By Gabriella Zicarelli
From the flashy costumes to catchy song and dance numbers, everyone loves a great Broadway play, so it only makes sense that many theatre hits eventually make their way from stage to film. Here are ten Broadway plays that made the leap to the big screen.
Chicago
Proving to be just as good as the play, in 2002, Rob Marshall brilliantly brought Bob Fosse’s Chicago to movie theaters. Set in the 1920s, Roxy Hart (Renee Zellweger) and Velma Kelly (Catherine-Zeta Jones) are both facing murder charges after killing the men in their lives. When they both enlist the help of the best attorney in Chicago, Billy Flynn (played by Richard Gere), they find themselves in a battle not only with death row but with each other over fame, that is until the decide to join forces to become on stage partners.
I love how the story focuses on, let’s say, female hutzpah and teaches men to never piss off a b*tch
Les Miserables
As if she wasn’t busy enough with her charity work and her upcoming album which is due in September, Mary J. Blige will also be starring in two upcoming films!
Blige confirmed that she will be starring in the upcoming movie, Rock of Ages! Alongside Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, and Malin Ackerman, as the character Justice Charlier, the genleman’s club owner.
“I’m having so much fun preparing for it, and I know Tom,” Blige recently told Ian Drew from US Magazine, “I love Tom. He just really wants the best for everybody. He just wants you to win, and you’ve got to love a person like that. And they also just closed the deal with Russell Brand. It’s a fun movie!”
As well, Blige will be starring in the upcoming biopic on singer Nina Simone, and Blige is definitely “feeling good” about the role! “I’m definitely still doing it and I’m in acting classes for it now,” the star revealed. “We start shooting at the end of the month!”
As for her upcoming album, Blige says, “Expect that real good music, man. There are a lot of good topics and a lot of good, real songs that are going to heal, songs that are going to help people through stuff, make you cry, make you laugh, make you dance, make you think…just a regular Mary J. Blige emotional roller coaster!”
But we can’t forget this star’s amazing work with the charity, FFAWN. “When I was a child,” said Blige, “I saw women suffer big time. I don’t need to go into detail, but they had no self-esteem, and they hated themselves. So why wouldn’t I open a Mary J. Blige center for women? Why wouldn’t I want to send young women to college and encourage them and have them feel good about their lives or have women complete their education and go out and get better jobs? I just think even women who we think are so confident are suffering a lot from lack of self-esteem or education. I was one of those women that suffered from all that stuff and it doesn’t feel good, and I just can’t bare to see another woman suffer from that and that’s my reason for doing it.”
What an amazing woman! Congrats for all the amazing work you have been doing Mary, and we can’t wait to see you in your upcoming projects! We’re sure all those acting classes and hard work are going to pay off big time.
