Musicals which can never live up to the film version.

Hairspray, Grease and Sound of Music.

Hairspray needs to have a good producer to be done right, Grease the stage show is a bit tacky and flashy and tends to attract rowdy audiences, and Sound of Music just felt very long and dragged out on stage, and I’m yet to find a Maria who lives up to Andrews herself.

My main problem with Hairspray is the current run-down looking production out on tour. The cast are young, perky and enthusiastic and I’m sure it’s a great show for new actors, but the current production has virtually no set, faulty props and dirty looking costumes.

Agree with all this. Saw it once on stage. Enjoyed it, but no desire to watch again. The film, however, I would revisit time and time again (In fact I recently bought the 10th anniversary director's cut blu ray!)

The original West End production was one big cardboard fest, with some added fake corpsing. Give me the movie any day!

I think they should do this with a movie version of Miss Saigon too. Many scenes take place in a character's mind, it's about their imagination.
For example, last Night of the world should be something better than life, not the cold concrete small empty room that was probably realistic, but in their minds it is sweltering, passionate and soaring. Show what's in their minds. Thuy's death does not have to be in an alley between a trash can and a clothes line either, because when she shoots him, it's the end of the world for her. So instead of some pedestrians singing the choir, why not take Kim to a big, black undefined space, holding Thuy while a creepy smoke surrounds her that turns into a choir of 1000 ghosts, like shades of guilt, singing (not necessericly mouthing the words, but more like a voice over), really turning it into a very haunting scene. Non-literal. The essence of this artform.

I’ve always thought the film Brigadoon was darn near perfect. The live performance was so long ago I doubt if there is anyone who could do a comparison. I’m not sure if revivals would count

Dragging this back up (and I know this is a slightly different case as the film isn't a musical), but I think there is a portion of people who go to see Matilda expecting it to be virtually like the 1996 Danny DeVito film because it is quite iconic, but don't really expect it to be more like Roald Dahl book. Although the story is more or less the same (with the addition of the acrobat and escapologist story), I think some people come away a little baffled.

Does anyone else think the same? I've noticed it especially as it's here in Birmingham for the summer.

Liza is sensational in the film "Cabaret" but some people think she is too good to be believable as Sally Bowles. She plays a neurotic, insecure woman in a 10th rate Berlin nightclub and then she goes out and gives a performance that only a world-class entertainer can give.

Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz, West Side Story

Whilst there are a number of stage musicals that were adapted into great film musicals, it seems true that musicals written for film have found it far tougher to make the transition to the stage.

One of the problems with many stage-to-film musicals is that some songs tend to get lost in the transition - so you might well find a favourite number not making the cut. A number of scores were significantly compromised for the film version. But at least you get the majority of the core music.

Going the other way, many musicals created for film don't actually have enough songs to fill out an evening in the theatre. Sometimes the original creators can be brought on board to create the necessary new material. Often new composers/lyricists are brought on board to write stuff to fit round the film soundtrack. This can be done seamlessly. But it can also end up being very much a case of them and us in terms of quality.

For me, West Side Story is one of very few musicals that works as well on stage and film.

The Sound of Music never has worked for me in either form - I just find it overblown in both formats.

Cabaret is one where the two versions are so, so different that I just can't think of them as being the same piece. I love the stage version and just don't get on with the film (this, to many, is a heretical view - but I find it loses too much from cutting out the emotional heart of the piece - which has always been the relationship between Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz)

Oliver! comes close to being great in both forms - but again, too much good music is lost.