In line with the age-old question, which came first, the chicken or the egg? Theatre kids and film enthusiasts may also find themselves questioning which was the original, the movie or the musical?
There are so many musicals that have been adapted for the silver screen, including Mamma Mia (2008), Les Misérables (2013) and Rent (2006), as well as many others. Equally, beloved movie characters have found themselves upon a stage years after their film was released much like Elle Woods in Legally Blonde (2003) or Jenna from Waitress (2007). Even iconic songs like Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 which starred on the soundtrack for the 1981 movie found their way to an orchestra and ensemble.
However, there is a somewhat new pipeline emerging. The movement from non-musical movie to a musical on the West End and then back to be recreated as a musical movie. We saw this with Hairspray, originally released without the singing and dancing in 1988, before being adapted to a hit Broadway musical in 2002, only for it to make its way back into cinemas starring the likes of Queen Latifah, John Travolta, and Michelle Pfeiffer in 2007. Roald Dahl’s Matilda received the same treatment culminating in the recent 2022 release of the musical movie and now it is the turn of Tina Fey’s Mean Girls.
I personally believe this recent decision to bring Cady back to our screens has significant relation to the rising success of Renee Rapp who prior to her recent album Snow Angel, starred on Broadway as Regina George; her voice is incredibly powerful and is what excites me most about this new Mean Girls movie. Set to be released in 2024, Tina Fey reprises her role as Ms. Norbury, meanwhile The Summer I Turned Pretty star Christopher Briney will be the new Aaron Samuels. Other notable names in the cast are Jenna Fischer (aka Pam from The Office), Jon Hamm (recently playing Cyclone in Top Gun: Maverick), and Chloe Auliʻi Cravalho (Moana herself). The movie is set to be a hit, and will no doubt see Rapp fans, theatre kids and those who grew up in the noughties flocking to their local movie theatre.
The relationship between stage and cinema is pretty fluid. The quality rarely suffering as favourite movies are brought to the West End, equally musicals often find a wider (more accessible) audience when reformed into a film. For those who grew up at the same time period as myself, I would argue that DCOM (Disney Channel Original Movies) such as High School Musical, Lemonade Mouth or my personal favourite Jump In helped foster an enjoyment of the combination of music and movie.
Some of the biggest stars, like Tom Holland, started their careers in musical adaptations of movies – in this particular case, Billy Elliot the Musical. Yet, not every musical adaptation has necessarily been as successful as their film counterparts; Bridget Jones Diary does not have the same acclamation or general reach in terms of audience as a musical than it had as a trilogy of films. This can work in reverse though too as Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, a show that has seen the likes of Layton Williams embodying the feature role, was arguably far more successful on stage than as its 2011 television series Jamie: Drag Queen at 16.
Regardless of whether on the stage or on the screen, a good story has the ability to be successful as both musical or movie. I for one am always happy to see one being transformed into the other. The availability of artistic talent is not limited and this relationship between creative modes allows artists (whether formidable singers, dancers, or actors) to get the limelight they deserve.