Monday, September 28, 2009

From Stage to Screen - and back again!

Slight change of direction!!

I've previously focused on Stage productions (plays, musicals, shows) being adapted to the big screen. Now, I'm taking a look at things from the other side of the spectrum - adapting from film production to the Stage.

I recently stumbled across a post "From Stage to Screen and back again" and came to find that there are a few films (well, more than I was aware of) being converted to the big screen as we speak!

"While work begins on the Little Miss Sunshine musical, We Will Rock You prepares for the Hollywood treatment. But can they compete with Mamma Mia!?"

So the question here is will these films, when adapted to the stage, be as highly accepted as Mamma Mia the Musical has been?

The answer will more or less come down to the way the directors portray and communicate the performance.
The score (or songs and lyrics) will play a vital role in either successfully or unsuccessfully linking to the storyline of the film to create the musical.
Correct characterisation will also be a very important factor in leading the film to success.
I guess it will also help having a few million dollars under the production teams belt in order to cater for scenery, sets and location, film equipment, special effects, cast, crew, makeup, costumes, props... etc etc.

As I have said before, musicals are one of the most powerful forms of entertainment, exposing audiences to raw emotion and real time performance.
So fingers (and toes) crossed.... I loved the films and hope to say I will also love the stage productions just as much - if not more!

Satisfying Scripts

In her post titled Totally Scripted, Part One, Erica Robyns states that:

"As a reader, scripts can be very satisfying to read. Even as a standalone without having seen the film or with the intention of seeing it. The actual script is very visual as the purpose of a script is to show what the viewer sees, not what the director envisages. What is written in a script is exactly what is shown on the screen."
http://wordsoundvoice.blogspot.com/2009/09/script-in-time-saves-nine-part-one.html

I tend to agree!
Although scripts are not as enjoyable to read as it would be watching the story unfold in front of you, they really do challenge the reader, freeing their imagination and allowing them to create their own interpretation.

Scripts for plays, musicals, films, whilst different in production, all do the same thing - they set out how a story is to be produced. Which means in reading them, ALL the information is provided - you will find everything you need in the dialogue, song lyrics, sets, blocking, costuming, lighting and stage directions, setting the scene for the script reader and also the emotions they should be feeling.

Scripts are much easier to read than the typically lengthy novel, being minimally worded with simple, concise sentences and stage directions/instructions.

If you enjoy a challenging, alternative read, get your nose into a Stage Script and see where your imagination takes you.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

GREASE - Is the Word....


A musical about teens in love in the 1950's!

Grease is a 1972 musical directed by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey.

The musical, set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School (loosely based on William Howard Taft High School (Chicago)), follows ten working-class kids as they navigate the complexities of love, cars, and drive-ins.

The show tackles such social issues as teenage pregnancy and gang violence; its themes include love, friendship, teenage rebellion, sexual exploration during adolescence and, to some extent, class consciousness/class conflict.

So good girl Sandy and greaser Danny fall in love over the Summer!!

But when they unexpectedly discover they're now attending the same high school, will they be able to rekindle their romance....?

Danny is the leader of the T-Birds, a group of black-jacket greasers while Sandy hangs with the Pink Ladies, a group of pink-wearing girls led by Rizzo. When they clash at Rydell's first pep rally, Danny isn't the same Danny at the beach. They try to be like each other so they can be together.

At the time it closed in 1980, Grease's 3388-performance run was the longest yet in Broadway history, although surpassed by A Chorus Line a few years later. It went on to become a West End hit, a hugely successful film, a popular 1994 Broadway revival, and a staple of regional theatre, summer stock, community theatre, and high school and middle school drama groups.

After it's huge success on the stage, Grease was adapted to film in 1978 by Randal Kleiser. The film stars John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway, and Eve Arden.

The movie received five Golden Globe Award nominations in 1979 and was the 2nd highest grossing (US) movie of 1978.

Along with the plot comes songs that will be stuck in your head for years. Such songs include Summer Nights, Beauty School Dropout and the now famous song Greased Lightining.

Grease is a timeless classic that will have you singing and dancing by the end of the movie!

MUSICAL FILMS - From Stage to Screen

The Musical Film is a film genre in which several songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative. The songs are most commonly used to advance the plot or develop the film's characters, although some films simply plop the songs in as unrelated "specialties".

The Musical Film was a natural development of the Stage Musical. Obviously, the most noticable difference between film and stage musicals is the use of lavish background scenery which would be impractical in a theatre environment.

Musical films charactistically contain elements reminiscent of theatre. Performers treat their song and dance numbers as if they have a live audience watching, and the performers often look directly to the camera to perform it.

Over the last thirty-five years or so, the musical film has declined in popularity, although with the success of the films West Side Story, The Music Man, My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, and The Sound of Music, there was a resurgence in the 1960s. One reason for the decline in interest in musical films was the change in culture to rock n' roll and the freedom and youth associated with it. Elvis Presley made a few movies that have been equated with the old musicals in terms of form. Most of the musical films of the 50s and 60s, for example Oklahoma! and The Sound of Music, were straightforward adaptations or restagings of successful stage productions. The most successful musical of the 1960s created specifically for film was Mary Poppins, one of Disney's biggest hits.
Despite the success of a few musicals, Hollywood failed to capitalise on these by producing a series of enormous musical flops in the late 1960s and early 1970s which appeared to seriously misjudge public taste. These included Camelot, Hello Dolly!, Sweet Charity, Doctor Dolittle, Star!, Darling Lili, Paint Your Wagon, Song of Norway, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Man of La Mancha, Lost Horizon and Mame. Collectively and individually these failures crippled several of the major studios. By the early 1970s it was felt that the film musical had had its day.

With the traditional musical seen as box-office poison, by the mid-1970s filmmakers avoided the genre in favor of using music by popular rock or pop bands as background music, in the hope of selling a soundtrack album to fans. Even so, there were exceptions to this rule, notably the 1978 film version of Grease, filmed in the traditional style, albeit using a different musical genre. Once again, however, a follow-up (Grease 2) bombed at the box-office, as did a calamitous attempt to resurrect the old-style musical in Can't Stop the Music (a vehicle for The Village People) which was released in 1980. Instead, films about actors, dancers or singers have been made as successful modern-style musical films, with the music as a diegetic part of the storyline. Many animated movies also include traditional musical numbers; some of these movies later became live stage productions, such as Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King.

In the early 2000s, the musical film began to rise in popularity once more, with new works such as Moulin Rouge!, Across the Universe,and Enchanted; film adaptations of stage shows, such as Chicago, The Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Dreamgirls, Sweeney Todd and Mamma Mia!; and even film versions of stage shows that were themselves based on non-musical films, such as The Producers, Hairspray and Reefer Madness.

No doubt most people would have seen at least one of these musical films! Do you feel the musical films do the stage show justice??

ANNIE

Annie! The Broadway musical based upon the popular Harold Gray comic strip Little Orphan Annie.

Music by Charles Stone, lyrics by Martin Charnin and book by Thomas Meehan.






What isn't there to love about this story? 11 year old red-headed Annie is at an orphanage, run by Miss Hannigan, who bullys and threatens the little orphan girls to keep them in line. The girls dream of finding parents and happiness. Annie decides she wants to find her family with her new found dog, Sandy.

Then, Grace Farrell, Oliver Warbucks assistant picks her to live in "Daddy" Warkbucks palatial home for the Christmas holidays. He vows to help her find her realy parents, but when a scheme by Miss Hannigan and her brother Rooster, to claim the reward gets found out, it is revealed Annie's parents have died. Warbucks and Annie become a family.

The original Broadway production opened at the Alvin Theatre on April 21, 1977. The show closed on January 2, 1983 and ran for a total of 2,377 performances, setting a record for the longest running show at the Alvin Theatre, now the Neil Simon Theatre.

The Musical was so popular, that it was produced on film by Columbia Pictures in 1982. Slight tweaks in the story line, but another fairly decent adaption.

I do prefer the live on stage version, but it is a great sing-a-long either way, and a tear jerker!

You will fall in love with Annie, her orphan friends and their story. The film is a great substitute for the musical, and extremely well cast. Hire it out! And tell me your thoughts

Get into Musical Theatre!!

Musical Theatre - What is it??

It is the wonderful form of theatre that combines music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance.

Stories, as well as the emotional content of the piece - humour, love, pathos, anger - are communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as a whole.
There are 3 main components of a musical - the music, the lyrics and the book. The book of a musical refers to the story of the show, in effect, its spoken lines. The music and lyrics together form the score of the musical.

A musical's production is creatively characterized by technical aspects, such as set, costumes, stage properties, lighting, etc. that generally change from production to production.

The material for musicals is often original, but many musicals are adapted from novels (Wicked and Man of La Mancha), plays (Hello, Dolly!), classic legends (Camelot), historical events (Evita) or films (The Producers and Hairspray). On the other hand, many familiar musical theatre works have been the basis for musical films, such as The Sound of Music, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, and Chicago. India produces numerous musical films, referred to as "Bollywood" musicals, and Japan produces Anime-style musicals. Another recent genre of musicals, called "jukebox musicals" (Mamma Mia!), weaves songs written by (or introduced by) a popular artist or group into a story – sometimes based on the life or career of the person/group in question.

Musicals are one of the most powerful forms of entertainment, with audiences exposed to raw emotion and real time performance.

From Broadway to amatuer productions, musicals of all genres are continually wowing world stages. Jump on the band wagon and go and see a musical, and correct me if I'm wrong when I say that film and television are no match for the stage.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

CHICAGO - Razzle Dazzle Em'!

A story of murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery and treachery...












Caught your attention yet?

It's no suprise that Chicago continues to wow audiences all over the world. Chicago has everything that makes Broadway great - a universal tale of fame, fortune and all that jazz, one show-stopping song after another; and the most astonishing dancing you've ever seen!

Music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same name by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins who had been assigned to cover the 1924 trials of murderesses Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner for the Chicago Tribune. Annan is the model of the character Roxie , 23, who murdered Harry Kalstedt, who she claimed "tried to make love to her". Velma is based on Gaertner, a carberet singer, who police had found the body of Walter Law in her abandoned car. The lawyers of the 2 woman, William Scott Stewart and W. W. O'Brien, were models for a composite character in Chicago, Billy Flynn.

The original Broadway production opened in June 1975 at the 46th Street Theatre.

Chicago, so successful as a stage production, that an Academy Award-winning film version of the musical was released in 2002, starring Richard Gere, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renee Zellwegger. Another exteremely successful adaption.

Seen it? No - then do. Yes - then rekindle your love!
Chicago will not disappoint.

What did you prefer? Stage production or the film?

WICKED! The life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West


















Wicked! The untold story of the witches of Oz.... Songs and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman.

From book to musical - An extremely difficult adaption and one of the most recently released musicals to the Broadway scene!

The book was published in 1995. Written by George Maguire, it is a revisionist look at the land and the characters of Oz, best known from L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.

The whole premise of Wicked is that you don't know what really went on in Oz. It reveals things that The Wizard of Oz never told you... why the Wicked Witch is wicked (and green), why the Lion is cowardly, where the sparkly red slippers came from, why Glinda is "good", etc etc.

The music is mind blowing. The story is captivating. The sets and costuming are amazing!

BUT I have to say, the book is an extremely difficult read... and I found that I had to force myself to continue reading to the end. On the other hand, the musical was the most phenomenal stage production I have EVER seen!

The storyline slightly differs to the book itself, but I could not stop watching! I saw it performed by the original Broadway cast in New York 2006, and it has now reached Sydney's shores - I am seeing it again.

WATCH THE TOUR TRAILER!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0m6sclZkH0

GO AND SEE IT. Even if it is the only musical you ever see. It is by far the most extraordinary musical ever produced.

Click here for info and tickets:
http://www.wickedthemusical.com.au/home.html

Saturday, September 19, 2009

"WEST SIDE STORY" - from Musical to Film

"West Side Story"!!!









For those of you unfamiliar, West Side Story is a modern musical adaption of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". Set in New York City, the two rival teenage street gangs, the white 'Jets' and the Puerto Rican 'Sharks', battle for territory and respect. Tony, a member of the Jets falls in love with Maria, whose brother is leader of the rival Sharks gang. The Jets are already contemptuous of the Sharks and look down on them as foreign newcomers, whilst the Sharks wish to establish themselves as Americans and defend their new territory. What becomes of these rivals when the forbidden love affair is exposed? OoOoOoOooooo - you'll just have to watch to find out!

Featuring an absolutely unforgettable score and groundbreaking choreography, "West Side Story" the musical sets the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet against the backdrop of gang warfare in 1950's New York.

FIRSTLY a stage production, the profoundly successful musical went on to be produced for film.

Was this a successful adaptation??

The stage show premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York in 1957, where it had a successful 77 week run. After its very successful time on stage, the movie went into production in August 1960 with the full cast having to endure 2 months of gruelling rehersals in the lead up to production. The film is now 44 years old and has been nominated for 11 Oscars, 10 of which were won.

Since Romeo and Juliet has been ripped off innumerable times over the centuries, we can't look to the story as anything unique; it's a different take on the old saw, but it sticks pretty closely to Shakespeare's basic tale. As such, the film develops its individual qualities from the musical aspects of the project, and it's clear those are quite special.
Adding to the thrill is the choreography by Co-director Jerome Robbins. Dancing occurs frequently throughout the film and its displays a creativity and an exuberance which maintains the "musical" style from which it originated. Robbins also features a very distinct visual pattern that makes the movie distinctive; there's a starkness and abstract quality to the look of the picture that come across as something different.

In this case, I actually do feel that West Side Story's adaptation from stage show to film was quite a success.. although I still feel audience viewers would have much more of an emotional experience at the musical production, seeing and feeling the characters emotions in real time rather than behind a screen.

If you havent seen it, hire out West Side Story, starring Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer - tell me your thoughts. It is one of the greatest productions of all time and not to be missed!!

Monday, August 17, 2009

“Theatre is Life, Film is Art and TV is Furniture.”

A lovely little cultural blog!
Stage versus screen – which do you prefer?

Don’t get me wrong, I do have my selection of all time film favourites. However as a stage performer and having been involved in numerous musicals, plays and stage productions over the last 10 years, I feel that onstage performance, theatre, is much more rewarding not only as a performer, but also as an audience member.

It is true that movie and television audiences do not automatically bow down for Broadway royalty. Conversely, not every film heavyweight can earn respect onstage.

Screenplays, films, movies, however you care to label them, deal only with what an anticipated audience can see on a flat screen and hear from loudspeakers. Screen works are completely unlimited, and subject to endless amounts of editing, computerised enhancing and visual effects.

When it comes to entertainment, who doesn’t prefer live action??

Theatre, plays and musicals all deal with what an anticipated audience can see and hear on stage with LIVE actors. Any type of stage production tells its story in 'real time' in a living environment, which allows such an intense connection with the audience, as well as an exciting degree of spontaneity. As theatre is limited to the stage itself, performers must use exaggeration to clearly portray action and emotion to its live audience.

It is such a powerful and fascinating form of entertainment! Theatre can completely rely on the audience’s imagination to create and partake in its own “real world”.
No “Cut!”s or numerous scene takes. No time to re-take or edit scenes.

It’s interesting how with all the effort and excitement surrounding digital film and television and the ever evolving world of cinematography, nothing can quite compare to the raw thrill and beauty of live performance.