Live theater is one of the purest and most authentic and enjoyable forms of entertainment. Broadway, the home of New York City’s bustling theater scene, has produced and hosted countless award-winning and iconic plays and musicals over the years. Oftentimes, film studio executives, directors, or producers try to capitalize on the success of a Broadway production by adapting it for the big screen. Most recently, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, which debuted at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in 2015, was filmed on stage and made available on Disney+.
While some film adaptations work out great and attract larger audiences to iconic Broadway plays and musicals, others aren’t so successful. Below is a look at five films based on Broadway productions that have had varying degrees of success, both in terms of box office revenue and critical reception.
Chicago (2002)
A musical set during the height of jazz in the 1920s, Chicago presents a satirical look at corruption, particularly in the criminal justice system, and how society sometimes makes celebrities out of criminals. Originally a play written by Chicago reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins in 1926, the Broadway musical debuted at the 46th Street Theatre in 1975 and was revived in 1996. This production, which received six Tony Awards, is still running at The Ambassador Theater and is the longest-running American musical of all-time.
The film adaptation, directed by Rob Marshall, was released to critical acclaim in 2002. The film featured an all-star cast that included Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, and Taye Diggs. It won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Costume Design, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Zeta-Jones). The film had a budget of $45 million and grossed more than $170 million in the US alone and $136.1 million in international markets.
Grease (1978)
Grease is another one of the more successful Broadway musicals adapted for film. The musical about the secret romance between a popular “greaser” and the new girl at Rydell High School during the 1950s opened on February 14, 1972 at Eden Theatre and was nominated for seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Actor in a Musical (Barry Bostwick), and Best Choreography. Tom Moore directed the musical, while cast members, in addition to Bostwick as Danny Zuko, included Walter Bobbie, Adrienne Barbeau, and Katie Hanley.
The Grease film was released six years later in 1978 and featured John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John as Zuko and Sandy Dumbrowski. More than 40 years later, the Oscar-nominated film is still a favorite among many due in part to memorable song-and-dance routines like “Summer Nights,” “Greased Lightnin’,” “We Go Together,” and “There Are Worse Things I Could Do.”
Rent (2005)
In contrast to Grease and Chicago, the Rent film adaptation was far from a hit with critics and audiences. Written by Jonathan Larson, the musical was such a hit in 1996 after debuting off-Broadway that producers had the long-dormant Nederlander Theatre refurbished to house the production. It had a successful 12-year run on Broadway but, because it depicted a very specific period of time in Manhattan, audiences were less interested in seeing the film when it was released in 2005.
Directed by Christopher Columbus and starring Rosario Dawson and Taye Diggs, among others, Rent brought in $10 million in opening weekend box office revenue and only grossed $31.7 million worldwide. That’s about one-tenth of the box office revenue for Chicago. Rent has a 46 percent score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
Mamma Mia! (2008)
Described as a “jukebox musical” with musical numbers from ABBA, Mamma Mia! debuted on Broadway in 1999 and was brought to the big screen nine years later in part due to the efforts of Meryl Streep, who was impressed with the musical when she saw it in 2001. The musical continued its run until 2015, and the film was so successful that it led to a sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again!
Streep stars in both films as Donna Sheridan-Carmichael, owner of the hotel Villa Donna. The original film cast also includes Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Dominic Cooper, and Julie Walters. Shot in Greece, the first film was a major box office success with worldwide gross revenue exceeding $609 million.
A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
One of the earliest musical-turned-films, A Raisin in the Sun debuted on Broadway in 1959 and was made into a movie just two years later by Columbia Pictures. The drama, which tells the story of a Black working-class Chicago family waiting to collect a $10,000 inheritance following the death of the patriarch, was directed for the stage by Lloyd Richards and starred Sidney Poitier alongside Ruby Dee and Claudia McNeil. All three actors, as well as others in the original Broadway cast, repeated their roles for the film.
Selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for its cultural and historical significance, A Raisin in the Sun was nominated for two BAFTA awards and has a critics score of 95 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.