Best movie adaptations of plays

A Streetcar Named Desire

I don't personally have any strong love for it, but culturally I think it is probably the most iconic and influential, and most highly regarded by film people.

I'd say Chicago is probably the best musical adaptation, and Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet is my pick for Shakespeare.

I often have a hard time with adaptations of musicals, but "Chicago" and "Cabaret" are about as good as it gets. Something about Kander and Ebb must work great for the screen, I guess.

"Fences" was mentioned already, but it's a pretty perfect adaptation. Mike Nicholls's "Angels in America" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" are both spectacular. I've never seen Pinter's "The Homecoming," much to my chagrin, but I love the 1973 film adaptation a lot.

The Heiress - Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift and Ralph Richardson are absolutely spellbinding.

Streetcar Named Desire

Angels in America (HBO miniseries) - excellent, brought all the characters to life and made you care about every single character. Mike Nichols' direction is amazing.

Pygmalion - love the film with Wendy Hiller and Leslie Howard. MFL owes much to the film Pygmalion.

The Little Foxes - I know some people think Bette Davis overdid her part but I love it.

Throne of Blood and Ran are pretty unbeatable as far as Shakespearean adaptations go.

His Girl Friday (adapted from Front Page) - making Hildy a woman all of a sudden gives the whole piece sexual tension and Cary Grant was never funnier

Virginia Woolf for sure, but also Amadeus, Secret Honor, Marjorie Prime, and Chimes at Midnight.

Glad to see “Wit” mentioned. I think it’s just superb.

There have been so many excellent adaptations. Looking at comedies alone, three of my favorites are “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” “The Philadelphia Story,” and “Auntie Mame.”

Best play to film - The Miracle Worker.

Best Musical (well not sure it's the best but my personal fav) - The Music Man

I think The Sound of Music film script greatly improved the stage musical's book. I could take issue with making Max and the Baroness non-singing characters, but other than that, Ernest Lehman did a fantastic job opening up the material.

Of course, it's hard to go far wrong with that score in any format.

^ Which is little wonder since you're comparing the full-blown film musical to a bare bones Encores-style staging of CHICAGO onstage with glorified rehearsal clothes. Had you compared the film to the original fully staged and designed 1975 production, you might be surprised at how the theater piece would hold up.

Yay for the mention of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. There's a film that augmented the play in magnificent ways.

Crazy as it is, I'd say the same for OLIVER!.

Elfuhbuh said: "Chicago isn't one of my favorite musicals, but I have to say objectively, that one's about as good as a stage-to-film adaptation gets. As someone who saw the film first and enjoyed it a lot, it actually made me disappointed when I later saw the stage production."

The fantastic thing about that film is that they understand "the language of sung thoughts". Most songs and lyrics in a musical take place in someone's head. The pre-recorded voices support that illusion wonderfully and this is actually essential for a musical on film to contribute to this given of sung thoughts, better than life feelings. A non-literal approach because this artform on film per definition is not.

In many scenes in Chicago you see their thoughts taking flight. Filmed in an undefined big black space. Not just filmed in a room or a street, no, their thoughts go beyond that. I'm glad this director did not step into the pitfall of a literal approach, and mistakenly assumed that that would make emotions more raw or real. Because it's the opposite that actually works. As you can see in this movie.

I have to say that filmic wise, Evita is a gem too. In some scenes they even used the sung music as a voice over, where you can hear the character singing in her/his mind, and in between seeing other scenes edited in. It's just beautiful. They also worked with dream sequences and sung thoughts very well. Like the dance with Eva and Che, it's happening in an undefined space, it's not even really happening. It's their thoughts. The filmic magic takes it to an even higher level.

Updated On: 4/10/18 at 05:32 AM

Imagine a HELLO DOLLY film without the song "Hello Dolly". Imagine a CABARET film without the song "Cabaret". That's my response to anyone who says the film of SWEENEY TODD is a great film. Eliminate the title tune (and musical thru-line) and whatever it is, it isn't a great SWEENEY TODD film.