tgd@clyde.UUCP (Thomas G. Dennehy) (09/23/83)
Why Camelot limps on film:
The first temptation when adapting a musical is to make it
bigbigbig. The second temptation is to get rid of the
performers who created the roles on stage and to cast with
"names" who will sell the film in the burbs. Why else would
Clint Eastwood have been in "Paint Your Wagon"?
Camelot fell into both of these traps.
It's a one-set show. Fly in some trees now and again, cart
around some furiniture, but it's still only one set. Can't
have that on film. Look what they did the Equus. Can't have
a chorus, either (if you want to be taken seriously) So jump
around to individuals singing in widely spaced locations (France
to England at one point). Can't do anything stagey (Equus again)
Cinematically, Morgan's enchantment of Arthur is pretty dull stuff.
Richard and Vanessa may have "put their hearts into the roles"
but can't find four notes between them - they'd have to rent a
complete octave. If we're soing musicals, let's have some voices
for chrissake. Performers like Len Cariou have been given miserable
film roles, but are powerful musical animals. Put them on film -
a good musical will sell itself - and let THEM become household
names.
It's long. It's real long. On stage, it's even long. Act I alone
takes an hour and something. The film mercifully cut "The Seven
Deadly Virtues", but dragged "If Ever I Would Leave You" out to
rival "The Winds of War" for sheer tediom. Tighten that baby up!
I love musicals. I like listening to the score time after time, I
like watching them, I LOVE performing in them. Just wish they would
be done better on film.
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Tom Dennehy BTL Whippany {clyde!tgd}esj@ihuxl.UUCP (J. Johnson) (09/23/83)
Well, at the risk of being flamed from here to h*ll and back, I believe that musicals just don't make it as movies. If you want to see a good musical performed well, see it on stage LIVE.
tgd@clyde.UUCP (Thomas G. Dennehy) (09/23/83)
J. Johnson writes: > at the risk of being flamed from here to h*ll and back, I believe > that musicals just don't make it as movies. If you want to see a good > musical performed well, see it on stage LIVE. He's come to the right place for flames. Musicals CAN and HAVE worked as film vehicles. It's an art. It's a science. What you have to do is: 1. Find what's being said. 2. Determine the theatrical devices used to say it. 3. Design cinematic ways of saying it. Some widely divergent examples. 1. South Pacific, Guys n' Dolls, The Music Man, Oklahoma, West Side Story ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The pick of the litter (well, maybe not Okla) from the golden age of the American Musical. The cast of characters is large, the settings varied, the action crisp and with a single theme. Four of the five (with the exception of Gs & Ds) were done in the same literal style with very little changing in the transition from stage to film. The realism the stage productions sought speaks for itself. Guys n' Dolls is a stagier film, using expressionist carboard-cutout sets, but moving around NYC and Cuba effortlessly. None of these works quailfy as great moments in film history, WWS's nine Oscars notwithstanding, but they work. Actually, Marlon Brando's singing in Gs & Ds is not to be missed. The horror, the horror... :-) 2. Cabaret ------- Cabaret has an advantage over your average musical. It has a list of sources as long as (insert cliche). The novel "Berlin Stories", the play "I am a Camera" and the stage "Cabaret" were all reworked to make the film. New songs were added, baddies canned, but for once the musical direction was handled by the same team as the original (Kander and Ebb) The new music works as well on screen as the old did on stage. We have a choreographer and filmmaker (Bob Fosse) at the helm, so the musical and non-musical sequences mesh poifectly. Making Michael York a homosexual was unnecessary, but the shift of the Jew/nonJew subplot to younger characters (Marisa Berenson and ???) put it on a par with the Sally/Cliff story, giving much-needed streamlining to the character relationships. Losing Bert Convy in transition from stage to film was a blessing. 3. All That Jazz ------------- Here's something new. An original musical for the screen. Fosse in control again, telling us what a mess he's made of his life and how much he loves it. Delrium gives BF an excuse to stage some pretty outrageous production numbers difficult to match in the confines of a stage. Even when he gets up close, personal, and oh so sexy (Airotica Airlines number in the rehearsal hall) good camera work keeps everything cooking along. I'll steal a favorite line from Pau- line Kael: "ATJ is high-cholesterol hokum - you love it, but it prob- obly isn't good for you". I've paid to see it five times. LOVE the way Anne Reinking flares her nostrils eversoslightly when she gets nervous and trapped in a lie. On the other side of the coin, how about all the movies which have been made into terrible musicals. Harold and Maude, King of Hearts, Dance a Little Closer (Idiot's Delight), Woman of the Year come immediately to mind. A Little Night Music was successfully adapted from Smiles of a Summer Night, but there aren't a lot of Sondheims around. Comments and flames are always welcome. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tom Dennehy BTL Whippany {clyde!tgd}
oz@rlgvax.UUCP (THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ) (09/29/83)
you want to talk bad musical? Well, then you HAVE TO mention PAINT YOUR
WAGON, which had Clint Eastwood in a SINGING role. I kid you not.
As for musicals as movies, they CAN be quite good, to name two,
ALL THAT JAZZ
CABERET
OZ
seismo!rlgvax!oztwt@uicsl.UUCP (10/01/83)
#R:clyde:-17000:uicsl:7600024:000:1965 uicsl!twt Oct 1 01:31:00 1983 You guys want comments and flames, you got 'em. esj - how can you say that musicals don't work on film, have you never seen (what may very well be my all time favorite, tho I don't know if it'll be the same next week) "Singin in the Rain". I personally happen to think it worked rather well - tgd, how could you not mention that one. I also happen to think (an oldy but moldy), "The Wizard of Oz" came across very well on film. It could not have become the classic that it is if it didn't work (on film). I will admit that sometimes Hollywood doesn't do a good job of transition, but it's not the fault of the musical either. I saw Annie on stage a few years ago and it impressed the hell out of me, for I thought the age of the musical was gone and they couldn't be written anymore and I was sooo excited when I heard the movie was coming out I couldn't wait. I have to admit I was TERRIBLY disappointed, and I believe the problem was that Hollywood was trying to make something that was very good even better when if they would have left it as is (was) it would come out much better than it did. I took my niece (5 year-old) to see it (it was about a week after she saw E.T.) and she said "It was a good movie, but I liked E. T. better". I must agree. On occasion Hollywood does do a good job of turning a stage musical into a movie Take "My Fair Lady". I've seen in both on film and on stage, whereas nothing beats a live performance of ANYTHING (music from classic to rock; to comedy; to drama) thhis is a very good example of coming close. Also, I can see "Singin' in the Rain" on t.v. and I can rent "My Fair Lady" at my tape club or local library and it's much CHEAPER than tickets for a show and much more CONVENIENT than the live stage (which is 3 hours from the area I live in). So film musicals definitely have their place in this world. Mary Would love to see "A Chorus Line" put on film, but afraid to see what they'd do to it.
dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (10/03/83)
The Sound of Music is another classic which does beautifully on film.
I don't know anything about the stage version; did it run for long?
Dave Sherman
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{cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo,uw-beaver}!utcsrgv!lsuc!davejgc@sunrise.UUCP (Jim Constantine) (10/10/83)
How about "The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T" -- talk about camp !!!
twt@uicsl.UUCP (10/11/83)
#R:clyde:-17000:uicsl:7600027:000:432 uicsl!twt Oct 4 22:05:00 1983 TO: esj at ihuxl (wherever in middle earth that is) Some persons responding to this base note have stated that "Cabaret" is not bad. I happen to like it (though it's kinda spooky how much Liza sounds like her ma). If you are willing to give in a try, and if your area gets cable, and if your cable company carries WGN Channel 9 out of Chicago; turn on your tv on Wed. Oct 12 at 7:00 p.m. CDT and see whatcha think. Mary