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Through the Screen Door: What Happened to the Broadway Musical When it Went to Hollywood First Edition

4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 2 ratings
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In this personal and opinionated book Tom Hischak takes a close look at what happens when a Broadway musical goes to Hollywood, and less often when Hollywood comes to Broadway.

The musicals discussed range from The Desert Song (1927), the first sound film of a Broadway musical, to Chicago, the 2002 film made from the 1975 Broadway hit. Film musicals that became Broadway shows range from Lili (1953) to Never Gonna Dance (2003). The book assumes a basic familiarity with famous musicals (for example the plot of My Fair Lady is summed up in a sentence or two) but lesser known works are fully explained. One chapter looks at British musicals that were popular in New York and were later filmed with Hollywood connections.

Also included is a Directory that gives credits, names, and songs for both the stage and screen version for all the musicals discussed. Appendices offer statistical data on musicals, and there is an extensive Bibliography.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0810850184
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0810850187
  3. Edition
    First Edition
  4. Publisher
    Scarecrow Press
  5. Publication date
    July 8, 2004
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    9.98 x 0.71 x 8.38 inches
  8. Print length
    328 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

This informative book covers every Broadway musical adapted for the screen. -- Louis Botto ― Playbill

...hilarious, and loads of fun... -- Steven LaVigne ― Living Out

...the process of transferring from stage to screen is particularly fascinating, and is chronicled here in astonishing detail...Written with enthusiasm and understanding, the catalogue of fudged opportunities and moments of Oscar-winning glory will earn raves from theatre-goers and movie fans alike. Four Stars! ― Film Review

Hischak...examines 176 Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals that were translated into film versions in Hollywood, ranging from The Desert Song (1927) to the 2002 hit, Chicago; ten British musicals that were once popular in New York and later filmed with Hollywood connections; and 15 Broadway shows based on movie musicals. The author considers the changes each musical underwent and the results of those changes, both in terms of artistic achievement and audience satisfaction. Academic but accessible to theatergoers, moviegoers, film and/or theater students, and those in the theater and film businessss ― Reference and Research Book News

...this is an eye-opener, and entertaining to boot. ― Stage Directions

Hischak...examines 176 Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals that were translated into film versions in Hollywood, ranging from The Desert Song (1927) to the 2002 hit, Chicago; ten British musicals that were once popular in New York and later filmed with Hollywood connections; and 15 Broadway shows based on movie musicals. The author considers the changes each musical underwent and the results of those changes, both in terms of artistic achievement and audience satisfaction. Academic but accessible to theatergoers, moviegoers, film and/or theater students, and those in the theater and film business ― Reference and Research Book News

If you know someone who delights in musicals, Thomas S. Hischak's book Through the Screen Door would make a fine gift. ― The Syracuse Post-Standard/Stars

Essential. ― Choice Reviews

About the Author

Thomas S. Hischak is professor of theatre at State University of New York at Cortland. He is the author of fifteen books, including Enter the Players: New York Stage Actors in the Twentieth Century (Scarecrow Press, 2003). Hischak is also winner of a Choice "Outstanding Academic Book" award.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scarecrow Press; First Edition (July 8, 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 328 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0810850184
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0810850187
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.98 x 0.71 x 8.38 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 2 ratings

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  1. Thomas S. Hischak

    Thomas S. Hischak

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    Thomas Hischak is an internationally recognized author and teacher in the Performing Arts and one of the foremost authorities on the American Musical Theatre. He is the author of twenty-eight non-fiction books about theatre, film, and popular music. He is also the author of over fifty published plays which are performed in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Australia. Hischak is a Fulbright scholar who has taught and directed in Greece, Lithuania, and Turkey.

    From 1983 to 2015 he was Professor of Theatre at the State University of New York at Cortland where he has received such honors as the 2004 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity and the 2010 SUNY Outstanding Achievement in Research Award. Four of his books have been cited as Outstanding Non-fiction Books by the American Library Association and The Oxford Companion to the American Musical was cited as an Outstanding Reference Work by the New York City Public Library in 2008. His playwriting awards include the Stanley Drama Award (New York City) and the Julie Harris Playwriting Award (Beverly Hills, California).

    Hischak currently teaches film at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida.

    Website: www.thomashischak.com

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    Thomas S. Hischak

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Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
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Top reviews from the United States

Russell J. Sanders
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book for a musical theater/movie musical nut!
Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2015
Verified Purchase
I’m a lifelong, dyed-in-the-wool theater nerd. My tastes particularly lean to musicals. Couple that with the fact that I drool over anything about Hollywood history, and I become a musical/movie musical nut. And thus, I quickly gravitate to books that promise me a glimpse into theater/movie history. Thomas S. Hischak has provided me with a tailor made concoction, Through the Screen Door: What Happened to the Broadway Musical When It Went to Hollywood. Hischak is a theater professor, so the book is exhaustive and sometimes tedious, but his writing style is such that it moves along quite nicely. I was fascinated by his analyses of early Hollywood movies based on Broadway musicals. He goes to great lengths to tell us just how those movies differed from their source works. As a musical buff, I often wondered why old movie musicals would have the title of a favorite show and maybe a few of the songs from that show, yet the stories would either vary or be entirely different. Hischak covers that! He also discusses huge hit shows that transferred to Hollywood as extremely mediocre or even horrible films. Perhaps the best example of that was the film of Song of Norway. Based on a modestly successful 1940s show, the film was blown all out of proportion, cast badly, and sent on its merry way as an answer to the wildly successful film of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music. But while The Sound of Music soared with audiences, Song of Norway sank like the Titanic. As Hischak goes on to analyze movies that were more or less faithful to their Broadway sources, his opinions don’t often match my own about those films. He trashes the film versions of Camelot, Mame, and to an extent, My Fair Lady, yet I love those films. And yes, I know that almost no critics and few audience members embraced Lucille Ball as Mame, but I adore her performance. What sets this book apart is that it doesn’t read like scholarly research strung together. Yes, the author could not have seen all the stage productions he writes about, but it does seem as if he has viewed and formed his own opinion of each and every one of the films he explores. Through the Screen Door was published in 2004, and it would be interesting to hear the author’s take on the musical films that have come since then. For example, what would he think of Dreamgirls, a film I felt was electric, yet it strayed from its source material somewhat? And would he have liked Nine, Rob Marshall’s supremely boring star-filled lensing of the intimate musical? All books come to an end, but wouldn’t it be fun if we, the readers, could get regular updates from their authors, filling us in on what has happened since the author penned “the end”?
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Catherine G. Hamilton
4.0 out of 5 stars A pretty good resource
Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2006
This book is unique in that it examines the film musical with relation to that of Broadway, its direct ancestor. It focuses on the specific movies that were based on earlier Broadway shows, and describes the common changes that happened in this process, including the tragic and often inexplainable cutting of dozens of songs from the original score, the differing casting choices, and the fact that many musicals that flopped in one medium were successes in another. It is a pretty thorough work, including movies that were made during the late 20s with the arrival of the sound film and stretching right to the present day. It is unique in focus, and therefore valuable to anyone who wishes to examine differences between the musical on stage and screen.
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