Film versions of musicals that are unfaithful to the original- Page 3

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 12/14/05 at 11:51pm

It's not about things being changed but about major points that the movie made being completely altered. The Annie movie removed the optimistic post-Depression political message of the stage show to make it a movie about a comic strip pretty much. What I feel bad about is the waste of talent, this movie could have done so much justice to the amazing stars it had. I can't believe Eileen Quinn won a Razzie, that's mean.
Cabaret is a movie that is completely unfaithful to the stage version and yet it works just as well. A subplot was completely taken out, Sally bowles changed from British to American and her role was expanded by creating more background and adding an extra solo and a duet, Clifford was gone and was replaced by a bisexual character Bryan, a thousand songs were cut, etc, etc, etc.
I don't think Rent is unfaithful to the stage version at all, just because it suffered from an inexperienced director (musical theater-wise), it doesn't mean that it's an unfaithful piece it just lost a lot on its translation to the screen.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/15/05 at 3:28pm

ray -- I agree with your assessment of what "unfaithful" means here. If you stay faithful to the POINT, message or meaning of a musical, I believe you can change elements and remain faithful to its overall intent. That's not a breech of "faith."

Cabaret is a great example of that. So many changes, and yet I see it as "faithful" to the original show, for that very reason.

“Annie” is an example where by removing the staging and scene of "Tomorrow," they cut the very heart and message right out of the show. To think they looked at this scene: a little orphan girl, escaped, walking the streets by herself, standing by a trash can, holding on to a dog she just saved from going to the pound (and to his death), fighting off the cops... belting out that the sun will come out "Tomorrow"... How can anybody CUT that and still say they're being faithful to the original show? They are not. They missed the point.

Another great example of changing things around and not only remaining faithful, but improving the original is "Oliver!" Director Carol Reed and Vernon Harris (who wrote the screen play) did an incredible thing when they moved the throw-away bar song "Oom-Pa-Pa" to its position in the movie. By having Nancy use it as a diversion device to smuggle Oliver out of the tavern was... absolute genius. The tension builds to a nail-biting frenzy using this fun, clever bar song that is thrown away as an Act II opener in the stage version. What an amazing improvement!

[C is for Company]

Posted: 12/15/05 at 3:38pm

How about Anything Goes? I believe the movie only had like a few songs in it, I'm not sure though

[Marquise]

Posted: 12/15/05 at 4:18pm

best12bars wrote:

"Another great example of changing things around and not only remaining faithful, but improving the original is "Oliver!" Director Carol Reed and Vernon Harris (who wrote the screen play) did an incredible thing when they moved the throw-away bar song "Oom-Pa-Pa" to its position in the movie. By having Nancy use it as a diversion device to smuggle Oliver out of the tavern was... absolute genius. The tension builds to a nail-biting frenzy using this fun, clever bar song that is thrown away as an Act II opener in the stage version. What an amazing improvement!

The above is a PRIME EXAMPLE of how a STAGE musical was changed but yet cleverly adapted for the medium of FILM.

Good choice best12bars...OLIVER! is an all time personal favorite of mine.