10 Movies That Became Infamously Bad Broadway Shows

The Broadway play listings more and more seem like the library of a streaming service. There are presently Broadway exhibits impressed by Aladdin, Again to the Future, The Lion King, Moulin Rouge!, New York, New York, and Some Like It Scorching, with masses extra in varied levels of growth. (The Satan Wears Prada? Nationwide Lampoon’s Trip? Excessive Midday? La La Land? The Queen of Versailles? Sideways? Sing Road? Thelma & Louise? (Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure, and sure.)

The explanation behind all these movie-inspired Broadway exhibits is clear: Lots of this century’s greatest Broadway hits had been impressed by fashionable films. After all, a few of the greatest Broadway flops — exhibits that misplaced tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} — had been additionally impressed by fashionable films. On Broadway as in multiplexes, recognizable model names aren’t any assure of monetary success.

Working example: These ten beloved movies, which all turned notorious flops on the Broadway stage. Hold scrolling for the behind-the-scenes tales — and for the jaw-dropping footage of the performances.

Virtually Well-known
Primarily based on Virtually Well-known (2000)

In contrast to a number of the films that can comply with it on this listing, Virtually Well-known makes a ton of sense as a musical. The unique movie by Cameron Crowe was form of a rock-and-roll musical within the first place; the story of Crowe’s personal coming of age as a Rolling Stone reporter following round bands all by the Seventies. Crowe himself even wrote the musical’s e book. So what went improper? Critics known as the Virtually Well-known musical a watered-down model of Crowe’s film, and claimed it “misses each alternative to be the sharp, good leisure it may need been.��� The present opened in November of 2022 and closed by early 2023. Its title proved to be all-too correct.

READ MORE: A Smash Musical Is Lastly Coming to Broadway

Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Primarily based on Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

This present didn’t even make it to its official opening; the entire manufacturing was known as off after simply 4 previews, regardless of the presence of a younger Mary Tyler Moore within the central function of Holly Golightly. Abe Burrows wrote the primary model of the e book, however after one poor out-of-town tryout, Edward Albee was introduced in to rewrite the play earlier than its second out-of-town run. That one didn’t go a lot better, and the fabric saved getting reworked again and again within the days main as much as its Broadway premiere — which technically by no means even occurred. In accordance with Wikipedia, when producer David Merrick known as off the opening evening he introduced that he would favor to not “topic the drama critics and the general public to an excruciating, boring night.”

Carrie
Primarily based on Carrie (1976)

Technically, this legendary Broadway catastrophe is customized from Stephen King’s novel and never Brian De Palma’s movie model. However the identical author — Lawrence D. Cohen — penned each of those diversifications of Carrie, so it’s exhausting to not a minimum of draw some connections between the 2. (Audiences actually did on the time.) However the place De Palma’s Carrie turned a high-school horror basic, the stage musical went down in historical past as certainly one of Broadway’s greatest flops. It closed after 5 performances and unforgettably dangerous opinions. (One critic in contrast the play to the Hindenberg — you understand, the blimp that went down in a fiery crash and led to dozens of deaths.) Lately, although, the present has turn into an object of fascination in theater circles, and even garnered a small however passionate cult fanbase. An off-Broadway revival was mounted in 2012.

Dance of the Vampires
Primarily based on The Fearless Vampire Killers (1976)

Casting Broadway’s authentic Phantom of the Opera Michael Crawford in one other musical impressed by a Gothic horror story feels like a slam dunk. As a substitute, Dance of the Vampires, drawn from Roman Polanski’s horror comedy The Fearless Vampire Killers, turned certainly one of Broadway’s most infamous airballs, squandering a $12 million funding and shutting after 56 very poorly acquired performances. (The New York Instances’ Ben Brantley mentioned it was “an enterprise to be related to solely below the veil of anonymity” with “moments that climb into the stratosphere of legendary badness.” Ouch.)

Donnybrook!
Primarily based on The Quiet Man (1952)

John Ford’s lush Irish romance The Quiet Man served as the premise for this floridly titled musical, which starred Artwork Lund and Joan Fagan. The present suffered by solid modifications and closed after lower than two months on Broadway. Curiously, Donnybrook! was recognized as a part of a rising pattern towards film diversifications on Broadway; in 1961, the Instances wrote that Donnybrook! (which adopted exhibits primarily based on The Captain’s Paradise, Lilli, and Hail the Conquering Hero) was seen as proof of “the rising dependence on Hollywood has depressed many traditionalists, who see in it yet one more piece of proof of the theatre’s failing creativity.” Apparently some issues by no means change…

King Kong
Primarily based on King Kong (1933)

Provided that the climax of the unique King Kong concerned the large ape being delivered to a Broadway theater after which working amok by midtown, you’ll be able to virtually envision how a musical model would possibly work. Virtually. In observe, it’s sort of bonkers to look at folks dancing for his or her lives as an enormous King Kong puppet (which did look spectacular) rampages by the theater. The present started life, much more efficiently, in Australia. The musical’s story received monkeyed with through the transition to the American stage, and the closing model closed after a pair hundred performances.

Leap of Religion
Primarily based on Leap of Religion (1992)

The Steven Martin film this musical was primarily based on was not precisely a blockbuster within the first place, however the stage model was an out-and-out bomb that closed after solely 20 official performances and reportedly misplaced its total $14 million funding. Regardless of the presence of Broadway star Raul Esparza (and future Tony Award winner Leslie Odom Jr.) Leap of Religion did not make audiences into believers; The New York Instances known as it “this season’s black gap of musical comedy, sucking the vitality out of anybody who will get close to it.”

Mrs. Doubtfire
Primarily based on Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)

With its elaborate costume modifications and make-up, and a dynamic lead character, Mrs. Doubtfire does appear to be one thing that would lend itself to the stage. However after a number of years of growth and a protracted Covid-related delay, the Mrs. Doubtfire musical become a little bit of a misfire, with underwhelming songs and a dated premise. In a really unfavorable evaluate, The New York Instances claimed it “concurrently tries to duplicate an outdated story and replace it for the instances” and “solely finally ends up cowering within the authentic movie’s shadow.”

The Purple Sneakers
Primarily based on The Purple Sneakers (1948)

The Purple Sneakers is broadly regarded one of many best films ever made. The Broadway adaptation is broadly considered … not on that stage. It closed lower than per week after its opening evening in 1993, following a collection of behind-the-scenes upheavals and uniformly unfavorable opinions from critics. (Pattern line: “Aside from the toe footwear of the ladies within the corps de ballet, the present is pointless.”) Possibly essentially the most stunning a part of the entire debacle is that The Purple Sneakers marked the Broadway directorial debut of Stanley Donen, the director behind such nice film musicals as Singin’ within the Rain and It’s At all times Honest Climate. Then once more, as this listing proves fairly conclusively, there may be fairly a distinction between films and stage performs.

Spider-Man: Flip Off the Darkish
Primarily based on Spider-Man (2002)

Possibly it’s overstating issues to assert the Spider-Man musical was “primarily based” on the Sam Raimi film. It actually drew loads of inspiration from the unique Marvel Comics too — and invented loads of different materials that didn’t come from the comics or the films (just like the character of Arachne, the lady who in Greek mythology was reworked into the primary spider, and seems in Peter Parker’s desires to encourage him to turn into a hero). Nonetheless, Flip Off the Darkish borrowed closely from the primary Spider-Man film by way of its look and characterization — and it’s exhausting to argue that anybody would have even tried to show Spider-Man into the costliest Broadway manufacturing ever mounted if the Spider-Man films hadn’t generated a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars} on the field workplace only a few years earlier. Regardless of a inventive pedigree that included The Lion King director Julie Taymor and U2’s Bono and the Edge, Flip Off the Darkish suffered by an extremely bumpy growth, and was the topic of countless unfavorable media protection. Flip Off the Darkish did play on Broadway longer than the rest on this listing — however it additionally price a lot cash to run (greater than $1 million per week) it was nonetheless an unlimited cash loser.