Welcome to Gaia! ::

In the spirit of the release of "Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street" I'd love to start a discussion of musicals that have been made into movies. Did you see the stage production, or hear the original cast recording to compare the two of them? Which did you prefer?

And then there are movie musicals that never had a stage counterpart (at least not that I know of) like "Across the Universe" and "Moulin Rouge."

Personally, Sweeney Todd is my favorite movie in theaters right now (haven't seen all of them but as I work in a theater, it will happen). The acting is superb, the singing is surprisingly good, and of course the music is wonderful, it is Stephen Sondheim, after all. The director's choice in where and how much gore to include is a bit iffy for me, but I think it contributes to the overall mood of the show nicely.

I don't know many musicals that have been made into movies. I haven't seen Sweeney Todd on stage, though the movie was good. I vastly preferred the stage version of Phantom of the Opera to the movie.

Of highly musical movies, I don't think I will find something that I will find anything soon that will beat Sanrio's Journey through Fairyland. Maybe the plot and voice acting left something to be desired, but it was the first movie to introduce me to orchestral music, and a very good introduction too.

It just occured to me that when I went on a trip to Germany, the first night I was forced to sit through a German language production of 'Les Miserables'. Now, not having any idea what was going on during it made me think that the intermission was the end. Imagine my disappointment... gonk

Lolifoxx- I really enjoyed Moulin Rouge, it was the first movie I saw with either Ewan McGregor or Nicole Kidman singing. I didn't know they could, and I don't know how much editing was done to their voices but the movie itself is wonderfully romantic and abstract and thus, I love it.

Snow set afire- I haven't seen Sweeney on stage either, but that's definately now on my list of things to see- Stephen Sondheim is a genius! But I did see a version of Phantom on stage. My sister took me to Las Vegas to see it at the Venetian. I was duly impressed, but it was a bit fast paced for my taste (the Vegas show was cut and pasted by Weber to be a faster show). I am definately looking forward to seeing a better production, but for now I like the movie more. I've never seen Sanrio's Journey Through Fairyland, or heard of it. I'll probably look it up.

Ffaux-Actually, I think that it is somehow outlawed to make a movie recording of the actual musical of Les Mis. That's why the only recordings are simply songs and dialogue and not actual acting. I'm not sure where I heard that, might have been my high school french teacher, so I'm not sure how reliable the information is, but there you go. And while I haven't seen Guys and Dolls on stage, I'll be sure to rent it.

Tiawolf- The gore in the movie actually was a bit disappointing to me. Now, I have never seen someone's throat slashed but it seemed like the blood was very unrealistic. It may be that that was done simply to nullify the amount of gore in the show, or it could be Tim Burton's little artistic input, or someone elses, I don't know, but at moments in the show that I thought could have been extremely dramatic, it ruined them for me. Like the ending.

I haven't really seen many that I thoroughly enjoyed, but Moulin Rouge is definitely up on the list. The only other one I really enjoyed was Phantom of the Opera, despite the many filming errors... Such as improperly synchronized sound.

One of my favorite musical movies would have to be:

Rocky Horror Picture Show.

However,

Seeing it live?


Much much much better, depending on the singers.

I'll say it, the movie was great but some of the singing voices made me want to cry.

Just my opinion though.