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with Geoffrey Block author of A Fine Romance — Adapting Broadway To Hollywood in the Studio System Era
This is the second part of my conversation with author Geoffrey Block regarding his recent book:
A Fine Romance — Adapting Broadway To Hollywood In the Studio System Era.
The romance that Geoffrey is referring to to in his title is the sometimes passionate, but often very rocky love affair between Broadway Musicals and the film studios that adapted them into Movie Musicals.
In this episode we discuss the 1940 stage & 1943 film versions of Cabin In The Sky, the first major film musical to be adapted from an All-Black stage show. And the 1955 Broadway & 1957 Hollywood versions of Cole Porter’s Silk Stockings. A movie that Geoffrey and I are both advocates for.
Along to way we delve into a number of related topics including the pros and cons of voice dubbing in film musicals, and the numerous, and often ridiculous, changes that were made in these musicals during their transitions to the screen in order to satisfy the censors charged with enforcing the Hollywood production code. We also look at how some of the films got around those restrictions!
Geoffrey Block is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Music History and Humanities at the University of Puget Sound and the author of eight previous books including Enchanted Evenings: The Broadway Musical from Show Boat to Sondheim and Lloyd-Weber and The Richard Rodgers Reader. He is also the editor of Oxford’s acclaimed Broadway Legacies Series.
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