Movie Musicals

I love Broadway musicals. It's very rare that I love a film version of a stage musical.  And if you're looking at the the Broadway poster of Sweeney Todd rather than the film version, you may have already guessed where this posting is headed.  I think Sweeney more than most musicals would never work for me.  I fell in love with the music when still a teenager 30 years ago.  I memorized the entire score almost instantly.  Imagine listening to Beethoven's Ninth with parts of the Ode to Joy removed. 

Did the film work on its own merits?  Perhaps, but I could never watch it without the staging and music in my ears.  I still hear Angela Lansbury or Patti Lupone.  I can't help it.  Of course, all the plot twists for those unacquainted with the musical might have been thrilling, but I already knew the outcome.  The director made a choice.  I disagree with the choice.  There was too much blood and not enough humor.  The actors used their own voices which were serviceable, but the boy soprano who played Toby, blew them all away musically.  And they cut vast parts of "A Little Priest."  Unforgivable.

Let's be clear:  I love Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, and most of all, Alan Rickman.  I'm just unsure how to make a good film of a stage musical.  For instance: as good as West Side Story and My Fair Lady are as films, we all know the female star is not singing.  That's Marni Nixon not Natalie Wood nor Audrey Hepburn.  Why cut songs and change plots like in Cabaret, A Chorus Line, Evita, and Chicago (which as a film won an Oscar for Best Picture).  Stunt casting ruined Hairspray.  Thus far, Dreamgirls is the only adaption that has worked for me recently.  Ah well.  Luckily I have two versions of the stage version of Sweeney Todd to fall back on. 

Comments

[ernie]

not to mention the ultimate travesty, the movie version of Guys and Dolls

[Steve]

Haven't seen SWEENEY yet, but I thought the film version of CABARET was better than the stage version. Ditto FIDDLER ON THE ROOF and OLIVER!. And I liked HAIRSPRAY on film too, except for Travolta, and CHICAGO, except of the edit-happy direction.

But in general I'm not a fan of Broadway musicals to begin with, and think that the movie versions of CHORUS LINE and Lloyd-Webber crap like PHANTOM and EVITA just exposed the faults of the source material. I much prefer musicals that were originally written for the screen, like the Astaire or Gene Kelly movies.