DVDizzy Forum

I love musicals, since it was hard to narrow it down to just top 10 I will also list others I like:

1. Sound Of Music
2. Oliver!
3. My Fair Lady
4. Singin' in the Rain
5. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
6. West Side Story
7. Meet Me In St. Louis
8. Chicago
9. Funny Girl
10. Oklahoma!

Other favorites in no particular order are:

Bye Bye Birdie (1963)
Fiddler on the Roof
Moulin Rouge
Little Shop Of Horrors
Mary Poppins
Music Man (1962)
The Wizard of Oz
Grease

1. My Fair Lady
2. 1776
3. Hello, Dolly!
4. Gigi
5. Oliver!
6. The Music Man
7. The King and I
8. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
9. Hairspray
10. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Did you guys see the trailer for NINE?

http://www.apple.com/trailers/weinstein/nine/

Went back and revised my list, along with my favorite recordings of the musicals

1 - My Fair Lady (Original Broadway Cast)
2 - A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (1996 Nathan Lane Revival)
3 - The Music Man (Movie)
4 - Gypsy (Original Broadway Cast)
5 - Fiddler On The Roof (1967 London Cast)
6 - 1776 (Movie)
7 - Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (1957 Telecast)
8 - Hairspray (Movie)
9 - Annie Get Your Gun (1966 Ethel Merman Revival)
10 - Little Shop Of Horrors (Movie)

Movie musicals? Well, here goes nothing....

1. The Phantom of the Opera
2. Cats (yes it was DTV, but I don't care)
3. Little Shop of Horrors
4. 1776
5. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
6. The King and I (the only version that matters, of course)
7. Oliver!
8. Gypsy
9. Annie Get Your Gun
10. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

A couple of notes to make:
- I see a lot of musicals on people's lists that would probably high on my list, but having never seen them, I cannot rate them, Rent and The Rocky Horror Picture Show especially. I really should watch it sometime.
- I really love Damn Yankees. It's one of my favorite musicals but I have never seen the film, so I cannot rate it.
- My favorite stage musical was never made into a movie musical, so it could not possibly be on my list. Hopefully someday it will be, but I seriously doubt it, it flopped terribly (it's Metropolis, btw). I've never seen it live, actually (it's rarely performed), but I have the Original London Cast Recording and it's wonderful.

And for whoever asked, the Cats film is a separate movie version, it is not just a filming of a live show I do not belive. It is actually missing a musical number from the stage version, and also uses shortened versions of many of the songs. It's still great, though, and it's the version I grew up with. I like it because you can watch it many, many times and eventually figure out who's who, which makes the plot so much more enjoyable. For example: Munkastrap is Deuteronomy's eldest son, the one who will someday inherit his title as leader of the Jellicles. This is the basis for his relationship with Rum Tum Tugger, the middle son, who is a rebel. Munkastrap is concerned about him, and surprised that he actually acknowledges his lineage (watch their faces during the Old Deuteronomy number....). The movie version really lets the actors tell the whole story, because there are more subplots then you could ever imagine on a first, second, or even third viewing.... (Very interesting, considering it is shorter than the stage version!)

Margos wrote:And for whoever asked, the Cats film is a separate movie version, it is not just a filming of a live show I do not belive. It is actually missing a musical number from the stage version, and also uses shortened versions of many of the songs.

Yeah, it's kind of sad that the song is missing, I've never heard the song.

I can't find any sources now, but I THOUGHT the reason they cut it was that the original actor who first performed the role was too old to do it, and refused to let someone else do the performance that he had originated.

Although, it could be that it was referring to Sir John Mills instead of the original cast member. If so, maybe he refused to let a younger person fill in, or maybe the director didn't want to consider having two people in the role (although I've heard that it was common to have two different actors, one for Gus, and one for Growltiger...)

I've also heard that it was simply cut for time, as it was a fairly elaborate and long piece, and the film already had several edits to shorten some other songs, so that it would be under 2 hours.

Either way, I would have preferred to see the whole thing!

If it WAS a matter of the Gus actor refusing to let someone else play his role for part of the time, then I consider that a bit selfish... It isn't about that actor, it's about the show as a whole!

If it was purely cut for time, I see no problem with a 2 hour and 40 minute version of this, it is recreating the stage experience (as much as possible, anyway.) We've had dozens of lengthy TV miniseries, and several movies have hit the 2 1/2 - 3 hour mark recently (Lord of the Rings extended cuts, etc.)

Well, having seen the show live, I can say... The number that's missing is a number within a number, which in turn has another number inside of it. It slows everything down a lot. Not even just a little bit. All of the characters end up dressed as pirates, and there's a big ship and everything. I think the whole point is to show Gus' nostalgia for the old days... But I think the film version actually does it better, in that he hallucinates the vision of Fireforefiddle (a character that he played mentioned several times in his song, not just once like Growltiger!). So I think it actually made much, much more sense to do it that way.

In no order.

1. Beauty and the Beast (1991)

2. The Little Mermaid (1989)

3. Aladdin (1992)

4. White Christmas (1954)

5. Bells Are Ringing (1960)

6. The Music Man (1962)

7. Mary Poppins (1964)

8. The Sound of Music (1965)

9. Hello, Dolly! (1969)

10. Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Oh, I just noticed something else with other people's lists, too... I didn't include any Disney movies. IDK, I guess they're just kind of "understood." I mean, I like Disney movies more than any other kind of movies.... so... IDK, I just didn't really think of them. When I think "movie musicals," I think "stage musical turned into a movie."