If the entertainment biz is nothing else, it certainly is
adaptable.
More and more, you see characters and stories that began their
lives in one medium being adapted to others. TV shows become
movies; movies morph into TV shows. Stage plays, musical and
otherwise, are re-imagined for the big and small screens — and more
and more often, TV shows and movies are going the other direction,
to the stage.
Mel Brooks probably gets more credit — or blame,
depending on your disposition — than anyone else for that, taking
his hit movies “The Producers” and “Young
Frankenstein” to Broadway, with blockbuster results. If it
wasn’t for all the horses, and the blocking problems they present
(if you know what I mean), you can bet we would’ve had a stage
adaptation of “Blazing Saddles” by now.
The 5th Avenue Theatre’s just-announced 2012-13 season illustrates
the continued traction of this trend. The second show on the slate
is “The Addams Family,” based on characters and
situations from the 1960s TV comedy (who were, in turn, adapted
from Charles Addams’ comic strips). The third is “ELF — the
Musical,” which springs from the 2003 fish-out-of-water
holiday movie starring Will Ferrell.
And there’s no end in sight. I mean, there are plenty of old TV
shows and movies that are ripe to be set to music and brought to
the stage.
Which ones? Here are a few candidates:
“Gilligan’s Island”: The series originated in
1964, ran forever, was ubiquitous in reruns, retools and even a
movie, and we’re still not tired of the castaways. So a musical
about Gilligan, the Skipper too, the Millionaire and His Wife, the
Movie Star, the Professor and Mary Ann … is a no-brainer. You could
make a perfectly good show out of the episode when producer Harold
Hecuba (played by Phil Silvers) washed ashore (people were always
washing ashore on “Gilligan’s Island;” it helped keep the story
lines fresh) and the castaways mounted their own musical to
showcase the talents of starlet Ginger.
Big production numbers might include the opening “Three-Hour Tour,”
the Gilligan-Skipper duet “Little Buddy,” the Millionaire’s lament
“Money to Burn” and the full-cast showstopper “You’re Either a
Ginger Guy or a Mary Ann Guy.”
(It’s worth mentioning that, moments after this column was posted
on the Internet, I was informed that “Gilligan’s Island” has indeed
morphed into a musical, cowritten by series creator Sherwood
Schwartz. I’ve posted more info on my blog:
http://pugetsoundblogs.com/kitsap-ae)
“Get Smart”: The 1965 series about the exploits of
Secret Agent 86 could get Brooks back onto the musical-theater map.
The lampoon of the spy genre popularized by James Bond movies has
action, romance (86’s awkward wooing of 99, the longing of Hymie
for a robot partner, etc.), villains (remember Bernie Kopel’s
Sigfried? Leonard Strong’s The Claw?) and potential hit songs
galore: “Sorry About That, Chief,” “Would You Believe?”, “The Man
Who Talks Into His Shoe,” “Cone of Silence” … Never mind the flop
that was the 2008 movie version; this one’s got success written all
over it … or, would you believe, over most of it? Part of it?
“F Troop”: More can’t-fail stuff from the mid-’60s
(1965 again). O’Rourke and Agarn are really just a Vaudeville
comedy team, dropped into a post-Civil War cavalry outpost in the
wild west and testing their ability to pull the wool over the eyes
of their gullible commander, Capt. Parmenter (whose courtship with
Wrangler Jane also provides a romantic component).
The relationship between the troopers and the neighboring Hekawi
tribespeople will have to be updated, of course. It’ll be up to the
songwriters to figure out how to replace “paleface and redskin both
turn chicken” with some lyrical form of the more politically
correct “Caucasian insurgents and indigenous Native Americans agree
that discretion is the better part of valor.” The aforementioned
romantic element makes “F Troop” an easier sell than other military
comedies of the era, like “McHale’s Navy” and “Gomer Pyle” …
although a subplot hinting at a relationship between Capt.
Binghamton and his lackey, Carpenter, would bring a nice edge to
things.
“Laugh-In:” Dan Rowan and Dick Martin are both
gone, but the comedy-variety show that made the stand-up comedy duo
household names back in the late Sixties could be easily adapted
for a modern-day revue, with its topical songs and rapid-fire gags
delivered from the “Joke Wall,” or during “The Party.” Because of
the catchphrases spawned during the show’s run, potential song
titles are plentiful: “Sock It To Me!,” “You Bet Your Bippy,” “Look
It Up in Your Funk and Wagnalls” and “Beautiful Downtown Burbank,”
just to name a few. It would be — dare I say it — verrrry
in-teresting.
“M*A*S*H”: The long-running 1972 series about
surgeons on the front line during the Korean War sprung from the
popular film by Robert Altman, and its antiwar theme is just as
relevant now as it was then. The high jinks around the 4077th would
be perfect for musical comedy, with production numbers swirling out
of the mess hall and onto the muddy streets. There could even be a
number titled “Operating Theatre,” replete with high-kicking nurses
and wisecracking doctors. And romance? The first song title that
came into my mind was “Hot Lips and Who?”
There are plenty of others, of course, from “I Love Lucy” and “The
Andy Griffith Show” and “Cheers” right through to the
groundbreaking comedy of “All in the Family.” Imagine, if you will,
the hilarious possibilities of “The Meathead Song,” or “Stifle
Yourself, Edith.” Or what about “Married … With Children: The
Musical?”
Of course, there are hundreds of shows that it probably wouldn’t be
a good idea, for obvious reasons, to try to adapt. “Rosanne” is one
that instantly springs to mind …
But the sitcom field is a fertile one for Broadway to till, and the
TV-to-stage trend could easily continue on for decades. Now, let’s
see: Who’s your choice to follow in the footsteps of Buddy Ebsen
and Jim Varney for the coveted part of Jed Clampett in the Broadway
blockbuster “The Beverly Hillbillies?”
This column ran in the March 9 print edition of Kitsap A&E and online at kitsapsun.com/entertainment
