19,660 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jul 25, 2018 22:10:17 GMT
And as such are destined to disappoint any discerning theatregoer when seen live.
Cabaret. West Side Story. Chicago. Sound of Music Oliver!
Stay home and put on the dvd. Right?
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573 posts
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Post by Dave25 on Jul 25, 2018 22:11:09 GMT
Grease
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2018 22:13:57 GMT
I personally wouldn't have said Chicago or Oliver!
And from what I've seen on YouTube of Sam Mendes' Cabaret, I think that looks far better than the film which I felt was a bit overrated.
But I agree with Grease.
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494 posts
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Post by ellie1981 on Jul 25, 2018 22:26:19 GMT
Seeing Grease on stage for the first time when I was about 13 was such a disappointment. I darent go again.
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660 posts
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Post by Oleanna on Jul 25, 2018 22:48:42 GMT
Grease and The Sound of Music.
Definitely no to all of the others.
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Post by danb on Jul 25, 2018 22:58:27 GMT
I absolutely loved the WSS tour a couple of years ago with Louis Maskell and Katie Hall, and miss my vhs of the Donmar Cabaret; both better than their filmic counterparts. Admitedly WSS is great as a result of the movie because of the recognition but still...
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1,481 posts
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Post by steve10086 on Jul 25, 2018 23:02:59 GMT
Hairspray
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136 posts
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Post by sempala on Jul 25, 2018 23:14:26 GMT
I honestly think the Dreamgirls film is better than the musical! Better character development!
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3,303 posts
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Post by david on Jul 25, 2018 23:21:27 GMT
Aladdin
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494 posts
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Post by ellie1981 on Jul 26, 2018 4:11:36 GMT
I honestly think the Dreamgirls film is better than the musical! Better character development! Wow, really? I really hated the film, especially thought it was horribly miscast (Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy and yes, even Jennifer Hudson) and some of the story arcs particularly involving Jimmy were ridiculous. The stage show characterisations just had so much more charisma and was so much tighter without some of the unnecessary new songs.
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421 posts
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Post by carmella1 on Jul 26, 2018 4:16:37 GMT
When did they film an Aladdin musical??
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1,210 posts
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Post by musicalmarge on Jul 26, 2018 6:00:51 GMT
When did they film an Aladdin musical?? I agree the original Aladdin animation from Disney is much better than the current musical!! Same with Little Mermaid and Tarzan.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2018 6:22:27 GMT
When did they film an Aladdin musical?? I agree the original Aladdin animation from Disney is much better than the current musical!! Same with Little Mermaid and Tarzan. And the Lion King
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573 posts
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Post by Dave25 on Jul 26, 2018 7:24:20 GMT
The only 2 live action musical movies that really stand the test of time are The Sound of Music and Grease, both have glorious singing leading ladies, who really know how to act through song. What we see nowadays (Les Mis) is a bunch of actors struggling with the material, acting in spite of song. A director basically apologizing for the artform.
I agree about the animated musicals, Aladdin and the Little Mermaid, they had this quality and fluidity in both animation and embracing the artform of sung thoughts, where the stage versions fall flat, it looks like a sack of potatoes on stage.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2018 8:04:38 GMT
I think all the Disney animated musicals are going to suffer on stage. Disney puts an immense amount of effort into getting the details right and pushes the limits of what can be achieved with the medium, doing things that can really only be done with animation. And I think that's a general problem with some other productions, such as the film of Grease: occasionally something will make such outstanding use of the capabilities of one particular medium that it will never be quite as good when done in a different way.
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Post by Mr Snow on Jul 26, 2018 8:06:49 GMT
And as such are destined to disappoint any discerning theatregoer when seen live. Cabaret. West Side Story. Chicago. Sound of Music Oliver! Stay home and put on the dvd. Right? Sorry I have stumbled by mistake into a Film Forum? The very idea that a DVD can be better than any possible live version is ….suspect. What is it about those versions that you find so admirable? The performances? Well we’ll have to see who emerges to better them The rewriting of the way it plays out? Again, not all stage productions follow the same script. And then there’s the magic that happens on a certain night in a certain theatre… As to the films you’ve chosen Cabaret. I can remember my reaction the first time I saw it, but it is less with each repeat. Something that isn’t true in the theatre. Was really moved by the Donmar production. Yes it’s a great film, but better than a really good live production? (Happily we can have both). WSS. May have a point as the live productions have to follow a template and that’s a buzz killer. Does anyone know when it’s out of copywright? Overdue for a reinvention me thinks. TSOM. Too long. JA too Old. Should have a Government Health Warning as Medical evidence exists linking frequent watching to the onset of Diabetes. Never liked the piece until I saw the Regents Park version a couple of summers ago. It was a real drama. Chicago. Much as I admire the film, live it’s just so much more ….sexy (can I say that these days?) and seductive. As an audience member you are meant to realise you’ve been taken in by the razzle dazzle. Maybe the current tired stage version is not the best argument for this, but it has legs!!!!!!! Oliver. Film best watched in bits as its rather long. As for Shani Wallis, well at least she’s the exception in a marvellous cast. PS I do realise you don’t really mean it, just having a little fun. I mean you can’t really mean it? ??
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2018 8:09:53 GMT
Honest to goodness, the only way any performer could ever hope to surpass Rita Moreno is by humanity ascending to the next level of evolution, and the chances of *that* ever happening are decreasing by the day.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2018 8:19:39 GMT
My contribution: Hairspray. Yes, John Travolta was a helluva misstep, but the film was significantly better than the musical and will remain so until the stage version incorporates all the changes from the movie, up to and including Link's redemptive moment of dancing with Little Inez, and Little Inez's subsequent winning of Miss Teenage Hairspray. Yeah, some great songs from the show did go AWOL for the movie, but they are sacrifices I am willing to make.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2018 9:05:35 GMT
I guess 'Cabaret' live will always slightly disappoint those who had only seen the film because, I mean well, Liza. Seen live, the show is so different particularly in tone and especially the role of Sally Bowles. I like the show very much and the score is sensational but I definitely think I'd always pick Liza bellowing her way through the score over the live version anyway. Although Anna Maxwell Martin came very close to being my favourite Sally when she did it.
I think 'The Sound of Music' works better on film too. It's just so sumptuously gorgeous (Salzburg has never looked lovelier), Julie Andrews was at her most practically perfect in the film (she really should have won back to back Oscars) and Christopher Plummer was such a dreamboat at that time. The score works better in the film I think, I don't know what it is but the musical version always seems a little . . I don't know . . half-finished to me. Although Michael Xavier was a wondrous Captain Von Trapp at the Regents Park Open Air Theatre a couple of years ago.
The live version of 'Funny Girl' was nowhere near as good as the movie version either. Babs of course being the reason for that. Also, as much as I love the stage version, the film version of 'Mary Poppins' will never ever be bettered.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2018 9:13:52 GMT
Julie Andrews is a sublimely great Julie Andrews in the film, but it wasn't until I saw the Regent's Park production that I realised how unconvincing she had been as the problem that the nuns were wondering how one would solve. I think My Favourite Things and The Lonely Goatherd work better in the film, but otherwise, the stage version has a LOT more going for it than devotees of the film would have you believe (including the cut songs, and the nun choruses being treated less as background music).
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2018 11:42:14 GMT
The Sound of Music Grease Evita
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879 posts
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Post by daisy24601 on Jul 26, 2018 11:56:47 GMT
Definitely anything Disney.
I didn't care much for Chicago the film, the stage show was MUCH better. Same for Dreamgirls.
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19,660 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jul 26, 2018 12:48:27 GMT
I actually wrote my OP whilst rewatching Chicago last night.
That film had me from the first scene when you see Velma’s legs climbing out of that car and her high heels clacking down that rainy alley through the puddles before she rips the poster of the Kelly Sisters off the wall, to that sequence with the white fur coats, sequinned backdrop and machine guns at the end. Fabulous. Even my non musical liking friend came out of that cinema gobsmacked by the sheer FABULOUSNESS of it.
I also loved the way the real life scenes were transformed into the glamorous musical numbers seen through Roxy’s fevered imagination. I do love the stage version, seen it multiple times and have never come away disappointed, but it’s much more a series of very stylish musical numbers. The film gives the story as much importance as the music and for that reason is, for me, better.
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529 posts
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Post by jampot on Jul 26, 2018 13:08:25 GMT
Chitty Chitty bang bang...
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1,578 posts
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Post by anita on Jul 26, 2018 13:29:52 GMT
Mary Poppins.
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