Rumors are swirling that there is an effort to bring the massive hit and critically acclaimed cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain to Broadway. There is no word as to whether it will be adapted as a play or as a musical, but there are two stars who are supposedly being approached to star in the Broadway adaptation.
X-Men co-stars Hugh Jackman and James Marsden have been named as the two actors they are shooting for to star as Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist in the weeper love story. Considering the hopeful casting choices, I’m going to go ahead and assume it’s being adapted into a musical.
We know Hugh Jackman for his singing from his Tony-winning performance in The Boy From Oz, where he played gay singer and songwriter Peter Allen, and James Marsden just recently showed off his impressive vocal chops as Corny Collins in Hairspray. Both have sung previously, and both have played gay roles before — Marsden played a gay man in the movie Heights — but would either of them take on such an acclaimed and successful film, knowing the difficulty of duplicating the success and praise when brought to a stage, especially to music?
I could definitely see the show being a commercial hit, especially with such hunky co-stars - many will turn out just to see them kiss on stage – and I can’t imagine the stage door frenzy after each show. But I’m skeptical as to whether this story will translate well to the stage (I mean, it takes place on a mountain — what about the sheep?) and whether it will work as a musical. But then again, I was wary of The Color Purple on Broadway, and that turned out to be a wonderful play. Time will tell if any of these rumors are even true.
Article comments
1 - daryl d
LOL! I thought from the moment I read this title that it was written by El Bicho.
2 - handyguy
What an utterly wretched idea. Let's hope it goes nowhere.
The record of movies being made into good Broadway shows is depressingly low. And something that's not a comedy, something as low-key and emotionally fine-grained as Brokeback Mountain, has no business being adapted for any stage, and certainly not a Broadway stage...especially with a Broadway song score. Eeewww.
3 - El Bicho
[Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor]
The actors named might have too much of an age discrepancy to make it work, and a musical seems the wrong way to go with the story. Not to say that it couldn't work, but I'd be surprised.
4 - Rebecca Wright
It might work. If it were adapted for Broadway, I'm sure a lot of things would be changed. I could envision Brokeback as a dramatic play more than a musical. Just saw James Marsden in Hairspray last night. I could see him in a role like this.
5 - beckett
The truth is that Annie Proulx has given the go ahead to create an opera out of Brokeback.
Charles Wuorinen is composing it. Future Music is commissioning. I know this because I'm founding director of Future Music. It's going to be incredible
6 - Culver
anything can be successful if its done properly. Good luck to them if they choose to go ahead.
7 - adrian
An opera? What a great idea. Hey beckett, where can I find more information about that? I know many who would love to learn about this.
8 - patash
Too much age discrepancy to make it work? Huh? Hugh Jackman is 5 years older than Marsden.
9 - Ferienwohnung Berlin - Berlin bed and Breakfast
James Marsden very sexy man..
10 - Jeremy
I think that it could work (If written well) as a fabulous straight play. Not as a musicals. some of the titles that come up in the category of films being made into musicals are just sad