Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde. The musical version is a hit.
Broadway has got a case of the Hollywoods. Remakes and sequels abound while critics yawn loudly. The latest casualty, dead on arrival, was Young Frankenstein, the musical version of Mel Brooks's hit film, fast-tracked to the Great White Way after the record-smashing success of The Producers. Now the same is being done with John Waters's back catalogue following Hairspray, a musical so successful it made the transition back to the big screen.
Waters's Cry-Baby is heading to Broadway in March. A parody of musicals such as Grease and 1950s juvenile delinquent movies, it was Johnny Depp's first major film role, playing the title role as the boy from the wrong side of the tracks. The adaptation has just opened in Los Angeles to impressive reviews; the Baltimore Sun calls it "tantalizingly, teasingly, heartbreakingly close to success", taking issue with the central characters, a problem the producers have five months to fix before the show moves east. The script, written by Daily Show writer David Javerbaum, is bursting with the satire and irony the Hairspray musical eschewed in favour of unabounding joy.
Cry-Baby is one of a host of films heading to the stage. While previously cult classics made perfect stage fodder, even mainstream comedies are trying their luck, particularly in an effort to appeal to younger audiences. One of this year's surprise hits has been the musical version of Legally Blonde, which succeeded where The Wedding Singer failed.
Next year, it's the turn of slightly older films. First up, Father of the Bride. While best remembered as a Steve Martin vehicle, it began life as a screwball comedy starring Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor before spawning a play and a TV series. Despite its many life-forms, book-writers Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman are aware of the perils of adapting films for the stage. After winning a Tony for last year's Jersey Boys (a musical based on the 60s group the Four Seasons), Elice announced his intentions for Father of the Bride saying: "Having weathered the advance antagonism of the press for writing a jukebox musical, we have now looked for the second most heinous thing to do - adapt a film."
While these films all had some merit, Broadway is never afraid to polish a few turds. Xanadu, the 1980 Olivia Newton-John film described by Variety as "stupendously bad" has been successfully reborn on stage. Perhaps when a film is artistically vacant, the room for creativity is magnified. How the Broadway magic will work on much-loved movies could be a trickier task.
Arguably no film is held in higher regard in the American consciousness than Rocky, the underdog who could, and did for five sequels. While the theme tune is instantly recognisable, Rocky Balboa was never known for belting out the hits. With more musical material to work from is Shrek, a much-anticipated production and pet project of Sam Mendes. It's DreamWorks' opportunity to show that anything Disney can do, they can outdo, which might not be much of problem if the mutterings about the soon to open Little Mermaid musical are to be believed.
