You’ve probably seen a bunch of musical movies before. I bet you know the song “Dancing Queen” backwards, or “Somewhere Over The Rainbow“. Perhaps you don’t know this, but Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” sampled the big hit “Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music (1965), but you’ve definitely seen a couple dressed up as Sandy and Danny from Grease (1978) for Halloween at some point.
These are all classics from the big screen and pop culture icons that you simply cannot get past. What you might not know is that some of them, before getting to Hollywood, were on Broadway stages.
What happens is that, since 1927, when The Jazz Singer (1927) premiered, movie musicals have been a hit in the industry. Therefore, besides the fact that they have a solid public that loves musicals, Broadway shows are usually turned into movies to draw in new audiences, explore different themes and increase accessibility, so that more people get to know that story.
The problem is, as with any other type of adaptation, like books to films for example, stage to movies adaptations divide opinions, not only from fans, but from the general public as well, and sometimes are not very well received. With the upcoming Wicked (2024) movie, the discussion remains: is it really necessary to turn what’s an already excellent Broadway show into a cinematic piece?
IT’S MAGIC!
The screen and the stage have big differences between them. For starters, actors on stage have to reach hundreds (and sometimes, thousands) of people sitting in a theater. Meanwhile, the camera comes closer to the actors, showing the audience every single detail.
Because of that, cinema and theater have totally different languages, which obviously needs to be taken into consideration when a piece is adapted from one to another. The Mamma Mia story, for example, works great on stage, but it’s far more iconic on screen, simply because of the Greek views that are essential to bring the viewer inside the story of Donna and Sophie.
Time duration is always one of the main challenges when it comes to adaptations, especially from Broadway to Hollywood. That’s because most shows are almost three hours long, which is usually unviable for the screens. Les Misérables (2012) is almost three hours long, because it’s very faithful to its original stage production, which to some people may feel like too much. On the flip side, there are some movies that in a struggle to not become super long, had to cut a few of the original songs, enraging the fans, like Into the Woods and Sweeney Todd.
However, the upcoming Wicked movie, in an attempt to protect the original story without drastic cuts, but also maintaining a good amount of screen time, will be divided in two parts; the first one, being released in 2024, corresponds to the first act of the show, while the second part (2025) corresponds to act two. The first film is already two hours and forty minutes long (almost the whole duration of the stage version), so we can hopefully expect a faithful production without many cuts.
The director Jon M Chu explained to Gizmodo’s portal Io9 the choice of splitting the movie in two: “I knew that there was going to be a certain reaction. But I also knew that when you actually look at the nuts and bolts of it, it was very clear. There was no question. Either it’s not Wicked and you’re stripping out all these songs or you’re changing the story so much that it’s not going to be the Wicked that you want. I knew we were making the right choice […].”
Still on that note, because movies and stages are totally different, the way the story is presented is also different, which sometimes ends up disappointing the fans. The audiovisual language is much more naturalist than musical theater (which is usually more epic). Therefore, some details like quick changes on stage, different hairstyles on screen, specific jokes, visual effects and scenarios cannot be translated and adapted.
There’s also the magical aspects of it. There’s something about watching a performance live that just hits differently. Seeing an actress belt her heart out while flying on a broom right in front of you, or listening to the whole orchestra loud and clear just changes you completely. On the other hand, cinema has the power to create visual aspects in such a realistic and majestic way that makes you see the story from a whole new perspective. They are both amazing in their own way.
SUCCESSES vs FAILURES
As said previously, there are certain musical-movie adaptations that are not so well received by the public. The classic Broadway hit Cats was unfortunately one of those. The show gained its own screen version in 2019, and even Taylor Swift joined the cast as Bombalurina, but that was not enough to make the fans love it, and the movie got a 2.8 score on IMDb and a 19% on Rotten Tomatoes. Other movie flops such as Dear Evan Hansen (2021), Wonka (2023) and The Prom (2020) also failed to please the fans.
At the same time, there were some great adaptations of musicals that live in our thoughts to this day. Les Misérables is always the first to come to mind. The 2012 screen version of the stage classic starred Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter and other great names. Its tragically beautiful story gained the public one more time, this time in the movies. West Side Story (both versions – 1961 and 2021), Chicago (2002), and Matilda (1996 and 2022) were also well-appreciated and are definitely worth checking out.
THE OTHER WAY AROUND
Sometimes, the opposite might happen: a movie can be turned into a stage musical. Broadway has been receiving several on-screen stories to its theaters during the last years, such as Legally Blonde, The Notebook, The Addams Family, Back to the Future and many more. They are usually well received by the public that already loves the classic stories, and are surprised by the addition of all the songs and the new ways to present it on stage.
Mean Girls is a funny example to use here. That’s because the story is officially a movie from 2004, that was later turned into a Broadway musical in 2017 and then adapted into a movie musical based on the Broadway show in 2024. In general, fans really liked the most recent adaptation of the story. The same thing happened with Matilda. The 1996 film was turned into a West End show in 2010 and was later adapted into a movie musical, in 2022.
HOW ARE WE FEELING ABOUT WICKED (2024)
Now that the beloved story of the witches of Oz is being turned into a movie, there are some big expectations going around. First of all, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are starring as Elphaba and Glinda. Erivo has been making her mark as one of the greatest singers and actresses of her generation for the past few years, with a Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for the role of Celia Johnson on The Color Purple. Oz’s newest Elphaba has also won a Grammy and a Tony, which leaves her only one step away from becoming an EGOT (an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winner).
Fans are also speculating about Ariana Grande’s performance as Glinda. Usually, pop stars being cast in movie musicals tend to provoke controversial opinions from the public, like Madonna as Eva Perón, in Evita (1996). People are worried that Grande’s vocals may be too pop for Glinda’s lyrical-theatrical style.
There were already some special sessions going on during the world premiere of the movie, and a lot of people got to see it already. The critics are fortunately very good, and are praising both Cynthia’s and Ariana’s performance. It also looks like the movie has been extremely faithful to its original story. Wicked premiered on November 22 and it might drastically change the way musicals are turned into movies for good.
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The article above was edited by Fernanda Miki Tsukase.
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