Film to Stage Musicals

From Sweet Charity and Beauty and the Beat to Once and Mean Girls; discover how Broadway took inspiration from Hollywood.Musical theatre creatives have long used stories previously told in plays, novels, poems, mythology and folklore as inspiration for many of the 20th and 21st centuries’ biggest Broadway and West End hits. While the majority of the musicals we know and love take inspiration from pre-existing tales, the last decade has seen many of the most popular films of decades past, from Some Like it Hot to Back to the Future to Mean Girls, adapted and musicalized for the stage.Hollywood to Broadway offers a detailed historical record and analysis of some of the most popular Broadway and West End musicals adapted from films. Tracing the practice from the use of lesser known, often non-English movies that allowed creative liberties in adaptation to the recent trend of leveraging the existing popularity of a film and its already-present fan base to create a new musical, this book explores how these shifts have impacted the artistic and commercial landscape of Broadway, balancing between creative reinterpretation and commercial expectations.Through in-depth analysis and a rich historical perspective, Hollywood to Broadway highlights the dynamic relationship between film and theatre, exploring how these adaptations have evolved to become a significant part of Broadway’s cultural fabric. Published in Methuen Drama’s Essential Musicals series it offers a structured survey of this sub-genre of musical theatre ideal for students and those wishing to deepen their understanding of the form.