I now blog over at The Eyre Guide! This blog is an archive of my past posts.


Friday, July 25, 2014

Ghost: The Musical

Posted by Charlene // Tags: , ,

So show of hands - who knew they made this movie into a musical?  They make everything into a musical nowadays it seems.  But I do love this movie, so I went to see it recently while the tour was in L.A.  I had listened to the soundtrack before and wasn't very impressed and sadly I still felt the same after watching this.

The show sticks pretty close to the film, as far as I can remember.  It even uses the same lines at times.  But the music is so bland to me.  It's overpowering rock which overwhelms the vocals at times.  It was hard to hear what they were saying.  And with the music so unmemorable, it's unfortunate that the show script didn't reinvent the story somehow to make it stand out.  I normally like adaptations that are close to the source material, but this show needed something more to enhance it.

There are a couple fantastic things about this show however.  One is the effects.  The ghost effects, as well as the multimedia screen that helped with background and setting.  People seemed to levitate, things seemed to fly around, and they were able to show Sam walking into the light.  It was all so beautifully done.  I was very caught up in trying to figure out exactly how each effect was executed!  I also really enjoyed how they showed Sam's death - one minute he's struggling with the mugger, the next he's on the floor dead, and Sam the ghost is walking around.  A dummy was obviously used, but very seamlessly.

The second fantastic thing about this show is Oda Mae Brown, the psychic.  That character is the best and must be so much fun to play!  She brightens every scene she is in,  and if they could have worked her character more into the show, it would have been the right decision.

I feel like Ghost is more of an intimate love story, but this musical really made a spectacle of the whole thing and it just didn't fit.  It's a tragic love story, but an approach like with the musical Once instead of the power rock ballads might have been a better fit for the story.  I'm glad I was able to see it though, and was super happy Oda Mae Brown was there to liven up the story!

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10 comments:

  1. I actually did know that Ghost had been made into a musical. It's not something I was particularly interested in seeing, and although I haven't seen the musical, I agree that the movie was really an intimate love story, and that the musical seems to be lacking in that.

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  2. Ugh. This bums me out. I absolutely LOVE this movie and don't want to see it tarnished by a flaky musical ://

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  3. I don't know the musical or the movie. :( I normally don't like musicals because I end up not understanding most of what they're saying. >_< But the effects sound fantastic! I wish they had more paranormal-y musicals here in our country. :)

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  4. You were right to not be that interested! I was pretty excited about the idea actually when I first heard of the musical, but it's unfortunate it didn't really meet that potential.

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  5. I just recently rewatched the movie, and it is really excellent! Perhaps this is a case where the movie is just a better format for the story. But it's really too bad!

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  6. Oh the movie is so good Aimee! I recommend watching it! :) The special effects was really cool - maybe with the advancement of technology there will be more paranormal-y musicals everywhere! And hopefully if you do see them, it might get you started into liking musicals. :D

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  7. I've never actually watched/read the original (I'm not even sure if it's a book or a film!), but, even though this was a little less than fantastic for you, this review has certainly sparked my interest and I AM going to check out whatever the original material was and see if I can get a copy sometime soon. It sounds like it's a really beautiful, hardhitting story, and that sounds quite excellent. x

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  8. The original is a movie, and it's excellent! It's one of those films I first saw when I was a child and it really stuck with me. I think it's much more worthwhile to see the film, it's very touching and you can't beat Whoopi Goldberg as the psychic! (the comedy aspect is definitely welcome in such a bittersweet story)

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  9. Unfortunately I am not a romance book or movie person really so I don't really care for this movie. So I would probably not actually go to this show. I have seen a movie to musical once... Billy Elliot. I didn't enjoy it at all. I love love the movie Billy Elliot but the show despite being made by Elton John was just a flop to me.

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  10. OH NO! I am actually a little sad that you didn't enjoy Ghost. But I understand, it can't be for everyone. I haven't seen either versions of Billy Elliot unfortunately, but I should watch the movie sometime to see what it is all about.

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