Anyone know of any good plays which were made into movies? I am creating an assignment for my intro to theatre class, I have come up with quite a few, but was hoping to get some not so obvious ones.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2000

Answers

2 off the top of my head:

Inherit The Wind. An obvious one, sorry, but still a damn fine movie (the original one with Spencer Tracy et al.)

Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead. I've sone a read through of the play before (way back when in high school) and have seen the movie. My thinking is the movie was too dark in it's interpretation. This is one play I'd love to produce, if ever I was to venture that way.

Ooh, thought of another.

Unidentified Human Remains And The True Nature Of Love - made into the movie Love And Human Remains.

There, my brain just dried up.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2000

I'm putting them all here so I won't forget to tell you at home:

Moonstruck
Frankie and Johnny
Boys in the Band (I think it's called)
The Odd Couple
The Children's Hour
Streetcar Named Desire
Love! Valor! Compassion!
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Bent
Death and the Maiden
Amadeus
Glengarry Glen Ross
Sexual Perversity in Chicago
Dangerous Liasons


-- Anonymous, January 25, 2000

Deathtrap, Grease (do musicals count?), Oleanna, A Few Good Men, Wait Until Dark, Jeffrey, Noises Off... sigh... that's all I can think of right now...

o.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2000

Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Glengarry Glen Ross ...pretty obvious ones I guess.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2000

What about the Glass Menagerie.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2000

Steel Magnolias Death of a Salesman

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2000

i quite liked kenneth branagh's versions of shakespeare's "henry v" and "hamlet".

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2000

True West- even though it's like a taping of a theatrical performance (Malkovich and Sinise!) I guess it counts as a movie.

Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean- Haven't seen the movie, but I was in the play in college. I'm pretty sure it has Cher in it (the movie, that is. Had she been in the college production, I might have replaced that waiter she married in the 80's)

Anything Neil Simon ever wrote.

And are you counting those that started originally as books, then went to plays, then film? Trainspotting, Dangerous Liaisons, and a bunch of others that I can't think of right now would work.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2000

His Girl Friday was based on The Front Page. Six Degrees of Separation. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (between the book and the movie). Mr. Roberts. Our Town. Don't Drink The Water. Kiss of the Spider Woman. Bad Seed. Arsenic and Old Lace.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2000

"Hurlyburly" was another great one.

Hey, pamie -- a friend of mine (OK more of an acquaintance, but still) was in the original Broadway cast of "Love! Valor! Compassion!", then went on to also be in the movie. And you know what else? I still haven't seen it. Some friend!

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2000

I don't think these have been mentioned :
Brian Friel's 'The Field' and 'Dancing at Lua...'
I can't believe I'm Irish and I can't remember how to spell it ...shame on me

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2000

Dancing at Lughnasa....saw the play in college. My friend left at intermission but I loved it. Never did see the movie though. Can't stand that Meryl Streep.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2000

All the Tennessee Williams ones- The Rose Tattoo, especially. (Marlon Brando, Joanne Woodward and Anna Magnani, whoosh!)

Twelve Angry Men.

-trouble trouble at home

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2000

Admittedly, I'm not from Ireland, but until that movie came out I saw it written as "Lughnasad" everywhere. It was pronounced the same, though.

I figured they changed it so that the American audiences wouldn't go around saying "Loohnasahd".

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2000

I hear 'A Doll's House' is good. Didn't see it all, only watched parts in the intro to theatre class I took last semester. 'MASTER HAROLD...and the boys' is another good one. Young Matthew Broderick, plus it's a fairly important play. If you can get a hold of the A&E Shakespeare in the Park version of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' I highly recommend it. It's very well done, and since it was done in a park, it's more similar to Shakespeare's own performances.

I'm sure I can think of more...

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2000

the house of yes. the imdb states perfectly: 'based on the stage play by Wendy MacLeod, never quite escapes being a ``play on film. '

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2000

Uh...

oleanna. two small bodies(?) - neal bell twilight of the golds les parents terribles (cocteau) m. butterfly death and the maiden vanya on 42nd (more of just a filmed stageplay, but fantastic chekhov)

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2000

Now, what's it called...I had it a minute ago: with (arrrgghhh) that guy from "Alien" and Sarah Polley:

Ah, the Sweet Hereafter.

Interestingly, it was altered from Vermont to somewhere in Canada...

Now, who was that guy in "Alien"? The robot dude.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2000

Truly Madly Deeply, comes to mind and Prelude to a Kiss.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2000

The Emperor Jones.

Time of the Cuckoo.

Teahouse of the August Moon.

Melissa

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2000

"Oscar." I thought this was going to be another of Stallone's crappy mid-eighties comedies, but it's actually a wonderful thing. I haven't seen the play, but you can see in the movie the fact that it WAS a play, and it's full of quick wit and great acting (on most parts).

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2000

Much Ado About Nothing

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2000

The Importance of Being Ernest Beyond Therapy Who's Afraid of Virgina Wolfe The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds Blithe Spirit

most of Neil Simon's Plays and a lot of Noel Coward's

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2000

Teahouse of the August Moon was made into a movie?! Why didn't anyone ever tell me this?

Anyhoo, my absolute favorite play that i ever did was "I Am A Camera" which they then made into "Cabaret" which was then made into the movie. I always thought "I Am A Camera" was much better than the film.

-- Anonymous, January 27, 2000

Anne of a Thousand Days, about Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII. Movie starred a young Genvieve Bujold. Great movie, great play.

-- Anonymous, January 27, 2000

What about that old chestnut "Life with Father"?

-- Anonymous, January 27, 2000

Oh, and "You Can't Take It With You," that was my first play...

-- Anonymous, January 27, 2000

Theatre major and now a teacher here ! :) ok. The Boys Next Door is the play i think you were talking about. It was about mentally handicapped men living in a house with a guy who came in and checked on them,.. great play and great movie. La Cage A Faux (but it is a musical) which was made into a movie called The Birdcage. Extremities was made into a movie and that had some intense scenes. Carrie the movie was made into a musical and it flopped (but is still one of my all time favorites ) and Beaches was a book then a play then a movie. I am sure i can come up with more if i put my mind to it. right now i am reading Hamlet with my students and i am going to show them the Mel Gibson version.... mmmmmmm... mel.... :)
-- Anonymous, January 27, 2000