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Yeah! and how dare Mel Brooks take something as horrible as the Nazi era and turn it into a farcical musical-within-a-musical?? I'm offended, I tell ya.
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Carpal Tunnel
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But the ultimate is taking the story of the crucifixion of Jesus and turning it into Jesus Christ Superstar. Notwithstanding the fact that it provides historical perspectives not found in the gospels!
EDIT: I didn't notice this before, but the way my post reads implies that I am criticizing Superstar. I didn't mean to be. Since the first time I saw it it has been my favorite production of any kind. Rivalled now by some of the stuff Branagh is doing (Hank 5 being the best of that lot.)
TEd
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Ah Whit. You've just listed a WHOLE BUNCH of reasons why I HATE "these entertainment types." I dislike most things Disney, including Snow White; I dislike The Wizard of Oz (such a poor rendering of the wonderful tale from the book). Kiss Me Kate is shite, whereas The Taming of the Shrew is brilliant. Don't know what the book The Phantom of the Opera is like, but the Lloyd-Webber "operetta" is also shite. (Pardon me but being a theatre lover, I can't help but loathe and despise stage shows that try to be like movies.) West Side Story's crap, Fiddler's crap, Chorus Line's crap, Camelot's spamalot. The Sound of Music, Les Mis, Guys and Dolls and My Fair Lady are exceptions to the rule....Guys and Dolls is the perfect musical, with intertwining and very satisfying master and sub-plots, loads of memorable tunes, and people we can cheer for - characters that grow and change. It's fun and charming and witty and romantic, all without being the smarm-fest that a lot of the shows you mention are. Sorry, that's the theatre critic in me coming out. I've just seen way too many shows to want to put up with bad ones. And like I said - maybe The Lord of the Rings would make some kind of phenomenal opera. But NOT a musical. Yes, Cabaret got away with a heavy subject (another wonderful show) - but I don't think a fantasy could get away with it - not without a light-hearted romance - and there is nothing light-hearted about the romances in LOTR. What I object to, about what was outlined by the article in the OP, is filthy-rich egomaniacal entertainers deciding they want to muck about with much-loved favourites from the world of literature. They don't care about what the original material was about, or what the message was, or the atmosphere - all they care about is putting themselves in the limelight again and stroking their considerable egos. Tolkien was right to refuse the Beatles. Jackson did a great job. No, it's not the book. But it's a damn sight better than anything the Beatles could've done. When, o when, will entertainers realise that just because they're good at one thing (singing/acting/dancing/etc), it doesn't necessarily follow that they will be good at another? Look at almost any model-turned-actor, and many singers-turned-actors....There aren't a lot of exceptions. Will Smith springs instantly to mind.... One thing I've always admired about Stratford (Ont.), where I used to work in the box office, was the large number of "triple-threat" performers. Most of the actors there could also sing and dance a treat. It made the musicals really great fun to watch - something that a lot of musicals on film just aren't, because the acting is sacrificed so that the singing will be good. What is required, for a compelling performance, is an actor who can sing and dance - not a singer or hoofer who can't act his/her way out of a paper bag. My rant. Getting down off my soapbox now.... 
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Ah Whit. You've just listed a WHOLE BUNCH of reasons why I HATE "these entertainment types."Well, mg... I'm sorry, but there's just something disturbing to me about seeing the word HATE (in huge letters) attached to the names of magnificient composers, writers, choreographers, and others, who (despite the admittedly garagantuan egos of all artists) strove to create something postive for the world and to enrichen all our lives. To put that word next to names like Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents (West Side Story), Cole Porter, Kurt Weill, Bert Brecht, George Gershwin, Michael Bennett, Jerome Kern, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick ("Fiddler"), Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice, the creators of Wizard of Oz, and Walt Disney(???), just makes me shudder. Sounds almost Hitlerian, really. Granted, there's always a financial motive as well, mostly for the producers...but, it's not like they're selling weapons, you know? You're entitled to dislike West Side Story, but it is certainly not crap...and, for me, to enter into a discussion on this point is just too ridiculous a notion to bother. From all my experience in the theatre (and I was one of those "triple threats"), there is nothing more damaging to a musical production than to cast, especially as a lead, one of these head-strong actors who think they can fake their way through the singing and dancing on the strength of their acting alone. A good actor can always put over a song (see Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady for the definitive study in the fine art of "talk-singing", but how many Rex Harrison's are there?)...however, more often than not, these music-less actors don't have the range to pull it off, and instead weigh the production down by just mouthing the score and lumbering through the dance numbers with the grace of a dinosaur. On the other hand, good singers, are usally good actors, having the depth and range of emotion they bring to their songs, and also to the lyrical intepretation involved therein. Rarely have I seen a good singer turn in a bad performance as an actor. So as far as a musical production is concerned, I'll take a strong singer to a "rapping" actor any day...it is, after all, the musical theatre. I certainly hope you can qualify your "lofty" criticism from more theatrical experience than sitting in a booth selling tickets. It's certainly difficult for me to fathom how you can claim to be a "theatre lover" after your rendering of the above remarks. (And do you really think The Wizard of Oz should have never been made in lieu of preserving the "integrity" of a short children's story?) And, ending on a brighter note, I do see some commendable salvation for you in your laudet of Guys and Dolls. 
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I certainly hope you can qualify your "lofty" criticism from more theatrical experience than sitting in a booth selling tickets.Well, this just makes me want to call you an ignorant twat, but instead I am going to mildly say: Ah Whit. I've spent MOST of my adult working life in the theatre. I first went to Stratford when I was 7. I took "theatre arts" for three years in high school and have been involved, onstage or behind the scenes, in numerous productions. No, I'm not an actor - but then, your confession that you were a triple-threat just shores up my belief that actors are often not very good judges of performance. (Oooh. That's for looking down your snotty nose at me for selling tickets.) It's true, in my experience: they let their egos get in the way, they don't want to believe something might not be exactly as wonderful as THEY think it is. How do you know they were hoping to "enrichen" (the word is "enrich") our lives? how do you know they weren't just hoping to make an indecent amount of money? Just as you shouldn't go getting all high-and-mighty with a ticket seller you've never met, assuming she must be some ignorant slob from Hicksville, you also shouldn't attribute noble motives to people in the entertainment industry whom you've never met, assuming they must be patron saints of the performing arts. I do HATE it when people prostitute good material for the popular conception of the "bottom line" - money. To me, the bottom line always has been, and always will be, QUALITY. I'm not interested in seeing some supposed creative type rape a perfectly good story. On the other hand, I applaud creative genre-swapping when it's done with integrity and a genuine love for the original material - hence, I thoroughly enjoyed both Bridget Jones's Diary, the novel, and Bridget Jones's Diary, the film. The two differed on a lot of points but each was a delight in its own genre and both conveyed, humorously and in an over-the-top kinda way, what it's like to be a 30-something chick in contemporary society. The truisms in that book and that film ARE truisms for many women in that age category (in case you want my credentials on this one, I'm female and 34 and have a lot of female friends in their early and mid-thirties with whom I have discussed both book and movie. Okay?). Certainly most of the people you mention were (or are, for the extant ones) talented, some of them even very talented. That doesn't stop me hating what some of them have done with wonderful material. For you to suggest that I am being "Hitlerian" is positively hyperbolic of you. (But I suspect if you want to do that, you might be better off making his name an adjective by adding "esque," not "ian.") And no, it's not "like" they're selling weapons. But some of them definitely are contributing to the mushifying of the brains of hundreds of thousands of theatre-goers. Finally, I never think anything "should have never been made." If I feel that way about something, I think it "should never have been made."  edit PS: And I LOVE (assuming you don't object to that word in caps) Jesus Christ Superstar (can't remember who posted about that show). Think the "bottom line" on this thread is: everyone has different favourites, different ideas of what's good and what's bad, and our opinions are strong. I doubt I'll get you to agree with mine - you certainly won't get me to agree with yours. If I want to eschew ever watching Cabaret (the film) again because I felt the stage show was streets better, that's my prerogative. If I want to watch Enchanted April (the film) over and over again because I LOVE how it improved on the book, that too is my prerogative. Now get off my case. I STILL (ooh, caps AGAIN!) say LOTR would be descrated if 'twere made into a musical; and I STILL say I can imagine it as an opera. Stamp it, no erasin', no nuthin'.
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Carpal Tunnel
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descrated
That's desecrated...with an e.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Gee, whit, that was characteristicly right on-point. Perhaps you might leave it in the manner of a theatrical pair whom I know to be among whit's favorites?
Higgledy piggledy.
Gilbert and Sullivan
Collaborated and
Got very rich.
Nevertheless and quite
Characteristicly,
Each thought the other a
Bit of a twitch.
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Carpal Tunnel
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But the ultimate is taking the story of the crucifixion of Jesus and turning it into Jesus Christ Superstar. Notwithstanding the fact that it provides historical perspectives not found in the gospels!Hmmm. Life of Brian provides historical perspectives on the whole thing not found in any book, gospel or not! " e's not the Messiah, 'e's a very naughty boy!" And so are the two of you (you know who I'm talking about) for slagging each other over what are personal preferences and daring to mention them! 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Thank you Keiva and Capital K for bringing us back to ourselves....(and with a quote from Life of Brian, in the latter instance, and G&S in the former - I do love this board!)
And thank you Whit for catching that error - touche!
(exit SL, singing "Why can't we be friends....")
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