Everyone will get a chance to see Woody Allen's first film musical, Everyone Says I Love You, when the film goes into general release on 255 screens across the U.S. Jan. 17.
While not a stage-to-screen adaptation per se, Everyone Says I Love You uses songs from shows, and is of interest to fans of musicals. The film stars Goldie Hawn, Drew Barrymore, Alan Alda (The Apple Tree), Julia Roberts, David Ogden Stiers and Allen.
Graciela Daniele, the Broadway choreographer-director of Once Upon This Island, Chronicle of a Death Foretold and the new Ragtime, has staged the musical numbers; she also worked on Allen's Mighty Aphrodite. The score has been arranged by jazzman Dick Hyman.
The movie originally opened Dec. 6, 1996 for a special one-week engagement in New York and Los Angeles to qualify for 1997 Oscar consideration, but now is being released to the rest of the world via Miramax.
And while the film Albino Alligator, also opening Jan. 17, is not adapted from a play, it has special interest for theatre fans because so many stage performers, especially members of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble, are involved. Written by Christopher Forte, the film is directed by Kevin Spacey and stars Gary Sinise, Joe Mantegna, Matt Dillon and Faye Dunaway. Several high-profile stage-to-screen adaptations have been released this month, and are planned for the coming weeks.
Evita showed enough strength in it's limited engagement to go into "wide release" Jan. 10, as did Marvin's Room. Evita, starring Madonna in the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's hit musical, opened at 750 cinemas across the U.S. Jan. 10 and immediately became the #2 grossing film in the country.
Marvin's Room, Scott McPherson's black comedy about a family coping with illness, moved from the two biggest markets into the 10 biggest the weekend of Jan. 10-12. The prestigious film stars Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.
The Substance of Fire, the adaptation of Jon Robin Baitz' play starring its original Off-Broadway lead Ron Rifkin, will expand to the top 10 markets on Feb. 7.
-- By Robert Viagas.
