dmwnc1959 said: "^ ^ ^ Someone posted a while back that if you needed to watch the original version to follow the plot or enjoy a remake, then the latter has failed. Prior to seeing the musical I’d not watched the original movie of “Dirty Dancing”, “Cabaret”, “The Lion King”, “The King and I”, “An American in Paris”, “Aladdin”, “Waitress”, “My Fair Lady”, “The Band’s Visit”, “Anastasia”, “The Bridges of Madison County”, or “Hello, Dolly!”,and I did just fine in all of them. I’m also attending “Fiddler on the Roof” this weekend, and haven’t ever seen the original movie either. The only one I had seen the original version of was “The Color Purple”.
I agree that “if you needed to watch the original version to follow the plot or enjoy a remake, then the latter has failed.” That’s what I think is the biggest flaw of The Lion King for some people who haven’t seen the movie (although obviously not for you). I had seen the movies of “Cabaret”,“Aladdin”, and “Waitress” before I saw the stage adaptations although I don’t think previewing of the movies would be required because the plot is clear. I didn’t watch the movies to prepare for the stage productions. I just happened to have already seen them. It also had been some time between seeing the movies and seeing them on Broadway so I was a little iffy going in on all the plot points. Again, not a problem. I do think I was a little disappointed in the revival of The Color Purple (although not the performances) because I felt that they rushed the ending on stage compared to the movie, but I suspect I might’ve felt that way regardless.
To make a few, I had had not seen movies of ”The King and I”, “An American in Paris”, “My Fair Lady”, “Dogfight”, The Band’s Visit”, “Fiddler on the Roof”, “School of Rock”, or “Hello, Dolly!” (I realize this makes me a bad gay and and a bad Barbra fan) before I saw the stage adaptations and I had no problem following the story. In fact, having not seen them led to more of a sense of discovery. Additionally, at the end of the King and I,
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when the King dies, I just started sobbing. Afterwards, I told my friend, “I didn’t know the King was going to die.” Lol
My friend had never seen a show with me before. But he learned on that trip it’s pretty much reliable that I’ll cry at most every show. In fact, he doesn’t believe me now when I say I didn’t. Lol
So in summary, I by no means think one should have to see the movie before you see the stage adaptations. If you do, then the show has failed to do its job. This does make me think about Wicked (which I love). I suppose you could follow the proceedings just fine without having seen The Wizard of Oz, but having seen the movie certainly adds extra resonance, but then again the show (and book) is designed as a prequel to the movie.
Anyway, I’ve now contributed to getting the thread off topic. Back on topic: trailer looks great. It remains to see how they’ll handle the trickier aspects of adapting the animated movie to the CGI universe.
Updated On: 11/23/18 at 10:51 AM