE ANDREWS

Updated On: 6/11/11 at 08:20 PM

The King and I-- They cut most of the fat, and made a really nice movie. That's probably my favorite. It still holds up today. And both Bryner and Karr are terrific.

The Music Man and Cabaret.

CALL ME MADAM - kept what worked on stage and cut or rewrote the rest.

FUNNY GIRL - the script for teh stage version is a mess..The screenplay for the film greatly improves the narrative.

OKLAHOMA! - while not necessarily better than the stage show, it has cinematic style (and location shooting) to bring the story to life.

KING AND I - Agree with above...excellent casting, suptuous production values and a decent streamlining of a long-ish stage show. (Though I DO wish the footage for "Shall I Tell You What I Think of YOU" could be restored. Marni Nixon told me it WAS in the film when it premiered but later cut and then lost.)

WEST SIDE STORY - The changes in song placement plus the location shooting helped make the film the success that it was and seeing it on teh big scren againa few years ago I was struck by how well it still works.

Warner Bros seemed to like embalming hit plays and musicals on film... sometiems the results are deadly dull, sometimes just mis-cast with Hollywood stars (GYPSY) although MUSIC MAN captures some of what made the stage show so successful, and MY FAIR LADY at least preserves Rex Harrison's performance (sadly without Julie Andrews.)

SOUND OF MUSIC - All that Austrian scenery just makes the movie. Julie ANdrews so right for the role (Mary Martin at almost 50 was too old on stage.) Even the alterations to teh song line-up make for a better film. These are some of the reasons why it remains popular as it approaches its 50th anniversary.

CABARET - While it is not reptresentive of Hal Prince's CABARET on stage but as a film it's a fantastic melding of the stage musical and the script for I AM A CAMERA.

Adl for every oen of these there are disaterous film versions of hit shows that often seem like deliberate attempts to discredit teh stage properties teh film-makers are trying to preserve: CAMELOT, PAINT YOUR WAGON, MAME, HELLO DOLLY! - Notice these all came out within a 10 years span, almost as if Hollywood's new (younger, hipper) guard were trying to prove that movie musicals were no longer viable. If anyone wanted to destroy a genre you cold not have done a better job than releasing bombs like these.

And the final nail in the cross: Hal Prince's misguided film of NIGHT MUSIC.

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Updated On: 6/11/11 at 10:10 PM

There are a few that I love... I usually prefer filmings of stage productions, but here are a few of my favorites:

CHICAGO: For the most part, it's a dazzling film that really manages to make the piece still feel theatrical. You get the same feeling from this as when you actually see the show, it's just achieved in slightly different ways, which I think means it was a very successful adaptation. My one disappointment is that there really isn't much Fosse-style choreography, which wouldn't have been that hard to solve, but you can't have everything, can you?

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA: I've said this many times, and while I know most (if not all) people here disagree with me, I think the movie mad some huge improvements to the overall tone of the show. While I'm not in love with either version, there were some things I think the movie did right--the first of which was so cut the dialogue-type songs with sloppy lyrics and no real reason to sing other than just because they wanted to. This also made the score feel a lot less repetitive. But the thing that I love about this movie is that it cut down the length of the opera sequences so that they didn't interrupt the dark tone of the rest of the show. The opera sequences seem to be some kind of comic relief on stage, so by cutting down on them or showing what the Phantom is doing, the dark tone continues throughout the whole movie. This anticipation and creepiness being carried throughout the whole movie makes the end quite thrilling, which didn't happen for me on stage.

HAIRSPRAY: This movie really managed to capture the fun atmosphere of the show with a quite talented cast of mostly celebrities. It's not engagingly artistic, but it's a very enjoyable movie that I really can't say anything very bad about. Watching the movie just makes me feel pretty happy.

HOW TO SUCCEED...: Mostly a "cut-and-paste" adaptation with nothing changed. It feels maybe a little too theatrical for a movie, but it works in its old musical cheesiness. It really shows what was up on the stage quite well and, while it feels kind of long without an intermission, it has really stood the test of time better than I thought it would have when I first picked it up of the library shelf a few years ago. A delightful show to have, though I could really do without Robert Morse's excessive vibrato.

Most of these I chose to talk about because nobody had touched on them much, so of course I love a lot of the ones that people had previously talked about in detail. My least favorites would have to include Sweeney Todd (for its excessive amount of blood making it gross rather than scary), A Little Night Music (for somehow making a beautiful, intricate show laughably simple), and Evita (for destroying the power of unbelievably high belting and making it visually monotonous).

It was fun. I don't like it as much as most annoying "theatre fans" at my school love it, but I was pleasantly surprised with it. Quite enjoyable.

Sound of Music: Because of Julie Andrews. Also, those kids are too cute.
Hairspray: I just enjoyed it. I'm still trying to figure out why.
Liked:
Girl Crazy: Because of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. Judy's "But Not For Me" is DIVINE.
Funny Girl: Because of Barbra.
My Fair Lady: It was just awesome. I still wish Julie played Eliza in the film.
Sweeney Todd: I'm glad they didn't try to copy and paste the stage show.
Mamma Mia: It was quite fun.

So-so:
Rent

Hate:
Nine, Phantom of the Opera

I will be watching Chicago (finally) tomorrow. I'll see how I enjoy it.

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Shirley Jones was an established film star at that point. She had just won an Oscar for Elmer Gantry, too.

You may not realize that they almost passed over Robert Preston for the part of Harold Hill because he wasn't a big enough name, even though he had worked in movies.

The only way they could use him was to have a movie star as Marian.

If Cary Grant (God forbid) had accepted the offer to play Harold Hill, we might have seen Barbara Cook as Marian, but thankfully, he turned it down.

A similar casting scenario happened for Pajama Game (also at Warners). They could use one Broadway lead and one film star. That was the plan. An offer went out to Frank Sinatra (again, God forbid!) to play Sid. If he had accepted, Janis Paige would have played Babe. He turned it down, so they offered Doris Day "Babe" and used Broadway's John Raitt as Sid.

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Hands down The Sound of Music.

Can you imagine if Julie Andrews had played Eliza on screen? Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, AND My Fair Lady? That would have been amazing!

My favorites are:

1. My Fair Lady
2. The Sound of Music
3. West Side Story
4. Chicago
5. Sweeney Todd
6. Hairspray
Movie Musicals

If her famous Golden Globes speech is any indication, Julie Andrews would not have been available for Mary Poppins had she done My Fair Lady. (She thanked Warner for not hiring her for MFL.)

The Sound of Music still makes me smile to this day and I think it's better than the stage show.

Chicago was superb! The "all in Roxy's mind" gimmick served the story perfectly.

Loved Sweeney Todd for the most part. The singing was at least all on pitch and visually, it was pretty stunning. It was filled with atmosphere and suspense just like a really good Hammer horror film.

Hairspray was a total blast!

Can we please discuss how the hell they managed to screw up Nine? With that cast? They needed a better script. It was terrible. Why would a wardrobe mistress start singing about the Follies Bergere? It makes no sense! Daniel Day-Lewis was totally miscast and too broody as Guido. However, Marion Cotillard and Penelope Cruz were phenomenal! The lower keys for Unusual Way didn't make sense either. Given what I've heard of Nicole Kidman's voice, I'm pretty sure she would have been far more comfortable in the original key. The whole movie was just one big WTF!