From Movie Musical to Broadway Musical
by Claire J Rottenberg
My theme for the next several days will be "From
Movie Musical to Broadway Musical." Although the
normal sequence is for a Broadway musical to become a
movie musical, there have been, especially in more
recent years, quite a few Broadway musicals that were
based on popular movie musicals. I've selected 6 of
these movies-to-plays to discuss in the coming days.
My selection is based on movies I've seen and that I
own in DVD format. The movies/plays are:
(1) Singin'
in the Rain
(2) Seven
Brides for Seven Brothers
(3) Gigi
(4) Mary
Poppins
(5) Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang
(6) Buddy
(The Buddy Holly Story)
Of the six movies/plays, the only one I saw both on
the stage and as a movie is "Buddy," which I was
fortunate enough to see in London's West End in
2002.
Of the six plays, four of them had their starts in
London's West End. Although several were successful
in London, only one, "Mary Poppins," was a success on
Broadway. The Broadway runs of the plays ranged from
5 performances ("Seven Brides for Seven Brothers") to
over 845 performances ("Mary Poppins"), with four
playing for under 300 performances.
All of the six plays had new songs added and most of
the plays had books that were, at least, slightly
different from the original movie's screenplay. With
the exception of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," the lead
role in each of the Broadway productions was played
by a relatively unknown actor or actress.
Return to this site in the next few days to read
about each of these movie musicals that later became
Broadway musicals.