From ‘Rocky’ to ‘Pretty Woman’: the most surprising musicals based on movies you can see and where to do it

First it was a song Roy Orbison. Then, a movie starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. Afterwards, an inexhaustible balm capable of healing the most battered audiometer. And finally, a musical which, after touring the United States and several European countries, docked in Spain: the first city was Barcelona and, months later, the company will arrive in Madrid. In the capital, the EDP ​​Gran Vía Theater will be in charge of hosting the musical pretty woman, this rhythmic fairy tale with a miniskirt from the September 26.

The enthronement of cinema as a popular art par excellence has meant that adaptations now travel along a two-lane highway: the big screen is no longer the last stage by definition in the adaptation process but, sometimes, the first. To give two examples, Tarantino published the novel once upon a time in hollywood after directing the film, whose plot expands, and the group The Clash wrote the song Charlie don’t surf based on a phrase from Apocalypse Now.

Although the preferred route continues to be from the stage to the big screen, some titles have reversed this direction, such as pretty woman. This fashion, by the way, is not new and has already been around for a good handful of decades. As you will already know The Lion Kingin this list we have selected a couple of adaptations that may surprise you.

‘Twilight of the Gods’

A swimming pool dug into the boards, a booklet full of songs and the rest is put Billy Wilder. Yes in pretty woman, at least and from its title, there was a connection with music, in the decline of Norman Desmond and that of his protégé Joe Gills there is no place for songs. However, Andrew Lloyd Webber (Jesus Christ Superstar either Avoid) saw the film in the ’70s and, for the next few years, mulled over the idea of ​​a musical. This became a reality 20 years later.

twilight of the gods has walked through Broadway, Los Angeles, London either Australia and actors such as Glenn Close, Hugh Jackman either Rita Moreno. It was precisely Close who, at the 2022 Met Gala, confirmed that the film adaptation of the musical was getting closer. twilight of the gods. That is, the film version of the musical version of a film.

Where Norma Desmond has not yet been seen or heard is in Spain, so if you want to enjoy twilight of the godsyou’ll have to settle for Billy Wilder’s masterpiece, available on AppleTV.

‘The producers’

Write the worst script in the world and, for reasons beyond logic, it becomes a success. We don’t talk about The Room of Tommy Wiseaubut of the story it tells The producersfilm written and directed by Mel Brooks which, in 1968, won a statuette: ironically, for best script. In 2001, The producers became a musical that, in the United States, has starred Nathan Lane, Guillermo Francella in Argentina and Santiago Segura in Spain.

The adaptation was, again, adapted and In 2005 a musical film was released whose cast included Nathan Lane, as well as Uma Thurman and Will Ferrell. There was yet another step: Larry David, in Curb your enthusiasmdedicated its fourth season to the making of a musical that recovered The producers for the theater. Obviously, the result was a disaster because Larry David was involved in it. But a disaster in the truest spirit of The producers.

The producers (1967) is available at Movistar Plus+ and Filmin; The producers (2005) is part of the catalog of AppleTV; and Larry David can be seen in HBO Max.

‘Rocky’

Perhaps the key is simply not to go out of tune when shouting “Adrian!” Not even Stallone’s most stubborn detractor can deny that Rocky It’s a great movie (or you can try, but without much conviction). What seems more complicated is to point it out as an exceptional starting material for a musical. Bill Conti’s soundtrack doesn’t work miracles.

Composer Stephen Flaherty thought differently and took his dream to its ultimate consequences. Compared to the movie, it was a economic failure (multiplied by twenty the budget of the Rocky Stallone and the collection, obviously, was much lower) and enjoyed a short life: premiered in Hamburgthen moved to broadwaywhere he barely survived half a year, he tried to travel to Korea but the first performance was canceled minutes before the actors went on stage and, in Praguehe said goodbye after four months.

In any case, the authors of the musical knew, like Rocky when facing Apollo the first time, that This was a fight they couldn’t win., but they were going to try to stay in the ring as long as possible. In any case, we would always have Philadelphia: that is, the first installment on The Italian Colt (and all the others later), available in Amazon Prime Video.

‘Caught in time’

Bill Murray stayed, on the big screen, Caught in time and he came close to doing it in one of the seats in front of which the musical inspired by this film was performed. The strange idea (or perhaps not so strange, who has not ever heard a song on loop?) of carrying Caught in time to the stage became a reality in London in 2016. The musical was nominated for several Laurence Olivier awards and won Best Musical. So far, everything was going well.

When the company crossed the Atlantic and settled on Broadway, the situation began to change. His landing was not very satisfactory and, after a few months of moderate success in New York, The planned tour of the United States was canceled. Of course: Bill Murray went to see her twice in a row, the first time with a family member and the next time alone. Surely yes Caught in time Had it remained on the billboard longer, Bill Murray would have ended up stopping by dressed as Clint Eastwood.

Caught in time Is available in Movistar Plus+.

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