musicals who waste a good source material — Page 2

Lennon pretty much trashed all The Beatles songs.

Well, technically, it would be more correct to say that Lennon trashed one Beatles song and a lot of John Lennon's songs, if you were going to claim any trashing took place. Unless you mean that the musical somehow trashed the Beatles music by proxy.

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Lestat, (let me explain) yes I still enjoyed it, defended it and will always adore what it is, but...

The musical book/script could have been fantastic, given the amazing characters and relationships. I would have liked to see the show with a different book writer, director and lyricist. Sadly even if it's revived from something decent to spectacular, there is no chance of getting the original cast back, which was the God given thing this musical had.

As much as I love (most parts) of this show for what it is, it could have been spectacular.

mlsheehan, i think you're absolutely right in regards to Wicked. Yes the book of the musical is clunky, and it's definetly a lot more pop and sugar than the book. But (and i beg, don't hate on this) if it had stuck to the book, you'd end up with another 3-hour depressed-fest like Les Miserables. I love Les Mis, but it wears you down after a while. For a musical, Wicked works the way it is. Now, if the BBC would make an adapted mini-series out of it like with Pride and Prejudice, then you'd have a great chance to use the source material to it's potential.

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By mentioning "High Society", frontrowcentre2 reminded me of the original stage mis-marriage of Cole Porter and Philip Barry.

Burt Shevelove, who you think would have known better, took Barry's play "Holiday", eviscerated it, stuck in Porter songs and called it "Happy New Year." If there ever was a waste of good source material, that was it.

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