What FILM Version Do You Think is BETTER than the PLAY? — Page 6

Best12Bars: I respect your contributions to this Board very much but I have to disagree with your thoughts about ON THE TOWN, the film. Yes, the cast is great, especially the always wonderful Ann Miller. But there is not enough dancing ala Jerome Robbins and the score has been tampered with too much, except for the excellent new title song. It is especially a shame that they cut the magnificent, wistful "Some Other Time", sung near the end of the show. Incidentally, the only scenes actually filmed in NYC were at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, used at the beginning and at the end of the film. Everything else was filmed in Hollywood. I would give anything to see a first rate revival on Broadway. I know there was a revival within the past 10 years that didn't do well for some reason. Does anyone have ideas as to its poor run?

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Updated On: 5/28/07 at 06:07 PM

Does no one else find the movie of Chicago plays the characters and story cuter and "safer" than even the revival? I do like the movie but just have no comparison (plus I think Rob Marshall's choreography is the least exciting of the three and choreography is a huge part of the appeal of Chicago for me)

Gypsy, I always thought that if they were gonna revive On the Town they should just reconstruct the Robbins' choreography--I believe ROn Fields (who's quite the talent) flopped when he redid it with Bernie Peters in the early 70s and yeah there was a revival of it in the 90s that flopped big time (there is a great clip from Rosie though of Lea Delaria just busting through I Can Cook Too from it). However Stephen Mears choreographed the UK ENO production that premiere din 2005 and was revived again just now--the clips online look greatand it got pretty much killer reviews--so it can be done.

I agree with everything you say--Best12Bars you're one of the posters on here I tend to agree with the most, but I just don't see it here Though I'll happily admit that the movie on its own terms is good--if we're comparing here I just can't

Here's another vote for the film version of Chicago being better than the revival. And I would include Funny Girl as a better film as well, especially for the ending.

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Better than the (straight) play:

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
A Man For All Seasons
Amadeus
Driving Miss Daisy
The Philadelphia Story
The Corn is Green
The Miracle Worker
Witness For the Prosecution
The Odd Couple
The Sunshine Boys
On Golden Pond
Idiot's Delight
The Women
Born Yesterday
Separate Tables

As good as the (straight) play:

Picnic
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Our Town (1940)
You Can't Take It With You
The Little Foxes
The Heiress
Holiday
The Diary of Anne Frank
These Three (aka, The Children's Hour)
Only When I Laugh (aka, The Gingerbread Lady)
Mr. Roberts
Bus Stop
A Thousand Clowns
Barefoot in the Park
Children of a Lesser God
Come Back, Little Sheeba

Not as good as the (straight) play:

Angels In America
Crucible
Blythe Spirit
The Ritz
Dark at the Top of the Stairs
The Glass Menagerie
The Children's Hour
Death of a Salesman
The Rose Tattoo
Crimes of the Heart
The Dresser
'Night Mother
Noises Off
Biloxi Blues
I'm Not Rappapaort
Shirley Valentine
Six Degrees of Separation
Love! Valour! Compassion!
History Boys

Ruined the (straight) play:

Torch Song Trilogy
Agnes of God
Brighton Beach Memoirs
M. Butterfly

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Hands down, "The Sound of Music" movie is better than its stage counterpart. At least the original, Mary Martin-starring version. I haven't seen the revival version done anywhere yet.

I would also say "Oliver" is better than the stage musical.

I prefer the movie of Fiddler to any stage version I've seen. I think Topol is the best Tevye, and the cinematography in the film adds volumes.

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Grease! I get bored with the stage productions of it.

I disagree with you Phantom movie supporters. I thought the movie was awful and did not capture the piece at all. It was too corny and did not translate well cinematically. Furthermore, Phantom and Christine were NOT singers and last time I checked it is called Phantom of the OPERA. Just my opinion. :)

Chicago is a tie for me. I loved the movie (which surprised me) but love the feel of the live produciton a little more perhaps? But it definitely is the only musical turned movie that COMPLETELY won me over and say "Wow! That rocked!".

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Best you're breaking my heart here Picnic as good as the play? I think it shows (as do South Pacific and Camelot) how Josh Logan was apparantly a brilliant stage director (Havign directed those first two on Broadway) and then his all too literal opening ups for films nearly ruin that magic. The 10 minutes of random shots of people at the picnic in particular are awful.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof has those brilliant performances but the scipt is just too gutted for me--I know that's censorships problem and not really the fault of the director (if anything it at least carries the play's feeling over--something Brooks' next Tenn Williams film, Sweet Bird of Youth didn't manage to do with its changes) and I enjoy the film but would never rank it as highly as the play (especially what I've read and seen of the Elia Kazan original production).

(Ditto Bus stop--I love Monroe in it but the play is so completely rewritten it's hard to compare--I will grant and agree with you on Inge's Come Back Little Sheba though which, even with mild censorship works as well as a film)

Three underated Williams' adaptations are Summer and Smoke--never a success on Broadway, I think it works well as a film even if it's never in my top picks--and it's appropriately faithful. One of my fave Williams plays (in my top three) is Orpheus Descending--he blamed it flopping on Broadway on the fact that Elia Kazan wouldn't direct it as he was busy with Dark at the Top of the Stairs, but Lumet's film version, Fugitive Kind, is surprisingly faithful given the extremeness of the play, and very good I think (even if it divides critics--and it was both Kurt Cobain's and Courteney Love's fave film which I'm not sure is praise...) The only thing with Kind is the TV adaptation of Orpheus Descending, with Vanessa Redgrave and directed by Peter Hall based on his 80s revival just blows it away--but it's not technically a film and isn't on DVD yet so...

I also think Gore Vidal's adaptation of Suddenly Last Summer is brilliant--it took someone like Vidal to manage to keep the heart of such a shocking play while still appeasing the censors (something Brooks never could do IMHO for Cat or Bird) and the star power works magnificently (even my poor Monty's drugged up state works...)

E

:P I think my lame sense of humour carries off even worse on here with you--it's obvious all opinion and yours is at least as valid as mine :P . Although I still think Cat was neutered especially with th clumsy rewrite of the homosexual speech.

I've never seen or read the original plays of Torch Song (I liked the movie alrigth) and M Butterfly ( a movie I really liked)--I'm curious how you think they were ruined?

"Better than the (straight) play:

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? "


Really Best12?.....Really? Do explain cause I really think you are off the mark on this one.


And the original Fosse staging was far superior the the Chicago film. However the film was better, imo, than the current revival.

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M Butterfly lost all its impact and magic on film. And it was claustrophobic.

But Torch Song was the real travesty. The original play was about 3.5 hours in three brilliant acts... so they cut over half of it (HALF!) for the film version. If you only know it from the movie, you haven't seen Torch Song Trilogy.

They removed all theatricality and sanitized it beyond all recognition. It was a terrible disappointment to me. So pedestrian.

And it was one of the most powerful plays I've ever seen on Broadway.

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Agree to disagree then. While the performances in the film are out of this world I feel it really loses its claustrophobic nature by taking it out of the house. Why don't Nick and Hunny just leave then? For me the stage version will always stand superiour. But then, thats just my opinion.

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I agree about opening up the play really not working (for Woolfe) though I think the film is still very strong and an example of star power working to its benefit. Still, as I said earlier, the original cast recording of the original cast is so powerful--even without visuals I'm not sure I'd say the film works better.

Bar--that makes sense about M Butterfly (I always thought it was meant ot be clauster[phobic though...)--and I'm gonna immediately track down a copy of the Torch Song Trilogy script... I had no idea it was so much longer--thanks!

Two I just thought of both directed by Will Friedkin (who's currently adapting Bug)--Pinter's The Birthday Party, which even Pinter felt was better than the play (hard to find but worth tracking down) and The Boys in the Band--VERY faithful to the play but the few changes (ie opening it up to have scenes on the patio with then a rainstorm forcing them inside for the intense telephone game) add a lot IMHO

E