Musicals based on non-English language films

Passion (Passione d'Amore)

The movie was itself based on a book, but Sondheim has talked about the movie being what inspired him.

NEVER ON SUNDAY became ILYA, DARLING

Die Trapp-Familie (THE TRAPP FAMILY) became THE SOUND OF MUSIC

Updated On: 5/30/09 at 02:50 PM

La Cage Aux Folles!

ENTER JULIET based upon Fellini's GIULIETTA DELGI SPIRITU (JULIET OF THE SPIRITS). This, and I've seen them all, is my favorite Fellini film... his first in color (and first and last while on LSD) with his most inventive and appropriate camera work (and that's saying A LOT) and the best performance from his wife since LA STRADA. I gotta say I'm not a fan of ENTER JULIET tho... far too traditional 50-s musical comedy. Sheik could do well by this source, though I think it better suited to Guettel. Probably too similar in subject matter to LITP for him, though (a middle-aged woman's sexual re-awakening in Italy in the 60s), maybe not...

I'm a huge Fellini fan and STILL cannot understnad why no one has attempted a musicalization of the SATYRICON, whether Plautus's original or Fellini's version. Who says musicals need endings? My two favorite musicals, FOLLIES and THE WILD PARTY, don't so much end as... stop. "Hi. Girls. Ben. Sally." and "(The cops rushed in)" are stoppings, not endings. :)

A Good Nightmare Comes So Rarely,
P genre

The 1956 German film, "Die Trapp-Familie" and 1959 musical "The Sound of Music", were both based primarily on Maria von Trapp's book "The Story of the Trapp Family Singers", first published by Lippincott in the English language in 1949. "Die Trapp-Familie", in an English dubbed version, was released in the US in 1961, two years after the stage musical appeared on Broadway, although it is still possible that Rodgers and Hammerstein knew of the film and it may have played a part in convincing them that the story could be adapted as a stage musical. Maria von Trapp was already a long time resident of Stowe, Vermont in 1959 and the rights to adapt her book into a musical were most likely negotiated there. The 1956 film and 1959 musical adaptation are both highly romanticized and largely fictional versions of Maria von Trapp's real story.

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Updated On: 5/30/09 at 05:04 PM

The Baker's Wife.

What a beautiful film. Old. French. Thirties, I think.

I'll forever be hoping for a Cinima Paradiso musical, as it would work so well...