Top 10 Stage-to-Screen Movies and ‘One Night in Miami’

Movie News Roundupfast-formed opinions on a week of announcements

The Whale 2022

Darren Aronofsky's adaptation of Samuel D. Hunter's play, with Brendan Fraser as a reclusive, severely obese English teacher trying to reconnect with his daughter.

Men 2022

Alex Garland writing and directing Jessie Buckley as a woman on a solo countryside vacation after her ex-husband's death.

White Noise 2022

Noah Baumbach adapting Don DeLillo's supposedly unadaptable novel, with Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig (her first film in six years).

The Tragedy of Macbeth 2021

Joel Coen's black-and-white Shakespeare, shot with Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, for A24.

One Night in Miaminow streaming on Amazon Prime

One Night in Miami 2020

Regina King's directorial debut, written by Kemp Powers, imagines Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke spending one long night together in a Miami motel room after Ali's title win over Sonny Liston in February 1964. Kingsley Ben-Adir plays Malcolm X, Eli Goree plays Ali, Aldis Hodge plays Jim Brown, and Leslie Odom Jr. plays Sam Cooke.

Top 10 Stage-to-Screen: The Plays five picks each, one Shakespeare apiece, Broadway/stage plays only

Picked by Sean Fennessey

Henry V 1944

Laurence Olivier's Technicolor Shakespeare, with production design Sean compares to Wes Anderson and one of the great St. Crispin's Day speeches on film.

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

Romeo + Juliet 1996

Baz Luhrmann keeps every line of Shakespeare's dialogue while staging it as a teen spectacle; a formative movie for Amanda's generation, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.

Picked by Sean Fennessey

Brief Encounter 1945

David Lean directing Noel Coward's one-act play about an illicit almost-affair that plays out mostly at a train station.

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

The Philadelphia Story 1940

One of two Katharine Hepburn picks: the play-and-film combo that reversed her 'box office poison' run after Bringing Up Baby.

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

The Lion in Winter 1968

James Goldman's screenplay from his own play, with Hepburn and Peter O'Toole as Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II tearing into each other over Christmas.

Picked by Sean Fennessey

Sleuth 1972

Joseph L. Mankiewicz's last film, from Anthony Shaffer's play, with Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier trading cat-and-mouse dialogue for two and a half hours. Remade in 2007 with Jude Law; not to be confused with the similar Deathtrap.

Picked by Sean Fennessey

Dial M for Murder 1954

Hitchcock's stage-play adaptation, where the confined geography of one room becomes the whole tension.

Picked by Sean Fennessey

Amadeus 1984

Milos Forman's Mozart-and-Salieri epic with Tom Hulce and F. Murray Abraham; Amanda says it would have made her list too.

Picked by Sean Fennessey

Secret Honor 1984

A bonus rewatch, not an official pick: Robert Altman's one-set Nixon monologue, with Philip Baker Hall memorizing what amounts to a 200-page speech. A favorite of Paul Thomas Anderson's.

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1966

Mike Nichols adapting Edward Albee, with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton as George and Martha tearing each other apart over one night.

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

Glengarry Glen Ross 1992

David Mamet's real estate salesmen, directed by James Foley. 'Always be closing.'

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

A Few Good Men 1992

Aaron Sorkin's own play, adapted for the screen, and a perennial pick on Big Picture top fives.

Top 10 Stage-to-Screen: The Musicals five picks each, stage musicals only, no Hollywood-original musicals like Singin' in the Rain

Picked by Sean Fennessey

Brigadoon 1954

Vincente Minnelli's musical about a hidden Scottish village that appears once every hundred years; the movie Francis Ford Coppola told Ryan Coogler to watch before making Black Panther. Not Sean's number one.

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

Bye Bye Birdie 1963

A last-minute add for Amanda, led by Ann-Margret's opening number, which was written for the film version rather than the stage show.

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

Cabaret 1972

Bob Fosse's Weimar-set follow-up to the flop of his first movie musical, Sweet Charity, with Liza Minnelli. Won Best Picture.

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

My Fair Lady 1964

George Cukor directing Audrey Hepburn (dubbed by Marni Nixon) in the Lerner and Loewe musical. Julie Andrews originated the role onstage but lost the film casting, then won her Oscar the same year for Mary Poppins instead.

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

The Sound of Music 1965

Robert Wise directing Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, shot on location in Austria. A childhood-formative, annual-rewatch pick for Amanda.

Picked by Sean Fennessey

Little Shop of Horrors 1986

Frank Oz directing the Alan Menken/Howard Ashman musical (itself based on Roger Corman's low-budget original), with Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene.

Picked by Sean Fennessey

Topsy-Turvy 1999

Mike Leigh's backstage drama about Gilbert and Sullivan staging The Mikado, ending with an extended performance of the operetta itself.

Picked by Sean Fennessey

Grease 1978

A peak childhood-sleepover pick, spun off into Grease 2 and later live TV versions.

Picked by Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins

West Side Story 1961

Both hosts' shared number one. Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, from the Bernstein/Sondheim/Arthur Laurents stage musical, with Rita Moreno's performance and Robbins's choreography singled out. Steven Spielberg's remake was due out for its 60th anniversary.

In Conversationon playing Malcolm X in One Night in Miami and Barack Obama in The Comey Rule

Kingsley Ben-Adir

21 Grams 2003

Ben-Adir's answer to the show's closing question, 'the last great thing you've seen': rewatched the night before, on an Alejandro G. Iñárritu kick.

Kingsley Ben-Adir

Babel 2006

Also watched that same morning as part of his Iñárritu binge, though 21 Grams was his official pick.

Also mentioned raised along the way

The 2020 stage-to-screen wave (setup for the list) The PromDavid Byrne's American UtopiaMa Rainey's Black BottomHamilton

Comparisons in the One Night in Miami discussion Malcolm XSoulThe Invisible ManThe Greatest

Mentioned in passing during the news roundup BewitchedSteve JobsMoneyballThe Social NetworkI'm Thinking of Ending ThingsHoward

Considered for the plays list, then cut CasablancaThe Front Page

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

TV WandaVisionThe Comey RuleFosse/VerdonThe OATiger King 2

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