Musicals based on popular movies are a well-worn, tried and tested genre. It’s not often that the musical is better than the film, but audiences are generally happy to see the story play out live – though it’s no guarantee of success.

Sydney already has the musical adaptation of Back to the Future running on stage. Now comes Pretty Woman, which opened in Brisbane in October and is touring nationally.

Samantha Jade and Ben Hall in Pretty Woman: The Musical. Photo © Daniel Boud

Based on the 1990 film starring Richard Gere as Edward Lewis, an obscenely wealthy, ruthless corporate raider, and Julia Roberts as Vivan Ward, the free-spirited sex worker who melts his heart, the musical sticks closely to the movie – as you’d expect given that the book is written by the film’s director Garry Marshall and screenwriter JF Lawton.

It’s a fairly problematic story and not terribly believable. The movie itself received mixed reviews when it premiered, but quickly won legions of fans helped in no small measure by Roberts’ irresistible performance, which catapulted her to superstardom.

The musical does nothing to make the plot line...