{"id":1059402,"date":"2026-01-19T22:53:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T22:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/movies\/107664\/broadway-musicals-adapted-as-movies-ranked-best-and-worst"},"modified":"2026-01-19T22:53:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T22:53:52","slug":"how-does-wicked-rank-against-every-other-modern-movie-based-on-a-broadway-musical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/how-does-wicked-rank-against-every-other-modern-movie-based-on-a-broadway-musical\/","title":{"rendered":"How does Wicked rank against every other modern movie based on a Broadway musical?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the 2002 movie Chicago<\/em>, Catherine Zeta-Jones steps into the spotlight to belt out \u201cAll That Jazz\u201d with a defiant kind of joy that takes on new meaning once it becomes clear that her character, Velma Kelly, has just murdered her husband. Zeta-Jones\u2019 rendition of the song was irresistible: On a wave of critical and commercial success, Chicago<\/em><\/a> <\/em>picked up the Best Picture Oscar (the first movie musical to win the award since 1968\u2019s Oliver!<\/em>), and studio executives started hunting for movies that could replicate the magic. In their minds, screen adaptations of stage musicals were suddenly bankable again.<\/p>\n

Many tried to mimic Chicago<\/em>\u2019s success, but few did. Some subsequent movie adaptations of Broadway productions tried to retain the original stage casts, with shaky results. Others muted the genre\u2019s excesses with realism, a head-scratcher in a setting where people are suddenly bursting into song and dance. Good, bad, or ugly, there have been dozens of major stage-to-film adaptations since the start of the 21st century. That includes three appearances by Meryl Streep, three films by Rob Marshall, two entries in the Mamma Mia Cinematic Universe<\/a>, and one perfect shot of Dame Judi Dench in a cat basket, lifting her leg like a horny queen. But not all Broadway shows turned movies are created equal. Here, we sit down to compare them, from the razzle-dazzle-iest to, as the French might say, the miserables.<\/p>\n

This list is periodically updated as new musicals are added. The latest: Mean Girls<\/em> (2024) and Wicked<\/em>.<\/p>\n

31. Mean Girls (2024)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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The marketing was right: \u201cThis isn\u2019t your mother\u2019s Mean Girls<\/em>.\u201d<\/a> Instead, this \u201cintended for Paramount Plus<\/a>\u201d curiosity is a strangely faithful but remarkably sauceless retread of the iconic original film, with a few songs thrown in just because. It\u2019s a head-scratcher of a thought experiment akin to Gus Van Sant\u2019s shot-for-shot Psycho<\/em> remake<\/a>, this time with TikTok dances. It\u2019s not like the stage musical was ever hailed as one of the great works of the canon, but Tina Fey\u2019s book for the Broadway show suggested she was genuinely interested in shaking up her now-sacred screenplay for the 2004 movie, and the original Broadway cast was so winning<\/a> that it was difficult to not get at least a little bit of a contact high.<\/p>\n

On screen, the buzz is nonexistent, as we\u2019re shuffled through pale imitation after pale imitation of scenes that have been playing just fine on screen for the past 20 years. These musical numbers shun Broadway pizzazz in favor of Gen Z Cool, and still wind up the lamest things this side of Kidz Bop. Moana<\/em>\u2019s Auli\u2018i Cravalho<\/a> and Tony Award nominee Jaquel Spivey are up to the task for a fun new take on this material, and Rene\u00e9 Rapp does<\/em> have a certain je ne sais quoi. <\/em>But she so thoroughly blows Angourie Rice\u2019s wispy take on Cady Heron out of the water that the film becomes a glorified Regina George stan account. Rice\u2019s casting is at odds with the material<\/a>, yet in perfect lockstep with a film that feels bafflingly miscalculated at every turn.<\/p>\n

30. Dear Evan Hansen (2021)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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