Upcoming 'NINE' To Debut Three Original Yeston Compositions For Film Version — Page 2

Taz, I completely get what you are saying, and I think it makes sense. I am still as excited as can be for the movie, but with NINE being one of my top favorite musicals, I can't stop thinking about the loss of some of the best songs in the score.
I can't imagine, or want to imagine, a NINE without "Simple," "Be On Your Own" and "The Bells of St.Sebastian." I guess "Take It All" has replaced "Be On Your Own"? But I can't see why Marshall stole "Simple" from Carla, it's such a pivotal song for the character, and it's one of the moments that makes the character so unique and fascinating. Anyone who can pull off "A Call from the Vatican" AND "Simple" has real skills, now Marshall took that away from the role and the actress.
I know Marshall looks up to Fosse as a director, and has clearly being influenced by him, so I wonder if he is just trying to do something similar to what Fosse did with CABARET...we'll see.

---

They shouldn't even call in "Nine" anymore. Maybe just "Four" or "Five." Everything else has been cut.

Honestly, this has been going on forever. My favorite Fred & Ginger movie is "The Gay Divorcee," but RKO threw out the entire Cole Porter score with the exception of "Night and Day." I love the new tunes, including "The Continental," which won the very first Oscar given for Best Original Song.

My favorite Mickey and Judy movie is "Babes in Arms." But don't look for the megahit songs from the stage show: My Funny Valentine or The Lady is a Tramp. The latter can be heard briefly as underscoring only. And Where Or When lasts only about 30 seconds in the movie. Judy sings one line of it, and that's it. But Arthur Freed wrote "Good Morning" (later featured in Singin' in the Rain) for this movie. Yep, not even Rodgers and Hart, the show's original composers. Freed did the new stuff. And it's a great "standard" song even today.

There are plenty of other examples, but I'm just showing you two from 70-plus years ago.

I don't think movie musicals are ever like the stage shows. Even the most faithful and most successful ones have been adapted and "feel" different. The camera changes everything. Or if it doesn't, you end up with nothing more than a fancy "bootleg" of the Broadway show, like The Producers.

Still, I must agree that I'm cringing about so much of the score falling by the wayside.

Just as I was with Condon and Co. losing all the recitative stuff from Dreamgirls and Burton excising all the choral singing from Sweeney Todd, merely because he doesn't "get" groups of people all saying the same thing at the same time. This coming from Mr. Unconventional himself! Those adaptive changes were TOO drastic and went too far. There is a point in adapting where you cross into another world that resembles so little of the source material that it's almost unrecognizable.

I still think Sweeney and Dreamgirls are good films. But they could have been great. And I think dishonoring the source material is a large reason why.

I hope "Nine" is a big success. And I hope it works on its own terms in its own medium. And maybe it will still feel enough like "Nine" to please us Broadway folks. But if it doesn't work, then the first place I will likely look for blame is the ruthless whittling down of this unusually beautiful score.

We'll see.

---

Updated On: 8/25/09 at 04:04 PM

Rob didn't see Hairspray or Mamma Mia apparently.

Just a few recent ticket buyers thought that people singing to each other in a movie was just fine.

Movies are filled with leaps of faith and established conceits. Even the most "realistic" of dramas. When was the last time something tragic happened to you while a 60 piece orchestra followed you around playing "sad" music? Or in an action-adventure movie, when the lead is shot in the arm in one scene and has no blood on his sleeve in the next? Or he jumps off a 90-foot building ... and lives! Unharmed and unbruised.

But singing to each other? And dancing? Forget it. Who would believe that?

---

I assumed they would cut about half the songs, but some of the choices were rather odd. I can't imagine the show without Bells of St. Sebastian, Simple or Be On Your Own which are some of the musical milestones of the score. Does anyone know any details about the new songs? I'm wondering if Take It All will be a replacement for Be On Your Own.

---

Best12bars, you hit the nail on the head.

The box office success of Mamma Mia and Hairspray (I would even go so far as to add The High School Musical franchise) proved that audiences can and will accept characters that sing "in real life."

We accept it because it's a MUSICAL and that's what people do in musicals. They sing to each other!

---

Updated On: 8/25/09 at 05:06 PM

Well, it looks like another great score has been butchered.

I will wait for the video as they simply eviserated the score.

---

I can see why he would cut Be On Your Own as it would fall into the "people don't sing to each other" category. But Bells Of St. Sebastian/Nine take place in memory, just as Be Italian does.

It seems like they would be easy to work into his vision.

---

Besty, totally agree- Bells Of St Sebastian is my fav number too.
Such a beautiful song, Marshall is hollowing out the heart of this show. It's like he's forgotten the old saw that when people can no longer express their feelings in mere words, that's when they sing them.

When I heard the score for the first time in the early '80s, The Bells of St. Sebastian was my favorite song in the show. I couldn't get it out of my head! Haunting.

Me too! And he wrote a very similar number that was just as memorable and stunning for Phantom that inexplicably didn't make it on the cast recording. It's truly bizarre as it was the biggest production number of the show and rather essential to the plot, providing Erik's entire back story.

Why all the fuss over a sure-to-suck movie version of a third rate musical? Just watch the original Fellini film 8 1/2. Faster, funnier, more intelligent, and with a much better score.

I have absolutely no idea as everyone clearly shares your opinion on films in general. It's truly baffling! I don't know why fans of a Broadway musical might look forward to a long-awaited film version. This is unprecedented!

Please Roscoe, you can easily express your customary disdain without feigning such ignorance.

---