Musical to Movie Adaptations

Let me preface this by saying that I do like how movie musicals expose audiences to the wonderful world of theater and can get them interested in a particular show.  I had that experience with the movie version of "Grease".

I would watch "Grease" every night before bed from the time I was two.  It wasn't until I was in high school that I watched the Broadway show and realized how different it was from the movie.

This is the problem I have with movie adaptations.

Apparently, the Broadway musical is good enough to be made into a movie, but not good enough to be kept the same.

I've seen this happen with pretty much every movie adaptation, like "Hairspray", "Rock of Ages", "Into the Woods" and "Little Shop of Horrors".

I have been in, seen or read the script for each of the shows above and I can confidently say that the movies are horrible adaptations.

I saw the movie "Hairspray" when it first came out in 2007.  I watched in over and over again because I loved it so much.

Seven years later, I did a project on the show in my technical theater class and read the entire script.  The writers and director changed so much for the movie that it did not seem like the same show.

I was in Into the Woods in high school and played Cinderella.  I was literally bouncing in my seat in the theater waiting to watch the movie in 2014.  I was very disappointed.

I later counted the songs that were cut out and reached the number of 14.

The show is popular because of the beautiful music written by Stephen Sondheim and the movie cuts out 14? Ridiculous.

I saw a high school production of Little Shop of Horrors and noticed that the movie completely changed the ending of the stage show.  I understand that the movie team wanted a happier ending to the movie, but it changes the entire story.

I think I am most upset about the movie version of Rock of Ages.  I was obsessed with the movie when it first came out and thought it was hilarious.  Then during my senior year of high school, I went to New York to see it on Broadway.

I left the theater feeling disgusted about the way the movie handled such an amazing show.

Plots were changed, characters were deleted and added and songs were altered.

It made me so bad that people were praising this movie when it was completely different than the show it was based on.

There are multiple musical adaptations in the process of being made so all I have to say is Hollywood needs to step up its game.

Break Legs,
Sydney