I’ve been trying to expand my cultural horizons beyond the tentacle monster genre recently. I’ve read up somewhat on the history of the broadway musical, and I’ve seen the following film adaptations, in that order:
My Fair Lady
The Sound of Music
Evita (the one with Antonio Banderas)
The King and I
Chicago (with Catherine Zeta-Jones)
Rent
I really them all except for Evita(didn’t like the music) and The King and I(Music was OK, but the plot was odd and didn’t end conclusively). If I ever have time, I need to find myself some dancing lessons so I can sing and dance along.
Questions:
I understand in the older productions, the music is dubbed on later. What about with the newer ones like Chicago and Rent?
Is anyone hotter than Rosario Dawson’s Mimi Marquez?
What next? I’ve got South Pacific ready to go as soon as I find time.
Watch Little Shop of Horrors with Rick Moranis (and Steve Martin, Bill Murray, John Candy, and Christopher Guest in small parts). It’s the best of both worlds for you: a Broadway musical WITH tentacle monsters!
One of the funniest movies of the '80s too. And Exhibit A for people who see crap like Cheaper by the Dozen and wonder why everyone thought Steve Martin was so great.
Sorry, posting in the morning my memory was a little hazy. but I have actually already seen both West Side Story and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Both were enjoyable, albeit I didn’t really “get” Rocky, and I guess I didn’t like either enough to remember.
I will track down a copy of Little Shop of Horrors post-haste. Jesus Christ and Moulin Rouge too. So many musicals, so little time, oh my…
Who are you, her mother? I needed a third point to make a list and that was all I could think of at the time, Okay? Maybe I’ll stick to Hi Opal next time.
Check out Anything Goes, Fiddler on the Roof, and Oklahoma if you can find them, and Little Shop of Horrors is also a favorite, though it’s been mentioned above. Finally, if you’re in a place where you can see musical theatre live, do it; it’s infinitely better shown in the medium it was written for.
I disagree – if they’re there, they’re there! I’d love to see a live performance of Wicked because I enjoy the soundtrack, and I think Idina Menzel (even with green skin) and Kristen Chenoweth are hot as hell. And it’s hard to get more smolderingly sexy than Catherine Zeta-Jones as Velma Kelly in Chicago!
Well yeah, of course…then there are those that don’t get into the movies (like Marin Mazzie or Sutton Foster). I’m just saying that if you ask 100 men why they watch musicals, probably damn few will say, “because the women are so hot.”
Singin’ In The Rain, is that considered musical theater, or just a musical? How can movies be musical theater, er, theatre, anyway? In any case, I highly recommend that one.
I always think I don’t much like musicals, but I’ve liked most of the ones mentioned here already, especially Chicago, Jesus Christ Superstar, My Fair Lady, Little Shop of Horrors, West Side Story and All That Jazz. And I’m looking forward to the movie of Dreamgirls.
I haven’t seen Rent but Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge! has to be at least equal. I’d go gay for Satine! (though I would make sure she has a complete physical first) She’s a most beautiful hooker with a heart of gold.
(Warning that Moulin Rouge! is very different from all these others. It’s a period film, but very stylized and somewhat surreal, and it uses modern, sometimes very mainstream, music to help tell the story. It’s one of my all-time favorite films, but it has to be accepted on its own terms, and those terms are often very convoluted and sometimes even goofy. It’s one of those movies you either Get, or you Don’t. And before anyone jumps on my ass, I don’t mean Get as in “understand” but rather, Get as in, it fits well into your psyche. For those who dislike it, MR is a square peg trying to fit into a round slot in their brain. There’s nothing wrong with that. But the movie isn’t bad because of it. Not that anyone has said the movie’s bad…yet…but it is a Love It or Hate It film.)
Call Me Madam Irving Berlin and his favorite, fabulous leading lady, Ethel Merman, who was never more glorious than in this movie.
Oklahoma! The Hollywood film from the 1950’s isn’t bad but if you can, get the tape of the 1999 London stage production with Hugh Jackman as Curly (it’s the role that made him a star) and Shuler Hensley, who is superb as Jud.
Top Hat Irving Berlin again, this time with his favorite leading man, Fred Astaire. If you don’t respond to Fred dancing to “Cheek to Cheek” with Ginger Rogers, give up - musicals aren’t for you.
Have to agree with Marlitharn. Avoid Grease 2. You’d think Michelle Pfeiffer, Lorna Luft, Adrian Zmed, Sid Caesar, Dody Goodman and Eve Arden could camp a movie up enough to make it enjoyable.
Not even that galaxy of camp stars can pull this off, though.
Let’s see…South Pacific has some really good songs (I’ve had “Happy Talk” running through my head for three days now), though I’m not sure if anything got cut from the movie version. There’s a concert performance with Reba McEntire and Brian Stokes Mitchell that I really, really wish had been an actual fully staged version. Reba’s a perfect Nellie, and Mitchell manages to at least equal Ezio Pinza as Emil.
There are some really excellent current Broadway shows going, but even with the new resurgence of movie musicals, I doubt we’ll be seeing The Drowsy Chaperone in multiplexes anytime soon.
