Good,Bad & Unnecessary Musicals based on movies

[BroadMagTech]

Posted: 3/30/16 at 4:09pm

in your opinion, what are some good, bad, and unnecessary musicals adapted from movies?

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 3/30/16 at 4:18pm

Three of my all-time favourite musicals are based on movies. NINE, SHE LOVES ME and A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC. What makes them so good is the fact that they depart from the source films enough to be their own thing while still keeping the themes of the originals.

The worst, hard to say, but 9 TO 5 is pretty bad in my opinion. Sucked all the life out of the material. 

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 3/30/16 at 4:42pm

How about good, bad and unnecessary threads that you keep making?

[ChiTheaterFan]

Posted: 3/30/16 at 4:43pm

One that really surprised me was Bring it On.  I thought it was a really stupid movie to make into a musical (although it's a guilty pleasure movie), but I had tickets as part of my subscriber package.  I tried to give them to a friend but she insisted I come, and I had so much fun. 

I also love 42nd Street.

I thought Once and Kinky Boots were really enjoyable films, but I personally didn't enjoy either of the stage versions, so I guess that would go in the "unnecessary" category to me, although I know some people really enjoyed both of those.  I hated Sister Act and Priscilla Queen of the Desert.  (All of these in this category I only saw in Chicago and not on Broadway, to be fair.)

Is She Loves Me based on the movie or are they both based on the same book?  (I haven't seen that yet but will this weekend and am so excited!)  I guess there are a few that would fall into an ambiguous category.  (Like the Color Purple, which was a movie first, but I guess they're both based on the book, rather than the musical being based on the movie.)

[kade.ivy]

Posted: 3/30/16 at 4:45pm

I'm sure I'm probably in the minority, but Shrek and Legally Blonde are two of my favorites. 

And Bridges, but that's based more on the book (JRB has said he's never seen the film).

Updated On: 3/30/16 at 04:45 PM

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 3/30/16 at 5:08pm

Of the ones I've seen, I'd say my favorite Broadway musical adaptations of films have been:

Billy Elliot
Hairspray
Kinky Boots
The Lion King
Little Shop of Horrors
Newsies
The Producers
Spamalot

The only one I didn't really like was the stage adaptation of Dirty Dancing.

Updated On: 3/30/16 at 05:08 PM

[Tom5]

Posted: 3/30/16 at 5:16pm

Without checking I don't think Spamalot was based on any movie in particular. "Little Shop of Horrors", based on a zero budget 50's movie was a great surprise!

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 3/30/16 at 5:25pm

^It was based on Monty Python & the Holy Grail.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 3/30/16 at 5:42pm

Almost entirely.  A touch or two of other Python stuff.

[Sammytravels]

Posted: 3/30/16 at 7:53pm

 Ghost. Saw it in during previews on Broadway, then near to West End run's closing. I thought Moyà Angela carried the show in the US though, as when I saw with the London cast I didn't think it was as good. 

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 3/30/16 at 8:05pm

SUNSET BOUEVARD -- and just in case you don't know the show is pointless, they actually show you clips of the film's car chase.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 3/30/16 at 9:01pm

ChiTheaterFan said: "Is She Loves Me based on the movie or are they both based on the same book?"

"Officially" they're both based on a play but I feel that he influence from the film is clearly there, though i'm not familiar with the original play at all to do a real comparison.

MY FAIR LADY and GENT's GUIDE both take a lot from the film adaptations of their source play and book though I think for MFL it is actually credited (the GENT'S team couldn't get the rights to the film directly).

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 3/30/16 at 9:18pm

Ghost and Billy Elliot immediately come to mind for adaptations I enjoy.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/30/16 at 9:27pm

"Is She Loves Me based on the movie or are they both based on the same book?"

Hmmm.   Well, they are both based on the same play, not book.  But the play, Parfumerie, was only (I believe) produced in - where else, Budapest! - before MGM made it movie magic with it inThe Shop Around the Corner. 

[ChiTheaterFan]

Posted: 3/30/16 at 9:30pm

Thanks, Mr. Nowack!  Seems like MFL is a particulalry complicated one. You have a play, then a movie based on the play, then a musical based on the play and/or movie, then a movie based on the musical, then a whole bunch of revivals of the musical.  I imagine they must all have influence on the latter iterations to a certain extent.  

 

ETA:  thanks to you both for the clarification on play re: book. Sounds like I should check out the shop around the corner as well. I've never seen it. 

Updated On: 3/30/16 at 09:30 PM

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 3/30/16 at 9:51pm

I would definitely recommend seeing it, it's one of my all-time favourite movies. Jimmy Stewart plus Margaret Sullivan plus Ernst Lubitsch.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 3/31/16 at 9:04am

Mr. Nowack said: "
MY FAIR LADY and GENT's GUIDE both take a lot from the film adaptations of their source play and book though I think for MFL it is actually credited (the GENT'S team couldn't get the rights to the film directly).

"

Mr. N, I'm not quarreling with you because I've never compared the two scripts, but Alan Jay Lerner claims in one of his autobiographies that 75% of the lines in MY FAIR LADY are original to him, and only a minority are taken from Shaw. (Of course his musical also borrows plot and characters.) He goes on to claim that it only seems to be closely based on Shaw's text because he (Lerner) did such a good job.

I thought you might find that interesting. (I'm seeing GENT's GUIDE in two weeks in LA, but I haven't seen the film.)

Per Wiki the straight play PARFUMERIE was produced in NYC in the very late 1930s, but only in Hungarian. It wasn't translated into English until about 10 years ago.

Updated On: 3/31/16 at 09:04 AM

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 3/31/16 at 9:29am

I love PROMISES, PROMISES based on Billy Wilder's THE APARTMENT 

[nickcarames]

Posted: 3/31/16 at 9:57am

Greatly looking forward to American Psycho- maybe I'll finally understand the ending

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 3/31/16 at 2:09pm

Gaveston, I totally get what you're saying (though Lerner's word sometimes has to be taken with a grain of salt). I was talking less about the specific dialogue than the structure.

If I recall correctly the play (which I read haphazardly in high school) is very much one of those where the action happens off stage and we see the aftermath and discussion, whereas the movie and later musical were committed to showing events like Eliza's lessons or the ball to the audience. I think certain aspects being downsized (like maybe the Alfred political commentary?) in the film were retained too and the happy ending that Shaw despised was first seen in the film as well.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 3/31/16 at 2:18pm

Good:

Little Shop

Grey Gardens

A Little Night Music

Beauty and the Beast

[MarkBearSF]

Posted: 3/31/16 at 2:22pm

Unnecessary:
Ghost
Dirty Dancing (not Broadway)
The Bodyguard (also not BW)
9 to 5
Rocky
Shrek
Young Frankenstein
Urban Cowboy
Footloose
The Wedding Singer
Sister Act (though I love the score)
Catch Me if You Can (ditto)
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (again)

Successful:
Hairspray
The Producers
The Full Monty

Unsuccessful:
Women on the Verge (Again, love the score)

 

[lida rose]

Posted: 3/31/16 at 4:04pm

if we're talking about shows that were written purely to cash in on the name recognition of the movie, I think Legally Blonde is secretly better than people give it credit for. it's pure fluff, but it's maybe the best possible version of what it could have been. it's super fun, the lyrics are surprisingly witty & sharp, and it actually brings some new depth to the characters and situations, rather than just rehashing the most recognizable/quotable parts and prolonging them until they become interminable while padding the rest with pointless filler. Spamalot is one of the worst offenders in that regard, I saw it when I was 14 or 15 and a huge Monty Python fan and even then I thought it was garbage.

Updated On: 3/31/16 at 04:04 PM

[MarkBearSF]

Posted: 3/31/16 at 11:38pm

Forgot about Legally Blonde. Saw it pre-Bway in SF. Was very happily surprised. I'll give you that one.

...and about Full Monty. I think that the musical version successfully added to the movie but I really don't think it was a very good musical (the book clunks, if you ask me, but I love the score)

Updated On: 3/31/16 at 11:38 PM

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 4/1/16 at 12:20am

Gigi.

They've taken two shots with this one. Why? The first I had the misfortune to see. It didn't make me physically ill but Gigi was played by Karin Wolfe, a soap opera actress. Taking on Leslie Caron in the film. I pity the investors who bought into that.

The recent second effort was more respectable, but could not stand up against the Arthur Freed/Vincente Minnelli film, with Caron, Maurice Chevalier, Louis Jordan and Hermione Gingold.

Unless you think that Chevalier was a preteen predator in the film.

In 1991, Gigi was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Sounds impressive to me.