I was most interested reading your comments on stage musicals and their transfer to screen versions, such is the timeless appeal of adapting movies to musicals, and some are now coming full circle, screen to stage and back to screen again! I was chatting to Mark Shenton about Sweeney Todd (I haven’t seen it yet) and I found it difficult to come up with a modern movie musical that left any sense of real satisfaction for me. Perhpas Sweeney will…!

Because despite the obvious talent that abounds, and however some of the films are clearly expertly executed, what makes a musical exciting to me when performed live in a theatre is what is always missing from a movie musical. On stage, the singer has to hit the notes, right there in front of you - there is no overdubbing, no second go at it, no (well, perhaps a little) reverb, but no processors or editing. In a movie soundtrack, you know that hours have been spent in a studio getting it to sound - well, just too perfect perhaps…

And maybe ALW’s shows are too “theatrical” for an easy conversion to screen. “Phantom” as a glorious stage experience has an appeal that it’s enviable global success is testament to. The movie looked glorious, but somehow lacked that ingredient that makes the show what it is. Perhaps that is why his shows work on stage, when they do!

But no matter how beautifully done, no matter how brilliantly conceived or realised, I don’t see how a movie musical can ever come close to being in the same room as the performer as they recreate their performance before your very eyes.

All the best
LMW

Composer & Lyricist