Musicals, books, and the BBC

[mellicious]

I have been reading "Wicked" and I finished earlier. I thought it ended awfully abruptly, although of course you knew all along how it had to end. (Although don't I recall somebody saying that they tinkered with the ending for the musical?) Anyway, I had had a previous try with it as a Book on Tape, and I only got about halfway through - but Books on Tape are problematic for me due to my very short commute. It takes ages for me to finish anything if I'm listening in the car, so I don't think it was that I didn't like it, exactly, I just lost steam. With the paperback I plowed right through it in a few days. I will have to start again and go slower. (I think that means that I liked it, don't you?)

Also, I never got around to saying that we went to see "Sweeney Todd" on Sunday - neither of us had seen the musical so we didn't exactly know what to expect, but we both liked it. But then we have always both been Tim Burton fans, and of course Rob loves things like Hammer films so that kind of Grand Guignol stuff is really right up his alley. I didn't have any problem with the singing - Johnny Depp turned out to be a better singer than Ms Bonham-Carter, definitely, but I thought her little wispy voice worked pretty well, on the whole.

We have shiny new digital cable so we have been watching BBC America and things like Indieplex, some. We watched two Torchwood episodes Saturday night, and then Graham Norton afterwards, which was really a hoot. I am not a Doctor Who fan in a huge way like some of you people on my f-list, so I wasn't sure whether I would get into Torchwood or not, but I like what I've seen so far. More X-Files-ish than Doctor-ish, on the whole.

And thennonelvis went and linked elsewhere to the trailer for the new series, which I couldn't bear not to watch. I know all the big Torchwood fans have seen it already, but there may be some Spike fans who have missed it, so I will see if I can get it to embed correctly (my first YouTube link!):

Comments

[sasha-bee.livejournal.com]

i agree that torchwood is a great show. my husband is a doctor who super fan and i like it okay, so we have to watch everything that comes out in the who-universe and i wasn't sure about torchwood either but i found john barrowman to be a great lead & the other actors are fun to watch too.

[columbina.livejournal.com]

"Tinkered" with the ending is not strong enough.

This is so spoilery that you will have to take two words of it to rot13.com: In the musical, Rycunon yvirf.

[nonelvis]

I had to watch this clip again this morning because it is just that awesome. I have been really kind of meh about "Torchwood" returning, because it was so uneven during its first season, but this clip gives me hope. (Well, that and hearing that Chris Chibnall might have a new job on another show next season gives me hope.)

[shadowcircus.livejournal.com]

"(Although don't I recall somebody saying that they tinkered with the ending for the musical?)"

They did... in the most cringe-worthy matter possible. I won't give it away completely, but they actually re-wrote it to give it a feel-good happy ending!

The musical was... well... it was a mixed bag. I really wanted to like it... There was a lot to like; the actors, the sets, the costumes... 95% of the script (the 5% being the horrible ending)... But I found the music to be positively unlistenable... It was all inappropriate soaring ballads.

[profrobert.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to read that the musical messed with the ending. I was on the fence about seeing it because I loved Maguire's book (admittedly in part because I hate the Judy Garland movie), but I hate musicals as a general rule, and people who like musicals were gushing about how good this was.

Thre is nothing -- nothing -- worse in the adaptation realm than changing the ending to a "feel good" one. When I heard, years ago, that Robert Redford was doing The Natural, I was impressed that he would take a risk with his image by playing such an anti-hero as Roy Hobbs. So at the end, I was waiting for the ending that's in the book. And got the b******t that most of you saw (I'll refrain from explication on the tiny risk that I might spoil it for anyone). I almost came out of my seat in the theater screaming. It was an abomination that Redford was permitted to pervert the ending of a masterpiece. It would be like someone letting Ahab get the whale.