From Screen to Stage

When the musical Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark was announced, it felt like all theater aficionados could do was talk about the artistic catastrophe the new musical would be. The reaction of theater fans raises the question: Has Broadway gone too far in its adaption of movies into musicals?

The advent of turning Hollywood movies into Broadway musicals is not a new one. For years both Broadway and Hollywood have been making movies into stage productions and stage productions into movies.

Though it seems the movie-into-musical formula is the prevailing rule it used to be the other way around. West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music andOliver! were all Broadway shows before being made into Oscar-winning movies.

That is no longer the norm, and the success of shows like Chicago, Beauty and the Beast and Hairspray have led to the creation of more movie-based musicals. Other examples of shows include The Producers, Mamma Mia, The Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd, andNine.

The movie-into-musical formula does not always guarantee long time popularity or success but does help to draw an initial crowd filled mostly with tourists.Initially theater fans were drawn into the new musical adaptations of the movies they loved, but now the novelty has worn off.

Broadway producers are now faced with the challenge of drawing in theater-goers without copying movies. A hint to Broadway: An original play or musical might be just the trick to draw them back in.