What FILM Version Do You Think is BETTER than the PLAY? — Page 5

I would be interested in anyone's thoughts about my suspension of disbelief premise when it comes to singing and dancing in a Broadway show or a musical film. To further clarify what I mean, people do not ordinarily sing and/or dance with others that they meet on the street. So, it requires a suspension of not believing in such behavior so that you CAN believe in their song and/or dance. I maintain that it is easier to accept this when it is seen live on stage than when it is in a film.I know this sounds kind of confusing.

It does seem to be something that's constantly mentioned whenever a new movie musical appears. I know there are plenty of people who share this notion, so I accept its validity. I just don't understand it. Echoing munk, you know what you get going in. All sorts of suspension of disbelief are required for almost any kind of movie.

Why are they singing? Because it's a musical! For me it's no more difficult than that, but like I said, I get that other people require more of an "in."

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I wouldn't go so far as to say My Fair Lady, West Side Story and Chicago are improvements to the original pieces. Mainly because the original pieces are so great. They're great adaptations that do their respected musicals proud, that's for sure.

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Two others I would consider "better than their stage shows" also suffered large cuts in their scores... and from the likes of Rodgers & Hart and Cole Porter.

The Gay Divorcee is my favorite Fred & Ginger movie, yet all but one of the original Cole Porter songs ("Night and Day") were removed.

They also added in the first song to win an Academy Award--"The Continental."

Babes in Arms is my favorite Mickey & Judy movie, yet several classic songs were cut for the film version (including My Funny Valentine, Johnny One-Note, The Lady is a Tramp and I Wish I Were In Love Again).

They also added in the now-classic (Oscar-nominated) song "Good Morning."

Do these cuts make the movies any less brilliant?

No. If the movies were rotten, I'd be inclined to bitch about the score cuts, but they're fantastic films. And I don't feel like being "purist" about it, unless the movies fail on their own terms. On the Town, Babes In Arms and The Gay Divorcee did anything but fail.

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Updated On: 5/26/07 at 09:25 PM

I beg to differ about BABES IN ARMS. The Broadway score is not just pretty good , but one of the greatest ever, filled with such solid-gold songs as "My Funny Valentine" "Johnny One-Note", "The Lady Is A Tramp", "I Wish I Were In Love Again" and "Way Out West" (and the jaw-dropping "All Dark People are Light on Their Feet", made redeemable by the fact that the Nicholas Brothers performed it) and to have them all dumped in favor of "Good Morning", "My Daddy was a Minstel Man" and "I Like Opera! I Like Swing!" is a cardinal sin.

I enjoy the film BABES IN ARMS as well, but it's about as watered down an adaptation as you can get - and Judy's magical snippet of "Where Or When" is far too brief!

Rodgers and Hart had better luck the following year with a faithful adaption of TOO MANY GIRLS at RKO, as nearly the entire Broadway cast (and score) was included in the film, directed by George Abbott (who would not direct another Broadway-to-Hollywood transfer until DAMN YANKEES), shot and released within 3 months of the show closing on Broadway (with Lucille Ball substituted for Marcy Westcott and Ann Miller for Diosa Costello). As Bosley Crowther noted:

"Too Many Girls," you may remember, if you saw the stage version, was a boisterous lot of nonsense on the cut of an undergraduate musical show, and Mr. Abbott has changed it little in transferring it to the screen. The story is still concerned with the hijinks of a beautiful heiress and her four unsuspected bodyguards—Eastern football heroes all—who go to a small Western college and put the place on the map. The music is still the same that Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart contributed, and many of the original cast are cavorting again on the screen."

Crowther has some problems with Abbot's staging: "he has also had a queer inclination to film the ensemble numbers—whirling dances and choral groups—in semi-darkness", But boy, is he nasty about Desi: "Mr. Arnaz is a noisy, black-haired Latin whose face, unfortunately, lacks expression and whose performance is devoid of grace."

R&H wrote the beautiful "You're Nearer" for the film version, and it quickly became the biggest hit from TOO MANY GIRLS, and was inserted into the TOO MANY GIRLS stage tour.

Also in 1940 came Universal's THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE with Allan Jones, Martha Raye and Joe Penner... it's a fun film, but (as usual) a lot of the original score was snipped away.
TOO MANY GIRLS film

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Updated On: 5/26/07 at 10:03 PM

They did NOT change the play Cabaret, they made it more faithful to its source material, both John van Druten's play, I am a Camera, which I appeared in some 30 years ago, and the Berlin Stories of Christopher Isherwood. Bob Fosse's film version of Cabaret is one of the greatest movie musicals ever made! I saw it 14 times when it first came out, and think it's a cinematic masterpiece! It's definitely a better movie musical than a play.

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I was gonna say Virginia Woolfe but I have on record the original recording of the full play by the original cast and truly it's at least as powerful as the film--and that's without visuals so...

Another Mike Nichols--Closer for me works a bit better as a movie and I'm not sure why--I saw the play in London with Clive playing the opposite role that he does in the film, but...

I mentioned The Dying Gaul--I opnly saw a community production but for me it just played better as a movie.

I wish Tenn Williams had done better by his movies--there are some great ones (Streetcar being at the top) but the censoring of nearly all his works from stage makes me still give the edge to the original

The Dying Gaul! Good one Eric.

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Equal to the play:

Glengary Glen Ross

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I enjoyed the Producers on film, but despised the show.

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dancing-Are you referring to the original film? I'm not the biggest fan of the show, though I did have a good time.

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OMG.....I thought someone just hijacked my screen name!!!

HAHA!

Carry on folks.....nothing to see here!

:)

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Best 12 bars: I respect your opinions very much but I have to disagree with your take on the movie version of ON THE TOWN. True, the cast is great, especially Ann Miller(who is always great) but with the exception of the new title song, the score has been tampered with too much. It was especially unfortunate that they cut the magnificent, wistful "Some Other Time" toward the end of the Broadway show. And there is too little dancing, ala Jerome Robbins. Incidentally, the only scene actually filmed in NYC was at the Brooklyn Naval Yards, used at the beginning and at the end of the film. Everything else was from Hollywood.

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