Play Book Tag discussion

Having all these retellings made me think of movies.
There are so many of Shakespeares - Romeo and Juliet alone probably had dozens (from Westside story, to a gnome movie, to the zombies in Warm Bodies

One of my favourites is Clueless (after Jane Austin’s Emma)- which I will have to watch for retelling month again

And there’s O brother where art thou that the Cohen brothers concocted from The Odyssey somehow

What are your fav cinematic retellings?

I absolutely adored Baz Luhrman’s Romeo & Juliet, and The Great Gatsby.

Also Baz Luhrmann: Moulin Rouge is a retelling - of La Boheme (the opera), that might be in itself a retelling

The kid in me enjoyed Amy Adams in "Enchanted."

Movies based on books are always 'retellings'. :)

I liked Into the Woods, although I think it worked better on stage.

I like and have watched many times The Count of Monte Cristo w/Jim Caviezel. Also The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and the two sequels (the Scandinavian version), Casino Royale, and The Shipping News.

Idit wrote: "Also Baz Luhrmann: Moulin Rouge is a retelling - of La Boheme (the opera), that might be in itself a retelling"

It is... of a French novel - Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger

Idit wrote: "Also Baz Luhrmann: Moulin Rouge is a retelling - of La Boheme (the opera), that might be in itself a retelling"

Ripped from Wikipedia

La bohème (French pronunciation: ​[la bɔ.ɛm], Italian: [la boˈɛm]) is an opera in four acts,[N 1] composed by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger.[1]

But I'm not sure if it followed Murger's stories enough to be a true retelling or not.

Well Rent is a re-telling of La Boheme ....

Susie wrote: "I absolutely adored Baz Luhrman’s Romeo & Juliet, and The Great Gatsby."

OMG, same on Romeo + Juliet, LOVE LOVE LOVE!
The soundtrack is amazing as well.

I also like 10 Things I Hate About You, a modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew.

Clueless also love, but didn't know it was a retelling until this year. Never read Emma.

Bridget Jones’s Diary is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice. Anything with Colin Firth and Hugh Grant is worth a watch, or twelve!

I was just watching with my kid Pride & prejudice with Colin Firth as me Darcy. LOVE that mini series. They are all so wonderful - the Mum, the sad, the leads of course, the cringe worthy priest cousin

Don’t know that I count it as a retelling. It’s so faithful to the original book
I just mentioned it because of Firth

Idit wrote: "Don’t know that I count it as a retelling. It’s so faithful to the original book
I just mentioned it because of Firth"

...and he is definitely worth a mention😀

Really enjoying this thread. Also loved Enchanted with Amy Adams. And the entire Once Upon a Time series.

Book Concierge wrote: "Well Rent is a re-telling of La Boheme ...."

Yes, but it was on stage :). I prefer La Boheme because the music is fabulous--Puccini was BRILLIANT and one of the best opera composers. Rent is good, but hasn't stood the test of time yet :)

Idit wrote: "Don’t know that I count it as a retelling. It’s so faithful to the original book
I just mentioned it because of Firth"

Actually Austen purists find that the miniseries with David Rintoul as Mr. Darcy (the PBS one, Firth's came later on A & E) closer to the book. For one thing, the Firth one adds an entire scene not found in the book (inferred, but to a purist, it shouldn't have been included). There are a few other things, and one of them is that the casting was better overall in the BBC one (with the exception, perhaps, of Lydia).

Sadly, I have lost the link, but someone had an excellent compare and contrast set of reviews on the two on Amazon. In part because I had already seen the older one three times prior to the Firth one, and in part because I thought Rintoul far hotter than Firth (sorry, Firth just doesn't do it for me) and also much more Mr. Darcy IMO, and in part because I am a huge Pride and Prejudice purist, I favour the one with David Rintoul.

I never heard of the earlier Pride & Prejudice. Will have to check it out. Although like you, Karin, I saw one version many times and not sure I can fall in love with another

Theresa - thanks for finding the original story for La Boheme. Is it a good book?

Rent is musical, right? Or just a play?

La Boheme is not one of my favourite operas. I’m more of a Mozart girl (well, and Carmen, the odd Verdi and few others)

Love Moulin Rouge, Rent and La Boheme (MR and Rent are both musicals, La Boheme an opera). I'm a sucker for this plotline (also for the ABC Operas).

For straight up movies- gotta love She's the Man starring Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum, based on 12th night! Also Sydney White, starring Amanda Bynes is a retelling of Snow White.

Also love 10 Things I hate about You (Taming of the Shrew), as well as the musical Kiss Me Kate (also Taming of the Shrew).

It seems lots of movies that are from musicals are retellings.
Others that quickly come to mind
-Wicked, a retelling of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which is a retelling of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
-Les Misérables
-The Phantom of the Opera
-Big River (based off The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)
-Man of La Mancha (Don Quixote)
-Super trendy nowdays are "kid musicals" based on books (Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the like).

Well as long as we are talking about musicals, I need to gush a little-My daughter and I have tickets to the Broadway production of Anastasia on the 16th at The Fisher Theater in Detroit-We are very excited!

Karin wrote: "Book Concierge wrote: "Well Rent is a re-telling of La Boheme ...."

Yes, but it was on stage :). I prefer La Boheme because the music is fabulous--Puccini was BRILLIANT and one of the best opera c..."

There is a movie of Rent, I believe....

Oh, and speaking of musicals .... West Side Story = Romeo & Juliet

Joi! I totally forgot about Kiss Me Kate! What an awesome musical. With all those Cole Porter songs

Which reminds me of Edward II - a movie by Derek Jarman that was based on a play by Christopher Marlow (who I think lived in Shakespeare time) - The movie focuses on the gay love of the king.
It is an amazing movie (if you like more alternative films)
And the reason I was reminded of it is that Annie Lennox sings in it Every time we say goodbye - which is a Cole porter song.

(A lot of Cole Porter songs’ covers including Annie Lennox and some from Kiss Me Kate are in a CD called “red hot + blue”)

Joanne wrote: "Well as long as we are talking about musicals, I need to gush a little-My daughter and I have tickets to the Broadway production of Anastasia on the 16th at The Fisher Theater in Detroit-We are ver..."

Enjoy! live shows are so much fun!

10 Things I Hate About You and Cruel Intentions

Easy A is a loose retelling of Scarlet Letters

I was just thinking about West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet!

Idit wrote: "I never heard of the earlier Pride & Prejudice. Will have to check it out. Although like you, Karin, I saw one version many times and not sure I can fall in love with another

Theresa - thanks for ..."

There is no need to fall in love with the other, in my personal opinion. Once was enough for the other one, although my mother liked the other one just fine (she also didn't watch the first one 3 times). That first one is what prompted me to read Jane Austen in the first place!

@Idit, gotta love Cole Porter! I think my fav of his is Anything Goes, don't think that one is a retelling of anything.

@Joanne, so fun, is that with the touring cast? We have tickets for Anastasia when it comes through Portland sometime in 2020. Not sure how old your daughter is, but I've already started trying to get my nieces (6th grade and 9th grade) "into" musicals. We saw the School of Rock musical in May and they both loved it!

If we're stretching it- The Lion King is loosely based on Hamlet.

Also how could I forget one of my FAV musicals (with a movie), My Fair Lady, based on Pygmalion.

Joi wrote: "@Idit, gotta love Cole Porter! I think my fav of his is Anything Goes, don't think that one is a retelling of anything.

@Joanne, so fun, is that with the touring cast? We have tickets for Anastas..."

LOL-my daughter is 26-The Disney film was her all time favorite. She and I have been going to the Theater together since she was 9 or 10. She was a Theater Geek all through Middle School and High School. She had scholarships to Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp( A big deal in Michigan) all 4 High School years.

She has been walking around singing the score since I got the tickets in April. I am terrified she is going to break out in song during the performance! Trust me, she does not have the voice to pull it off!

Not sure what cast it is but these are the headliners:

STARRING:

LILA COOGAN
Anya

STEPHEN BROWER
Dmitry

Joanna & Joi - isn’t it wonderful going with the kids (or nieces) to shows and seeing their passion and joy. It’s really magical

We took Aurora to see Matilda few years back and she was obsessed about it afterwards. She’d have glowing eyes as she talked and talked about it and sang and sang and sang