This week's theme is "Successful Plays to Successful
Movies." I'll be comparing seven highly successful
Broadway musicals with their equally successful movie
versions. The plays and movies I'll be discussing are
"West Side Story," "My Fair Lady," "The Sound of
Music," "Oliver," "Fiddler on the Roof," "Cabaret,"
and "Chicago." All of the seven musicals were
nominated for the Tony award for Best Musical and the
Academy Award for Best Picture and each won at least
one of the two awards. Two of the musicals, "My Fair
Lady" and "The Sound of Music," won both
awards. [read more ...]
The movie version of "West Side Story" won a record
number of Academy Awards (10), but, surprisingly, the
play did not win the Tony award for Best Musical (it
lost to "The Music Man"). The play opened in 1957 and
it ran for almost two years. None of the lead
performers from the play appeared in the movie but
several of the performers who played smaller parts
recreated their roles or played similar parts in the
movie. For example, Tony Mordente played a Jet,
A-Rab, in the play and then later played a different
Jet, Action, in the film version of "West Side
Story." [read more ...]
Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's "My Fair Lady"
is one of only two Tony winning Best Musicals to also
become an Academy Award winning Best Picture. The
play ran on Broadway for six and a half years and it
has had three Broadway revivals since it ended its
first run in 1962. Both the book of the play and the
screenplay were written by Alan Jay Lerner. [read more ...]
"The Sound of Music" was the only Rodgers and
Hammerstein movie musical to win an Academy Award
even though they have had more movies made from their
plays than any other composers. Surprisingly, one of
their best and most-loved musicals, "Oklahoma," did
not win a Tony award or an Academy Award. [read more ...]
"Oliver," although an Academy Award
winner for Best Picture and Best Director (Carol
Reed), did not win similar Tony awards but it was
nominated for Best Musical (it lost to "A Funny
Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum"). The
excellent music score of "Oliver" won a
Tony award for the composer and lyricist, Lionel
Bart, and an Academy Award for the film's
musical arranger, Johnny Green. Overall,
"Oliver" won 3 Tony awards out of 10
nominations and 5 Academy Awards out of 11
nominations. In addition, Onna White won an Honorary
Academy Award for her choreography of the film
version. [read more ...]
The original Broadway production of "Fiddler on
the Roof" won 9 Tony awards, but, surprisingly,
the excellent move version only won 3 relatively
minor Academy Awards, although it was nominated for 8
Oscars, including nominations for Best Picture and
Best Director (Norman Jewison). The original version
of "Fiddler on the Roof" was still
playing on Broadway when the film was released in
1971 and a year later the play received a special
Tony award for becoming the longest running Broadway
musical. It closed on Broadway on July 2, 1972, after
8 years (3,242 performances). [read more ...]
Although "Cabaret" was a very successful
play, winning 6 Tony awards out of 10 nominations,
and a highly successful movie, winning 10 Academy
Awards out of 12 nominations, the two versions
differed significantly, both in plot and songs. In
the original play, the female lead, Sally Bowles, was
English but in the film she was American, probably to
better fit the role to the movie's star, Liza
Minnelli. As a balance to the play, the male lead was
switched from the American Cliff Bradshaw to the
British Brian Roberts in the movie version. The
second romantic leads were changed in the movie from
the play's old Jewish man (played by Jack
Gilford) and his German love interest (played by
Lotte Lenya) to a young Jewish socialite and a young
Jewish gigolo who, at first, hides his
Jewishness. [read more ...]
Although "Chicago" was a hit musical play
in 1975, playing on Broadway for 2 years, it was not
made into a movie musical until 25 years later, after
a second highly successful run on Broadway. In fact,
the movie version of "Chicago" was based
on the 1996 revival rather than on the original 1975
play. [read more ...]
