Broadway musicals made from hit movies are nothing new. Some of Broadway’s greatest hits came from such movies, many of which had their origins as straight plays or novels.

The twice filmed Liliom became Carousel; Charley’s Aunt became Where’s Charley? and Anna and the King of Siam became The King and I while A Tree Grows in Brooklyn kept its original title.

My Sister Eileen became Wonderful Town; Pagnol’s trilogy of Marius; Cesar and Fanny became simply Fanny; Ninotchka became Silk Stockings; They Knew What They Wanted became The Most Happy Fella and, of course, Pygmalion became My Fair Lady.

Anna Christie became New Girl in Town; Lili became Carnival; Oliver Twist became simply Oliver!; The Shop Around the Corner became She Loves Me; The Rainmaker became 110 in the Shade; Blithe Spirit multiplied to become High Spirits and, happily, The Matchmaker became Hello, Dolly! .

Summertime became Do I Hear a Waltz? ; Auntie Mame became simply Mame; I Am a Camera became Cabaret; How Green Was My Valley became A Time for Singing; Never on Sunday became Illya Darling; Holy Matrimony became Darling of the Day; Zorba the Greek became simply Zorba and The Apartment became Promises, Promises.

All About Eve became Applause; Two for the Seesaw became simply Seesaw; A Raisin in the Sun became simply Raisin; Shenandoah kept its original title; Chicago which reverted to Roxie Hart on screen became Chicago once again while 8 1/2 rounded up to Nine.

La Cage aux Folles; the oft-filmed Les Misérables; The Phantom of the Opera; Ragtime; Grand Hotel’ The Secret Garden; Kiss of the Spider Woman; Sunset Boulevard; Sweet Smell of Success; Little Women; The Light in the Piazza; Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; The Color Purple; The Spitfire Grill; Billy Elliot and Kinky Boots all kept their original titles;

What is different about the Broadway season just ended is the large number of new musicals made from popular movies.

This year’s Outer Critics Circle; Drama Desk and Tony Award winner for Best Musical, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, is an adaptation of Kind Hearts and Coronets, the 1949 film from Ron Horniman’s novel that catapulted Alec Guinness to international stardom. Jefferson Mays stars in the Guinness role of the nine snooty aristocrats who are done in by next-in-line to inherit Dennis Price, now played by Bryce Pinkham. Their Tony nominated performances come vividly to life on the original cast recording. The score is witty and bright if not especially memorable. The ingénues, Lisa O’Hara and Lauren Worsham, are virtually undistinguishable although the critics did manage to distinguish them, the Outer Critics Circle having nominated the former whereas the Drama Desk and Tony committees nominated the latter, the Drama Desk even co-awarding her Best Featured Actress.

The season’s best score, however, is provided by The Bridges of Madison County which swept the awards for Best Score. The musical version of the Meryl Streep-Clint Eastwood film from Robert James Waller’s novel is rich, passionate and powerful, providing stars Kelli O’Hara and Steven Pasquale with the vocal roles of their careers so far.

The show was nominated for Best Musical and Best Actor by the Drama Desk but Tony snubbed it in the main category nominations except for the justly award-winning score and O’Hara’s luminous performance, thus forcing the show to close prematurely.

O’Hara and Pasquale were also memorable earlier in the season in off-Broadway’s Far From Heaven in the roles played on screen by Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid. While the score is a good one, it’s not the great one that Jason Robert Brown’s for Bridges is from its first bars all the way through to its last.

Norbert Leo Butz, Kate Baldwin and Bobby Steggert have three of the best voices in contemporary American theatre, but all three have been used to better advantage than they are in Big Fish. Andrew Lippa’s score is easy on the ears, but the material lets him down. Fantasy, more than any other genre, requires a suspension of disbelief than this adaptation of the film from Daniel Wallace’s novel can deliver.

Critics have been kinder to Rocky than this exasperatingly simple minded musical version of Sylvester Stallone’s 1976 film deserves. Only veteran character actor Dakin Matthew as Mickey, the character played on screen by Burgess Meredith, provides the kind of show biz pizzazz the thin material needs to make it worth more than one listen.

Conversely critics have been rather dismissive of Bullets Over Broadway, a much better musical based on Woody Allen’s 1994 comedy classic. Maybe it works better on the CD than it does on stage, but work it does, and wonderfully so. Zach Braff, Marin Mazzie, Nick Cordero and Heléne Yorke in the roles played on screen by John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Chazz Palminteri and Jennifer Tilly are all terrific. The songs are old-time classics most of which you’ll recognize even when lyrics have been changed to fit the action.

The stage version of Disney’s Aladdin proves a nice surprise. Adam Jacobs as Aladdin and James Monroe Iglehart as the genie are both wonderful singers. As a bonus, both get to sing songs from other Disney hits accompanied by composer Alan Menken on piano after the show has run its course.

em>Beautiful – The Carole King Musical is not adapted from a film, but is an example of another Broadway musical phenomenon, the jukebox musical in which the songs of a certain singer; group of singers, composer or composers are used to tell their story. In this case, the multi-talented King is both a singer and composer. Tony winner Jessie Mueller is sensational as King and Anika Larsen, the Drama Desk’s other co-winner for Best Featured Actress, is quite good as her friend and fellow singer-composer, Cynthia Weill.
The season’s best non-adapted musicals were If/Then which provides Idina Menzel with her first Broadway role in ten years and Violet which gives another reason to celebrate Sutton Foster as one of Broadway’s major current stars.

This week’s new releases include the Blu-ray upgrades of Point Blank andThe Time Machine.