It seems every other day here at the BMAF office we read about another film being remade! Today, for the record it was Dario Argento’s Suspiria!
But it seems movie companies are looking everywhere for new content and has seen big shows such as Les Miserables; Into the Woods and even Sweeney Todd leave the stage for the big screen
These musicals are also attracting A list movie stars such as Johnny Depp; Meryl Streep; Hugh Jackman and even Anne Hathaway who bagged herself an Oscar for the role too
Not that the movie musical is a new thing, classics such as Singin’ in the Rain; West Side Story; The Sound of Music and cult classic The Rocky Horror Show
The first musical film that I loved was Frank Oz’s The Little Shop of Horrors, ironically a film I saw as one of the friends I went to the cinema with couldn’t get into the 15 rated Critters! Based on a 1960 film by Roger Corman, starring Jack Nicholson, this remade as a musical version had plenty to love; the idea of the man eating plant, Audrey; voiced so well in the movie by Four Tops legend, Levi Stubbs; The Audrey itself a Jim Henson puppet; I loved the catchy songs, Skid Row; Feed me; Mean Green Mother from Outer Space and performed so brilliantly by Steve Martin, Dentist. As well as Steve Martin; John Candy; Jim Belushi were also Rick Moranis and Bill Murray from Ghostbusters, a film I loved so much that I had done a school project on it =)
More recently, Little Shop of Horrors returned to the West End and I got to see it with current UK TV award collector Sheridan Smith as Seymour’s love interest and plant name inspireAudrey! Of course this is not the first film to return to the stage; The Rocky Horror Show stills wows audiences; Sweeney Todd returned to the stage with Michael Ball and of course Les Miserables never left
But they are not the only movies now on stage as now a new trend has seen films turn into stage shows, amongst those are Spiderman with music from U2; Rocky; Dirty Dancing; The Bodyguard; Shrek; Bend it Like Beckham; Elf and even Disney classics The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, the list is endless!
I’ve possibly saved the best till last, the huge smash that was Spamalot, based on the Monty Python and the Holy Grail movie, which audiences including myself, went crazy for, we went in our droves to see flying cows, sing to the nights of the round table, say Ni and bang our coconuts together which just leaves one question left to ask, what film would you love to see as a musical, or even what stage show would you love to see as a film? We’d love to know!
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