The Great White Way (also known as Broadway) gets more and more like a ridiculously expensive movie theater every year. There are just so many movie adaptations on the stage. I love movies and I love Broadway but I don’t want them to be the same thing. There are 40 Broadway theaters and of the shows playing or debuting this season a huge chunk are based on movies/television: BILLY ELLIOTT, MARY POPPINS, WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, ELLING, PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT, THE LION KING, ADDAMS FAMILY, THE PEE WEE HERMAN SHOW, SISTER ACT and still more have been back and forth from the stage and screen so many times that its easy to forget where they originally began like DRIVING MISS DAISY, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, WEST SIDE STORY and LA CAGE AUX FOLLES.
The latest news should give you whiplash. THE KING’S SPEECH, which most Oscar pundits (like myself) believe to be THE SOCIAL NETWORK‘s main competition for February’s “Best Picture” Oscar battle, isn’t even in theaters yet and it already has plans for a Broadway version! That’s insane. The movie version stars Colin Firth, Helena Bonham-Carter and Geoffrey Rush and since it’s a small cast intermingling in offices and rooms, it seems like an easy transfer.
I wish they’d speed it up in the other direction, though, stage to screen. It’s so strange that the movie version of WICKED is still years and years away. What the hell have they been waiting for all this time?
† 7 Word Movie Reviews
† Meryl Streep in Indiana?
† Rabbit Hole Trailer
† Follow Nathaniel R. on Twitter!