# A Movie First, Then a Play, Then a Movie Again! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 17, 2007, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058 "2007-07-17T00:23:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/1 "2007-07-17T00:23:29Z")
“Hairspray” was a movie first. Then it became a musical play. Now we have a movie, based on the play, which was based on the movie. How often has this happened? “Little Shop of Horrors” would fit this category. So would “Phantom of the Opera”. Is that it? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/2 "2007-07-17T00:24:49Z")
The Producers. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/3 "2007-07-17T00:41:49Z")
**Chicago** sorta kinda ([Roxie Hart](http://imdb.com/title/tt0035272/) begat the stage musical which begat the movie musical) **Auntie Mame** was a novel, then a play, then a movie, then a stage musical ( **Mame** ), then a movie version of the stage musical, and since the Lucille Ball musical film flopped there’s been talk of a remake starring (alternately) Cher, Christine Baranski, Bette Midler, and others, so it’s probably up there somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![from\_a\_to\_z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5fc32e/32.png) [@from\_a\_to\_z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/from_a_to_z)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/4 "2007-07-17T01:44:44Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] **Chicago** sorta kinda [/QUOTE] Chicago was first a play, opening in New York on December 30, 1926, by Maurine Watkins. She based the play on newspaper articles that she wrote in 1924 about two murderesses. So play-movie-movie-musical-movie musical, with the killer changing depending on the version. [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurine_Dallas_Watkins) of course has an article. [The play](http://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Tribune-Articles-that-Inspired/dp/0809321297/ref=sr_1_1/103-6303052-5854228?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184635093&sr=1-1) is around in book form. In the 1926 play, [Francine Larrimore](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0488633/) was Roxie Hart. [Edward Ellis](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0254818/) (that one? I believe it) was Billy Flynn. [Charles Halton](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0357111/) (typecast?) was Amos Hart. Several other movie actors were also in the cast. ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/5 "2007-07-17T01:50:46Z")
Reefer Madness ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/6 "2007-07-17T01:57:56Z")
_Smiles of a Summer Night_, a great Ingmar Bergman comedy, became a Stephen Sondheim stage musical, _A Little Night Music_, which then became a musical movie (and bombed). ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/7 "2007-07-17T02:21:05Z")
Stephen King’s _Carrie_ was a movie, then a Broadway musical, then remade as a movie. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/8 "2007-07-17T02:25:48Z")
Shakespeare’s **The Taming of the Shrew** was made into a movie in 1929, one of the first talkies (with additional dialog by Sam Taylor 😉 ). The play (partially) was on Broadway as **Kiss Me Kate** in 1949 and was made into a movie in 1953. The German play Einen **Jux will er sich machen** was reworked by Thornton Wilder as **The Merchant of Yonkers** , which flopped in 1930. Wilder reworked the play as **The Matchmaker** in 1955, and it succeeded. A movie starring Shirley Booth was released in 1958. The movie became the basis for the musical **Hello, Dolly** in 1964, and then a musical film in 1969. So we have play, play, play, movie, musical, movie musical. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/9 "2007-07-17T07:35:50Z")
A lot of the genealogy here is incorrect. • Neither the 1964 stage musical nor the 1969 movie _Hello, Dolly!_ was adapted from the 1958 movie _The Matchmaker_. Instead, they were adapted from its _source_, the 1955 play _The Matchmaker_. • The 2002 TV movie of _Carrie_ was adapted directly from the Stephen King novel, not the 1976 movie or the stage musical. • The stage musical _Chicago_ was not adapted via any movie, it was adapted directly from the 1926 play_Roxie Hart_ that the movies were based on. • Likewise, the stage musical _Kiss Me Kate_ was inspired by the Shakespeare play _The Taming of the Shrew_, not by the rather bad 1929 movie of _Taming of the Shrew_. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/10 "2007-07-17T12:36:04Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] A lot of the genealogy here is incorrect. • Neither the 1964 stage musical nor the 1969 movie _Hello, Dolly!_ was adapted from the 1958 movie _The Matchmaker_. Instead, they were adapted from its _source_, the 1955 play _The Matchmaker_. [/QUOTE] And how, exactly, did the “source” differ from the movie? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/11 "2007-07-17T15:54:46Z")
Grease, although the movie version is very different from the original off-broadway production. play, movie, play ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/12 "2007-07-17T15:56:12Z")
Footloose is being remade as a musical, based on the play which was based on the movie. Jump Back! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/13 "2007-07-17T16:37:07Z")
“Phantom” does not belong in this thread. The Lloyd Webber musical was not based on any of the many, many movies, but was truer to the original book. That’s like putting “Godspell” and “Jesus Christ Superstar” on the list. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/14 "2007-07-17T16:41:00Z")
_Dracula_ has been a book, several movies and and at least one play. ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/15 "2007-07-17T16:42:14Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] Grease, although the movie version is very different from the original off-broadway production. play, movie, play [/QUOTE] But how different is the revival from the original Off Broadway production? From what I;ve read, it’s pretty faithful to the creator’s original vision; in fact he was in on the casting process for the two leads. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/16 "2007-07-17T17:07:23Z")
Any plans to turn **Wicked** (the musical) into a movie? ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/17 "2007-07-17T17:12:14Z")
Give YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN a few years. I wouldn’t be surprised if eventually A CLOCKWORK ORANGE also. (Yes, it IS a very good play!) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/18 "2007-07-17T17:43:29Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] Any plans to turn **Wicked** (the musical) into a movie? [/QUOTE] Was Wicked a movie to begin with. No, it is NOT based on the Wizard of Oz. I’d give 20 to 1 odds that one day soon the list will include “The Color Purple.” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/19 "2007-07-17T18:51:03Z")
I saw Eric Idle on some entertainment show this morning where he mentioned that there’s interest in a _Spamalot_ movie (no commitment yet). Since Python Fans are second only to Trekkies (with considerable overlap) in loyalty, I can see that happening because as long as they don’t have a ridiculous budget it’ll probably be a hit. _Cry Baby_ is already in development as a B’way musical, but as I don’t expect _Hairspray_ to do super well and _The Producers_ and _Rent_ both had very disappointing box office, it may or may not be filmed again. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-movie-first-then-a-play-then-a-movie-again/412058/20 "2007-07-17T19:21:49Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] Was Wicked a movie to begin with. [/QUOTE] A search on Netflix turns up a couple of movies by that name, but they are clearly not that story. And while the musical was based on the book, the book was based on the 1938 movie. Loosely. Veeeeeery loosely.