# The Movie is WAY Different from the Play It's Based On **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 11, 2014, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-is-way-different-from-the-play-its-based-on/685894 "2014-04-11T20:10:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-is-way-different-from-the-play-its-based-on/685894/21 "2014-04-14T01:55:22Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I just thought of this one because MilliCal is working on it: > **Arsenic and Old Lace** – the film pretty much follows the play, except that the play can be a bit more graphic (Mortimer Brewster gleefully says that he’s a Bastard at the end, not the Son of a Sea Cook), but the play actually has a slightly different and apprehensive end from the film. I love the movie, and we also did the play when I was in high school [I was stage manager and we also provided a fair number of the props, my mom was an antiques dealer and we had some perfect heavy 1890s furniture that was excellent, and a bugle for Teddy] My favorite thing was reading an interview from Boris Karloff as to why he took the part of Jonathan in the b’way play - they asked him, and read the line about Jonathan saying he killed the guy because he said he looked like Boris Karloff:D ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-is-way-different-from-the-play-its-based-on/685894/22 "2014-04-14T02:12:12Z")
_ **Chicago** _ is a far different film than it was a stage play. The very first Chicago (know it’s called Play Ball because it’s rights were sold to another party) was the story of two female murderers, but it wasn’t a musical. The 1975 adapted stage play (the inspiration for the 2002 film musical) was also different as Velma Kelly (in the film Catherine Zeta-Jones) was actually the star and Roxie Hart (in the film Rene Zellwegger) was the co-star. _ **The Odd Couple** _ was somewhat different than the 1968 film and the early 1970s television series in that Felix and Oscar (the protagonists) were,according Neil Simon the playwright, gay. Also, the entire play takes place in Oscar’s apartment whereas the both the film and the series take place in multiple locations. _ **Godspell** _ is different than the eponymous film as it is set in several locations around New York, separate actors play Judas and John the Baptist in the film and the film’s best known song is the final for the film, but third in the musical. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-is-way-different-from-the-play-its-based-on/685894/23 "2014-04-14T02:46:13Z")
> [@](#): > > The Odd Couple was somewhat different than the 1968 film and the early 1970s television series in that Felix and Oscar (the protagonists) **were,according Neil Simon the playwright, gay**. Also, the entire play takes place in Oscar’s apartment whereas the both the film and the series take place in multiple locations. You’re going to have to substantiate that claim. It doesn’t make any sense in terms of the play, for several reasons (both men are revealed as still having feelings for their exes, as Oscar reveals in a Freudian slip at one point; Felix goes off with the “coo coo” Pigeon sisters near the end). And I’ve never heard or read Neil Simon say anything like this at all. So, cite? Regarding Godspell, you’re wrong about different actors playing the Judas and John the Baptist roles – David Haskell plays both, without even a change of costume. And, as I stated above, shooting the film around locations in New York doesn’t fundamentally change the tone. I don’t regard Godspell as vastly different from the stage play. I’m assuming you’re right about **Chicago** , though. I haven’t seen any of the stage versions, or earlier movie incarnations. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-is-way-different-from-the-play-its-based-on/685894/24 "2014-04-14T03:04:21Z")
Just looked up Godspell, and David Haskell seems to have originated the role – he was in the very first production, then in the original off-Broadway cast, before reprising the role in the film. There WERE changes to the score for the film, though. I’d forgotten that “Beautiful City” was written for the film, and that a couple of other songs had been reduced to instrumentals only. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-is-way-different-from-the-play-its-based-on/685894/25 "2014-04-16T02:02:25Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > There was a TV movie version of AMFAS that included The Commom Man. Charlton Heston played Thomas More, a role he loved and played several other times on stage. When the movie was made he lusted for the role of More but admitted in his own autobiography that Paul Scofield did a fantastic job in the part, and actually really looked like the Holbein portrait of More. I was never a big Charlton Heston fan, but I have to give him props: that remake was excellent. Heston was good, Vanessa Redgrave was good as his wife, but bald chubby ubiquitous character actor Roy Kinnear stole the movie as the Common Man and he was absolutely perfect for the part; sadly he died (killed in an accident on the set of a Three Musketeers sequel) before the movie aired nd it was dedicated to him. I wish it was available on DVD. ---
**Author:** ![Hermione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cdc98d/32.png) [@Hermione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-is-way-different-from-the-play-its-based-on/685894/26 "2014-04-16T05:28:01Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **Camelot** – For some reason, they didn’t like the idea of magic in the movie, even though it’s integral to T.H. White’s book and to the original stage musical. The movie downplays it at every chance. Morgan la Fay and Nimue were completely eliminated from the plot, Merlin’s magical powers seem to be more persuasion and good advice, and the only really tangible miracle is Lancelot’s healing of Sir Dinadan (Merlin 's transformations of Arthur might be all in the mind, the way it’s filmed). The entire story is restructured so that it’s told in flashback, not as in the play at all. They also cut several songs from the film. I don’t know if they’d already eliminated Morgan Le Fay from the stage version before the movie came out, but many stage productions cut that scene where Mordred bribes her to keep Arthur in the forest and substitute the scene where Arthur remembers his lessons with Merlin and Mordred confronts him in the forest to convince him to stay the night there so Lancelot and Guenevere can get caught. The 1982 revival with Richard Harris that was shown on HBO did that. I think I like it better that way. I did see a (rather crappy) production of Camelot that left Morgan in, and it just didn’t have the punch that the Mordred/Arthur scene did. The Morgan scene is just too cutesy. The confrontation between Mordred and Arthur made the whole thing Arthur’s choice, and better yet, made it a battle of wills and philosophies (“You wish for me to be your son? No more than I. Then prove to me that I am wrong! Give your son the lesson of his life and show me how virtue can triumph without your presence!”) But as for the rest about the movie version…I did notice that Arthur said something about how Merlin “made me believe I had been changed into animals”, instead of just CHANGING him into them. I wonder why they took that tack? At least the revised stage version kept the other instances of magic even if they cut Morgan. But the movie even left out all mention of the Questing Beast that Pellinore was pursuing! Also, the 1982 revival and others since have also gone the route of playing the whole show as a flashback, but I can see why they did it that way. One of the criticisms that has been leveled at the original stage show is that the first act is mostly a lighthearted comedy and the second one gets into deeper and deeper tragedy. Starting the show with the ending and flashing back solves that problem and even makes the earlier scenes, with a boyish, innocent Arthur, all the more poignant. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-is-way-different-from-the-play-its-based-on/685894/27 "2014-04-16T15:27:13Z")
The 1962 film of _Sweet Bird of Youth_, starring Paul Newman and Geraldine Page. The play has a subplot involving VD, and ends with the male lead getting castrated, neither of which would be allowed under the Hayes Code. The odd thing is, Tennessee Williams wrote several alternate endings for the play, giving theater companies the option of an upbeat or downbeat ending. Hollywood still re-wrote it. That annoyed me, and I don’t even like Tennessee Williams. ---
**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:** [April 16, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-is-way-different-from-the-play-its-based-on/685894/28 "2014-04-16T16:25:32Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > \*\*_ **The Odd Couple** _ was somewhat different than the 1968 film and the early 1970s television series in that Felix and Oscar (the protagonists) were,according Neil Simon the playwright, gay. Also, the entire play takes place in Oscar’s apartment whereas the both the film and the series take place in multiple locations. I’d like to see where Simon said that. He has said that it was supposed to be like the relationship part of a marriage (not the sexual part). As for using multiple locations, nearly all movies made from plays do that with the idea that the play has to be “opened up” instead of using a static set. There is merit in the idea – one set can be too claustrophobic – but whether it works or not all depends on the play. And viewers and critics can be very caustic if you just film a play instead of opening it up. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-is-way-different-from-the-play-its-based-on/685894/29 "2014-04-16T18:13:13Z")
_**[Frankie and Johnny in the Clair du Lune](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_and_Johnny_in_the_Clair_de_Lune)**_. Kathy Bates’s role was played by Michelle Pfeiffer in the movie, which gives one a good sense of the very cliched Hollywood things they did to a subtle off-Broadway play. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-is-way-different-from-the-play-its-based-on/685894/30 "2014-04-16T20:26:19Z")
Intriguingly, I’ve just finished reading **The Annotated Peter Pan** (except for some supplementary material) when the movie **Finding Neverland** , which the supplementary material writes about, suddenly appeared on TV. I noticed that it was based on a play, **The Man Who Was Peter Pan** by Allan Knee. I didn’t see Knee’s play, and it seems not to be published (!), but from published reviews, you can get some idea sbout it. Both play and movie play with reality, killing off the Llewellyn Davies father before Barrie meets the family, re-structuring the appearance of the play, eliminating two brothers, and doing other things to make things more dramatically interesting (although not as much as “Saving Mr. Banks” seems to have done), but the film script also seems to depart from the play, leaving out Barrie’s wife altogether, and showing the Llewellyn Davies boys aging over a span of ten years. I suspect a lot of stuff in the main body of the story got changed, as well, but I can’t really say. Some background material: [The Man Who Was Peter Pan](http://jmbarrie.co.uk/msgbrd/index.php?topic=48.0) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-is-way-different-from-the-play-its-based-on/685894/31 "2014-04-16T21:00:28Z")
**Stalag 17** – although the movie is pretty faithful to the Broadway play by Doan Bevan and Ed Trzcinski (based on their wartime experiences as POWs, with fictionalized elements), Billy Wilder and Edwin Blum rewrote it considerably, beefing up the comic parts by Robert Strauss (Animal) and Harvey Lembeck, changing several details, and adding other new scenes. This goes beyond simply getting the action out of the confining barracks set. The authors didn’t object very much, evidently. Trzcinski appears in the film as one of the prisoners. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-is-way-different-from-the-play-its-based-on/685894/32 "2014-04-16T21:10:25Z")
[_Sexual Perversity in Chicago_ (1974 play by David Mamet)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Perversity_in_Chicago) [_About Last Night_ (1986 film with Rob Lowe & Demi Moore)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/About_Last_Night_(1986_film)) Hardly anything in common at all, actually, but the Chicago setting and the presence of sex between characters; the play is not even clearly a romcom. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-is-way-different-from-the-play-its-based-on/685894/33 "2014-04-16T22:26:50Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [_Sexual Perversity in Chicago_ (1974 play by David Mamet)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Perversity_in_Chicago) > > [_About Last Night_ (1986 film with Rob Lowe & Demi Moore)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/About_Last_Night_(1986_film)) > > Hardly anything in common at all, actually, but the Chicago setting and the presence of sex between characters; the play is not even clearly a romcom. I’ve wondered about that, having never seen either the play or either movie version. According to the Wikipedia page: > [@](#): > > Mamet disavowed the movie, ruefully recalling that “as a callow youth with hay sticking out of my ears, I sold both the play and the screenplay for about $12 and a mess of porridge…”[4] > **[Sexual Perversity in Chicago](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Perversity_in_Chicago)** > > Sexual Perversity in Chicago is a play written by David Mamet that examines the sex lives of two men and two women in the 1970s. The play is filled with profanity and regional jargon that reflects the working-class language of Chicago. The characters' relationships come to be hindered by the caustic nature of their words, as much of the dialogue includes insults and arguments. The play presents "intimate relationships \[as\] minefields of buried fears and misunderstandings." > The play has twice ... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-is-way-different-from-the-play-its-based-on/685894.md?page=1)