Thursday, April 24, 2008
Scarlett, Rhett Keep Warbling as South Burns
Bloomberg.com: Muse Arts: "The new London musical ``Gone With the Wind'' runs three hours and 45 minutes and includes all the climactic moments of Margaret Mitchell's long book. The producers don't lack ambition. What they need, however, is a pair of scissors -- and some songs."
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3 comments:
It's so disappointing when a beautiful musical adaptation fails so miserably because it means that people who see it and don't know where it comes from won't think the book is any good either, or necessarily understand the importance of Margaret Mitchell's novel. I understand the impulse to make this particular piece a musical, but I also think that good pieces of art can't necessarily adapt to a different genre and create something better.
I think that the idea of adapting Gone with the Wind into a musical was fundamentally silly- I'm sure it could be done well at some point, but as Corinna said, not everything is suited to changing genres. Looks like without some cutting, this adaptation won't make it very far.
I think the most ambitious thing about this musical is to overcome the iconic movie version. Yes, I loved the book too, but I think the bigger road block to this musical's success is the movie.
Also, they took out the racism? You cannot address the antebellum south without addressing the racism. That is completely inconsistent with Scarlett's character. And she's such a strong character.
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