26 October 2008

The first rule of musicals is...

So, it’s not like I’m completely against the whole movies turned into musicals thing, but there is a time and place for that sort of thing. Some movies naturally lend themselves to the new format. I mean, The Producers (1968, 2005) and Hairspray (1988, 2007) were practically musicals already. The stage productions may have had a few more singing and dancing numbers added, but the stories themselves were already pretty much centered around some sort of musical entity (Hitler musical, teen dance show), so the remake makes some kind of sense. But Fight Club: The Musical? That’s a stretch.

And then I found this list.

So, what’s the deal? Are there really no new ideas for musicals? This seems like a weird phenomenon. I mean, making a musical into a movie makes some sense, you’re basically just filming an existing work (plus you have more freedom as to locations, costume changes, special effects, etc.) But taking a movie and replacing the dialog with a bunch of songs and boxing it in on a stage seems like such an odd idea. Also, I keep trying to imagine the Fight Club Musical, and I just can't quite get there...

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