CALL ME MADAM: movie
CAROUSEL: mixed - the original play is much better written than the adapted movie script but the orchestrations and vocals in the 1956 film remain to this day the greatest performance ever of the score and will likely never be surpassed.
BELLS ARE RINGING: movie
A CHORUS LINE: play
OLIVER!: movie
THE LITTLE MERMAID: movie
BYE BYE BIRDIE – the play is better written but the movie is fun on its own terms.
KISS ME KATE: play & movie are a dead heat. The movie is faster paced and the superb orchestrations blow away any stage production but otherwise the stage version is about as perfect as it gets for a musical.
CAMELOT: play
HIGH SOCIETY: movie
DAMN YANKEES: play
PAJAMA GAME: movie
ANNIE: play
FINIAN’S RAINBOW: they are about equal but the movie has those gorgeous Ray Heindorf orchestrations
LI’L ABNER: movie
KISMET: the play is better but the movie is very faithful to the original and again those lush Andre Previn orchestrations in the film have to be heard to be believed.
CAN-CAN: despite the ridiculous miscasting and truncated score, the film has a much better script and the songs are performed beautifully.
THE KING AND I: the movie is eons better than the stage play.
FLOWER DRUM SONG: the 1957 original play has a rather clumsy book which was adapted into an excellent screenplay, but both the 1957 original play and the 1961 movie are by a country mile better than the hideous monstrosity that has recently been passed off on stage as “Flower Drum Song”.
SWEET CHARITY: play
MAN OF LA MANCHA: play
THE MUSIC MAN: movie
WHITE CHRISTMAS: movie, but the stage version, although missing much of the film’s magic, is wonderful in its own way
GODSPELL: the stage version works much better but the 1973 film features the best recording ever of the score.
ON THE TOWN: play
MAME: play, but the stage musical pales by comparison to the 1958 non musical film of the original 1956 play, AUNTIE MAME
MARY POPPINS: movie
HAIR: play
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: movie
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF: play
MY FAIR LADY: the play is preferred unless Cameron Mackintosh has anything to do with it but the 1964 film is a very faithful adaptation and features Rex Harrison & Stanley Holloway’s most polished performances as Higgins & Dolittle plus even though she is not a soprano and had to be mostly dubbed by Marni Nixon in the songs (who is arguably every bit as good a singer as Julie Andrews), Audrey Hepburn on her worst day was a better actress than Julie Andrews was on her best day in 1964 and is still the definitive acting Eliza.
THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLE: the movie by a mile
THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN: movie
WEST SIDE STORY: The original 1956 stage production with Carol Lawrence, the fabulous Chita Rivera and Larry Kert as the definitive Tony is preferred but despite the miscasting of Richard Beymer as Tony in the 1961 film, the recent casting of equally pretty boy Matt Cavanaugh proves we haven’t progressed much further in subsequent stage versions and Jimmy Bryant (who dubbed Beymer in the film) is a much better singer than Cavanaugh or anyone except perhaps Kert in the role. The much larger orchestra and Johnny Green’s impeccable conducting make the 1961 soundtrack still the best recording ever of WEST SIDE STORY. There is a good reason why Arthur Laurents hates the film: the brilliant concise screenplay by Ernest Lehman is leaps and bounds superior to Laurents’ stage play, which I think is the weakest thing about the stage production. Lehman’s juxtaposition of “America” & “Officer Krupke” and the jettison of the silly “Somewhere” ballet are in particular, strokes of genius that increase the tension and propulsion of the story enormously. The revisions Laurents made to the current revival mask rather than fix what is broken with his play, in my humble opinion.
"I long-ago realized that this country is a nation of
morons, when it comes to knowledge of anything outside, or beyond, pop culture." Steve Slezak
Updated On: 1/15/09 at 02:58 AM
