Movies that lost their...

FULL MONTY - good book adaptation/Americanization by Terrence McNally -enjoyable show, except for the ugliest set in years.

VICTOR/VICTORIA - Good idea to put it on stage, but ten years too late for Julie Andrews.

SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS - just plain wrong - a bitter, gritty movie turned into a wishy-washy musical.

I did love the 42nd Street revival, but nothing beats the original film.

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The movie of SUNSET BLVD is a wonderfully dark and should have made a sensational musical. Lloyd Webber was the wrong composer for this. He also didn't put a great deal of effort into it, retrieving a half dozen tunes from unproduced or failed musicals and having the lyricists fit them with new words. As a result the score locks cohesion: some bits perfectly match the mood of the show others seem wildly out of place. Compounding this there is no natural tie-in with the use of music. (Imagine if they re-set the story in the 1970s and Norma was a 1940s movie musical star whose career faded because the vogue for Hollywood musicals dried up. This also could have been a casting coup: cast all the long-past-it but still remembered stars of the old M-g-M musicals: Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Marge Champion..etc.)

Even so, the most compelling parts of the musical were when it lifted dialogue from Billy Wilder's screenplay but set it to needless recitative. Then the action stops dead so Lloyd Webber can plug in one of his big arias with Don Black and Christopher Hampton's lyrics simply re-stating the same idea over and over again.

I just feel it could have been a much much better show than what emerged.

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I've never seen the stage version of the movie Big, with Tom Hanks, but I haven't heard too many good things about it.

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I have never actaully seen Sugar but I have read the book and love the cast album. While the score is not as good as Styne's Gypsy, Funny Girl or maybe even Gentleman Prefer Blondes I always enjoy the music and Merrill's lyrics are fine and sometimes very witty. The book, I think, works very well; Peter Stone knew what he was doing. With a script as good as Billy Wilder's there is not much need for change. Plus I can tell from the album alone that Bobby Morse and Cyril Richard's performances were priceless; what I wouldn't give to see them tango! In fact I am dying for a revival...I always like to dream cast the two leads. I am sure any problems with the book could be solved and new gags added. It'll probably never happen but, maybe in my dreams I can hope.

I like Thoroughly Modern Millie the show muchbetter than Thoroughly Modern Millie the movie. Sutton Foster just seemed for hick-ish than Julie Andrews, who's just so....British. I love Julei Andrews, but I really didn't like her Millie.