Alia

@valtmy Uh…yeah.  Sorry about the rants. 😛  I’m really bad at being concise, so most of my explanations seem to turn into rants. 😉

Why do I think musicals should be happy and fun?  Well, there’s a precedent for that.  Musicals have all been happy and fun until very recently.  Sure, there have been a few dark ones here and there, like Lost…[Read more]

@rochellaine

Fictional magic is a whole other debate 😛 Though I will say that I grew up reading almost exclusively two types of stories: fantasy novels and missionary stories. As a child I never even thought about the magic in fantasy novels as witchcraft because I knew what real witchcraft was. Having said that, I have given up reading several…[Read more]

@seekjustice Oh yes, I see where you’re coming from.  Hm, I was about to argue that you seem to believe the fantasy world doesn’t have to match up with the Bible, since you like fictional magic, but if I use that argument I’ll have to be on the side that says Carousel is bad.  So…now I have something to think about.

Carousel could have been i…

[Read more]

@valtmy I agree with you, though the thing I tend to go for is realism, rather than darkness or “edginess”. For me, the thing I love about Les Mis is that it shows the plight of people who still live today, both in my society and societies all over the world.

@rochellaine

I guess maybe my problem with it is that I don’t believe God gives second chances (which I’m sure you believe too, so I’m not trying to insinuate that you don’t)

God makes it very clear that death is it. You have to live with your choices for eternity after that. I think Carousel could have been very interesting if he hadn’t died…[Read more]

@rochellaine

I actually think you’d really like the Scarlet Pimpernel. It’s much lighter than Les Mis or ATOTC, no one dies, its got a sweet romance and the characters are already married so there’s no sappy proposal 😛

After that explanation I am left wondering why you like my writing at all. 😀

Well…I could…but we’d be here all day.

@seekjustice There have to be!  Back when we started talking about musicals I don’t remember disagreeing all the time.  I’m going to have a look back at some old Writers’ Corners and see what I can dig up. 😉

I feel funny arguing for this side, since usually I want heroes and heroines I can look up to and am very adamant about that.  But I wi…[Read more]

@valtmy I didn’t like the fact that one of them contained curse words.  I think that was Les Mis.  Other than that there are two reasons.

One: I like musicals where the songs help the plot along, not where the songs are the plot.  Those musicals are too much like opera, where they sing the dialogue.  That’s probably because I like songs you can…[Read more]

@Rochellaine

Are there any musicals we actually agree on???

I already knew how it ended before I watched it and of course I’d read Liliom, so I might have been projecting too much onto it, but I found it difficult to care at all about Julie or Billy. Why was Billy so deadset against getting a job? And why on earth did Julie just put up with…[Read more]

@seekjustice @valtmy If they would just take out that one line (It’s seriously only one line!) about abuse in Carousel, it would be perfectly fine, though still somewhat depressing.

Do you agree, SeekJustice?  Other than that it seems to end well, with Billy telling Julie he loves her, and the daughter finding a friend.

@valtmy 😛

Your definition of a “horrible story” consists of unlikeable characters and depressing storylines?

Uh…pretty much? 😉

Okay, so yeah, Liliom/Carousel has a pretty depressing storyline, and the characters are horrible in Liliom.  The guy who plays Billy(Liliom) in Carousel, Gordon MacRae, is acting at his finest in the role and gives…[Read more]

@valtmy

Pretty much nil.

Its certainly an…interesting story. Many of the problems are fixed in Carousel, but its still a musical that makes me a tad uncomfortable. Okay, a little more than a tad.

@valtmy I know, how could you? In general though, I think they’re both pretty good book adaptions and Hollywood writers would do well to study them.

@rochellaine

I see 🙂 Well, red roses I think go with the unimaginative proposal. They’re rather boring and over done now 😀

*gallantly refrains from commenting on Carousel*

@valtmy Why pound it into your characters’ heads when they can act however they want, seeing as they are themselves in a fictional work? 😛

@seekjustice It’s hard to tell, because the book was written from the girl’s POV, and she said they were her favorite flowers, but I don’t think she ever told him that.  I think he just bought them because…[Read more]

@valtmy

I haven’t seen Matilda, but I think Les Mis, The Count of Monte Cristo and The Phantom of the Opera are all good book adaptions, though POTO changes a lot of the plot.

@valtmy

In my opinion, most of the musical is awkward attempts to stick passages straight from the book to music.

@rochellaine

Were the white carnations for any particular reason? Or did he just like them?

That wasn’t particularly smart of them. I mean, if you stopped singing and actually did something you wouldn’t be in this here fix.

@valtmy

Haha, no not really. I don’t really think Jane Eyre is a prime musical example.

@valtmy Hello again!  There is so much stuff that works in fiction but wouldn’t work in real life! 🙂

@seekjustice Ha, yeah. 😛  I did read one book where there was a guy who used flowers other than roses, but it was only one kind, white carnations, and I think he gave them to the girl no more than twice or three times at extremely significant m…[Read more]