i was just thinking about this - movies and Broadway have a symbiotic relationship, as do books and Broadway - but what about TV?
i know "Odd Couple" was turned into a TV series, but has a TV show ever given birth to a Broadway venture?
aside from the off-broadway parodies of "Brady Bunch" and "Facts of Life".
i was thinking that "The Golden Girls" would make a really good musical - not so much in the tongue-in-cheek way as the off-broadway shows - but an old-fashioned book musical that happens to highlight 4 women who are no longer the ingenue.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
Not Broadway, but two examples from abroad: UK: Bad Girls Australia/UK: Prisoner Cell Block H (Australian series, but UK productions - London and tour)
M*A*S*H is a play, though I'm not sure which came first.
(Edited to add the following)
I've always thought The Golden Girls should be a stage play. It would be such a hit regionally with bus loads of Red Hat ladies tipsy from wine coolers coming to see it. Interestingly enough, the real Golden Girls did a live performance for the Queen back in the day. Apparently Her Majesty was a fan of NBC's prime time shows in the late '80.
"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." -Stephen Colbert
Samantha: Kelli O'Hara Darrin: J. Robert Spencer Endora: Elaine Stritch Larry Tate: Daniel Davis Uncle Arthur: Gary Beach Abner Kravitz: Philip Bosco Gladys Kravitz: Jackie Hoffman
isn't it interesting though that theatre pulls from all these different sources (film, books, dance, song catalogs) but TV remains a fairly untapped resource (thank god!)
i assume its just because the scope of a tv show is fairly limited (1/2 hour or an hour to solve a conflict) where as the other medium have a broader scope and longer conflict resolution.
do you think that in the next 20 years we will see an explosion of tv on broadway? will there be "desperate housewives: the musical"? what might be after that, blogs or twitter as an inspiration for broadway?
I do a agree with you merriwether. I think hour long programs would be the first to get musicalized since they have much more character development. As far as the internet goes, there was a thread awhile back about BWW: The Musical.
"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." -Stephen Colbert
Actually, the ADDAMS FAMILY musical isn't really based on the TV show which was far more on the silly side than the original comic strips. The musical is based on the comic strips.
MOLLY, the dreadful musical that played a long preview period but closed after a handful of performances after opening was based on the TV series (and old radio show) "The Goldbergs". Kaye Ballard played Molly Goldberg.
I suppose it's only fair that we let him. After all, he has employed a wealth of musical theatre actors.
"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." -Stephen Colbert
The Golden Girls was actually turned into an off-Broadway show(non-musical, called Golden Girls: Live!) in 2003. It featured an all-male cast of female impersonators performing scripts from the series. The show was so successful that it was scheduled to move to a larger theatre. Unfortunately, the play?s producers failed to secure proper legal permissions to use the characters and scripts and it was shut down.
A Chorus Line revival played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013. Another non-equity tour launched on January 20, 2018. The tour ended its US run in Kansas City and then toured throughout Japan August & September 2018.
Samantha: Kelli O'Hara Darrin: J. Robert Spencer Endora: Elaine Stritch Larry Tate: Daniel Davis Uncle Arthur: Gary Beach Abner Kravitz: Philip Bosco Gladys Kravitz: Jackie Hoffman
now THAT is the most inspired casting of the year !!!!
ACL2006- Yes, there was a run of "The Golden Girls Live" at Rose's Turn. It was performed by Peter Mac and John Schaffer (sp?). Peter Mac is the same actor/writer that recently had "Judy and Me" running on off-broadway.
Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life.- Bette Davis
"Little House on the Prairie" was turned into a musical that is going to begin a national tour in October 2009. Even though it was based mainly on the books, television star Melissa Gilbert plays "Ma".