The stage hits that became big screen classics
GETTING withdrawal pains now the playhouses of Britain have shut up shop? Theatre critic Patrick Marmion picks his favourite stage-to-screen classics, available to watch at home, for those in need of a fix . . .
ROMEO & JULIET
NoT the Baz Luhrmann mash-up from the Nineties, but the franco Zeffirelli classic from 1968. Purists reckon Zeffirelli drove a coach and horses through Shakespeare’s verse, but I melt every time I see this film, which looks like a live action Botticelli painting. And Nino rota’s score is still the high water mark for tear-jerking strings.
PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM
LIKe it or not Woody Allen is a comic genius. And Diane Keaton also stars in this film of Allen’s 1969 Broadway hit in which he plays a nervous film critic visited by Jerry Lacy as his Humphrey Bogart alter-ego from Casablanca.
OLIVER!
oNe from the golden age of British musicals — it’s still nigh on impossible not to sing along to Lionel Bart’s oscar winning score. ron Moody is hand-rubbingly good as master pickpocket fagin, while oliver reed made sure the 1968 film had a properly dark side with his villainous Bill Sikes. And with Mark Lester’s (and his choir boy voice) as oliver you’ll consider yourself delighted to be at home.
DANGEROUS LIAISONS
CHrISToPHer Hampton’s sizzling stage adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s french 18th century novel staged by the royal Shakespeare Company in 1985 originally starred Lindsay Duncan, Lesley Manville, Juliet Stevenson and Alan rickman. It then became a Stephen frears film starring Glenn Close, Michelle Pfeiffer, uma Thurman and John Malkovich.
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
VIVIeN Leigh nicked the film role of Southern Belle Blanche DuBois from Jessica Tandy who starred in the Broadway production of Tennessee Williams’ 1947 drama. opposite them, Marlon Brando was never hotter than as the brutal Stanley Kowalski with lips as big as his biceps.
A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS
Before Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy, there was robert Bolt’s play that transferred to Broadway and also became this multi-oscarwinning classic starring Paul Scofield as Sir Thomas More, who was martyred by Henry VIII. Whether you’re Protestant, Catholic or none of the above, the 1966 screen adaptation is a cracking story, rivetingly told. All films are available either to rent and/or buy on Amazon, iTunes, Google, Sky and Virgin Media — apart from A Man For All Seasons and Play It Again, Sam, which are not available on Virgin Media.