It seems the verdict is in: the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage musical smash Cats is far from purr-fect.
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Maybe the show's theatricality and paucity of story means it was better suited to remain on stage. Cats is, however, only the latest example of a stage musical success that was not transferred successfully to the screen.
Cats' director Tom Hooper had previously made an uneven Les Miserables : its flaws included a vocally miscast Russell Crowe as Javert and the unwise choice of having the actors sing live rather than working to prerecorded numbers, the insistence on in-your-face closeups being one of the problems. Big sings work on stage but film has different requirements.
Sometimes a screen version is quite straightforward, not wanting to tamper with success. My Fair Lady (1964) gives a good idea of the Lerner and Loewe musical, but has something of a studio-bound feel. And Audrey Hepburn's singing was mostly dubbed by the ubiquitous "Ghostess with the Mostest", Marni Nixon. Dubbing is controversial should actors who can sing be cast in the first place or can a star with an apt vocal double be accepted? The feeling nowadays seems to be the former, though it doesn't always work.
Rodgers and Hammerstein kept some control over their material, allowing alterations but not to excess. Oklahoma! omitted some of the songs but had a suitably folksy feel to it with fine singing and dancing. The Sound of Music wisely foregrounded star Julie Andrews (some of the supporting characters' songs were dropped).
Cabaret's reconception was superb: the only Kander and Ebb songs that were retained were those sung in performance (mostly in the Kit Kat Klub itself): some of the discarded character songs were heard as background music. Director-choreographer Bob Fosse had learned from making his first film, Sweet Charity (1969), where he went overboard with visual trickery.
Another Kander and Ebb show, Chicago, directed by Rob Marshall, was also successfully reimagined, with the musical numbers seen from the viewpoint of would-be star Roxie Hart, well played by Renee Zellweger.
But central miscasting hurts: Lucille Ball's booze-and-cigarettes formed voice was not up to the demands of Mame - many takes and a lot of tape splicing were needed to patch together her songs.
Rosalind Russell also had vocal limitations in Gypsy (she was dubbed, in part, by Lisa Kirk).
It would have been better to preserve the performances of Angela Lansbury and Ethel Merman, respectively, who originated the roles on stage.
Marlon Brando as the romantic lead in Guys and Dolls had to have his numbers edited together, too, and even he said his voice sounded like "the mating call of a yak". He should have swapped roles with Frank Sinatra.
It helps to have a director who respects the material. Tim Burton's film of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd did, but Richard Lester jettisoned so many of the same composer's songs from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum that it's hard to know why he bothered doing the film.
Making a successful movie musical from a stage hit has its own challenges: not everyone is up to meeting them.