| re: Gillian Anderson and Lily James are coming to the West End in a new stage adaptation of the iconic movie, All About Eve. | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 07:14 pm EST 01/25/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Gillian Anderson and Lily James are coming to the West End in a new stage adaptation of the iconic movie, All About Eve. - LynnB 06:17 pm EST 01/20/19 | |
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| The story The Wisdom of Eve was published in the May 1949 issue of Cosmopolitan, by which time 20th Century Fox had already purchased the screen rights for what seems to be a rather small sum: $3,500. Although it does seem to have originated as a story, it had already been heard as a radio play, in January 1946, on NBC’s Radio City Playhouse. I’d hope that Orr’s contract included additional money to be paid if the movie got made. Otherwise, she sort of got shafted, even taking into consideration that Mankiewicz invented so much for the movie. When Comden and Green took over the writing of the Applause book from Sidney Michaels, the producers still did not have the rights to the movie, only to the original story (and perhaps the radio play). Comden and Green said in a post-opening Times article that they were told that they could use a “limited amount” of the film script, but they had no idea what that really meant. They also said that they were prohibited from using any character not in the original, which was why Addison DeWitt is not in the musical. They said that the rights to the movie had been obtained by late summer 1969, but it was too late for them to change most of what they’d already adjusted, and that it made more sense to them that a producer would have a lot more power over Eve than a critic would. Prompted by this thread, I read Or’s story last night. Applause is much, much closer to All About Eve than to The Wisdom of Eve in pretty much every way. I have to think that the agreement that had been reached by the time Comden and Green were hired must have allowed the use a good deal of All About Eve’s adjustments and additions to Orr’s story, including characters not really in the original. For instance, in the story, Margo is married to a producer-director whom we just hear about but who is rather different than Bill. And although Margo’s maid is mentioned in the story, we never meet her or hear her quoted. Perhaps changing Birdie to a man in the musical was a way to get around it, but he’s still clearly very close to Birdie. |
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| Next: | re: Gillian Anderson and Lily James are coming to the West End in a new stage adaptation of the iconic movie, All About Eve. - lonlad 06:18 pm EST 01/20/19 |
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