Why do they turn movies into musicals?
| With the previews beginning for two new Broadway shows, A Catered Affair and Cry Baby, both of which had their starts here in San Diego, the all too common question comes up. Why are they turning movies into stage musicals? I have heard people say that there are no new ideas out there and that no one is original any more.Let us look at the Top Ten longest running Broadway shows in Broadway history (as of March 23, 2008).* “The Phantom of the Opera” 8383 *”Cats” 7485 “Les Misérables” 6680 *”A Chorus Line” 6137 Oh! Calcutta!” (Revival) 5959 “Beauty and the Beast” 5461 (closed 7/29/07) * “Rent” 4947 * “Chicago” (Revival) 4700 * “The Lion King” 4332 “Miss Saigon” 4097* denotes currently still runningThe Phantom of the Opera is based on the French novel by Gaston Leoux, plus was made into a movie in 1925. Cats is based on Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot. Les Miserables is based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. Beauty and the Beast is based off of the Disney film, which itself was based on a French fairy tale from the mid-18th century, plus numerous adaptations since then. Rent is inspired by Puccini’s La Boheme, which itself is an adaptation of La Vie de Boheme by Henri Murger from the early 1800’s. Chicago is based off a 1926 play by Maurine Dallas Watkins. The Lion King is based off of the Disney movie of the same name, which itself was loosly based on Hamlet. And Miss Saigon is based off of Madame Buterfly. So 8 of the top ten running shows in Broadway history are not original.Now, “popular” does not always mean “best”. I’m not saying anything against any of these musicals, but different people have different opinions on what “good” is. Now, let us look at some of the classic musicals. In this list, in addition to the ones listed above, I’m sure everyone will find at least one musical they consider “good”. West Side Story – Romeo and Juliet Now, granted, some of these are more “inspired by” as opposed to based on, but the idea is not original. And then there are all of the Jukebox musicals – Mamma Mia!, Jersey Boys, Movin’ Out, All Shook Up, etc. Just because a musical is adapted from a previous source, does not mean that it is no good. The same can be said that just because it is original means that it IS good. Both types of musical, original and adapted, have their fair share of great ones and duds. You will usually find more original work in the play genre. When it comes to musicals, the part of them that is original is the songs. Writing one song can be difficult, let alone a complete score and group of songs that seem like a coherent piece and not just a bunch of random songs thrown together (okay, that worked in Sweet Charity). Plus adapting from one medium to another is always difficult. You want to stay true to the original source, but you also want to put a little bit of your own flair to it. So, if you are ever hanging out with friends and they talk about how there are no original ideas in theatre anymore, just point them in the direction of a few of these show |
April 25th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Very cool post. We looked at the Original vs Source Material musical when I was in grad school. This was in 1996 but we found about 85% of the shows that appeared on Broadway, Flops to Hits and all in between, were based on source material (IE not original stories). Creating a musical is simply the MOST collaborative art form there is, and an outside story that all of the creators can read and point to helps to coalesce disparate ideas. That was our theory anyway.
I think that the current explosion of movie based musicals can be accredited to the fact that the contract for using a movie for a musical has finally been hashed out to the point that we can actually say there is a standard. Contract negotiations with a movie studio must have been a real nightmare when it was being explored, but now there are some standard practices that can be pointed to, agreements are easier to reach. That and of course Bandwagoning.
I’d hate to think that movies are used more because the people creating musicals aren’t reading. Hmmm.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Excellent post! However, “Hello, Dolly!” is based on “The Matchmaker,” which itself was a revision of “The Merchant of Yonkers.” Kind of important since in the earlier play, Dolly is a relatively minor character.
I don’t think people complain in general about movies being used as source material, because this has of course been done for decades. The complaints about lack of originality are lodged when film musicals are transferred to the stage — not adaptations with completely new scores, but entire transplants with perhaps a slight script revision and a few new songs. Why go see the considerable efforts [and often lackluster results] to have rain onstage in “Singin’ in the Rain” when you could rent the sublime film original for a couple of dollars — or buy a new copy for less than a theatre ticket?
This is why some of us avoid shows “installed” from a film, preferring to see something actually formulated for the stage. Frankly, “The Lion King” is a noble effort, because it at least reimagined the show with truly brilliant and creative stagecraft.