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From: tgd@clyde.UUCP (Thomas G. Dennehy)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: Bad Films and Musicals
Message-ID: <172@clyde.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-Sep-83 15:24:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: clyde.172
Posted: Fri Sep 23 15:24:43 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 26-Sep-83 05:14:17 EDT
References: <170@clyde.UUCP> <614@ihuxl.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs Whippany NJ
Lines: 80


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}