10 Movies That Became Infamously Bad Broadway Shows

The Broadway play listings more and more appear to be the library of a streaming service. There are at present Broadway reveals impressed by Aladdin, Back to the Future, The Lion King, Moulin Rouge!, New York, New York, and Some Like It Hot, with masses extra in varied phases of improvement. (The Devil Wears Prada? National Lampoon’s Vacation? High Noon? La La Land? The Queen of Versailles? Sideways? Sing Street? Thelma & Louise? (Yes, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure, and sure.)

The purpose behind all these movie-inspired Broadway reveals is apparent: Many of this century’s greatest Broadway hits have been impressed by well-liked motion pictures. Of course, a few of the greatest Broadway flops — reveals that misplaced tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} — have been additionally impressed by well-liked motion pictures. On Broadway as in multiplexes, recognizable model names aren’t any assure of monetary success.

Case in level: These ten beloved movies, which all grew to become notorious flops on the Broadway stage. Keep scrolling for the behind-the-scenes tales — and for the jaw-dropping footage of the performances.

Almost Famous
Based on Almost Famous (2000)

Unlike a variety of the films that can comply with it on this checklist, Almost Famous makes a ton of sense as a musical. The unique movie by Cameron Crowe was type 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 means of the Seventies. Crowe himself even wrote the musical’s e-book. So what went mistaken? Critics referred to as the Almost Famous musical a watered-down model of Crowe’s film, and claimed it “misses every opportunity to be the sharp, smart entertainment it might have been.��� The show opened in November of 2022 and closed by early 2023. Its title proved to be all-too accurate.

READ MORE: A Smash Musical Is Finally Coming to Broadway

Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Based on Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

This show didn’t even make it to its official opening; the whole production was called off after just four previews, despite the presence of a young Mary Tyler Moore in the central role of Holly Golightly. Abe Burrows wrote the first version of the book, but after one poor out-of-town tryout, Edward Albee was brought in to rewrite the play before its second out-of-town run. That one didn’t go much better, and the material kept getting reworked over and over in the days leading up to its Broadway premiere — which technically never even happened. According to Wikipedia, when producer David Merrick called off the opening night he announced that he would prefer not to “subject the drama critics and the public to an excruciating, boring evening.”

Carrie
Based on Carrie (1976)

Technically, this legendary Broadway catastrophe is tailored from Stephen King’s novel and never Brian De Palma’s movie model. But the identical author — Lawrence D. Cohen — penned each of those diversifications of Carrie, so it’s onerous to not no less than draw some connections between the 2. (Audiences actually did on the time.) But the place De Palma’s Carrie grew to become a high-school horror traditional, the stage musical went down in historical past as one among Broadway’s greatest flops. It closed after 5 performances and unforgettably unhealthy critiques. (One critic in contrast the play to the Hindenberg — you recognize, the blimp that went down in a fiery crash and led to dozens of deaths.) In current years, although, the present has turn out to be 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
Based on The Fearless Vampire Killers (1976)

Casting Broadway’s unique Phantom of the Opera Michael Crawford in one other musical impressed by a Gothic horror story appears like a slam dunk. Instead, Dance of the Vampires, drawn from Roman Polanski’s horror comedy The Fearless Vampire Killers, grew to become one among Broadway’s most infamous airballs, squandering a $12 million funding and shutting after 56 very poorly acquired performances. (The New York Times’ Ben Brantley mentioned it was “an enterprise to be associated with only under the veil of anonymity” with “moments that climb into the stratosphere of legendary badness.” Ouch.)

Donnybrook!
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 Art Lund and Joan Fagan. The present suffered by means of forged modifications and closed after lower than two months on Broadway. Interestingly, Donnybrook! was recognized as a part of a rising pattern towards film diversifications on Broadway; in 1961, the Times wrote that Donnybrook! (which adopted reveals primarily based on The Captain’s Paradise, Lilli, and Hail the Conquering Hero) was seen as proof of “the increasing dependence on Hollywood has depressed many traditionalists, who see in it one more piece of evidence of the theatre’s failing creativity.” Apparently some issues by no means change…

King Kong
Based on King Kong (1933)

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

Leap of Faith
Based on Leap of Faith (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. Despite the presence of Broadway star Raul Esparza (and future Tony Award winner Leslie Odom Jr.) Leap of Faith did not make audiences into believers; The New York Times referred to as it “this season’s black hole of musical comedy, sucking the energy out of anyone who gets near it.”

Mrs. Doubtfire
Based on Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)

With its elaborate costume modifications and make-up, and a dynamic lead character, Mrs. Doubtfire does seem to be one thing that might lend itself to the stage. But after a number of years of improvement and a protracted Covid-related delay, the Mrs. Doubtfire musical was a little bit of a misfire, with underwhelming songs and a dated premise. In a really damaging evaluation, The New York Times claimed it “simultaneously tries to replicate an outdated story and update it for the times” and “only ends up cowering in the original film’s shadow.”

The Red Shoes
Based on The Red Shoes (1948)

The Red Shoes is broadly regarded one of many biggest motion pictures ever made. The Broadway adaptation is broadly considered … not on that stage. It closed lower than every week after its opening evening in 1993, following a sequence of behind-the-scenes upheavals and uniformly damaging critiques from critics. (Sample line: “Except for the toe shoes of the women in the corps de ballet, the show is pointless.”) Maybe probably the most stunning a part of the entire debacle is that The Red Shoes marked the Broadway directorial debut of Stanley Donen, the director behind such nice film musicals as Singin’ within the Rain and It’s Always Fair Weather. Then once more, as this checklist proves fairly conclusively, there may be fairly a distinction between motion pictures and stage performs.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
Based on Spider-Man (2002)

Maybe it’s overstating issues to assert the Spider-Man musical was “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 girl who in Greek mythology was reworked into the primary spider, and seems in Peter Parker’s goals to encourage him to turn out to be a hero). Still, Turn Off the Dark borrowed closely from the primary Spider-Man film by way of its look and characterization — and it’s onerous to argue that anybody would have even tried to show Spider-Man into the most costly Broadway manufacturing ever mounted if the Spider-Man motion pictures hadn’t generated lots of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} on the field workplace just some years earlier. Despite a inventive pedigree that included The Lion King director Julie Taymor and U2’s Bono and the Edge, Turn Off the Dark suffered by means of an extremely bumpy improvement, and was the topic of limitless damaging media protection. Turn Off the Dark did play on Broadway longer than anything on this checklist — but it surely additionally price a lot cash to run (greater than $1 million every week) it was nonetheless an unlimited cash loser.