Today, it was announced that "The Producers" will return in movie
form. There seems to be a lot of movies that were musicals and vice
versa. (Chicago, Lion King, Producers, Jesus Christ Superstar etc.)

I'm looking for a fairly comprehensive list of recent (last ten years)
movie/musical combinations -- and I'd also like to know when the first
such pairing was. Some of these examples should have some stats (how
much the movie grossed, how much the musical grossed, etc.)

Secondly, are there any other examples of THREE-way combinations, like
The Producers (which began as a movie, then became a musical, and is
again going to be a movie).

Hello again, jhabley!

The first stage play adapted into a full-length movie musical was
1927's "The Jazz Singer," which is widely viewed as the first "talking
picture":

"The Jazz Singer, based the stage play by Samson Raphaelson (itself
based on Alfred Cohn's story 'The Day of Atonement'), cast Jolson as a
Cantor's son who pursues a career as a vaudeville song and dance man,
spurning the wishes of his Jewish parents, who would rather he sung
traditional music. The picture, a highly sentimental one, was
surprisingly effective and ?moved crowds to tears... Although the song
and dialogue portions of The Jazz Singer were limited to a handful of
scenes, they meshed nicely with the rest of the film, shot in silent
film format."

HistoryLink: The Jazz Singer
http://www.historylink.org/_output.CFM?file_ID=2485

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This site about movie musicals that originated onstage offers a wealth
of detail about each film on the list. Just click on the name of the
film:

Movie Musicals: From Stage to Screen
http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Studio/8849/moviemusicals.htm

A comprehensive history of movie musicals:

Musicals 10: History of Film Musicals
http://www.musicals101.com/erafilm.htm

The Google Directory's list of movie musicals:

Google Directory: Arts > Movies > Genres > Musicals 
http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Movies/Genres/Musicals/

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In recent times, there have been quite a few stage musicals that have
films as their origin.

"The stage version of 'When Harry Met Sally...,' adapted by Marcy
Kahan from Nora Ephron's screenplay, is the latest in a long line of
hit movies to have spawned stage musicals and, more recently, plays.

'The Graduate' a British theater version of the Mike Nichols film, had
a lengthy run on the West End and a much shorter engagement on
Broadway. The hit movie 'Billy Elliot' is being developed as a London
stage musical to open late next year."

Yahoo! Movies: Perry to Star in Stage Show of 'Sally'
http://movies.yahoo.com/news/ap/20031201/107031654000.html

Some interesting articles about stage-to-screen and screen-to-stage musicals:

Twin Cities Pioneer Press: Movie paved a golden path for 'Chicago' road show
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/entertainment/6220911.htm

St. Petersburg Times: Same old show?
http://www.sptimes.com/News/050601/Floridian/Same_old_show.shtml

Tribute: From screen to stage
http://www.tribute.ca/tribute/0901/on_stage.htm

Hollywood.com Movie News: Movies take center stage
http://www.hollywood.com/news/detail/article/414874

Metromix: 5 films that were landmark musicals
http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/movies/mmx-12228_lgcy,0,3712209.story?coll=mmx-movies_heds

CNN Entertainment: Sing a song of movie musicals
http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/26/movie.musicals/

The Philadelphia Inquirer: The musical's the thing
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/entertainment/6037097.htm

Tony Awards Website: Broadway, Hollywood and TV, The New Triangle Trade
http://www.tonyawards.com/en_US/news/playbill/triangle.pdf

======================================================================

Here's some material related to the box-office grosses of stage and film musicals:

"I became very interested in Hair's potential as a film soon after it
opened at the Biltmore Theatre in New York City. I asked Jimmy Tsai,
Hair's CFO, to check out the possibilities. I wanted Jimmy to take
every musical which had been made into a movie and discover both their
stage and movie grosses. Jimmy researched VARIETY, comparing the stage
and movie figures. He estimated that the average film of a musical
grossed four times - four hundred percent of its stage sales."

Michael Butler's Journal: Hair: Getting the Film Together
http://www.orlok.com/orlok/michael/film.html

A chart showing the box office grosses of 43 movie musicals from 1975
to the present:

Box Office Mojo
http://boxofficemojo.com/genres/musical.htm

A list of MGM's 50 top-grossing musicals:

MGMFan4: Top-Grossing Musicals
http://members.aol.com/mgmfan4/boxoffice.html

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Regarding three-way combinations (movie becomes musical becomes
movie), one that comes to mind is "The Wiz", which started as the 1939
film "The Wizard of Oz" (adapted, in turn, from Frank Baum's classic
children's book.) "The Wizard of Oz" was transformed into the 1975
stage musical "The Wiz," which was filmed in 1978, starring Diana Ross
as Dorothy and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow. (Incidentally, a
current hit on Broadway is yet another adaptation of "The Wizard of
Oz," a musical entitled "Wicked," which gives a revisionary view of
the Wicked Witch of the West as a misunderstood individual.)

Another instance of movie-to-musical-to-movie was "Little Shop of
Horrors," which began in 1960 as a Roger Corman B-movie entitled "The 
Little Shop of Horrors." The non-musical film was adapted into a
musical play, "Little Shop of Horrors," in 1982, which was an
off-Broadway hit (after having moved from its off-off-Broadway
origins). The musical version of "Little Shop of Horrors" was filmed
in 1986. Recently the musical re-opened in New York City, this time on
Broadway.

Then there was "I Am a Camera," a play adapted from a print source
(Christopher Isherwood's "Berlin Stories.") "I Am a Camera" was made
into a film of the same name in 1955, then was adapted in 1966 into
the Broadway hit "Cabaret," which was filmed in 1972. In 1998,
"Cabaret" returned to Broadway.

The 1946 non-musical film "Anna and the King of Siam" was turned into
the 1951 stage musical "The King and I," which was filmed in 1956. To
bring it full circle, in 1999, a non-musical version, "Anna and the
King," came to the screen, starring Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-Fat.

======================================================================

Google search strategy:

Google Web Search: "stage" + "movie" + "musicals"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=stage+movie+musicals

Google Web Search: "musical" + "from stage to screen"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=musical+%22from+stage+to+screen

======================================================================

Thanks for an enjoyable project! If anything is unclear, or if a link
doesn't function, please request clarification; I'll be glad to offer
further assistance before you rate my answer.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

---

Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 07 Jan 2004 15:09 PST

My friend and colleague markj-ga has sent me another good suggestion
of a "threefer" (film to stage musical, then back to a filmed version
of the musical):

"In 1969, [Bob] Fosse was given his first chance to translate his
considerable gift as a director to the medium of film. His debut
picture was a cinematic adaptation of his stage success, Sweet
Charity, a musical adaptation of Fellini?s Nights of Cabiria, updated
from Italy to New York, with Charity?s dance hall hostess substituting
for Cabiria?s prostitute. By the late sixties, the musical as a
cinematic art form was on its last legs, following a number of box
office disasters and a decline in audience interest. It was
unfortunate at the time that Sweet Charity did nothing to alleviate
this situation. The film was ill received by both critics and
audiences, and caused a considerable financial dilemma for Universal
Pictures, the distributors of the film."

MovieMail
http://www.moviem.co.uk/displayart.php?article=66

Outstanding -- wonderful working with you again! Thank you so much.
Hope you had fun! ;-)