Top 20 Stage to Screen Musicals

by peacham | created - 11 May 2012 | updated - 11 May 2012 | Public

Every so often Hollywood gets it right and makes a strong film musical out of a great stage musical. he's their best.

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1. My Fair Lady (1964)

G | 170 min | Drama, Family, Musical

95 Metascore

In 1910s London, snobbish phonetics professor Henry Higgins agrees to a wager that he can make crude flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, presentable in high society.

Director: George Cukor | Stars: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White

Votes: 101,884 | Gross: $72.00M

2. Show Boat (1936)

Approved | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical

88 Metascore

Despite her mother's objections, the naive young daughter of a show boat captain is thrust into the limelight as the company's new leading lady.

Director: James Whale | Stars: Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Charles Winninger, Paul Robeson

Votes: 3,696

3. Camelot (1967)

G | 179 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama

70 Metascore

The story of the marriage of England's King Arthur to Guinevere. The plot of illegitimate Mordred to gain the throne and Guinevere's growing attachment to Sir Lancelot, threaten to topple Arthur and destroy his "round table" of knights.

Director: Joshua Logan | Stars: Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, Franco Nero, David Hemmings

Votes: 7,483 | Gross: $31.10M

4. The King and I (1956)

G | 133 min | Biography, Drama, Musical

72 Metascore

A widow accepts a job as a live-in governess to the King of Siam's children.

Director: Walter Lang | Stars: Yul Brynner, Deborah Kerr, Rita Moreno, Martin Benson

Votes: 27,929 | Gross: $21.30M

5. Chicago (2002)

PG-13 | 113 min | Comedy, Crime, Musical

81 Metascore

Two death-row murderesses develop a fierce rivalry while competing for publicity, celebrity, and a sleazy lawyer's attention.

Director: Rob Marshall | Stars: Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Taye Diggs

Votes: 243,475 | Gross: $170.69M

6. Oliver! (1968)

G | 153 min | Drama, Family, Musical

74 Metascore

After being sold to a mortician, young orphan Oliver Twist runs away and meets a group of boys trained to be pickpockets by an elderly mentor in 1830s London.

Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Mark Lester, Ron Moody, Shani Wallis, Oliver Reed

Votes: 41,430 | Gross: $16.80M

7. The Music Man (1962)

G | 151 min | Comedy, Family, Musical

76 Metascore

Traveling con artist Harold Hill targets the naïve residents of a small town in 1910s Iowa by posing as a boys' band leader to raise money before he can skip town.

Director: Morton DaCosta | Stars: Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett, Hermione Gingold

Votes: 19,180 | Gross: $14.95M

8. Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

PG-13 | 94 min | Comedy, Horror, Musical

81 Metascore

A nerdy florist finds his chance for success and romance with the help of a giant man-eating plant who demands to be fed.

Director: Frank Oz | Stars: Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, Levi Stubbs

Votes: 86,449 | Gross: $38.75M

9. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

R | 116 min | Drama, Horror, Musical

83 Metascore

The legendary tale of a barber who returns from wrongful imprisonment to 1840s London, bent on revenge for the rape and death of his wife, and resumes his trade while forming a sinister partnership with his fellow tenant, Mrs. Lovett.

Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall

Votes: 387,046 | Gross: $52.90M

10. South Pacific (1958)

Approved | 157 min | Musical, Romance, War

On a South Pacific island during World War II, love blooms between a young nurse and a secretive Frenchman who's being courted for a dangerous military mission.

Director: Joshua Logan | Stars: Rossano Brazzi, Mitzi Gaynor, John Kerr, Ray Walston

Votes: 9,819

11. Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

G | 181 min | Drama, Family, Musical

67 Metascore

In pre-revolutionary Russia, a Jewish peasant with traditional values contends with marrying off three of his daughters with modern romantic ideals while growing anti-Semitic sentiment threatens his village.

Director: Norman Jewison | Stars: Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey, Molly Picon

Votes: 47,902 | Gross: $80.50M

12. Annie Get Your Gun (1950)

Passed | 107 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

77 Metascore

The story of the great sharpshooter Annie Oakley, who rose to fame while dealing with her love/professional rival, Frank Butler.

Directors: George Sidney, Busby Berkeley | Stars: Betty Hutton, Howard Keel, Louis Calhern, J. Carrol Naish

Votes: 5,278 | Gross: $8.00M

13. Mack the Knife (1989)

PG-13 | 120 min | Comedy, Crime, Musical

In nineteenth century London, a young girl falls for a famous womanizing criminal, and they decide to get married. Her family strongly disapproves, so her father, "the king of thieves", gets the gangster arrested.

Director: Menahem Golan | Stars: Raul Julia, Richard Harris, Julia Migenes, Roger Daltrey

Votes: 410

14. Li'l Abner (1959)

Approved | 114 min | Comedy, Musical, Family

As Sadie Hawkins Day approaches, Daisy Mae hopes to win the hand of Li'l Abner by catching him in the traditional race.

Director: Melvin Frank | Stars: Leslie Parrish, Stubby Kaye, Peter Palmer, Howard St. John

Votes: 1,496

15. Gypsy (1962)

Approved | 143 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama

Based on the Broadway hit about the life and times of burlesque dancer Gypsy Rose Lee and her aggressive stage mother, Mama Rose.

Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Rosalind Russell, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, Paul Wallace

Votes: 6,998 | Gross: $13.01M

16. Kiss Me Kate (1953)

Passed | 109 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

An ex-husband and wife team star in a musical version of 'The Taming of the Shrew'; off-stage, the production is troublesome with ex-lovers' quarrels and two gangsters looking for some money owed to them.

Director: George Sidney | Stars: Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Ann Miller, Keenan Wynn

Votes: 6,818 | Gross: $4.38M

17. Call Me Madam (1953)

Approved | 114 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

Washington hostess Sally Adams becomes a Truman-era US ambassador to a European grand duchy.

Director: Walter Lang | Stars: Ethel Merman, Donald O'Connor, Vera-Ellen, George Sanders

Votes: 1,463

18. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

R | 100 min | Comedy, Horror, Musical

65 Metascore

A newly-engaged couple have a breakdown in an isolated area and must seek shelter at the bizarre residence of Dr. Frank-n-Furter.

Director: Jim Sharman | Stars: Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Richard O'Brien

Votes: 167,030 | Gross: $139.88M

19. West Side Story (1961)

Approved | 153 min | Crime, Drama, Musical

86 Metascore

Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.

Directors: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise | Stars: Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn

Votes: 121,259 | Gross: $43.66M

20. Kismet (1955)

Approved | 113 min | Adventure, Musical, Fantasy

A roguish poet is given the run of the scheming Wazir's harem while pretending to help him usurp the young caliph.

Directors: Vincente Minnelli, Stanley Donen | Stars: Howard Keel, Ann Blyth, Dolores Gray, Vic Damone

Votes: 1,683



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