A few years ago (2000 to be exact), someone made a movie out of the musical The Fantasticks which I love. It's based on a parody of Romeo and Juliet called Les Romanesques and is one of the simplest and smartest musicals I've ever known (and I've known a lot). So, I let my curiosity get the better of me when I saw it in the TV listings for tonight. Suffice it to say, I'm not really impressed by this movie (which, by the way, stars former New Kid on the Block Joey McIntyre and Mr. Holland's Opus's little Lolita Jean Louisa Kelly as the young lovers and Broadway great Joel Grey as her father), yet somehow, I can't seem to turn it off.
Some of my favorite devices--El Gallo as Narrator not simply "villain" and the Mute--have been neglected. Also, the whole thing attempts to be more realistic as opposed to the stock storyline and characters which are so effective in the play. And there are too many (too obvious) added Romeo & Juliet allusions.
Course, I do like the British El Gallo for some reason. He's very much like Cary Elwes as Westley in The Princess Bride.
By the way, who's idea was it to put a commercial break in the middle of "Round and Round"?
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