Now MOULIN ROUGE is apparently bringing back a possibility that big studios may start producing AUTHENTIC MUSICALS again. So, what recent (or not so recent) musicals would YOU like to see on the big screen ? And, if you have imagination, who would be your choice for doing the adaptations and conducting, plus the underscore ? You can also suggest actors, actresses, dubbing voices, directors, what ever !!

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The ones that come immediately into my mind are:

SUNSET BOULEVARD
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Book and lyrics by Don Black & Christopher Hampton.
Orchestrations by David Cullen & Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Orchestra conducted by Paul Bogaev.
Starring (combining the best of original premiere casts):
Glenn Close, Kevin Anderson & Meredith Braun.

SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
Book by Hugh Wheeler.
Original orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick.
"Fantasy" additional orchestrations and orchestra conducted by Michael Starobin.
Starring (as in the original):
Len Cariou & Angela Lansbury

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Lyrics by Charles Hart, Richard Stilgoe & Mike Batt.
Original book by Richard Stilgoe & Andrew Lloyd Webber.
"Fantasy" screenplay by Arthur Kopit (adaptation combining his original book for the musical PHANTOM)
Orchestrations by David Cullen & Andrew Lloyd Webber.
"Fantasy" additional underscore & orchestrations, and orchestra conducted by Alan Silvestri.
"Fantasy" starring:
Michael Crawford, Glory Crampton & Michael Damian.
"Fantasy" directed by Tim Burton

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I pass it to you for a while.

Couple of hours ago I finally saw MOULIN ROUGE.
And I still can't believe it.
Marvelous. Terrific. Wonderful. Emotional. Touching. Soaring. Entertaining. Funny. Poignant. Energetic. Warm. Grand. Intimate. Imaginative. Positive.
And most of all, with HEART. Extremely warm heart.

Seriously, I admit that half of MOULIN ROUGE's magic comes from recognizing all the song classics, even the tinyest snippets used there - just like "Oh, they put this here too - and how amazingly interpolated & how marvelously adapted" !!! I know that some people may think MOULIN ROUGE as a stupid long joke - and others may not even recognize all these song snippets, thus thinking the whole movie as a bizarre experience - but I myself found the movie as the most positively surprising silver screen experience since... well, TITANIC and SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT.

(I know what you think - let me explain.
All the trailers and publicity around MOULIN ROUGE gave me the impression that the movie is the over-used, too-serious love story with MTV artists' songs pasted all over it. I didn't expect anything like hundreds of symphony orchestras mixed with contemporary music sounds with choirs and wonderful vocal artists like Kidman and McGregor, and underneath an extremely warm heart. The same thing happened to me on, well basically , on SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT, and [without most of the music-stuff] on TITANIC, too).

The point is that MOULIN ROUGE delivered a million things which I didn't expect - and restored my belief in Hollywood; that there is still people who dare to make rebellious and different, yet marvelously positive movies which remind us of all the magic that this world of ours offers to the purest, child-like heart.

So my original thread idea was really the right one.
Keep them coming, Hollywood !!!

A Very Very Very Very VERY Happy
KEN

NP. ONE DAY I'LL FLY AWAY (Jennings & Sample) on a "lesser-quality-compilation" THAT OLE DEVIL CALLED LOVE from Object Enterprises... But tomorrow it will be Nicole Kidman's wonderful version of the song, when I'll purchase the MOULIN ROUGE soundtrack.

--Brian