Movie Musicals with Original Broadway Casts

well coming up, The Producers, there's at least 2 from there, although the 'Keep It Gay' guy looked familiar, but that's all that comes to mind for me.

1776 had the enitre OBC except John Cullum playing Rutlidge(sp; in the movie) and Betty Buckley was left out as Martha Jefferson.

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Not a musical, but Streetcar Named Desire has most of it's original cast

The Music Man, not the remake, had many of the OBC (Bob Preston, Pert Kelton, The Buffalo Bills, and Adnia Rice) and the touring cast (Harry Hickox, Susan Luckey and a few others).

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Howard Da Silva wasn't deceased at the time the OBC was recorded--he was ill. He died about twenty years later, in 1986 (as opposed to 1969 when the recording was made).

It's still an awful loss to the OBC, though. He's absolutely brilliant in the movie.

HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH retained three of its original cast members and pulled two from the first official out-of-new york productions (boston and la) for the band. Although expanded to more actors/characters from its original incarnation it still stared the original productions' john cameron mitchell, stephen trask, and mariam shor.

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As far as 1776, they did use most of the original principle cast. A few smaller roles were recast. And of the main roles, Rutledge, Dickenson, Martha Jefferson and the Courier were not the originals, although Cullum had played Rutledge on Broadway prior to filming.

As far as Da Silva, he WAS the original Franklin on Broadway, but had a heart attack only one month (I believe) into the run. He was replaced by his standby Rex Everhart, who also sang the part of Franklin for the cast recording, until Da Silva was well enough to return to the show. Da Silva played the part in the film and lived until 1986, as previously stated. Rex Everhart can be heard as Belle's father in the Disney movie of "Beauty and the Beast" incidentally.

There are many films with originals in them:

Show Boat (1936) - featured two original cast members: Helen Morgan (Julie) and Charles Winninger (Capt. Andy). Irene Dunne had played Magnolia in the first national tour prior to doing the film. Paul Robeson played Joe in the 1932 Broadway revival (yes, only 3 years after its original run closed abruptly due to the stock market crash).

Show Boat (1929) - (A mostly silent film version of a musical! Go figure.) It has appearances in the prologue by the original Julie (Helen Morgan), Joe (Jules Bledsoe) and Ziegfeld himself.

Not a musical, but the film of "Our Town" (1940) had three original Broadway cast members: Martha Scott (Emily), Frank Craven (The Stage Manager) and Doro Merande (Mrs. Soames).

The musical "Best Foot Forward" had OBC members June Alyson and Nancy Walker, who were both then signed to MGM contracts.

"On the Town" had Alice Pearce from the OBC as Lucy Shmeeler.

"The Wiz" (ugh) had Mabel King (Evilene) and Ted Ross (the lion).

"How To Succeed" had Robert Morse (Finch), Rudy Vallee (Biggley) and Ruth Kobart (Miss Jones). Michelle Lee had played Rosemary on Broadway, but wasn't the original.

"Music Man" had a handful, as mentioned.

I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones that come to mind.

The biggies (as far as musicals) are Pajama Game and Damn Yankees, where nearly all of the principl cast (save one) were in the film.

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Updated On: 12/3/05 at 12:03 PM

guys and dolls kept viviane blaine as adelaide

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"Cabin in the Sky" (1943), Vincente Minnelli's first film directing credit, included two original Broadway cast members, Ethel Waters (Petunia Jackson) and Rex Ingram (Lucifer, Jr.) recreating the their original roles in the black and white musical film.

This Freed Production is one of my personal favorites for a number of reasons, and one of those is the sublime Ethel Waters.


Ms. Waters also starred in the film version of the Broadway hit, MEMBER OF THE WEDDING (1953), along with her Broadway co-stars Julie Harris, Brandon de Wilde, and William Hansen. It is always difficult to separate the performances by Waters, Harris, and de Wilde; they are all masterful and appear to be of one piece. A touching, memorable play about an adolescent maturing, that remains sheer brilliance because of the original Broadway cast perfomances captured on film.

That's true. We also found roles for Harry S. Murphy, who played Alan Cumming's role in the original L.A. production, and for Michael Goorjian, who was our original choreographer.

chita in chicago? what cameo did she make?

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A Little Night Music - had Len Cariou, Hermoine Gingold and Larry Guittard

The Cocoanuts - with the Marx Brothers, also springs to mind