Movies Were Movies Were Musicals

So after watching the DVD of Kiss Me, Stupid, I decided to see what kind of rating this film got in Leonard Maltin’s Movie and Video Guide. I picked up my dog-eared 1999 edition and — you have to open a book somewhere — found I was on page 244, where the words “Later a Broadway musical” caught my eye. Because this was the very first line at the top of the page and the review was a spillover from the previous page, I didn’t know which movie was “Later a Broadway musical” until I turned back to page 243.

The Chosen?!?!?! Good Lord, you mean to tell me that Maltin thought couch potatoes needed to know about the musical version of The Chosen? That musical based on Chaim Potok’s novel about two very different Jews opened on January 6, 1988 and closed on January 10, 1988. While the book had been a best seller, Potok wasn’t able to mine more gold from it as a librettist; composer Philip Springer and lyricist Mitchell Bernard couldn’t turn the trick, either. The notorious Mitchell Maxwell was both producer and director of the show, though helping him with the raising of money were no less than the classy Ely Landau and the classier Robert de Rothschild. Despite a cast that included a Tony winner (George Hearn), a Tony nominee (Gerald Hiken), and a future TV and movie star (Rob Morrow), The Chosen is often mentioned as one of musical theater’s worst shows.

And yet Maltin — or someone on his staff — thought that “Later a Broadway musical” needed to be mentioned after a description of the film. Hmmm, if he included this notation for such a minor work, how low would he go? I flipped a few pages back to Carrie. Wow: “Later a stage musical.” Interesting how he added “Broadway” for The Chosen, which actually played Off-Broadway, and didn’t use that word for Carrie, which was indeed produced on the Main Stem.

I was off and searching through additional film properties that were eventually musicalized. Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Eating Raoul, Footloose, High Society, King of Hearts, La Strada, The Red Shoes, and Smile — all of which kept their original titles when musicalized — aren’t noted as source material for musicals. As for films whose titles were changed for their musical adaptations, there’s no mention for The Blue Angel (Pousse-Cafe), Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell (Carmelina), The Captain’s Paradise (Oh, Captain!), Exodus (Ari), Hail, the Conquering Hero (The Conquering Hero), A Hole in the Head (Golden Rainbow), Miracle on 34th Street (Here’s Love), The Quiet Man (Donnybrook), and Saratoga Trunk (Saratoga). And as for Carnival in Flanders, not only does Maltin fail to mention the 1953 musical, he doesn’t even list the 1935 film.

Well, okay. Those were all flops. Lili — musicalized as the prize-winning Carnival! — was a big hit in 1961 but has been pretty much forgotten since then, as Maltin proves by leaving it out. Perhaps a more egregious omission is no mention of the musical version of 8½, given that Nine is one of the comparatively few shows to win Tonys as both Best Musical and Best Musical Revival. (I suspect that’s because Maltin decided to use the space instead to remark on what an important piece of cinema the Fellini film is.)

Expecting musical mentions for Arthur, Bugsy Malone, Metropolis, The Spitfire Grill, The Traveling Executioner (The Fields of Ambrosia) — and even Gone With the Wind — may have been too much to ask, given that none of these made it to Broadway. On the other hand, “Later a Broadway musical” concludes the entries for Big, Grand Hotel, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Shenandoah, Singin’ in the Rain, Sunset Boulevard, and Victor/Victoria. Listings for films whose musical versions have different titles sometimes include the new titles, such as Never on Sunday (“Later a Broadway musical, Illya, Darling“), All about Eve (“Later musicalized on Broadway as Applause“), and The Apartment (“Later a Broadway musical, Promises, Promises“).

The last two shows named above were hits, but Maltin doesn’t mention that. You may feel he didn’t need to, but some of the film reviews do state that the stage version enjoyed success, such as La Cage aux Folles and Woman of the Year (each says “Later a hit Broadway musical”), Little Shop of Horrors (“Basis for the later hit stage musical”), Some Like It Hot (“Basis for hit Broadway musical Sugar“), Twentieth Century (“Later a hit Broadway musical, On the Twentieth Century“). Actually, On the Twentieth Century and Woman of the Year weren’t hits in that they failed to return their investments, and Sugar just squeaked by. On the other hand, Maltin and company have no bones about saying that Big Deal on Madonna Street was “also adapted for Broadway — unsuccessfully,” and they really get down to brass tacks with The Thin Man: “An attempt to rekindle the magic in the 1991 Broadway musical Nick and Nora failed miserably.” While the review of The Prince and the Showgirl does conclude with “script by Terence Rattigan from his play The Sleeping Prince,” it doesn’t mention, “later the Broadway musical The Girl Who Came to Supper.” But I’m happy to say that The Shop around the Corner includes “brought to Broadway as She Loves Me.” Nice that Maltin and/or his colleagues have some respect for this underappreciated masterpiece.

Special mention is given to those Broadway musicals that had previous Hollywood incarnations, such as I Am a Camera (“basis of Broadway musical and film Cabaret“), Nights of Cabiria (“basis for the Broadway musical and film Sweet Charity“), Ninotchka (“basis for Broadway musical and film Silk Stockings“), Smiles of a Summer Night (“inspired the Broadway musical and subsequent film A Little Night Music“). But Nothing Sacred is said to have been “remade as Living It Up” with no mention of the fact that Living It Up was really adapted from Hazel Flagg, the Broadway musical adaptation of Nothing Sacred. And the review for Passione d’Amore gives a little more respect: “later musicalized for Broadway by Stephen Sondheim as Passion.” That’s the closest any individual came to getting his name in a mention of a musical adaptation, unless you count My Favorite Year‘s notation “musicalized on Broadway a decade later (again with Lainie Kazan).”

42nd Street is said to have been “adapted for the Broadway stage 50 years later” and Meet Me in St. Louis is noted as “years later adapted for Broadway.” Something similar could be said of a movie-musical-to-stage-musical that preceded both, Gigi, but no such mention is made. Hmmm. Gigi was on Broadway way back in 1973 — 26 long years before this book was published — so maybe the “years later adapted for Broadway” line was once there but was eliminated in subsequent editions.

Would The Chosen’s musical version be mentioned in the current edition? I went to buy Leonard Maltin’s 2004 Movie and Video Guide, which weighs in at 1,644 pages — 12 more than the 1999 edition. Now, given that so many movies have been released in the last five years, I imagine that “Later a Broadway musical” after The Chosen would have had to walk the plank to make way for all the new films.

First, though, I checked to see if “Later a Broadway musical” had been added to movies that weren’t yet stage properties in 1999. Yes for Hairspray: “Later a Broadway musical.” The Producers, Saturday Night Fever, and Thoroughly Modern Millie now have that label, too, but The Full Monty does not. Okay, it wasn’t as high profile a musical as the others, but what about this? The Fearless Vampire Killers listing includes the following: “Later a Broadway musical called Dance of the Vampires (the film’s alternate title).” The much more worthy A Man of No Importance doesn’t get a musical mention, though. Go figure.

Finally, I checked The Chosen. Believe it or not, “Later a Broadway musical” is still there. The moral of the story? Many aren’t recalled but a few, like The Chosen, are chosen.

********************

[To contact Peter Filichia directly, e-mail him at pfilichia@aol.com]