On BWW.com on the main board there is a topic about a JB's movie musical! I hope they cast the original cast.

There was talk about this on the Wicked forum too, and I still say the same thing

"I think they are making too many musicals into movies. Although it may make the work more famous, it is drawing away from the point of musicals. I say stay with the originals and stop the movie ideas. However if they do make it into a movie I agree with what some people on here have said -- that the should try to get a good majority of the original cast and try to stick to the musical not change things up too much"

Wait a minute, there's actually gonna be a JB movie?

However, if you look at the history of musicals in the movies, there would be at least 12 major musicals released for the movies in a single year.

I could see it happening. Its one of those plots that would translate well to the screen and to the genral public.

I dont think it would be all that amazing
It would do well, make plenty of money, and all that
But I dont think it would be a very good movie
It just wouldnt work well imo

I'm not sure I understand your objections. What do you mean by "the point of musicals"? Musicals have almost always been a part of film history, certainly since the innovation of sound in 1927.

And adaptations of stage pieces have almost never remained completely faithful. Sometimes this isn't to the advantage of the piece - for example, some of the older MGMs are particularly cumbersome because they didn't trust the material as is, to a certain extent, Carousel. But I also think there is little point in merely reproducing what is on stage for the screen - otherwise you end up with something like Oklahoma! or The Producers, faithful but trite, pat and lacking in vitality.

I think filmmakers have to adapt the material to suit the medium (remember it's film and not the theatre) and find a balance between their vision of the piece and the piece itself. That's when you get successes like The Sound of Music or Chicago. And I don't necessarily mean audience pleasers; I mean films that work both as adaptations and as films in their own right. Making movie musicals is a difficult business.

But they have a place in the entertainment industry. So what's the problem?

Later days
David

I have a lot of reservations about a Jersey Boys musical. The show itself is fantastic -- strong book, snappy dialogue, and the songs are placed perfectly. I don't know how it would translate to screen for three major reasons:

* On stage there is no reason to bother to age the actors; that's all done through the special effect of acting. Aging makeup would be distracting on stage and even more unnecessary on screen.

* What do you do about the songs used as narration? Would you cut out "Oh, What a Night," "Earth Angel," the reprise of "Walk Like a Man," and "Fallen Angel"? I think these are probably the weakest scenes in the show simply because they don't follow the style the musical has already established -- that the songs are used where they would've happened in those situations in real life. Jersey Boys is not so much a musical but a play with music.

* Who would the four main characters be addressing during their monologues? And don't tell me voice-over; that could work in tiny pieces, but that much voice-over would be tedious if they were to preserve the massive amounts of dialogue.

I could see Jersey Boys being done if it were simply a biopic of the Four Seasons, which wouldn't make it so much "Jersey Boys" anymore. The other option would be to film it on stage and go the PBS or Bravo route, but that seems like a cop-out.

Now you see, Very Angry Woman, those are all reasons I can understand. They are specific, they make sense and I can't really flaw the argument that supports them.

Later days
David

I watched an interview with John Lloyd Young on Broadway.com, and they asked him about a Jersey Boy's movie, and he said that he thought that was cool, but also said that with movie musicals they rarely cast the original cast...... that was kind of prooved wrong with Rent, but who knows

Rent is just one instance. Just because it happened once in recent memory doesn't make it any less rare.

Hey, I just saw a green rabbit on my way to work today. People say green rabbits are rare, but I saw it, so it must not be rare anymore.

really? I just saw four of them.