Musicals Blog

Plays that Did Not Become Movies

My theme for the next two weeks is "Hit Broadway Plays that Did Not Become Movies." Surprisingly, this list for the last 60 years has been relatively short, especially if TV productions are counted as films. In the 20 years from 1949 to 1969, only 4 Tony-winning plays were not made into movie musicals. Since 1970, the list is longer, but several of the plays in the last four decades have been broadcast on television or the Broadway or London versions have been recorded on tape and are now available on VHS or DVD.

In the next two weeks, I'll be adding entries for plays that meet the following criteria: (1) won Tony award for Best Musical, (2) no VHS or DVD version is available, and (3) ran for at least 600 performances in its original run on Broadway. Using those criteria, my list is very small: Fiorello (1960), Applause (1970), Big River (1985), The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1986), City of Angels (1990), and the Will Rogers Follies (1991). I'm also including one hit musical that did not win the Tony award but does meet the other criteria - Miss Saigon (1991). Of the 9 plays, I had the good fortune to see one of them, "City of Angels," early in its run and before it won the Tony award.