Airplane:
“What’s his problem?”
“That’s Lieutenant Hurwitz. Severe shellshock. Thinks he’s Ethel Merman.”
(The misspelling of Merman’s surname in the YouTube clip above is not my fault.)
Some Like It Hot: Features an actual vaudevillean, Joe E. Brown. Plus Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in drag. Plus Marilyn Monroe playing a ukulele. Of course it was made into a stage musical, and when Tony Curtis went into one of its regular downturns, he toured in it—in the Joe E. Brown role.
The Speed of Thought: Wallace Shawn in a supernatural thriller.
OMG! The Top 50 Incidents in WWE History: Pro wrestling tournaments are the medicine shows of our time.
Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop: The live show precipitated by the host having downtime between television talk shows.
The Man Who Cried: Before Sally Potter became a film director, she did dozens of dance and movement pieces as a performer and choreographer.
For Colored Girls: Considering the age and era of the original material, this is a surprisingly respectful film adaptation. Director Tyler Perry, of course, came up through live theater.
Deuces Wild: Dig this description: “It’s West Side Story minus the earnest balladeering when a war breaks out on the streets of Brooklyn, circa 1958.”
Exorcismus: All exorcism flicks are ritual theater.
Gotta Dance: Documentary about senior citizens become a hip-hop dance squad for the New Jersey nets.
Strange Powers: Documentary about Stephan Merritt: bandleader of Magnetic Fields, songwriter of the showtuney 69 Love Songs, contributor of original songs for the Series of Unfortunate Events audiobooks, co-creator of a musical theater trilogy with Chen Shi-zheng and composer of the Off Broadway musical based on Neil Gaiman’s Coraline.
Karl Rove, I Love You: Actor Dan Butler sets up to mock the right-wing icon with a one-man stage show, but begins to respect Rove instead.
Discovering Hamlet: Doc about Derek Jacobi helming a stage production of Hamlet starring Kenneth Branagh—Jacobi’s first directing gig, passing the torch to Branagh just as he’s readying his own Henry V.
The Arbor: Conceptual documentary about a subject deserving of such a different approach, experimental playwright Andrea Dunbar. Filmmaker Clio Barnard has professional actors interpret scripted interviews with Dunbar’s family.
The Devil’s Muse: Yet another film based on the Black Dahlia murder. The victim, Elizabeth Short, was an actress.
Vibrations: James Marshall plays a musician who loses his hands in a car accident when on the brink off rock fame. Christina Applegate plays a computer artist who reinvents the handless performer as “Cyberstorm.”
Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason: Interviewees include Israeli playwright David Grossman and actor/playwright Will Power (The Seven).
Vereda Tropical: Manuel Puig, who wrote almost as many plays and screenplays as he did novels, is portrayed by Fabio Aste in this story about the writer’s move to Brazil from his native Buenos Aires to avoid persecution for his homosexuality.
From Russia With Love: The James Bond one with Lotte Lenya in it, brandishing a poison boot (not to mention this gun).