Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Plays that were transformed into musicals?
NathanLaneStalker
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/06
#1Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:06am
The only one I know of is Sherry! based on The Man Who Came to Dinner. Are there any others?
#2re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:08am
There are tons. Two off the top of my head:
Pygmalion became My Fair Lady
Green Grow the Lilacs became Oklahoma!
midwestsarah
Chorus Member Joined: 10/8/06
#2re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:10am25th Annual PC Spelling Bee was based on a play called CREPESCULE
#3re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:12amThe Awakening of Spring became Spring Awakening.
It was awesome. - theaterkid1015
Matters
Stand-by Joined: 10/7/05
#4re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:14amMerrily We Roll Along became Merrily We Roll Along, and I'm not sure what came first in terms of (Auntie)Mame but the play and the musical both exist so it could fit into this catagory.
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#5re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:19am
There are dozens (hundreds?) including:
Porgy & Bess (Porgy)
Mame (Auntie Mame)
My Fair Lady (Pygmalion)
West Side Story (Romeo & Juliet)
Hello Dolly (The Matchmaker)
La Cage Aux Folles (play and film of the same name)
Cabaret (I Am A Camera)
I Do! I Do! (The Fourposter)
Purlie (Purlie Victorious)
Raisin (A Raisin in the Sun)
Seesaw (Two for the Seesaw)
Merrily We Roll Along (Kaufman & Hart play of the same name)
The King & I (ANna & The King of Siam)
#6re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:25amSondheim's Sweeney Todd was based on the Sweeney Todd play was it not?
#7re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:25amSondheim's Sweeney Todd was based on the Sweeney Todd play was it not?
#8re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:27amCarousel was based on the French play "Liliom"
NathanLaneStalker
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/06
#9re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:27am
I can't beleive I forgot half of these! haha. Thanks!
#10re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:29am
Margo:
Was there a "La Cage aux Folles" movie in French?
Of course there's The Birdcage, just curious.
There were also books that the play/musical/film were based on
SDav 10495
Broadway Star Joined: 7/21/06
#11re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:29am"Chicago" is based on..."Chicago".
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#12re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:32am
CHICAGO is based on the play ROXIE HART by Maurine Watkins.
LA CAGE the musical is based on a French play of the same name by Jean Poiret.
#13re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:32am
"La Cage" was a French play before it became a French movie, although the musical is based more on the film than the stage play.
Sondheim has said he got interested in SWEENEY after seeing a stage version of the story in London.
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#14re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:35am
While there have been dozens of plays and films of the Sweeney Todd legend over the years, the Sondheim musical is specifically based on the play version that Christopher Bond wrote.
The French film version of La Cage was the most popular foreign film in US history for several years after its release in the late 70s.
CurtainPullDowner
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/4/04
#15re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:35am
There was a Very Famous and Popular Movie And Sequels of LA CAGE...
French Movie and it was based on a play also.
I think there are really thousands of Musicals based on plays.
OUR TOWN=GROVER'S CORNER
110 IN THE SHADE= The RAINMAKER
PICNIC=COME SEPTEMBER
The list is endless.
BroadwayGirl107
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/26/03
#16re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 12:36am
The House of Bernarda Alba--->Bernarda Alba
La Ronde--->Hello, Again
Medea--->Marie Christine
Updated On: 1/8/07 at 12:36 AM
keen on kean
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/1/06
#17re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 8:48pmLerner and Lowe did "Gigi" based on the Colette play.
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#18re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 8:54pm
They Knew What They Wanted - Most Happy Fella
Ah Wilderness - Take Me Along
Anna Christie - New Girl in Town
Perfectly Marvelous
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/16/06
#19re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 8:56pm
I don't think this one was mentioned --
Hello, Dolly! - The Matchmaker
I've never read The Matchmaker, but I know it's by Thornton Wilder.
"Yes, the brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over, men recognize that the human race has been harshly treated but it has moved forward." - Les Miserables
#20re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 9:10pm
"CHICAGO is based on the play ROXIE HART by Maurine Watkins. "
The musical "Chicago" is actually not based on "Roxie Hart", it's based on the play "Chicago." The movie "Roxie Hart" is also based on the play "Chicago."
"The musical Chicago is based on a play of the same name by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins. Watkins had been assigned to cover the 1924 trials of murderesses Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner for the Chicago Tribune"
.................
"In 1942, a film version of Dallas-Watkins' play entitled Roxie Hart, directed by William A. Wellman and starring Ginger Rogers as Roxie, Adolphe Menjou as Billy Flynn, and Spring Byington as reporter Mary Sunshine, was released."
Chicago (musical)
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
#21re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 9:13pm
The Importance of Being Ernest = ERNEST IN LOVE
Charlie's Aunt = WHERE'S CHARLIE?
Les Romanesques = THE FANTASTICKS
The Visit = THE VISIT
Madwoman of Challiot = DEAR WORLD
Jacobovsky & the Colonel = THE GRAND TOUR
Blithe Spirit = HIGH SPIRITS
Don't forget all the Shakespeare adaptations:
Comedy of Errors = BOYS FROM SYRACUSE and OH BROTHER
12th Night = YOUR OWN THING and PLAY ON
The Tempest - RETURN TO FORBIDDEN PLANET
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#22re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 9:14pm
I mentioned The Matchmaker/Hello Dolly! in my post. A great Thornton Wilder play (Ruth Gordon was apparently extraordinary -- Hal Prince turned down doing the original Hello Dolly in part because he believed that no one could ever do Dolly Levi as well as Gordon), as well as a terrific film starring Tony, Emmy and Oscar winner Shirley Booth (plus Shirley Maclaine, Anthony Perkins and Paul Ford).
#23re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/8/07 at 10:15pmOne of those tantalizing bits of theatre history is that, supposedly, in Leonard Bernstein's unpublished works, there's a proposed score for a musical version of SKIN OF OUR TEETH (also by Thornton Wilder, if anyone's interested).
#24re: Plays that were transformed into musicals?
Posted: 1/9/07 at 3:29amSunset Boulevard?
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