What FILM Version Do You Think is BETTER than the PLAY?- Page 7

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 5/29/07 at 9:20pm

I agree with Best regarding TORCH SONG TRILOGY, even if I have only read the play without seeing it on stage. However, I think Matthew Broderick, Anne Bancroft, and Harvey Fierstein all give performances that make the movie worth watching. I wish they revived this play so I could have the chance of seeing it performed.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 6:51am

Can you talk about what you don't like about the film version of Agnes of God, best12bars? I realize it's stagy and probably a pale imitation of the stage version, but I still find it engaging.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 8:26am

I wouldn't say better...I loved the movie but I love the stage version as much. That being said, I think the movie version of Hairspray was a huge improvement over the stage version. But perhaps huge improvement is the wrong choice of words. I liked how it wasn't a word for word replica, script wise. They made great choices that didn't effect the storytelling, even if it meant that Mama, I'm A Big Girl Now was cut much to the chagrin of my mother.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 10:36am

MrMidwest---It's been about 25 years since I saw the play on Broadway, but I'll try to explain why the film was such a letdown. Starting with the cast! One of the thrills of the play was the acting brilliance of Geraldine Page and Elizabeth Ashley "butting heads" as adversaries on stage. Two powerhouse performances.

In the film, they drastically "watered down" the role of the psychiatrist, and I thought Jane Fonda "walked" through it, looking like a Sears Fall Catalog model. All of the grit and fire from Ashley's characterization was missing. And it wasn't just the acting choices (or lack thereof) that Jane made. It was that many, if not ALL, of her monologues were CUT from the film. While we all know actors can't get away usually with facing the camera and doing a monologue, a cinematic device (like the one used in Amadeus, where Salieri's monologues were turned into his "confession" in the asylum) should have been used.

Imagine how the movie Amadeus would play if all of Salieri's confession monologues had been removed. We wouldn't know his inner turmoil, his struggles with mediocrity, with talent and with faith. It would have cost F. Murry Abraham his Best Actor Oscar, and probably the film's Best Picture Oscar. You can't cut them and have anything left of substance.

It's the same thing with the psychiatrist's monologues in Agnes. You lose everything essential to the story without them.

And Anne Bancroft was WAY too "quaint" and "grandmotherly" as the Mother Superior. Geraldine Page gave a much more powerful, layered performance. She scared you as well as fascinated you.

The only one I thought that did comparable work to what had been done on stage was Meg Tilly as Agnes.

I hope you get to see it on stage one day, with a cast of killer actresses. Then, you'll see just how much depth and intensity was missing from the film version.

Updated On: 11/18/07 at 10:36 AM

[lstbutifulgrl2]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 10:39am

i like Grease the movie better than Grease on stage.

and adding to the RENT debate.... i think there are parts of the movie that prefer over the stage version. One being What You Own, i love the part in the movie when Roger comes back and he and Mark actually sing to one another. RENT is by far my favorite staged musical right now, so it's hard for me to say that, but it's true.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 11:36am

Much prefer the Rent movie to the show.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 12:14pm

I actually found Amanda Plummer far superior to Meg Tilly in the film and that she gave Page and Ashley a run for their money on stage. She was absolutely CHILLING and possessed with an intensity I've rarely seen matched. I agree Ashley was brilliant. And while getting to see a legend like Page was fun, I bet she need to spend hours flossing between performances to get all that scenery she was chewing from between her teeth.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 12:16pm

Thank you for going into detail about what made the stage version so much more powerful to you, best. It makes a lot of sense.

I've said before that I'd like to see a revival with Kathy Baker or Holly Hunter as Martha, Vanessa Redgrave as Mother Miriam, and maybe Sarah Polley as Agnes.

Updated On: 11/18/07 at 12:16 PM

[Mealz1042]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 12:42pm

Annie, My Fair Lady, and this probably doesn't count but Legally Blonde, though its so different that it probably doesn't belong in this category.

[amanda44x]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 12:42pm

I know this is a tad off the main question, but are any of you sick and tired of movies being made into musicals on Broadway?

I looked at the shows in production or workshopping....things like...Spiderman, The Nutty Professor, the Adams Family, etc...the list is becoming longer and longer with films that were not that great to begin with (not to pass judgement on those listed, I do love Spiderman) and there are barely any plays going up. It varies, but don't you sometimes miss seeing just raw acting?

[Jonny boy]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 2:01pm

The RENT movie was a joke, but I thought that Phantom was much better as a movie!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 2:15pm

I've always thought the Miracle Worker film works much better than the play. It feels a little melodramatic on stage to me where as i TOTALLY buy it on film. Maybe because of the type of intimacy film provides? Not sure. But the movie hits me in a way the play can't.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 2:25pm

Margo, just to clarify... Amanda had left the show by the time I saw it. Carrie Fisher had taken her place, but was out. I don't think she was "in" much during her run. Her understudy was excellent... Marryann Plunkett! Long before her Tony win in Me & My Girl.

As good as she was... she was not "Amanda," or so I've heard.

EDIT: And MrMidwest---A revival sounds good to me! I like your casting ideas too.

Updated On: 11/18/07 at 02:25 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 2:36pm

Thanks for the clarification, Besty. Amanda was and is one of those rare eccentric creatures who just HAD to be an actress -- and a brilliant one -- no matter what. It's like someone once said of Bette Davis: "Had she been born a few centuries earlier, she surely would have been burned at the stake as a witch." There are so few of them out there like that. I wish Plummer would perform more often (in New York, at least).

Updated On: 11/18/07 at 02:36 PM

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 4:10pm

Why doesn't Amanda Plummer perform more often?
From everyone I know who saw her in PYGMALION, she gave one of those legendary unmatchable performances. I wish I had a chance to see her acting live.

[HumATune]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 4:43pm

I like the RENT film more than the musical, even though I think it's a bad adaptation of a musical to film. With the musical, I believe I would have enjoyed it more if I had an annotated script to look over first, because there are so many lines, references, and lyrics I don't "get". The movie somehow distracts me from my ignorance because I don't think it's as reliant on understanding the references to enjoy it.
Updated On: 11/18/07 at 04:43 PM

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Posted: 11/18/07 at 5:03pm

Chicago
Cabaret
Dreamgirls
Oklahoma!