With recent Broadway stabs at Bronte, Zola and Twain coming a cropper, it's little wonder that theatrical producers and creatives are turning to movies, rather than literature, for grist. The Producers and The Full Monty were last year's biggest hits, and Sweet Smell of Success, Urban Cowboy and Thoroughly Modern Millie are in this season's pipeline. As such, the hunt seems to be on for more film to-stage adaptations, from The Graduate to Batman.

The latest filly in the race might be "Mrs. Doubtfire," the hit Robin Williams comedy about a divorced man so attached to his kids, he dresses up like a nanny so he can spend more quality time with them. Variety reports that Harry Bernsen (who co-owns theatrical rights to the script with Pietro Garinei) hopes to produce a version of the comedy — perhaps musical, perhaps not — on Broadway and in London in the not-too-distant future.

Bernsen told Variety, "Interest in the theatrical version...has proved so strong that we hope to bring `Mrs. Doubtfire' back from her European holiday for a real run at Broadway." According to Variety, there's a musical version running in Rome and a straight-play version that opened in Paris in October.

Chris Columbus, director of the "Harry Potter" series, helmed the 1993 20th Century Fox movie, "Mrs. Doubtfire," which co-starred Sally Field, Pierce Brosnan and theatre icon Harvey Fierstein. The material was based on Anne Fine's novel, "Alias Madame Doubtfire."

— By David Lefkowitz