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has a TV show ever been turned into a Broadway show (musical or play)? The Golden Girls perhaps....

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#1

has a TV show ever been turned into a Broadway show (musical or play)? The Golden Girls perhaps....

Posted: 4/5/09 at 1:59pm

i was just thinking about this - movies and Broadway have a symbiotic relationship, as do books and Broadway - but what about TV?

i know "Odd Couple" was turned into a TV series, but has a TV show ever given birth to a Broadway venture?

aside from the off-broadway parodies of "Brady Bunch" and "Facts of Life".

i was thinking that "The Golden Girls" would make a really good musical - not so much in the tongue-in-cheek way as the off-broadway shows - but an old-fashioned book musical that happens to highlight 4 women who are no longer the ingenue.

thoughts? comments? diatribes?
#7

re: has a TV show ever been turned into a Broadway show (musical or play)?

Posted: 4/5/09 at 3:27pm

M*A*S*H is a play, though I'm not sure which came first.

(Edited to add the following)

I've always thought The Golden Girls should be a stage play. It would be such a hit regionally with bus loads of Red Hat ladies tipsy from wine coolers coming to see it. Interestingly enough, the real Golden Girls did a live performance for the Queen back in the day. Apparently Her Majesty was a fan of NBC's prime time shows in the late '80.
"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." -Stephen Colbert

Updated On: 4/5/09 at 03:27 PM

#9

re: has a TV show ever been turned into a Broadway show (musical or play)?

Posted: 4/5/09 at 3:37pm

isn't it interesting though that theatre pulls from all these different sources (film, books, dance, song catalogs) but TV remains a fairly untapped resource (thank god!)

i assume its just because the scope of a tv show is fairly limited (1/2 hour or an hour to solve a conflict) where as the other medium have a broader scope and longer conflict resolution.

do you think that in the next 20 years we will see an explosion of tv on broadway? will there be "desperate housewives: the musical"? what might be after that, blogs or twitter as an inspiration for broadway?
#11

re: has a TV show ever been turned into a Broadway show (musical or play)?

Posted: 4/5/09 at 3:48pm

I do a agree with you merriwether. I think hour long programs would be the first to get musicalized since they have much more character development. As far as the internet goes, there was a thread awhile back about BWW: The Musical.
"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." -Stephen Colbert
#15

re: has a TV show ever been turned into a Broadway show (musical or play)?

Posted: 4/5/09 at 10:01pm

MOLLY, the dreadful musical that played a long preview period but closed after a handful of performances after opening was based on the TV series (and old radio show) "The Goldbergs". Kaye Ballard played Molly Goldberg.
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
#16

re: has a TV show ever been turned into a Broadway show (musical or play)?

Posted: 4/5/09 at 10:03pm

It's gotta be only a matter of time before Dick Wolfe ventures into theatre. Law and Order: The Musical anyone?

(No, I am not advocating it...just saying it's bound to happen.)
Experience live theater. Experience paintings. Experience books. Live, look and listen like artists! ~ imaginethis
LIVE THAT LESSON!!!!!!
#17

re: has a TV show ever been turned into a Broadway show (musical or play)?

Posted: 4/5/09 at 10:13pm

I suppose it's only fair that we let him. After all, he has employed a wealth of musical theatre actors.
"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." -Stephen Colbert
#18

re: has a TV show ever been turned into a Broadway show (musical or play)?

Posted: 4/5/09 at 11:34pm

The Golden Girls was actually turned into an off-Broadway show(non-musical, called Golden Girls: Live!) in 2003. It featured an all-male cast of female impersonators performing scripts from the series. The show was so successful that it was scheduled to move to a larger theatre. Unfortunately, the play?s producers failed to secure proper legal permissions to use the characters and scripts and it was shut down.
A Chorus Line revival played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013. Another non-equity tour launched on January 20, 2018. The tour ended its US run in Kansas City and then toured throughout Japan August & September 2018.
#19

re: has a TV show ever been turned into a Broadway show (musical or play)?

Posted: 4/5/09 at 11:44pm

As far as the internet goes, there was a thread awhile back about BWW: The Musical.

Oh dear, how could I forget that?

I didn't actually make the freewebs site, so I don't know what the URL is... but I have the first thread saved on another site.
In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy
#21

re: has a TV show ever been turned into a Broadway show (musical or play)?

Posted: 4/5/09 at 11:54pm

Bewitched please!

Samantha: Kelli O'Hara
Darrin: J. Robert Spencer
Endora: Elaine Stritch
Larry Tate: Daniel Davis
Uncle Arthur: Gary Beach
Abner Kravitz: Philip Bosco
Gladys Kravitz: Jackie Hoffman

now THAT is the most inspired casting of the year !!!!
#23

re: has a TV show ever been turned into a Broadway show (musical or play)?

Posted: 4/6/09 at 3:15am

ACL2006- Yes, there was a run of "The Golden Girls Live" at Rose's Turn. It was performed by Peter Mac and John Schaffer (sp?). Peter Mac is the same actor/writer that recently had "Judy and Me" running on off-broadway.
Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life.- Bette Davis

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