All tagged Daniel Jenkins
Movies have long been the inspiration for Broadway musicals. It is easy to say that this is a recent trend, but that simply is not so. Just as there have been many musicals that have taken their inspiration from plays, books, and historical events, there have been musicals that draw from cinema (from the 50’s on, anyway). In the 1990s, the trend toward adapting films for the musical stage seemed to gain even more traction, and by the turn of the century, everywhere you looked on Broadway you could find movies reimagined for the stage.
The prospect of musical version of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn had to have been, at one point, ridiculous to imagine. Thinking about it, one might have expected lessons in history and literature, high school tedium brought to life onstage. Also, a story that is largely locked to a space the size of a raft isn’t exactly going to lend itself to the song and dance treatment. Indeed, when such a musical arrived on Broadway in 1985, people balked at the idea and critics weren't exactly enthusiastic. Interestingly enough, Big River turned out to be the hit of the season, running 1,005 performances and winning the Tony Award for Best Musical
