This is not the first screen adaptation of a hit Broadway musical to bomb in recent months. IN THE HEIGHTS was a huge disappointment even though it had the sheen of Lin-Manuel Miranda. Steven Spielberg’s WEST SIDE STORY is a’comin’ and let’s see how that does. No Natalie Wood in this one.
But movie execs are scratching their heads. How could such a smash on stage be such a dud on the screen — especially since they were very true to the original? I’m probably the wrong person to ask because I hated the Broadway version. I did think Ben Platt was amazing — his singing and performance was thrilling, and how he could do that eight times a week is beyond me. But I hated the story. Implausible, sad, illogical, sad, endless, sad, every song was the same, sad, and sad. In these Covid times do we really want to go to the movies to be depressed for 2 1/2 hours? The answer was clearly no.
You could argue that the subject matter wasn’t meant for me. It was meant for young Gens with end-of-the-alphabet letters. Okay, but who goes to movie musicals? Generally older Gens.
And judging by Tony’s ratings, (they didn’t even air most of the actual ceremony on CBS), there is little interest in Broadway musicals. Not because they’re not good or even great, but because 98% of the country will never have the chance to see them. So a smash musical on Broadway might not be on most people’s radar.
Time have changed. Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s soundtracks of hit musicals would top the Billboard charts. Songs from these shows became hit songs and standards. You’d hear tunes from MY FAIR LADY and THE KING AND I and PAJAMA GAME on most local radio stations. Top 40 stations played the crap out of Louis Armstrong’s HELLO DOLLY. Production numbers from these shows would be featured on THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW at a time when 30,000,000 were watching. So when the original WEST SIDE STORY was made into a movie, the country was aware of it and curious to see for themselves what all the shouting was about. There’s none of that today.
Oh, and tickets were accessible. You could see THE MUSIC MAN for ten dollars. Today you need a bank loan to see the upcoming revival of THE MUSIC MAN. That certainly scares a few tourists away.
So I’m not surprised DEAR EVAN HANSEN tanked. And I don’t think you’ll be seeing movie versions of last night’s Tony winners for some time. (Congratulations to all the Tony winners, by the way.)
My takeaway from the reviews is that, on Broadway, the musical numbers overshadowed the more questionable aspects of the plot, but the film magnifies what one reviewer termed the "ickiness" of the story. There has also been some controversy surrounding Platt's casting, with people stating that he was too old for the part and that nepotism was responsible for his casting. (His father produced the film.) I think it's understandable that they would want Platt for the film version because he made such an impact on Broadway, so I don't know that I agree with the nepotism charges, but based on the trailers, he isn't convincing as a teenager. In some shots, he looks like Fred Armisen in an SNL parody of DEH, and in other shots, it appears that CGI was used to give him a more youthful look.
ReplyDeleteAnd here I was so hoping they'd make a movie of MOULIN ROUGE!
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts about this are so conflicted that they almost directly contradict each other.
ReplyDeleteI’d love to live in a world where complex, nuanced, challenging, intelligent movies had widespread appeal.
On the other hand, from what I’ve heard about Dear Evan Hansen, the basic concept is so ethically troubling that it should never have been made.
And on a slight tangent, I’d like to read an in-depth piece about the challenges of adapting a stage musical into the very different form of a big screen movie. I’ve been wondering for years why The Producers musical worked so well on stage and so badly on film.
But most important: In the Heights is one of the best movies I’ve seen in the past few years, and I hope people start to discover it.
Broadway would also benefit with one-night-only live streams on Facebook or broadcasts on PBS. We never went to see shows when I was growing up. My introduction to theatre was AMERICAN PLAYHOUSE. Remember that?
ReplyDeleteWhen David Letterman taped his show at the Ed Sullivan Theater, he tried to some extent to continue the Sullivan tradition of bringing Broadway musical performances to television. Stephen Colbert's
ReplyDeleteprogram, originating from the same stage, has, too, I think. A well-intenioned effort that needs to continue.
P.S. Jay Sandrich (1932-2021)
As Mark Evanier pointed out on his blog News from ME, Aaron Tveit was up for BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE IN A MUSICAL.
ReplyDeleteI'm very happy he won, however, he was the ONLY nominee!
Could you imagine another outcome? It would be reminiscent of the line that Mort Sahl had about (I think) Richard Nixon. "Nixon is the only man that could run for office unopposed, and come in second!"
I suspect this kind of has similar issues to Rent: people love the music, but the plot is bad. (Okay, so Rent is more like, "all the characters are self-absorbed jerks who are too pretentious to pay their rent.") I watched a bootleg of the stage musical online and was all "this plot is *really* bad." Now that this is going out to more of the world, the rest of the world is realizing that THE PLOT IS BAD.
ReplyDeleteWe already hear the songs from the Tony musical nominees: Alannis Morisette's album, for one. I never saw Moulin Rouge in the theater, so I don't know what songs from it are in the musical. (The main song, Lady Marmalade, was a hit on the radio years ago. Pre-movie, I believe.) Can't remember the third musical, but all I could think of was: are there no musical theater composers anymore? Are all the songs taken from someone's album or career?
ReplyDeleteWe already hear the songs from the Tony musical nominees: Alannis Morisette's album, for one. I never saw Moulin Rouge in the theater, so I don't know what songs from it are in the musical. (The main song, Lady Marmalade, was a hit on the radio years ago. Pre-movie, I believe.) Can't remember the third musical, but all I could think of was: are there no musical theater composers anymore? Are all the songs taken from someone's album or career?
ReplyDeleteMusical bombs? After CATS I'm surprised they'd even consider attempting another for at least a decade. Withering reviews doesn't begin to describe it and then the story that the CGI anus of the cat FX had to be removed when people had a bad reaction at early screenings. CATS was a bomb of historical proportions. I was creeped out just by the trailer and that was, what, two years ago? Certainly before Dear Evan Hansen was made (which has a trailer which does not even make it clear that this is a musical).
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the Tony show was only one hour I assumed it was some sort of "preview of coming attractions" and didn't bother. After all it's September, not June.
ReplyDeleteI know nothing about DEAR EVAN HANSEN but I know a great stage show can become a dud movie. There's a reason the film version of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC has vanished without a trace and it's not Elizabeth Taylor, who is actually quite good. Hal Prince was a theater genius but he never should have directed a movie.
FQ for you Ken about "owning" characters or stories-
ReplyDeleteI was watching an early episode of 30 ROCK where they did a seemingly throwaway joke referencing Dotcom being in love with Grizz's fiance (two supporting characters and a third character that had never been seen on screen). In a later season, they did a B-Story in an episode at Grizz's wedding that dealt with the love triangle. If you were the writer of the original joke that introduced this whole scenario and the made it "cannon" that Grizz was engaged, are you entitled to a story credit or anything when they do the wedding episode later?
Similarly, if you're in the room when Garry Marshall decides he wants to create Mork for HAPPY DAYS or you make a character for a one time joke on the SIMPSONS (a la DISCO STU), are you compensated when these characters appear in later episodes or even have their own series?
PatGlex:
ReplyDeleteThe gimmick of the film Moulin Rouge was that the songs were all past hits, repurposed.
If anybody wrote new songs for the stage version (I don’t know - did they?), it would be for the same reasons new songs are added to film versions of established stage musicals - ego and awards eligibility.
Unfortunately film can't capture the energy and liveliness of a stage production. It's too perfect - they just keep shooting until they get what they want and then it's edited to make sure they have the exact right shots. A live filmed musical comes close and I've enjoyed some of the productions they've done on TV in the last few years - The Sound of Music, Grease, etc. They've made me feel closer to watching it on stage in person. I wish someone would do more of those productions.
ReplyDeleteThe distancing effect of the camera is very real. A problematic plot or silly premise can be swept away by the proximity of live performance, but the distancing effect just brings those issues to the fore. Rent is a prime example.
DeleteWhat's kind of funny is how the DEH fans are pushing back on social media saying that any (and I mean any) criticism of Platt is unwarranted. Even my beloved Sirius Broadway station is going all in on the film with seemingly non-stop interstitial interviews and songs from the film. You'd think it was another "Singin' in the Rain" or fill-in-the-blank-with-what-you-think-is-a great-musical. Hey, Seth Rudetsky, your reputation is on the line here, you might want to pull back a little.
ReplyDeleteI'm always amazed that the audience just knows something about a film from...what? Just a trailer? Certainly not by reading the trades or reviews. I no longer live in Hollywood and I assure you my civilian friends are not aware of industry related content. They just KNOW. With DEH it really might be the subject matter. Many of us are just coming out of being quarantined with whiny teens. Do we really want more?
And sorry, but brilliant as Platt may be, he looks ridiculous. This is an emperor has no clothes moment and reviewers and moviegoers should be allowed to point that out.
Friday Question: I wish I could see some of the old TV shows that were one season wonders, but too old for DVDs or not popular enough to rate a DVD - or didn't even get to show everything they had filmed because they were cut off early. I've recently dropped cable and have been enjoying the many old shows that ARE available. I love tracking acting careers by seeing some of their work from before they were famous. Wouldn't you think that the owners of these productions could make a bit of money making their shows from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's available to stream?
ReplyDeleteKen: possible Friday Question or suggestion for your podcast:
ReplyDeleteDo you know any Angels (Broadway angels, not heavenly ones?) What are -they- looking for? How micro-managing do they typically get?
If you happen to run into one soon, let him/her know I am currently writing the next potential Broadway hit - "Debt Ceiling!: The Musical!" and all contributions are welcome.
I saw DEAR EVAN HANSEN onstage, and hated it. The music is good, but I felt "Evan Hansen" was a budding sociopath who receives insufficient comeuppance. He's let off WAY too easily.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of this play of movie. While reading it you said it is a musical. Not much need to delve deeper as to why a movie musical in 2021 in s dud.
ReplyDelete(Songs from these shows because hit songs and standards.) I think you meant "became".
ReplyDeleteMy mother played lots of Broadway musical soundtracks when I was a single digit kid. It influenced my musical tastes. I tend to like fun, poppy, story telling songs. I'd say older music, but now I'm almost 60, its ancient music. Rodgers and Hammerstein hits were from the 40's and 50's.
When I arrived in New York in 1988 to go to grad school, I discovered that Les Miz, the biggest hit at that time, offered $15 seats in the top two rows of the theater. Good enough for me--and it turned out you got the full view of the stage, which was helpful. A lot of sad songs, yes, but also "Master of the House," aka The Orel Hershiser Theme (courtesy of the dynamic duo of Vin Scully and Nancy Bea Hefley). If you're going to a play, you may expect it to be sad. A musical? Even a serious musical, there are going to be lighter songs.
ReplyDelete"Buttermilk Sky said...
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the Tony show was only one hour..."
It was 2 hours, and ran over by 15 minutes.
"Hal Prince was a theater genius but he never should have directed a movie."
Excuse me? Hal Prince directed a movie called Something For Everyone," which is one of my favorite movies.
Perhaps if Platt had been the "mystery guest" on What's My Line?...
ReplyDeleteI liked the way Hamilton and Come From Away musical movies were shot directly from the stage. It feels so much closer to the in-theater performance and it has to be much cheaper to produce, right? So, for me, I hope this is the future of movie musicals.
ReplyDeleteAlso Ken, if you have not seen Come From Away yet, please watch it on Apple+. I promise you will like it. My wife and I vouch for it so much, I'll send you $10 if you don't like it!
Exactly. Streetcar Named Desire and Julius Caesar (among others. The NT Live production of War Horse is amazing and blows away the movie) use minimal, creative staging and preserve some of the feel of a live event.
DeleteWhen I was in 8th grade- 1962 - tix to MY FAIR LADY on Broadway - albeit the balcony were $14.
ReplyDeleteThose were the days.
I find people in their teens and 20's have not grown up watching musicals so they are unable to buy into the central conceit of people singing on screen. For them, it is not realistic and any movie that tries it is laughably bad, hence the stupidity in their opinion of Into the Woods and Les Miserables and Cats and In the Heights and now Dear Evan Hansen. Don't get me started on the fact that they have no issue believing in superheroes who can fly and do all kinds of unrealistic things as well but they have no trouble accepting it because they grew up watching these. Musicals also, generally speaking, have an optimistic worldview that runs counter to the quite cynical inclinations of this same audience. Too bad because musicals can bring a lot of joy if the audience can open up and meet it halfway.
ReplyDeleteOddly, a lot of stage productions do better as television presentations than movies -- especially when delivered in actual performance rather than "opened up" with the fourth wall sealed off.
ReplyDelete"Great Performances" on PBS has showcased impressive productions of various Broadway and West End shows. My favorite is "She Loves Me", the best adaptation of "Little Shop Around the Corner" since Lubitsch. It's available to stream on Amazon.
Others have included a lavish non-musical adaptation of "Act One" with Tony Shalhoub as Moss Hart and other characters; British stagings of "42nd Street" and "Gypsy" (the latter with Peter Davison persuasively American); and a stage version of "White Christmas" loaded with killer dance numbers. On my DVR I've got "An American in Paris".
There was a brief period when early content-hungry cable channels were snapping up Broadway shows that evidently despaired of getting a movie deal. Somewhere out there are "Little Johnny Jones", the George M. Cohan show revived with Donny Osmond; the original "Bullshot Crummond"; and Leonard Nimoy in William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes".
If you're willing to spend, there's a DVD of American Conservatory Theater's lovely "Cyrano de Bergerac", starring Peter Donat with just-before-stardom Marsha Mason and pre-Beastmaster Marc Singer.
Much of the Great Performances is available via PBS Passport, which cost $5 a month and is a much worthier recipient of your support than Prime.
DeleteAnd She Loves Me is most enjoyable. Zachary Levi was a revelation.
DeleteAnother example is the film of the musical version of The Producers. The show was a bigger hit on Broadway (and set Tony records) than Dear Evan Hansen. The film was terrible. One review suggested that the director must have never seen a movie. Which is odd given that of course the musical was based on not just a movie, but one that won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
ReplyDeleteSomething uncanny.
ReplyDelete1) A family friend wrote the Young Adult novel series "Vampire Academy", which was very well-received; unfortunately, the movie got terrible reviews and quickly tanked.
2) I am related by marriage to a prominent cast member of the original "Dear Evan Hansen" Broadway production, which earned SRO audiences and a boatload of Tonys; however, the movie version (which this person was not in) is getting a social backlash that I don't recall the stage version getting.
Maybe the best way for a movie adaption to work is for me to not have a personal connection to the source material? If the TV series of "Vampire Academy", set for Peacock, is also a dud, that would confirm it.
I saw a ticket stub for the music man. 8 dollars for an orchestra seat. 78 dollars in today's Monday. I am sure it costs a ton to put on a Broadway musical today.
ReplyDeleteWhen I used to go to B'way musicals (1950s and 60s) when the overture played snippets of tunes that were also pop hits (The Party's Over, I Didn't know What Time It Was and I Enjoy Being A Girl) the audience would cheer. Today ... it never happens. Instead (as some wag once commented) you come out humming the scenery ... or kvetching over what the ticket cost you!
ReplyDeleteI'll answer for the side of 'not a fan of broadway'
ReplyDeleteI have ZERO interest in plays, and when adapted to the screen, the same. I don't like musicals, not my cup of tea at all. I avoid them at all costs. If I hear that something was a play, even if they take out the music or it had barely any in it, I still don't bother, I know I will not like it.
If you enjoy plays, go to the play. I enjoy the movie theater for movies, so I watch movies I enjoy. Cross overs are not for me, never will be no matter what it is.
RichRocker: Your remark about superheroes reminded me of It's a Bird... It's a Plane.. It's Superman, a 1966 attempt to merge a superhero story and a musical comedy that lasted about 4 months on Broadway. (I thought it was pretty good, but I was only 9 at the time.) Probably the producers lost a lot less money than the people who backed the famous, doomed Spider-Man musical of more recent times ... which might have worked if it too had been a comedy.
ReplyDeleteDanMnz: "even if they take out the music" brought to mind a joke on my Woody Allen 1960s stand-up LPs, about the guys who got hold of My Fair Lady and were erasing the music and "turning it back into Pygmalion."
I would think it's fairly difficult to take a play (which you can think of as being in 2-dimensional space in that it's on something closed to a fixed or limited set, and to some extent, the audience uses their imagination to put together where they really are supposed to be) and put it into 3-dimensional space (where you can film anywhere and there's nothing left to imagine). You've written for both mediums. How different would one of your 1 act plays taking place on a single stage/set look if produced as a 10-minute motion picture filmed in the real world? Part of the beauty of the stage is that limitation, and that gets lost as that extra dimension to the look gets added.
ReplyDeleteSame idea if you were to take a TV show filmed in front of a live studio audience and then had it filmed as a movie on a movie set that's supposed to be same place, but filmed with a single camera. It wouldn't look right.
@gottacook Years before Woody Allen did that joke, James Thurber was asked to illustrate Alice in Wonderland. His reply, "Keep the Tenniel drawings. I'll rewrite the story."
ReplyDeleteThe review at RogerEbert.com does a good job of explaining why the movie is a failure.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/dear-evan-hansen-movie-review-2021
Evan Hansen's early reviews were terrible. and yes, it's morally uncomfortable, but isn't much of life?
ReplyDeleteThere's a touring production of it coming to my area, which I would have already seen if it weren't for COVID. I'll see it in early 2022.
Yes, as a big fan of Broadway, I'm always watching the Tonys. But this year's I only heard about two days before.
@Jenmoon "I suspect this kind of has similar issues to Rent: people love the music, but the plot is bad. (Okay, so Rent is more like, "all the characters are self-absorbed jerks who are too pretentious to pay their rent.")"
ReplyDeleteAGREED! Same reason I HATED La La Land. Self absorbed jerks who were too pretentious to suck up their day jobs.
And the DEH movie cut my favorite song, "Anybody Have a Map", aka the Single Parent's Theme Song.
Like several others said, the live DEH show got away with Evan's appalling behavior just by virtue of the energy of the live performance. On film - yeccch.
"Paul W said...
ReplyDeleteAlso Ken, if you have not seen Come From Away yet, please watch it on Apple+. I promise you will like it. My wife and I vouch for it so much, I'll send you $10 if you don't like it!"
I saw Come From Away live on stage, and LOVED it! Bought the CD.
"DyHrdMET said...
ReplyDeleteI would think it's fairly difficult to take a play (which you can think of as being in 2-dimensional space in that it's on something closed to a fixed or limited set, and to some extent, the audience uses their imagination to put together where they really are supposed to be) and put it into 3-dimensional space (where you can film anywhere and there's nothing left to imagine)."
Wow, did you ever get that backwards. Live theater IS 3-D. Movies are a 2-D medium, except for 3-D movies.
Watching the Tony Awards my girlfriend quipped,"if they really wanted to make Broadway more inclusive, they could lower ticket prices. $700 to see Hugh Jackman in The Music Man?!"
ReplyDeleteI hate that she came up with a funnier line than me.
@D. McEwan: "Wow, did you ever get that backwards. Live theater IS 3-D. Movies are a 2-D medium, except for 3-D movies."
ReplyDeleteStill, I think there's something to the notion of a different dimensionality between live theater and films. Maybe a better way to think of it is like this:
In live theater, the performance is generally directed in one basic direction--outward, through the fourth wall and toward the audience, and the audience cannot and does not change the physical viewpoint from which to take in the story. In a movie, a camera can move in way that a theater audience cannot, thus providing viewing experiences and physical perspectives that allow filmmakers to present the story in ways unavailable to a live theater audience.
(I vaguely recall a review of THE PRODUCERS musical movie that made this point to describe how the movie didn't succeed where the theatrical musical did.)
With regard to DEAR EVAN HANSEN that started this whole thing, I do note that the filmmakers did tweak the ending of the movie to address criticism of the story--that Evan doesn't face nearly enough consequences for his actions. Those changes may be subtle, any may not be ultimately successful (and doesn't make the overall story much less of a downer) but it at least shows the filmmakers were aware and made some attempts to mediate the story's "ickiness."
I have never understood why there has ever been a national broadcast of the Tony Awards. Why does the New York-central network HQ people think there is a legitimate national interest in each year's new Broadway productions? Nearly the entire country (a) doesn't live in the New York area where those Broadway shows exist and (b), even then, hasn't ever been to see any of those shows. It would make as much sense for CBS to air for the American public the equivalent of the Emmy Awards for programs that are shown on German television.
ReplyDelete