The movie posters for The Color Purple, Wicked and Mean Girls.
Movie musicals are making a comeback. From Mean Girls: The Musical to The Color Purple, this year has seen Broadway favorites adapted for the screen, reigniting the magic for audiences old and new.
With the anticipated release of Wicked: Part 1, we explore how musicals make the leap from stage to screen — and back again. Film, Television and Digital Media faculty Richard Allen, professor, and Charity Robinson, instructor, share insights into this unique relationship.
1. Stage-to-screen adaptations began as a way to give old material a fresh look.
Richard Allen
The stage-to-screen pipeline has deep roots. In the 1940s and ’5
0s, movie musicals were box-office gold, but by the 1960s, MGM-style productions lost their appeal. Hollywood turned to Broadway for inspiration, producing faithful adaptations like Oklahoma!
“Rodgers and Hammerstein adapted Oklahoma! with minimal changes,” Allen said.
“It is the same Oklahoma in a field and a cow walks by.”
However, not all adaptations succeeded, as filmmakers struggled to preserve the charm of the originals while making characters breaking into songs believable for film audiences.
2. Musical films require audiences to suspend reality in unique ways.
Musical films ask audiences to suspend reality in ways traditional films do not.
“In early musicals, songs were used when words were no longer enough,” Allen explained. However, this convention doesn’t always translate to the screen.
“A filmmaker must convince an audience from the jump to accept the fact that song and story can be integrated in a way that allows characters to express emotion and for the story to be advanced through music,” Robinson said. “Overcoming audience expectations — and adapting to a new medium — is always a challenge.”
3. Broadway and Hollywood evolved together to reignite interest in musicals.
Charity Robinson
From the 1960s to the 1980s, musical films waned in popularity, but Broadway found new life through “concept musicals.” According to Allen, meanwhile, displaced Broadway talent turned to Disney, creating animated musicals like The Little Mermaid and The Lion King, which introduced musical conventions to a new generation.
Hollywood eventually returned to musicals, adapting Broadway hits to offset financial risk. Modern adaptations, such as Rent and Cabaret, often tackle complex themes and serve as social commentary Robinson explained.
4. Adapting musicals for film means balancing authenticity with innovation.
Adapting stage musicals for film requires a careful balance between honoring the source material and creating something moviegoers want to watch.
“Certain conventions, like an ensemble or chorus, don’t translate well to film,” Allen said. For example, Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd omits the moralizing chorus, altering the tone of the story.
“Filmmakers must honor the source material while creating something new that takes advantage of film’s unique strengths,”
Robinson added. “But no film can replicate the magic of live performance.”
5. The stage and screen influence each other more than ever.
In recent years, the screen-to-stage pipeline has grown. Films like Aladdin and The Lion King transitioned to Broadway with minimal changes, while adaptations like Mean Girls and The Color Purple highlight the growing interplay between the two media.
“This year, we’ve called it ‘The year of the movie musical based on a musical based on a movie,’” Robinson said. Whether on stage or screen, musicals continue to evolve, captivating audiences and proving their lasting power.