Welcome to 5 Favorites. Each week, I will put together a list of my 5 favorites (films, performances, whatever strikes my fancy) along with commentary on a given topic each week, usually in relation to a specific film releasing that week.

Seventh-three musicals have won the Tony Award for Best Musical (there was one tie back in 1960) with a 74th to be crowned on Sunday. This weekend, the winner of the 2017 award for Best Musical, Dear Evan Hanson, releases on the big screen, and I thought I would take a look at my favorite Tony-winning musicals as well as my favorite big screen adaptations of those musicals. While many of the earlier winners of the category have gotten adaptations, numerous recent winners have not with only 5 of the last 20 having been filmed on the big screen. Though, several recent productions have been adaptations of films rather than originals, so that could account for the lag in re-adaptation.

I don’t live in New York City, so my familiarity with stage musicals is minimal and most of my experience is either with the film version or from listening to cast albums. As such, my opinions on the stage versions themselves are based entirely on personal preference. Films, on the other hand, are my thing, so you know… Anyway, some films I considered, but ultimately didn’t select were The King and I, Cabaret, 1776, and The Wiz. On the stage, some of my alternate choices included Hello, Dolly!, Cabaret, 1776, The Wiz, Hairspray, A Little Night Music, and Les Misérables.

Now, let’s get onto my five favorites in each category.

Feature Film Adaptations

My Fair Lady (1964)

George Cukor’s penultimate Oscar success, and his biggest success ever, the Best Picture-winning My Fair Lady was a rousing success both on stage and on the big screen. Adapted from the celebrated play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, the musical is about a bet Professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) makes that he can turn any woman into a sophisticated lady, no matter what her origins. The selected target, a Cockney-accented Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn), initially proves resistant to the professor’s lessons, but he doesn’t give up, turning Doolittle into a flourishing figure in aristocratic circles.

Hepburn’s charms prove superlative in putting forth the at-first coarse Doolittle, effortlessly maneuvering into wit and beauty carried with genteel sophistication. As was common in the period, Hepburn’s voice work was considered unsuitable and was largely excised from the film in favor of Marni Nixon’s voice. Less common these days, it’s still a technique used to prop up a gifted actor’s less-than-gifted vocal chops. Hepburn has a lovely voice, but untrained as it was might not have fit well in the context of the film itself. The film was nominated for twelve Oscars, winning 8 of them. Hepburn was not among the nominees, though Harrison, Stanley Holloway, Gladys Cooper, and Cukor were. It would have been interesting to see how Broadway superstar Julie Andrews, who originated the role, might have done on the big screen. Andrews would get the last laugh, however, winning an Oscar that year in the role of Mary Poppins, her big screen debut.

The Sound of Music (1965)

Andrews did, however, get her own opportunity to take a big screen role away from the Broadway originator in the year following My Fair Lady’s big Oscar success. The Sound of Music put Andrews into the role of Maria, a novitiate at a local abbey who is hired as a governess after her freewheeling spirit is deemed unacceptable for the more austere religious facility. Hired by the strict and domineering Captain Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer), she has her work cut out for her caring for his seven severely controlled children. Her methods even prove challenging for the captain who doesn’t appreciate how she is encouraging free-spiritedness.

Her charm and appeal slowly chip away at the carefully curated façade he put up following his wife’s death and everyone learns a lesson or two in the process. Ultimately, the event that causes the noted Von Trapp family singers to flee their native Austria is conveyed in a wonderful and engaging musical that shows the courage of their convictions as they stand up against the rise of Nazism. The film has more than its fair share of familiar and memorable tunes with Andrews’ vibrant multi-octave voice making them indisputably legendary.

Evita (1996)

After a fallow period of big screen musicals between the 1970s and 1990s, it was only a matter of time before the pomp and excess of Andrew Lloyd Webber made a bigger splash on the big screen after the muted success of Jesus Christ Superstar in 1973. Director Alan Parker, who had helmed the Oscar-nominated Mississippi Burning and brought the concept album Pink Floyd – The Wall to vivid life in cinemas, turned his carefully trained and bombastic eye to Evita, the disputed tale of the legendary First Lady of Argentina, Eva Peron. Portrayed on Broadway by the generally overrated Patti LuPone, pop superstar Madonna successfully petitioned the producers to star in the story of the rise to fame of the woman nicknamed Evita.

Madonna took extensive singing lessons to prepare her voice for the rigors of the role and nails each of her myriad songs. Having risen to fame in a not terribly different upbringing to that of Peron’s, Madonna brought a passion, zeal, and dedication to the role that might have been pulled off by better actresses, but it ultimately proved that she’s more than capable of taking her performances to the next level. Parker filled his film to the brim with bold, bright colors, smoke-filled cinemas, and dozens of costume changes. It was more than a fitting match for Webber’s immense orchestral score, which never overwhelmed the story. Those wanting something with more intra-song breaks were disappointed, but for good reason. Webber was seldom one for lulls in musical action and Evita, the film, more than embodies that grandeur in eye-popping and satisfying ways.

Hairspray (2007)

It wasn’t uncommon for Broadway stars to reprise their roles on the big screen, but in those cases where they didn’t, it was usually in favor of bigger names who could draw audiences to the cineplex. This was fairly obvious with the adaptation of 2003’s Tony-winning Best Musical Hairspray. It is based on John Waters’ film of the same name about a fictional 60s dance program and the young, overweight star who wanted to appear on the show. At once both a celebration of the music of the period and a condemnation of the puritanical and exclusionary casting of such shows, Hairspray gave Harvey Fierstein one of his greatest stage roles as the musical’s lead character’s mother.

Fierstein was no stranger to the big screen (he was terrific in Torch Song Trilogy), but the producers turning instead to John Travolta for the role was an enigmatic decision. Travolta does amiably in the film, but is thankfully surrounded by even better actors turning in wonderful performances including Nikki Blonsky in a star-making performance (one from which she unfortunately did not emerge as a star), Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Amanda Bynes, Queen Latifah, James Marsden, Brittany Snow, Zac Efron, Elijah Kelley, and Allison Janney. The film is great fun and makes for a nice palate cleanser between the heavy drama of the prior film on this list, Evita, and the equally moribund following feature.

Les Misérables (2012)

The film is based on the popular stage musical of the same name, which is in turn adapted from the classic French novel by Victor Hugo. Filmed numerous times in its dramatic form on the big screen, this was the first adaptation of the musical itself. Hugh Jackman takes the lead as Jean Valjean a poor man attempting to feed his family who is sent to prison for hard labor over the theft of a single loaf of bread. He’s pursued by the idealistic Javert (Russell Crowe) whose belief that the law is immutable drives him to chase Valjean when he disappears into the guise of a wealthy businessman. When a dispute over a unwanted sexual advance leads to the death of a young mother (Anne Hathaway), Valjean takes her daughter Cosette (Isabelle Allen as a child and Amanda Seyfried as an adult) under his protection.

Many years later, on the brink of the French Revolution, Cosette has fallen for a young man (Eddie Redmayne) who is part of a resistance cell looking for an opportunity to bring down the French aristocracy. If the film has a flaw, it’s director Tom Hooper’s insistence on live singing, which is thankfully buoyed by a full orchestral score unlike the similarly tepid musical arrangements of La La Land. The emotion with which Jackman, Hathaway, and Redmayne infuse their pinnacle songs makes up entirely for this decision as you feel their pain and frustration. Crowe, in spite of doing side work in a semi-popular rock band, has a thin, underwhelming voice, which makes his character feel less potent as an adversary. Unlike the first two and fourth films on this list, you will need to keep a box of tissues handy as the music is incredibly potent and the film is even more so thanks to some of the uses of close-ups that other scenes in the film unwisely employ.

Original Stage Productions

Company (1971)

One thing that will become clear with my list of favorite original stage productions is that they are either there because they haven’t been adapted to the big screen or the big screen incarnation doesn’t hold a candle to the original. My exposure to most of these have been through cast recordings, which is why Stephen Sondheim’s Company leads off the list. Sondheim is one of the most beloved composer/lyricists in Broadway history. Each of his shows are either great in total or are brilliantly written. His use of rhyming structures and lyrical acrobatics are unparalleled and what he doesn’t have in terms of pomp and circumstance, he more than makes up for in creative energy.

Company is a rather simple show about a single New Yorker who’s gone from conquest to conquest over his lifetime. As his friends gather to celebrate his birthday, his active dating life comes into question as he wonders whether he has reached an age where he should settle down like his friends or if he should continue his hedonistic ways. Dean Jones originated the role of Robert on Broadway, but departed shortly into the production’s run to be replaced by Larry Kent. Listening to the two actors tackle the signature song of the show, “Being Alive,” it becomes crystal clear that Jones was the better actor in a performance that accentuates the negatives and positives of married life. The brilliant cast included Barbara Barrie, Charles Kimbrough, George Coe, Beth Howland, Donna McKechnie, Susan Browning, Pamela Myers, and Elaine Stritch in a fierce performance as the cantankerous Joanne.

There are so many great songs in the show, with “Being Alive” the best of them, that it’s impossible not to listen to the soundtrack and be amused by its wonderful energy. The hilarious “Getting Married Today” is the most fun song in the show with Howland’s motormouth recitation of lines a tour-de-force that was shockingly not nominated for a Tony in spite of six of her co-stars nabbing nods.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979)

What may well be one of the greatest musicals of all-time, Sweeney Todd is Sondheim’s show-stopping tale of a crazed barber imprisoned by a cruel judge who wanted to have his wife to himself. As he returns from a penal colony, Benjamin Barker takes on the pseudonym Sweeney Todd in order to go undetected as he plots and plans to seek revenge against the judge for all that he took away from him. The original Broadway cast included Len Cariou as Todd and Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett, an oily restauranteur who has always had eyes for Barker, in Tony Award-winning roles. Lansbury has simply never been better and no one can hold a candle to either actor. An incredibly young Victor Garber had a central role in the show as a sailor who gives Todd a ride to London and later figures in the rescue of Barker’s daughter Johanna (Sarah Rice).

While listening to the original cast album is sensational, Great Performances captured a performance of the show after Cariou departed and was replaced with George Hearn, who was a satisfying replacement. It’s not easy to find, but it has been released on DVD and I encourage anyone who’s fascinated by the show to watch it performed live because that production makes the whole affair even more marvelous. Unlike Company, Sweeney Todd was adapted to the big screen years later with Tim Burton at the helm. The traditionally baritone Todd and contralto/mezzo Mrs. Lovett are replaced by tenor Johnny Depp and soprano Helena Bonham Carter who were significantly inferior in their roles with neither having a voice hearty enough to give the songs gravitas. Depp’s vocal work is so thin that much of the anger, bitterness, and loathing were diminished in equal measure. Skip the film version because the stage version is so much better.

The Phantom of the Opera (1988)

It took a surprisingly long time for the hugely popular The Phantom of the Opera to make its way to the big screen. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s massive production based on the French novel by Gaston Leroux takes place in the legendary Parisian Opéra where a disfigured singer/composer hides in the bowels of the theater searching for a woman with whom he could fall in love and mold into one of the opera’s greatest performers. The Phantom, originated on Broadway by Michael Crawford, becomes disillusioned with current management when his latest protégé is given short shrift and kept from taking her rightful place as head of the company or so he feels.

The film version starred an out-of-his-depth Gerard Butler as the phantom with Emmy Rossum as Christie Daaé, his muse. Anything’s an improvement over Broadway originator Sarah Brightman, who earned the role in the original production thanks to her own affair with Webber. It was an ironic decision that ultimately hurt the original show. The film version is horrendous, losing a lot of the depth and flare the production needed. Director Joel Schumacher was the wrong choice for it. This is one of the few productions I’ve managed to see on stage, albeit a touring company. The one I saw was also a modernized version arranged by Cameron Macintosh, but the end result is spectacular and as wonderful as the music is, experiencing it on stage matters so much more.

Rent (1996)

The film version of this AIDS musical isn’t a bad show, matter of fact the songs in it are catchy and haunting. The film itself is the primary reason I’m even listing the show here. Inferior to dozens of other musicals, I can easily appreciate how seeing it on the stage would be so much more rewarding. Set in Lower Manhattan’s East Village, a group of impoverished artists live under the specter of the AIDS crisis.

When the show finally moved to Broadway in 1996 after a strong off-Broadway run, Rent became a sensation, not only earning the Tony Award for Best Musical, but scoring a rare Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Unfortunately, the production’s creator wouldn’t live to see the Broadway success. The show ran for 12 years and over 5,100 performances before closing in 2008. The film was released in 2005 with all but two members of the original Broadway cast reprising their roles. Being 9 years removed from the original production, the thirtysomething actors no longer felt like they fit the youthful nature of their characters. This was one of the reasons the film isn’t quite as good as it should be. Additionally, some of the elements felt like they would fit better on a stage than on the big screen.

The Lion King (1998)

The first time I saw a trailer for the 1994 film, Disney released the opening number “Circle of Life” in its entirety. For a trailer, it was an inspired move as it set expectations very high for the end result and the film itself did not disappoint. While it wasn’t as good as Beauty and the Beast before it, it was one of Disney’s best films during their 1990s renaissance. Disney’s decision to bring its musicals to the Broadway stage eventually led to the 1997 production directed by Julie Taymor.

While the show followed the plot and music of the film itself, Taymor infused the production with traditional African artistic styles and updated the orchestrations to better mimic the kinds of instruments played by various African tribes. Her crowning achievement was the decision to use large puppets to simulate the animals the actors portrayed, using broad dance maneuvers that caused the animals to jump and dance as if they were the creatures themselves. This added element of realism was embellished by the fantastical elements of the show and it all ended up as an amazing tapestry of grace, beauty, and creative originality. This is another touring production I got to see and it was absolutely delightful. It’s the one show I would encourage everyone to see simply for its revolution in the art of stage musicals.