H'w'd and B'way's love-hate relationship
Stage hits have often been transferred to big screen
In the early days, when a studio showed up on a Playbill as a legit producer -- as Warner Bros. did on the unfortunately named 1937 play "The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse" -- it was likely because the studio wanted to do a film version. (WB filmed "Clitterhouse" in 1938.)
Stage stalwarts regularly rolled their eyes about misguided casting, or maybe the bowdlerizing of plays like "Tobacco Road."
Still, traffic was steady from Gotham to L.A., and every major work by Tennessee Williams or Rodgers & Hammerstein found its way onto the screen.
In the last couple of decades, however, the stream dried up, particularly as pic musicals fell out of favor.
Jed Bernstein, prexy of the League of American Theaters & Producers, remembers that in the late 1970s and early '80s, studios opened small offices in New York with the aim of producing stage work that could make a smooth transfer to the screen. With a few exceptions -- e.g., "Nuts" and "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" for Universal -- the initiative faded.
Still, Hollywood bigwigs have always invested on the Rialto, with or without their companies. In the 1930s, for instance, Leland Hayward straddled both coasts as an agent and producer. These days, Harvey Weinstein has stakes, under his own name, in Broadway offerings like "The Producers" and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels"; Scott Rudin is equally active as a producer of legit and film.
Now the tide of content from east to west may be coming back in. Gwyneth Paltrow-starrer "Proof," based on David Auburn's play, bows this month, and there's been talk of a movie deal for John Patrick Shanley's hit "Doubt."
Plus, movie-musicals, like "Rent," could be making the comeback that's been rumored since "Moulin Rouge!" and "Chicago." With more studios exploiting their library to make musicals, there's the growing phenomenon of transfers from screen to stage to screen ("The Producers," "Hairspray").
"Dreamgirls" is slated to start shooting early next year, while talk has been intensifying of long-aborning films of "Sunset Blvd." and "Sweeney Todd."
The jump to film is even starting to figure more prominently as a potential reward for stage ventures. "I thought 'Wicked' could reach its most creative and satisfying adaptation as a stage musical," says producer Marc Platt. "And I thought that someday it would make a great movie-musical."
