I like movies, I like live theater. But they’re different beasts.
Over the last two decades there have been two major trends on Broadway: turning the songbook of a particular music artist (or artists) into a “jukebox musical” and turning movie hits into musicals. Of the latter there have been a few successes — Lion King, The Producers, Spamalot — but by and large these screen-to-stage adaptations fall flat after short runs (witness Young Frankenstein and Shrek). So it’s somewhat surprising to read in today’s New York Post that movie mega-producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein are planning to adapt past Miramax and Weinstein Company hits into a string of eight to ten Broadway shows.
The Weinstens aren’t new to Broadway theater, having produced the ultra-successful The Producers and Billy Elliot, and God of Carnage, but the brothers have yet to truly mine their own films until now.
So far the duo are involved in a troubled musical adaptation of Finding Neverland (based on the 2004 Johnny Depp film) which has yet to be produced despite having a tryout run scheduled in California (it was subsequently canceled for not being ready for prime time, so to say). Beyond that the two have their sights on Chocolat and Cinema Paradiso. What’s next, Pulp Fiction and Spy Kids?
It’s the idea of Cinema Paradiso as a Broadway show that baffles me, since it’s a movie about loving movies. That sort of already makes sense, so why fix something that isn’t broken.
Who knows if these will ever appear — we haven’t seen much of anything from the Weinstein Company’s planned sequels to everything Miramax has ever made — but let’s hope they’ll do better than Shrek did on Broadway.
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