Francis Ford Coppola and Finian’s Rainbow
The late 1960s brought a lot of expensive musicals to the screen
Lion King Jr.
Behind the Scenes by John Miller – November 2025 No one sets out to make a bad movie. No one sets out to make a classic movie. Somewhere during development, filming, editing and marketing a film can go either way. In theater there are dozens of people behind the scenes, in film it’s thousands. Sometimes,…
Theatre The Theatre Community Disdains (responses – part 2)
Here are a few more of the responses Howard got on his website from the article I printed two weeks ago.
Theatre The Theatre Community Disdains (responses)
Here are a few of the responses Howard got on his website from the article I printed last week.
Theatre The Theatre Community Disdains
I would like everyone to stop using “community theatre” as a punch line or punching bag.
Sir Carol Reed and “Oliver!”
By Steven LaVigne There are over 500 film adaptations of Charles Dickens’ writing. At least 20 of these are based on his 1838 novel, Oliver Twist. Among them is a 1922 version starring Jackie Coogan as the title character opposite Lon Chaney, “the man of a thousand faces” as Fagin. Taking a look at this…
Sidney Lumet and “The Wiz”
By Steven LaVigne Films based on the work of L. Frank Baum have been made for over a century. The first Wizard of Oz film was made in 1910. The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914) was a film before it became a novel, The first feature length version was released in 1925 starring Dorothy Dwan…
George Cukor and “My Fair Lady”
My Fair Lady is one of the theater’s most phenomenal musicals.
John Huston and “Annie”
by Steven LaVigne It was Martin Charnin’s idea to transform Harold Gray’s comic strip, Little Orphan Annie, into a musical. However, when he first suggested it to playwright Thomas Meehan and composer Charles Strouse their response was negative. They gradually came around to the project. At the time, the United States had survived the Nixon/Watergate…
James Whale and the 1936 “Show Boat”
by Steven LaVigne Although it didn’t happen often enough, several movie musicals managed to capture the brilliance of their stage beginnings. This production of Show Boat, brought to the stage in 1927 by Florenz Ziegfeld and considered the first great musical of the Twentieth Century is a perfect example. Released by Universal, the 1936 version…
