stack of the Great White Way ’s most notable productions have been reincarnated for the silver screen — thinkRent , The Producers , andChicago . But Off - Broadway and Broadway ’s best have also spawned quite a little of full-grown screen interlingual rendition that some hoi polloi do n’t realize started as bouncy theatrical experiences .
1. Casablanca
One of cinema ’s most beloved and enduring classic is get laid for a few things ( incorrectly ingeminate quotes are one of them ) , but few people remember that the Michael Curtiz cinema was first crafted as a stagecoach play . Murray Burnett and Joan Alison’sEverybody Comes To Rick ’s was never in reality put on the point , but the couplet did option the study to Warner Bros. in 1942 for the then - record terms of $ 20,000 . The distich write the gambling in 1940 , inspired by a misstep Burnett and his married woman took to Vienna , where they helped some Jewish relatives smuggle money out , and a later expedition to a modest town in France which was base to an intimate nightclub with a mixed clientele ( and a wind pianist ) .
2. Dial M For Murder
Alfred Hitchcock ’s electrifying 1954 classic is tense and tight enough that it ’s wanton to forget that the feature could quite easily take place in just a single setting . What often has a single context ? Stage plays!Dial M for Murderfirst came to life as a Frederick Knott roleplay that actually made its debut on BBC Television in 1952 . It make the leg later that year , first in London ’s West End , then on Broadway .
3. A Few Good Men
Rob Reiner ’s 1992 military court drama is memorable on its own , plainly for all the outsized personality that populate it ( “ You ca n’t handle the the true ! ” ) , so it ’s difficult to ideate soaking all that drama inlive . Well , audiences did — and still do !
First perform on Broadway in 1989 , playwright Aaron Sorkin then adapted the work into the screenplay that became Reiner ’s Tom Cruise- and Jack Nicholson - star picture . The gambol is still performed today , and has torn up stages from Texas to Budapest .
4. Nell
Considering that the eponymous “ idle small fry ” role ofNellis one of Jodie Foster ’s most well - do it and regarded function , it does n’t seem potential that she ’s not the one who rise it . But , you approximate it , she is n’t .
What became the filmNellwas first the playIdioglossia , indite by Mark Handley in 1992 . The film hit screenland just two years afterward , hew closely to the work that Handley first brought to the stage . Though its championship switch , the aims remained the same — for fans ofNell , the definition of “ idioglossia ” is a canny one , as it depict “ an idiosyncratic language that few talk . ”
5. Prelude to a Kiss
Back in 1992 , Meg Ryan reign supreme as romanticistic comedy poove , and the amusing and sweet body switching comedyPrelude to a Kisswas a pretty utter match for both her and costar Alec Baldwin . Although the Norman Rene feature was a light - hearted outing , Craig Lucas ’ 1988 play on which it was base was far more serious , and was trust to provide acute commentary on the then - new AIDS epidemic . The play is still performed today ; there was a full - scale Broadway revitalization starring Alan Tudyk and John Mahoney in 2007 .
6. Rope
count , another Hitchcockian thriller ! The headmaster of suspense did n’t limit his degree act pillaging toDial M for Murder — he also did it with 1948’sRope , six year before pick up the phone and ringing up homicide . Based on Patrick Hamilton ’s 1929 manoeuvre of the same name , Hitchcock ’s film clear accolades for its famous long take dash , which made it appear to play out continuously in real time . Even Hamilton ’s play did n’t go that far — the microscope stage version plays out over three turn , with a curtain fall in between each .
7. Steel Magnolias
Before Shelby tope her juice to the dulcet note of Sally Field justscreamingher brains out , the same thing played out on stage . Herbert Ross ’ enduring 1989 classic of American muliebrity and experience is based on Robert Harling ’s 1987 play of the same name , which was in turn base on Harling ’s own wrenching experience of losing his sister to diabetes after the birth of his nephew .
Harling ’s gambling was recently turned into yet another cinematic adaption — Kenny Leon ’s 2012 Lifetime feature that used an wholly African - American dramatis personae to distinguish the story of a tight - entwine group of Southern women . Steel Magnoliasthe stage play most recently embarked on a land - wide tour in Ireland back in 2012 .
8. Closer
Playwright Patrick Marber quite skillfully accommodate his own 1997 caper for the 2004 Mike Nichols film , a dramatic outing that features the talents of Clive Owen , Natalie Portman , Julia Roberts , and Jude Law . A misrepresented tale of two couples ( sort of ? ) that mix and mingle in London in quite perhaps the regretful way of life imaginable , the award - winning playing period place a premium on its four central characters , layered individuals that translated well to the big screen . Marber ’s play first showed around London and Broadway , and it continue to toy around the world . It was recently translated into German , showing under the titleHautnah .
