Be Italian

I know I'm very much a minority on this, but I really enjoyed the Nine movie. I thought the cast overall was incredibly strong, and I liked how they rearranged the song order, even though I really missed "The Bells of Saint Sebastian" and "Be On Your Own." There were things that weren't perfect--and maybe I'd feel differently if the musical were a favorite of mine--but on the whole I think it's worth seeing.

My biggest complaint is with the use of musical numbers being Guido fantasy sequences, like in the Chicago film. That worked well there because Roxie wants desperately to be a vaudeville star, and those songs are very vaudevillian anyway. That doesn't make as much sense for film director Guido, which makes the songs come off seeming kind of gimmicky. I would have preferred a lot more singing and for the songs to be really integrated book songs, the way they are in the show--I totally buy the world of Italian cinema being heightened and intense in that way.

But if the songs had to be more an expression of Guido's psyche, I would have liked to see them occur within the real world, not in their own limbo musical number space. During a naturalistic scene, we could suddenly go into Guido's head, seeing real life the way he sees a movie set. Maybe then the fantasy sequence could be Guido "directing" the character in question, and her song would be what Guido wants her to sing (the way it actually is in the movie), while it's clear that she feels otherwise. That would be a slightly different movie, but I think that structure would get at Guido's particular issues more than using Chicago's structure did.

The Movie In My Mind

Oh man, how excited am I for a Miss Saigon movie?! I will be so sad if this doesn't happen. Miss Saigon is one of my favorite shows, and the first time I saw it (the U.S. tour six years ago) was one of the most incredible theatregoing experiences I had. Even though I knew it was based on Madame Butterfly, I was so immersed in the show the ending shocked me, and I couldn't believe it was over. That's the only time I've ever felt a show had more to say in terms of plot, and I totally thought there was a whole other act--that's how badly I wanted to know what happened to the Engineer.

I also think Miss Saigon is perfect for film . It feels extremely cinematic anyway ("The American Dream," hello!), and I think the added realism of film--namely, having a realistic setting instead of sets on a stage--will ground the story in the grittiness that's there, but not always noticed. Big, spectacle-driven musicals aren't generally my thing, but certain stories need to be told on a large scale, and Miss Saigon is one of them (offhand, two others are Ragtime and Sunset Boulevard). I've seen a small production of Miss Saigon and was thrilled to see how effective it was, but this is a big story with big emotions during a hugely powerful time with characters who do rash, crazy things, and film can capture that incredibly well.

At the same time, I hope a film version conveys the intimacy of the piece. At its core, Miss Saigon is a character piece for me; it's hard to care about the show if you don't care about Kim and/or the Engineer. I think a smart film adaptation would balance the show's grandness with its passionate and complicated characters, similar to how the Sweeney Todd film did--and, I'd argue, Dreamgirls to an extent. Spectacle and substance aren't mutually exclusive, and a well done Miss Saigon film could be proof of that.

And really, when you get right down to it, seeing "You Will Not Touch Him" on a big screen will be amazing.