The list of Broadway musicals adapted from films is extensive: Newsies, School of Rock, Waitress, Legally Blonde, Hairspray, The Producers, Billy Elliot and Spamalot just to name a small handfull.
And soon another film, which just so happens to be a dragtastic cult favorite, may get the Broadway treatment: Douglas Carter Beane is adapting his 1995 film To Wong Foo: Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar into a musical.
The Tony-nominated Beane already has some major Broadway writing credits, Xanadu and Sister Act among them. So it’s only natural that he’d want to bring To Wong Foo to Broadway.
But here’s the ingenious part:
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He already owns the stage rights for the film, a fact that shines a light on how the entertainment industry has changed.
When the film was produced in ’95, movie studios had virtually no interest in stage rights. But Beane, coming from a theater background, saw the potential. So he asked for them.
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“I think they thought that was endearing,” he told the NY Post. “‘Isn’t that sweet? He likes to do wood carving, too.’ So they patted me on the head — and gave them to me.”
Nowadays stuidos keep a lockdown on stage rights, hoping to repeat the box office gold of shows like The Lion King.
Twenty-three years later, the success of shows like Hedwig, Kinky Boots and La Cage aux Folles–not to mention the wild television success of RuPaul’s Drag Race—indicates mainstream audiences aren’t scared so easily by drag.
And the story was always meant for the stage to begin with, Beane adds:
“I was a struggling writer trying to break into the theater,” he says. “I was working as a nanny in Brooklyn, and every time the family went on vacation, I’d write a play. I started working on ‘To Wong Foo’ but couldn’t figure out how to put a car onstage. So I turned it into a screenplay instead.”
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With his husband, Lewis Flinn, writing the score, and Beane directing, the show is already ready to be workshopped in front of an audience.
“The songs are very Americana by way of Aaron Copland,” says Beane. “There’s an opera vibe to it, and it’s very open-hearted.”
To Wong Foo centers around three New York drag queens (In the film they’re played by Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo) who travel cross-country to compete in a drag pageant. As they stop off in small towns across America, they are challenged by racism and homophobia.
Julie Newmar, Naomi Campbell, Joey Arias, Candis Cayne, Coco Peru, Hedda Lettuce, Lady Bunny, Quentin Crisp, Jose Sarria, Robin Williams and RuPaul (as Rachel Tension) all make cameos in the film.
Bob LaBlah
“As they stop off in small towns across America, they are challenged by racism and homophobia.”
And during the filming of this movie John Leguizamo and Patrick Swayze got into three fist fights before the movie was finished.
lykeitiz
With each other??
Juanjo
Really?
https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/526420/John-Leguizamo-Patrick-Swayze-faced-off-on-tense-Too-Wong-Foo-set
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_XAtv6wJ8Q
Bob LaBlah
@lykeitiz and Juanjo……………….yes with each other, according to an earlier interview John gave a few years ago. Juanjo, thanks for posting that youtube video. Personally I feel/felt that John is a liar and has serious issues (non-sexual) that he is dealing with. That is NOT how he put it when he gave an interview around 2010 or so. I wish I could remember the show he was on but I do remember the interview had something to do with another play he was producing at the time. His body language to me in this interview leave me with the impression he is lying and trying to remember how he put it previously in other interviews about the incidents. How do you see it?
lykeitiz
Thanks for the info. I can’t believe I’ve never heard that.
Another thing I can’t believe, after reading the comments on this thread, is that To Wong Foo was not an actual sanctioned American remake of Priscilla. Is that true? They’re the same movie! How were they not sued?
Juanjo
I posted two links, not one, both of which are consistent in the fact that there were no actual fisticuffs. There was another one from Swayze which is not as kind to Leguizamo but which nonetheless says that no actual fighting took place.
Bob LaBlah
I stand by what I heard Leguizamo say. I just can’t remember what show he was on when he said it but he said they had to be separated. He always struck me as a liar and some one who would do anything for fame, an audience and a big pay day.
jkthsnk
The Xanadu and Sister Act adaptions were awful. To Wong Foo was a horrible, misogynistic dumbing down of Priscilla. No grazie and also No THanks.
ProfessorMoriarty
Misogynistic? How?? I’ve always thought of TWF as very pro-female.
johnnymcmxxx
Xanadu was intentionally tacky and did it successfully. Your opinion is in the minority.
Ummmm Yeah
This movie was a second rate ripoff of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. He should have been sued for stealing someone else’s movie already.
salumbre
I wouldn’t take it as far as suing, but it surely was a non-threatening, toned-down, sugared-up rehash of the wonderful “Priscilla” –which, incidentally, has already been adapted to the stage.
The cast made it an enjoyable guilty pleasure for me –it is probably Wesley Snipes’ best role ever, and Leguizamo steals every scene he’s in (no easy feat) — but there isn’t much substance to it.
johnnymcmxxx
In case you haven’t noticed, 2nd rate movies make great musical plays. Did you ever see the terrible film version of Kinky Boots?
Bob LaBlah
I thought Wesley Snipes was wrong for a drag queen. He was never convincing. He is an action star who just didnt come off as a drag queen to me.
cavasa22
Hi there, just so you know, To Wang Foo was written before Priscilla, and started production before too. It was released later because of post production problems ($).
Doug
Getting so tired of drag.
salumbre
Drag is such a drag, ain’t it?
geb1966
Sucks for you, ’cause it ain’t going anywhere anytime soon.
salumbre
Leguizamo is a wonderful actor, but he has a lot of personal issues, and has been in fights in more than one movie set.
He BGB
Wesley snipes was really scary in this movie!
TheBigOne
Kinda sounds like the scariest thing to you is a black drag queen.
Do you feel intimidated, hon?
cavasa22
I loved Snipes in this movie, he was great, funny and moving. I loved his “are you going to start walking on water?” speach.
bobbyjoe
John Leguizamo’s current one man show on Broadway has an incredibly homophobic section where he weirdly plays the historic figure Montezuma as this mincing, lisping, murderous gay stereotype that might as well have come from one of those gross homophobic movies from the 60s or 70s (there are no other gay characters in the show and the real Montezuma had numerous wives and concubines so making him gay is a very odd decision; Leguizamo does portray him as weak and creepy, so I guess the extremely bigoted gay stereotype was the easiest for Leguizamo to reach for this). Leguizamo knows exactly how offensive it is, because he immediately follows it up by actually saying “it’s okay that I do that, I have a gay brother,” aka the “some of my best friends are black” excuse. I was seriously disappointed, as Leguizamo is supposed to be an LGBT ally, but here he was– in 2017– selling audiences the oldest and worst gay stereotype just for cheap laughs. He might as well have put on blackface, as this was the gay equivalent. I’ve not seen my respect for a performer drop faster than it did in those moments in his show.
carver.robertd
The plot is virtually the same as that of “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” just a lamer, tamer version. What are they going to do for songs, reycle the ABBA canon again?
Steven
This looks delightfully delicious.
carver.robertd
Swayze, Snipes and Leguizamo, three straight–well, two outta three–men, slumming and taking no risks with their reputations!
DCguy
Interesting article about the movie. The guy who read the script and passed it up to Spielberg at Amblin Entertainment later on was unable to work in other studios in Hollywood because he’d gotten a gay movie made, even though the movie was number 1 for two weekends and made a good profit.
Bry
To Wong Foo may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But it’s my favorite movie! A good campfest is great for the soul! Fab acting & stellar music, too! Priscilla is wonderful. I have a special place in my heart for Foo.