Not long ago, Hollywood welcomed
Broadway hits with open arms, especially when it came to musical theatre. Such
blockbusters of the Great White Way as Oklahoma!,
The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, and Fiddler on the Roof were rushed onto soundstages, and many of them
went on to score major dividends when awards season rolled around. Though movie
musicals based on stage hits are hardly as big at today’s box office as they
once were, studios continue to make them from time to time. Steven Spielberg,
of all people, is currently daring to redo the glorious West Side Story, which in 1961 moved from Broadway to the big
screen, nabbing ten top Oscars along the way.
In recent years, however,
Broadway has often found itself struggling to come up with ideas for stage
musicals, especially those with appeal for out-of-towners visiting the Big
Apple. So hit Hollywood romcoms have come to be a reliable source of stories
ready to be musical-ized. Obviously, the idea is that familiarity breeds
box-office. Not long ago, there was Legally
Blonde, a forgettable stage show that racked up Tony nominations and ran
for over a year. And, with varying degrees of success, Broadway folks have made
musicals out of 9 to 5, The Full Monty, Kinky Boots, and
Spielberg’s caper comedy, Catch Me If You
Can. The current crop includes a version of Beetlejuice: it’s now up for
eight Tonys including Best Musical. Less successful by far has been last
summer’s stage translation of Pretty
Woman, as well as (believe it or don’t) a musical King Kong.
But the top Tony vote-getter
based on a Hollywood movie has got to be Tootsie,
which pulled in eleven nominations. (The prizes will be awarded on June 9, in a
televised ceremony hosted by the inevitable but adorable James Corden.) Among
the elements that make Tootsie sing
are a dynamite performance by Santino Fontana, who follows in Dustin Hoffman’s
high-heeled footsteps. There’s also the fact that this show doesn’t try to be a
musicalized clone of the Hollywood original. Clever writing turns Michael
Dorsey/ Dorothy Michaels from an unlikely soap opera queen into the unexpected
star of a formerly lackluster Broadway musical. And the film’s take on misogyny
in showbiz is smartly updated to make sense in the #MeToo era.
Among Tony nominations for
acting are (as always) many Hollywood favorites, including Adam Driver and
Annette Bening, Two film stars have won nominations by take the leading roles
in dramatic plays based on classic films. Jeff Daniels stars in a stage
adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird,
while Bryan Cranston is favored to take home a Tony for playing the Peter Finch
role in a Broadway production of Network.
Curiously, neither of these dramas is up for Best Play. Perhaps the voters in this
category are awarding points for originality, and don’t feel that adaptations
measure up to entirely new works.
Whoever decided on the
nominations for Best Musical obviously had no such qualms. Which means Tootsie, despite stiff competition from
a very offbeat new musical called Hadestown,
could well carry home the top Tony prize. (Hadestown,
which leads all shows with 14 noms, is actually an adaptation of the classic
story of Orpheus and Eurydice – originality only goes so far!) In honor of
Broadway’s new Tootsie, I just
re-watched the film original, delighting once again in its sly humor and
brilliant performances. But now I can’t wait to see Dorothy put on her dancing
shoes, though I can’t help wondering how men always manage to grab the best
parts, even when they’re masquerading as women.
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