First musical adapted from a movie?

I read the other day how when Oscar Hammerstein adapted Showboat, the author of the book was horrified that he would want to adapt a musical from a book. I think that's sort of funny because since then it has become the standard to adapt musicals from varied sources. I've been trying to figure out what was the first musical adapted from a movie. The earliest one I can think of was Wonderful Town. Can anyone go me one earlier?

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Actually "Wonderful Town" was based on the play "My Sister Eileen" which in turn was adapted from short stories by Ruth McKenney. The film was made after the success of the stage play.

I think you might have to go a little further forward to find a musical developed soley from a movie. "Sweet Charity" perhaps?

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Ah, I should have realized that there were sources for the movie (just as there were sources for Mame).

But it went short stories - play - movie - musical on stage - move musical, right?

I was thinking maybe Sweet Charity, Night Music, but I figured there had to be something earlier.

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Was Goldilocks based on a movie? For some reason I'm thinking it was, but it would be after 1953 anyway.

No. Goldilocks is about the movie industry, but it's an original piece.

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Ah, must have been one of those things mushed in my head incorrectly.

Promises, Promises is another, though it certainly wasn't the first.

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42nd Street was a movie from the early 30s.

The stage version didn't happen until the 1980s -- decades after the first movie-to-stage musical adaptions

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"Pousse-Cafe" was adapted from Garbo's "The Blue Angel" in the early fifties I believe...

What about the film "Lili" which was eventually adapted and became the musical "Carnival"...?

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"Carousel" is based on Frank Borsage's 1930 film "Liliom" (based on the same titled play by Ferenc Molnár)

As for the film musical that hit the stage (apart from the Disney Cartoons and works such as Fame and Saturday Night Fever) I have the impression (but I may be wrong) that Victor Victoria wasn't performed on stage until 1996

Updated On: 3/24/06 at 05:59 PM

Well, even though I thought I saw somewhere that Cabaret was officially credited as being based on the the film of I Am A Camera, though I knew that it was a play first. But I guess I'm wrong.


I've seen from a few sources that My Fair Lady is more closely based on a film of Pygmalion than the original Shaw play, though, of course, it officially credits the play as the source material.

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One of the early musicals that was preceeded by a film version of the same original source material was the 1944 musical SADIE THOMPSON by Vernon Duke (music) and Howard Dietz (lyrics). This was based on Somerset Maugham's short story, "Rain." A film version of "Rain" was released in 1932, and starred Joan Crawford.

A recording of the full score of SADIE THOMPSON was released a couple of years ago, starring Melissa Errico as Sadie. It is a very good recording.

Ethel Merman was originally set to star in SADIE THOMPSON. Due to a falling out with the creative team, The Merm bowed out and was replaced by June Havoc (Gypsy's sister).

Two other early musicals that were films before being musicalized are:

Marc Blitzstein's REGINA (1949) based on Lillian Helman's THE LITTLE FOXES which was filmed with Bette Davis and released in 1941.

The next was Rodgers & Hammerstein's THE KING AND I. "Anna and The King of Siam" was the original novel by Margaret Landon which had been given a successful film treatment, released in 1946. This non-musical film starred Rex Harrison as The King and the musical star (SHOW BOAT) Irene Dunn as Anna. By the way, Bernard Herrmann was the first to write a musical score to this story. There is a terrific recording of this film score. Hermann of course scored many, many films, the most recognized is probably Hichcock's "Psyco."