DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
FILMS, PLAYS, BOTH WAYS



©Getty Images, Steve Kazee and the cast of ‘Once’ at Tony Awards, photo source

Plays that prove to be über-successful on Broadway used to get a one-way ticket to Hollywood.

Look at Rock of Ages, the rock musical starring Tom Cruise, which opens in movie theaters this weekend. I haven’t seen it, but the musical play version premiered in LaLa Land in 2005, made the bi-coastal journey to the Big Apple and opened on Broadway by 2009. Now, the film billboards seem as numerous as our palm trees.

It isn’t the first Broadway play-to-film.

The trend goes all the way back to plays like Sound of Music, Westside Story, A Raisin in the Sun, Death of a Salesman, A Chorus Line, Mamma Mia, DreamGirls, list goes on and on.

But there’s a new trend where it seems like the stories are going both ways i.e. Broadway plays are going to film, but now, films are being made into plays????

This year’s Best Musical Tony Award was given to the indie love story Once, which won 8 of its 11 Tony nominations on Sunday. Once is based on a 2006 independent film which won the 2007 Independent Spirit Award for best foreign film and the 2007 Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Seems a little backwards, but Once wasn’t the only film-to-play on Tony’s stage on Sunday. The musical Newsies, based on the 1992 film starring Christian Bale, won 2 Tony Awards including best original score.

Other Broadway plays from films that are currently running are Ghost, Sister Act and Spider Man. Don’t even ask about Spider Man! Blame The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast. They set the film-to-play bar way high back in the 90s. And to top it off, I hear that a Broadway version of The Bodyguard is coming by the end of the year. Get ready!

What’s the point?!
The industry is in ‘flux’. Nothing is really set any more.
There isn’t just one way. Things are going both ways.

But it’s not just Hollywood and Broadway.
Our entire economy is in flux.
Which means, I highly recommend that we all should shift to what my dad calls, “max flex mode”. Maximum flexibility.

For folks of faith, I think the only way to not get rattled by all the shifts and changes, (everything is always shifting and changing) is to really trust in God, not just in word, but to really trust Him.

We’re wrapping up our doctoral cohort this week. Last night and today we’ve been in Proverbs and the Psalms. My apologies for getting this blog off so late today. I didn’t finish writing this morning, as I usually do. I’ve literally been writing on my breaks between class. :=)

Either way, I am reminded of Psalm 25:1 which begins, “In you, Lord my God, I put my trust.”
He continues, “Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. 5 Guide me in your truth and teach me…”

When writing this song, the psalmist knew that trusting God required letting go of his own need to have everything figured out. Sometimes, we just have to say, we’ll trust.

Be encouraged, Fam.
Stuff will shift.
Jobs will change.
The industry will flux.
We can flex.

We can trust that God is ultimately in control.
No telling what film we’ll see on Broadway next.
Or what play we’ll see translated into a movie.
Let’s stay on top of what’s happening, for sure, but let’s also be willing to completely let go, trust God, and keep it moving!

“The sun’ll come out tomorrow,
Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow…”
Was Annie on Broadway first or on film?
Naima

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