I had such a good time following the recs on my recent thread about rock covers of Broadway songs, here’s another one.
What are some good novels, movies, or TV shows about the theatre?
For reference, I am familiar with (of course) ‘Waiting for Guffman’ (which is great, but maybe not as super-amazing as I think it is generally thought of) and ‘Slings and Arrows’ (which is <3<3<3 ).
Novel-wise, I’m really coming up short. I asked IRL and got the recommendation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s Black Snow, which is interesting but is more about political satire than anything else. I’m also a mystery fan, and I’ve read all the Charles Paris novels by Simon Brett (first 10 or so are really good), but I love reading about the theatre, and I need more!
For books, there’s An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge, later filmed in 1995 under the same name.
And maybe The Good Companions by J. B. Priestly, althogh that’s more about life in a second rate travelling concert troupe in England in the 1920s. Also filmed (maybe in black & white; I don’t remember) with the same name. Think there was a tv mini-series as well some years back.
Hard to distinguish those about theatre from those that use it as a metaphor or setting for something wider, such as The Dresser (turned into a movie with Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay) or The Entertainer (Laurence Olivier’s reinvention of his image, playing a down-on-his-luck music hall comedian).
And if you like mysteries set in theatrical contexts, you might look at the 2006 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Sleeping Murder, with Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple, which shifts the original plot to set much of the early foundations of the plot in a seaside concert party.
Or what about Caryl Brahms and SJ Simon: A Bullet in the Ballet, Casino for Sale (AKA Murder a la Stroganoff) and Envoy on Excursion (which is only marginally about the Stroganoff ballet company).
If amateur theatre counts, how about Robertson Davies’ first novel Tempest-Tost.
For movies, I don’t think anyone has yet mentioned Shakespeare in Love.
And there’s a movie I saw on TV a few years ago which, upon googling, seems to have been Bigger Than the Sky. I remember it as being okay—not especially good or especially bad.
It was a brilliant film in all respects. It’s funnier than the trailers might indicate (I’m sure they didn’t show Edward Norton’s erection), deals with some serious issues of art and life, and is chock full of great performances. Casting Keaton was genius, since the movie ties everything closely to his own career. And the technical challenge is breathtaking – and especially good because it seems so fully natural. Also, it’s one of the best examples of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into any play.
Other options:
Those Lips, Those Eyes about summer stock. Frank Langella is wonderful. Babes in Arms, the original “Hey, let’s put on a show” musical (many musicals in the 30s had theater themes, especially Busby Berkeley (whose titles I mentioned above))
Trying Hard to Hear You by Sandra Scoppettone. It’s out of print, but it tells it’s story around a youth group putting on a version of Anything Goes and having to deal with learning a couple of guys are gay (it came out in 1974, so it was more shocking, and the book was groundbreaking). I especially like it because Sandra directed Anything Goes in the location in the book, and my friends and I were part of the cast – and can be identified in the book.
Noises Off! is a fantastic, hilarious play. Movie? Not so much. When you see it on the stage, you see its essence. The front of the set, the back of the set, then the front again when everything goes haywire. (It must be a bitch to learn the lines and remember which iteration you’re in!) The movie doesn’t capture that stage quality, and it’s not nearly as funny.
Topsy-Turvy is a fabulous film about Gilbert & Sullivan. It helps if you love G&S (as I do), but if you love theater, you’ll probably enjoy it. There are plenty of scenes showing how The Mikado was put together, including some wonderful rehearsal scenes with Gilbert. Two brilliant men who couldn’t have been more different (and who didn’t like each other).
Synopsis: (Thematic) sequel to Steel Beach, middle of an announced “Metal” trilogy taking place from a universe slightly different from the early Eight Worlds stories. The narrator, consummate actor and a skilled con man Kenneth “Sparky” Valentine, races across the solar system to be on Luna in time to play King Lear, dodging an assassin from the Charonese Mafia.
Noises Off might actually be my favorite play! I can’t imagine it having an impact as a film, though.
I should have mentioned Topsy-Turvy, as I have seen and enjoyed it, despite having a bit of a hate-on for G&S due to 8 years surrounded by very enthusiastic fans thereof.
Thudlow Boink, I almost mentioned Tempest-Tost in my OP (because I love Davies always), but thought it might be too obscure. Glad there are other fans!
Stage Door, 1937, starring Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, with such other lights as Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, Ann Miller (one of her earliest movies), Constance Collier as the wannabe grande dame of the theater, and Adolph Menjou as the producer/heavy. Story is about how hard it is for young women to break into the business, all about stagecraft and getting by until your big break. It’s kinda corny in spots, but one of Hepburn’s best early movies.