“We’re Not in Kansas Any More”

Abstract

Chapter 8 explores three contrasting attempts to adapt the film for the theater. First, following the release of the MGM film, in 1942 the St. Louis Municipal Opera hoped to capitalize on the success of the movie by commissioning a stage production that incorporated the familiar songs. Second, in the mid-1980s, the Royal Shakespeare Company returned to the MGM film as the basis for a new stage adaptation. Though their version promoted the supposed authenticity of this approach, expanding the movie into a full theater piece nevertheless caused tensions between practice and nostalgia. Third, a generation later, Andrew Lloyd Webber reteamed with his best-known collaborator, Tim Rice, to write some new songs to interpolate into a new stage version. Here, the text was revised with a new audience and new era in mind: though the movie was celebrating its sixtieth anniversary, the new adaptation brought contemporary values, and therefore a shift of emphasis, to the beloved text. Each of the three adaptations had its pros and cons, though none could match the success of the original movie. This chapter therefore also serves to explore the problems of adapting screen musicals for the stage, as can also be seen from two other disappointing stage adaptations of MGM movies, Meet Me in St. Louis and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.