What FILM Version Do You Think is BETTER than the PLAY?- Page 3

[dented146]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 12:03pm

How about Gigi. Wasn't it a hugely successful film before it ever came to Broadway?

[Dancin Thru Life]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 12:33pm

I prefer the film versions of both WEST SIDE STORY and LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS to the stage productions.

[Freckles1329]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 12:41pm

Grease and The Sound of Music

[i.heart.link]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 1:01pm

ok. I don't care about what anyone thinks, but i loved the movie version of Rent. It was the first time i had ever really listened to Rent, and I loved all the songs, and honestly thats what realy got me into musicals. I think if i saw the stage production first i wouldn't have liked it as much. Life Support in the movie is sooo much more heartfelt! When i saw it on broadway and everyone was singing all fast and happy, i didn't feel anything. But whatever, I do see why everyone hates it but i just thought i should defend it a little.

Anyways i LOVE the movie version of Cabaret, Liza is a total godess! And personally, i like the movie's plot better, i don't love the whole Fraulein Schneider deal.

I definitely perfer the movie version of Grease.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 1:02pm

GIGI was a play, but was later made into a movie musical by MGM; which was later adapted into a West End musical.

Audrey Hepburn starred in the original 1951 Broadway play GIGI:


Leslie Caron starred in the 1958 MGM movie musical version of GIGI:


This MGM musical version was brought to the West End stage in 1985:

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 1:10pm

And the conversation always comes back to Little Edie

[juice23]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 1:11pm

What about Victor/Victoria?

I've only seen the movie, and I enjoyed it. My university is doing the show in the fall...

Is the stage production better or worse?

[juice23]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 1:16pm

I forgot to mention:

REEFER MADNESS: I think the movie adaptation is just amazing. The cast is hilarious, the music sounds terrific, the art direction was great. I saw it on stage once, and it just didn't work for me at all.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH Movie, but have yet to see it on stage (maybe when it re-opens off-broadway!). It might be cool to have Hedwig simply tell the story while on stage the whole time with the band, as opposed to SEEING it all fleshed out...

I also think I like THE MUSIC MAN original film better than the stage show, or at least think they are equal. The original film is rather charming, and the choreography is terrific. I think the cast is very good (Shirley Jones was gorgeous vocally and visually). Anyone else agree/disagree?

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 1:26pm

Hedwig is a good film adaptation.

Cabaret I like because they go back to Van Druten's source material, which is better than masteroff by far.

the POTO film is atrocious, the stage version is leaps and bounds more clever, and if you know about opera, there are a hundred little in jokes that make the show for me, and all were abandoned for this silly, syrupy romantic drivel that was placed on the screen.

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 1:36pm

Better on film:

Sound of Music
My Fair Lady
Little Shop of Horrors
Fiddler on the Roof
Jesus Christ Superstar (the original)
Chicago
Oliver!
1776
West Side Story
Grease
Rocky Horror
Reefer Madness

As good as the play:

Funny Girl
Dreamgirls
Hello, Dolly!
CATS
Pajama Game
Sweet Charity
Bye Bye Birdie (TV Remake with Jason Alexander)
Kiss Me Kate
Gypsy (The remake with Bette Midler)
The Music Man
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Call Me Madam
How To Succeed
Godspell
Joseph and the Amazing...
The Producers
Guys and Dolls

Not as good as:

Rent
Oklahoma!
Evita
Man of LaMancha
Bye Bye Birdie (Original)
Camelot
A Funny Thing Happened...
Best Little Whorehouse...
A Chorus Line
Cabaret

Destroyed the play:


The Wiz
Annie
Phantom of the Opera
South Pacific
Carousel
Mame
Gypsy (the original)
Jesus Christ Superstar (Remake)
A Little Night Music
The Magic Show (Okay, it's not a MOVIE, but it was still terrible)

How can we forget the dreaful film adaption of THE FANTASTICKS?

And for some reason I have a feeling the new HAIRSPRAY movie will be better than the show. But I can't say until I actually see the movie.

Updated On: 5/26/07 at 01:36 PM

[i.heart.link]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 1:43pm

I actually have a feeling that the movie version of Hairspray won't be as good at the stage, from the clips I've seen, it doesn't seem to have the same energy as the stage version does. But i hope its good!

[wickedfan]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 1:45pm

NLS- I have to disagree with most of your contributions because
a)JCS "remake", Cats, and The Magic Show aren't film adaptations. They're just filmed versions of the show. No matter what was changed, it's just people performing on stage.
b)The Gypsy remake is not as good as the play itself. Bette is too over the top most of the time to be taken at all seriously. And her "Rose's Turn" SOUNDS good, but you just can't see Rose making any journey while looking at her face.

I will say that the three best adaptations of musicals (being that they exceed their predecessors by miles) are Oliver, The Sound of Music, and Cabaret (compared to the original production). And in terms of play adaptations, I think that The Women, The Philadelphia Story, and A Streetcar Named Desire are the best ones out there.

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 1:48pm

I didn't notice that the JCS remake was filmed on stage. I didn't sit through the first twenty minutes.

And CATS (although filmed on a stage) IMO was a movie. There was NO audience. They could've done the movie in a movie studio and people would be saying the same thing.

I can understand people thinking she was over the top with it, but I just liked it. It DID deserve to go in "As good as the play:" and I'll change that.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 1:48pm

Cabaret NOT as good as the play?

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 1:50pm

Yeah. I didn't like the movie as much as I liked the play. So that's just my opinion. I didn't enjoy it after loving the actual show so much.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 2:06pm

It's just different.

But I do not agree that the FIDDLER film is better than the play. Perhaps they're equal, but there's nothing immediately thrilling about the FIDDLER film that would put it in the "better than the play" category for me.

[popular_elphie]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 2:07pm

CHICAGO and WEST SIDE STORY are better than their stage versions.

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 2:09pm

Sorry, the horrible miscasting of WSS ruined that movie for me.

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 2:10pm

I really didn't like it either. I wish they would have gotten Chita Rivera...

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 2:21pm

We're Broadway people, we're biased.

Rita Moreno was excellent. And Oscar winning.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 2:29pm

They DID want Chita -- she was screen-tested (during BYE BYE BIRDIE's pre-Broadway out-of-town tryout), but the results were not agreeable. She was just not visually pleasant up on the big screen. On stage alot is forgiven, but blown-up several feet on a big screen, THAT'S another story.

All this is confirmed on Jerome Robbins' casting notes during pre-production on the film. She was his first and only choice for Anita, but agreed with the producers that she was just not 'photogenic' for the film.

[robstyle001]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 2:32pm

ew the musical little shop is SO MUCH BETTER than the movie, rick moranis makes me vomit in that movie.

little shop on broadway was brilliant.

grease is a better movie tho...only cuz stockard was the BEST EVER,

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 2:34pm

Translation: Chita was too "ethnic" for the film, as I've read other places, and heard through insinuations with people that I've met who knew Robbins or Moreno, like Adolph Green, who I had a wonderful and memorable conversation with at one of the last performances of the Revival of Bells Are Ringing

It's also the reason that Latinos weren't cast as Maria or Bernardo, while Rita Moreno is latina, she was certainly not an ethnic looking actress, having been assimilated into the studio system as far back as 'Singin' in the Rain'


Oh, and Grease had a terrible film version that took itself too seriously, not enough tongue in cheek humor as the original stage version, which is the only one I really like.

Updated On: 5/26/07 at 02:34 PM

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 2:36pm

rob: LITTLE SHOP off-Broadway may have been brilliant with Ellen Greene, but it was a disaster on Broadway.

[Kringas]

Posted: 5/26/07 at 2:39pm

Eh, I think time has forgiven a lot about the 1962 Gypsy. It's certainly not better than the stage version, but it's highly entertaining and Natalie Wood is pretty terrific in it.

I think Hedwig might be the best example for reimagining the stage version for film in a way that's totally different and yet totally remains true to the spirit of the original version. It's the perfect yang to the stage's yin.