Agreed on this. I haven’t listened to the record in years (I own the vinyl–not uncommon in bargain bins across the country) or seen the movie since high school in the 80s, and I remember these two songs and not much else (not saying the rest is bad, but these two songs are quite memorable).
Yes, that’s the part. More importantly, I got to sing the very first solo line in the show (“Someone ought to open up a window!”).
Someone “helpfully” told me–“You’ve got a big responsibility. If you mess up that line, it’ll start the entire show off on the wrong foot, and we might never get it back on track!” Not too much pressure. :eek:
cf. “I Feel Pretty” in West Side Story, “Take Back Your Mink” in Guys and Dolls, “Cinderella, Darling” in How to Succeed…, “The Farmer and the Cowman” in Oklahoma!, et ceterah, et ceterah, et ceterah.
Both recent remakes of **Hairspray **(movie and live TV version) cut out one of my favorite numbers, “The Big Dollhouse”. It’s a fun number, but I can understand cutting it for both time and to avoid building a large set for just one scene. What is weird is the live TV version also cutting all the surrounding narrative. Without Tracy’s father mortgaging his joke shop to bail everyone out of jail, some of the logic and lines fall apart.
I came to me3ntion this one. IMHO they cut the wrong song. *Jitterbug *is a lively number, while *Rainbow *is sentimental dreck.
As for dating it, even contemporary productionsof the show still include it.
Ooops, forgot this one. Because it’s… forgettable? No shame it was cut from the movie!
I was very disappointed that I didn’t get to hear Rod Steiger sing “Lonely Room” in the movie version of Oklahoma!. Not that I would have expected a great vocal performance, but it could have been a spectacle to rival Clint Eastwood talking to trees in Paint Your Wagon…
So now you’re bringing The King And I into the discussion?
Speaking of which: There’s “The Small House of Uncle Thomas”, which appears in the movie, but not the original stage production.
No, it’s in the stage show. At least it’s been in the original published playscript and every stage production I’ve seen. (I don’t think it showed up on the original cast album, though.)
Here’s the playbill from the 1951 production:
The slide should show the second act musical numbers, including “Small House of Uncle Thomas.”
So, yes, definitely a part of the stage musical from the beginning!
I came in to mention these changes because I always felt they cut the two best songs and added two pieces of sappy crap. I loved it when the 50th anniversary of the movie came around because there was so much interesting stuff revealed … like how much trouble Plummer and Andrews had trying to sing “Something Good” with a straight face - and the fact that Plummer was pretty much always half in the bag during filming.
I always strongly preferred the stage musical to the movie as I felt the movie was saccharined up, as it were. The Nazi storyline was downplayed a little - in the stage play Von Trapp breaks it off with the Baroness because of politics, in the movie it was more of a love triangle. One thing I do love about the movie is this snarky exchange between the Baroness and Maria
Baroness: Is there anything you can’t do, dear?
Maria: Apparently I’m not very good at being a nun
But my feelings changed a little bit after I read Maria Von Trapps book and realized the movie version was closer to the truth. By her telling Von Trapp had a lukewarm long term relationship with a “Princess Yvonne”, who stepped aside when she realized Von Trapp was smitten with the nanny.
And the entire time frame of the real life story was drastically shifted. Yes, the family gave up everything to flee Nazi Germany - but that happened quite some time after Maria and Von Trapp married - by the time they fled they had lost most of their money in the Great Depression, they had turned the mansion into a boarding house for students, the original kids were all adults and they had school-aged children of their own.
Oh, I’m glad someone mentioned this. Lonely Room is an awesome number, regardless of whoever is singing it and adds a dark edge to the production as it’s basically Judd fantasizing about raping Laurie. But I think it was a little much for the movie audiences of the day.
Other random thoughts - musical theatre is a favorite subject of mine.
Sometimes a song will be cut from the original stage production but it will leave traces, as its melody is already woven into the overture and other orchestrations and that can’t be undone. Then it may be reinstated years later … I’m thinking specifically of “Misery” from Showboat, which was added back in to the 1995 Hal Prince revival? I think is a kind of unremarkable number that adds little but al least now I know where those riffs in the orchestration came from.
I’m also intrigued by the conversions from the original works. OK, there’s always going to be lots of liberties taken when you convert a book or true story into a medium that features song and dance, but still.
South Pacific is a case in point. Nellie Forbush leaves Emil because of his Polynesian children in the stage adaptation. In the Michener novel, Emil has several kids from several previous wives and she’s fine with all the little Polynesian kids but she can’t handle the fact that he had a black wife and a couple of black children. And this is attributed to her upbringing- there’s a reason she’s portrayed as being from Little Rock as opposed to, say, Syracuse.
I love to see a revival that corrects this with casting.
“Could We Start Again Please” was also added for the movie.
For my contribution, I’ll say I was really disappointed “The Long Grift” was cut out of the movie version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. We only see him on the bed with his guitar, and we hear the opening chord and first line, but that’s it. It’s cool though that they put it on the soundtrack!
Just now looked it up: CWSAP was added to the original Broadway production (Ben Vereen was Judas)–which precedes the movie–and then went into the book for subsequent performances. Well shut my mouth.
Since we’re speaking of Jesus musicals, I have to observe that for Godspell they wrote Beautiful City for the film (not a bad song, and kinda appropriate, considering that they filmed it in Manhattan), but took out Learn Your Lessons Well and We Beseech Thee. I only saw the stage show once, and don’t have the album, so I can’t recall what these even sound like.
The film version of Oliver! cut a number of songs from the stage musical, including “I Shall Scream” with Mr. Bumble and Widow Corney, “It’s Your Funeral” with Mr. and Mrs. Sowerberry and Mr. Bumble, and “My Name” with Bill Sikes. I’ve seen both the film and the stage musical, and can barely remember the axed songs, which leads me to believe that they couldn’t have been all that important.
I don’t miss “That’s Your Funeral” much, since it wasn’t even on the original stage album. As for cutting “My Name”…I kind of like the fact that we never see Bill Sikes sing or dance, in a movie filled with song and dance. It hammers home the fact that Fagin may be a more or less comic villain…but Bill ain’t playin’ with you.
(But listen closely whenever Bill appears onscreen and you’ll hear “My Name” as underscoring.)