I liked the show...but I agree with the rest of this post^.
Broadway Star Joined: 12/2/06
While I agree that Come From Away deserved the Tony for Best Book of a Musical over Dear Evan Hansen, I don't think Playbill.com should have lied...
"Husband-and-wife writing team of Irene Sankoff and David Hein, who won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical, will author the screenplay."
https://www.playbill.com/article/tony-winning-broadway-musical-come-from-away-heading-to-the-screen
Chorus Member Joined: 8/11/04
Deadline is reporting Christopher Ashley will be directing the movie.
http://deadline.com/2017/11/come-from-away-broadway-musical-tony-award-winning-movie-mark-gordon-1202209043/
It should be Christopher Guest at the helm of this.
I feel like it could be like the film of LONDON ROAD, the musical from The National a couple years ago.
London Road FIlm
I wonder why this happened so quick? Don't they usually make a movie when sales are lagging? I see this lasting at least through a cast change or two.
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/21/05
RippedMan said: "I wonder why this happened so quick? Don't they usually make a movie when sales are lagging? I see this lasting at least through a cast change or two."
No. They try to strike while the iron' s got. But inn modern times, musicals don't have the appeal they had in the so called golden years, so they get made after spending treats in development hell. Personally, I don't see how this would work without a major overhaul, and I think a major part of the appeal of this show is how the minimal sets, small caddy, and direction all come together.
I do not understand the love for this musical. I found it flightless and dull. Can't imagine a movie being made. The music isn't very good. Maybe we can bring Bob Fosse back from the dead to add his "Take Off with Us" number.
What’s interesting about this is that Christopher Ashley has directed two feature films before, though neither of them were critically-acclaimed. In 1995, he made a film adaptation of Paul Rudnick’s play Jeffrey (not about me, obviously), which he also originally directed on stage. But overall, the film itself received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics. It wasn’t until a few years ago when he finally made a follow-up film which was an adaptation of Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty’s debut musical, Lucky Stiff, which received very mixed-to-negative reviews (though I must say, while the film wasn’t great, I still certainly got a kick out of it).
Not only that, but the overall track record for stage directors repeating their directorial duties on film adaptations of their musicals hasn’t been great. While there has been some exceptions to the rule such as…
George Abbott (with Stanley Donen)-The Pajama Game & Damn Yankees
Joshua Logan-South Pacific
Jerome Robbins (with Robert Wise)-West Side Story
Morton DaCosta-The Music Man
Jim Sharman-The Rocky Horror Picture Show
There’s also been…
Gene Saks-Mame
Harold Prince-A Little Night Music
Susan Stroman-The Producers
Phyllida Lloyd-Mamma Mia!
Though there is an interesting case for the film adaptation of 1776 (which was directed by Peter Hunt, who won a Tony for directing the original Broadway production) where while it hasn’t really been seen as an all-time classic, it still has such a devoted cult following.
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