Not sure how you missed the memo as it was a huge deal at the time (not trying to be snarky, I"m genuinely confused), but basically the below points from Scarywarhol...I didn't go to see it at Papermill wanting to hate it. I never go to see something wanting to hate it, but I was so thrown at how misguided it was, that I couldn't comprehend how it had such an identity crisis and missed the mark. The movie isn't perfect tone wise thanks to the 3 gargoyles, but other than that, it's pretty even toned and of course that score is a damn masterpiece. And the narrative of "who's the monster, who's the man?" in terms of religious hypocrisy is made crystal clear. The stage musical does none of this.
The original Berlin production was far superior in making it familiar to a movie we all love and the changes made, make perfect sense. And yes some of the new music is lovely, Made of Stone is the best 'new' one for sure, but my heart still has pangs at how massively misguided this one was and how Schwartz and Menken let what is one of their best collabs be ruined by nepotism. The same thing happened with Prince of Egypt, I will shout to the rooftops until I die that it's Schwartzs' magnum opus. He let his sonny boy direct and it was a huge misfire. The Tuachan production had amazing design and epic production quality on par with how the film feels, but even that still can't hide a terrible script and confusing narrative.
As one can tell I have FEELINGS about this. I will never understand the Schwartz duos' need to have their pieces be story theatre format. I'm not saying that it can't work, but their way of doing it comes off as childrens' theatre and treating the audience like they're dumb. There were always multiple reasons/rumors as to why it never made it to Broadway, one being the chorus scenario and another being that they all thought it was just too dark for what their typical demographic is. It's really not that dark, it almost dumbed down the dark depravity that I love about the film.
Scarywarhol said: "The massive creative problems of the Papermill production, namely an embarrassing undergrad staging by a director who got the gig via nepotism, and a grating church pageant-style book that was a steep step down from James Lapine's in every way, are being understated. The cast was good and much of the music still gorgeous, but the show itself was not ready for New York."
Updated On: 2/3/22 at 11:29 AM
