Movies Into Musicals

By Jeffrey Ressner

TREND Old Hollywood movies are providing the inspiration for new stage musicals

HOW IT STARTED A venerable Broadway tradition, given fresh impetus by the smash success of The Producers

JUDGMENT CALL If only Mel Brooks could write them all La Jolla Playhouse

The Producers and The Full Monty, two Broadway musicals based on movies, dominated the Tony nominations last week--scoring 15 and 10 nods, respectively. Don't think theater producers aren't paying attention. At least half a dozen musicals based on feature films are in the works, and chances are they'll now be on a faster track to Broadway. Among them: Sweet Smell of Success, from the Burt Lancaster-Tony Curtis classic about a ruthless gossip columnist; Thoroughly Modern Millie, above, a reworking of the 1967 film starring Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore; and musical versions of Summer of '42, That Thing You Do and John Waters' Hairspray.

"It certainly seems seductive at the moment," says producer Ira Pittelman, who hopes to have a musical based on the Oscar-winning Moonstruck in workshop this fall. "People are looking to classic films and, in a way, Moonstruck is an aria with big, wide emotions." And if you can't wait for these shows to make the long trip to the stage, the first post-Producers movie-inspired musical is already here: The It Girl, about the life of silent-screen-star Clara Bow, which New York City's York Theater Company has just opened off-Broadway.

--By Jeffrey Ressner