"Heaven Can Wait"
"Working Girl"
Ferenc Molnar's "The Swan" (the playwright who wrote Liliom" which became "Carousel"). Update it. The story of a deposed Royal family and its plans to have their daughter marry one of the few remaining heirs to a throne--the plans are complicated by a poor, young tutor who falls in love with the princess, Alexandra. The movie starred Grace Kelly, Louis Jourdan, and Sir Alec Guiness.
"In America".
Lloyd Weber-like or Boubil/Shoenberg): Jean de Florette (which would comprise it as Act 1 and "Manon of the Spring" as Act II.) Shakespearean in scope about greed, revenge, and the subtle but tragic workings of fate. Some possibilities for powerful performances.
"Lonesome". The silent film classic. Act 1: It is the heyday of Coney Island ("Lunar Park") etc. A lonely bachelor who lives in a vast apartment house and who has no social life but talking to an old woman after work is finally taken out by friends. He sees a young girl only briefly who shares a similar bleak existence at a train station. She smiles. He laments his inability to approach her.
On July fourth they miraculously meet on the boardwalk of Coney Island and spend the day together. They only exchange first names and no other real details of their lives--where they live or work, etc.
They finally decide to take a ride in the tunnel of love when a fire breaks out. It is a major tragedy--like the night club fire in Boston. He survives and is lead to believe she is among the victims, some yet unidentified.
In Act II he is given some hope that she has survived but who is she? All he has is her first name. All his efforts to find her are futile and he returns to his lonely existence.
--And then there is the twist of fate that results in a happy ending. Simple, but still considered a classic.
Updated On: 6/20/06 at 11:13 AM
