STAGE TO FILM

Acting for the stage is very different from acting for the screen. The stage actor’s performance must reach not only the audience in the front row, but also the audience in the very last row. Consequently gestures and vocals must be a bit more exaggerated in order to translate to the entire audience. Film acting can involve anything from a long shot with the actor at a distance to an extreme close up where we may only see the actor’s eyes or mouth.

Many stage plays have been adapted to film. It is the screen version that most of us are familiar with. Unfortunately the stage performances are so ephemeral that we can only imagine the impact that the original actors made on their audiences.

Here are just some plays that became famous films and the stars who shone in the original play in comparison to those who made the film famous.

TITLE         STAGE ACTORS           MOVIE ACTORS

The Lion in Winter 
Rosemary Harris                          Katharine Hepburn
Robert Preston                              Peter O’Toole

Wait until Dark 
Lee Remick                                  Audrey Hepburn
Robert Duvall                               Alan Arkin

Doubt               
        Cherry Jones                                 Meryl Streep
Brian F. O’Byrne                           Philip Seymour Hoffman

Sleuth       
        Anthony Quale                              Laurence Olivier
Keith Baxter                                  Michael Caine

A Streetcar Named Desire
Jessica Tandy                                 Vivien Leigh
Marlon Brando                               Marlon Brando

Amadeus               
          Tim Curry                                      Tom Hulce
Ian McKellen                                 F. Murray Abraham

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Uta Hagen                                    Elizabeth Taylor
George Hill                                   Richard Burton
Melinda Dillon                              Sandy Dennis
George Grizzard                           George Segal

Driving Miss Daisy 
           Dana Ivey                                     Jessica Tandy
Morgan Freeman                          Morgan Freeman

And in a long series of morphing, the short story “I Am a Camera” by Christopher Isherwood became the play “ I Am a Camera” and then the movie “I Am a Camera” (both starring Julie Harris) which then became the musical “Cabaret” and then finally emerged as the movie “Cabaret” starring Liza Minnelli. Phew.