Films adapted for the stage

flipp525
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Post by flipp525 »

This is really fun to imagine Airport 1975: The Musical, so I'm just going to keep going with it. Karen Black and Charleton Heston's dream-like waltz through a deserted and dimly-lit Dulles Airport terminal that segues, abruptly, from Heston lifting Black into the air to Black pulling Heston into the plane from the chopper.

I think a chorus line of dismembered crew members would also be fitting. The traditional "leg kick" would be a particularly jarring image.




Edited By flipp525 on 1228318376
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Penelope
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Post by Penelope »

flipp525 wrote:Pen, I would love to see a musical adaptation of Airport 1975. Can't you just see Helen Ready's big moment?
Or how about the Act One closer, the show-stopping "There's Nobody Flying The Plane!" with passengers and crew gyrating in their best Martha Graham-style choregraphy to portray the aircraft's decompression!
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flipp525
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Post by flipp525 »

cam wrote:We recently saw Misery, the stage adaptation of the film with Kathy Bates and James Caan. Instead of the gradual realization of the evil of Annie Wilkes, the character was shown as evil from the very beginning. The acting was fine, by two of Canada's best actors, but the fault lay in the stage adaptation.
Why would anyone make this into a play? Why would an audience want to see anybody other than Kathy Bates perform that role? I just don't understand why you would even go to this. It sounds like an absurd, fictional plot device in a T. Coraghessan Boyle short story.

Also, there's really nothing gradual about the revelation of Annie's true character in the book or the film. Her manic bursts and fits start very early, easily telegraphing the horror in store for Paul Sheldon later in the film.

Pen, I would love to see a musical adaptation of Airport 1975. Can't you just see Helen Ready's big moment?
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."

-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Hollywood Z
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Post by Hollywood Z »

What about a stage version of Zorro The Gay Blade? I always loved that movie and me and some acting friends watched it the other day and thought it would make a really fun stage play.
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Post by cam »

jack wrote:Some of you might not get the 'Up-the-Duff' referance. It's a British expression.
...And a rude one at that.
jack
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Post by jack »

Okay. So we can call it: Juno: the Up-the-Duff School Girl - the Musical!.

Some of you might not get the 'Up-the-Duff' referance. It's a British expression.
Big Magilla
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Post by Big Magilla »

There was a muscial called Juno in 1959 from Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock with Shirley Booth and Melvyn Douglas that was recently done in concert presumably to cash in on the name recognition from the totally different film.
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Post by jack »

What about Juno? Juno the Musical.
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Post by cam »

Last year's film "Music and Lyrics", which was a little gem, that was apparently not widely seen, would make a fine stage musical. The story was as good or better than some films that have already been adapted, and the tunes were good.
Oh, and as far as "Sugar" goes, it was a mess.




Edited By cam on 1212101784
jack
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Post by jack »

Even as I was thinking of Some Like it Hot, at the back of my mind I was thinking that it would have already been done.

I have to say I'm not a musical fan, both on stage and screen, but one musical that I did see and loved, and think it would make a fantastic film is Wicked. I think it's only a matter of time before it happens, though.
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Post by Big Magilla »

jack wrote:II don't know if this has been done before, but a musical based on Some Like it Hot could be interesting.
It was and it was not very interesting. In fact, it was pretty bad.

Produced in 1972, it was called Sugar after the Marilyn Monore character, stupidly shifting the emphasis from the Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis characters. Robert Morse and Tony Roberts played their parts, Elaine Joyce had Marilyn's part and Cyril Ritchard had the Joe E. Brown part. The score by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill who had previously collaborated on Funny Girl was, sadly, not very good.

It was resurrected in London in 1992 as Some Like It Hot and Tony Curtis, now in the Joe E. Brown role, subsequently toured with it in the U.S., but it still wasn't any good.
Cinemanolis
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Post by Cinemanolis »

rain Bard wrote:They warn the first several rows to come wearing clothes they won't mind splattered with fake blood.
lol. that sounds fun!
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Post by jack »

I really wanted to see the Evil Dead musical. Apparently my hero George Romero is trying to produce a stage play of John Carpenter's The Thing. His plan is to refridgerate the theater to add to the experience of the story.

I don't know if this has been done before, but a musical based on Some Like it Hot could be interesting. And, of course, in the vain of Penelope's comment, an all-singing, all-dancing production of Cadyshack.
rain Bard
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Post by rain Bard »

There's a local company here in San Francisco that puts on stage versions of horror movies. They warn the first several rows to come wearing clothes they won't mind splattered with fake blood. I attended a condensation of the Evil Dead trilogy and thought it was a blast! They've also done Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Re-Animator among others.
Cinemanolis
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Post by Cinemanolis »

cam wrote:We recently saw Misery, the stage adaptation of the film with Kathy Bates and James Caan. Instead of the gradual realization of the evil of Annie Wilkes, the character was shown as evil from the very beginning. The acting was fine, by two of Canada's best actors, but the fault lay in the stage adaptation.
Funny, exactly the same thing happened in the Athens production recently. It was probably the same adaptation.
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