15 Movies We Would Like to See on Broadway

Image via Warner Brothers

6. Casablanca

Casablanca is a classic. From the memorable, “Here’s looking at you kid” to Humphrey Bogart’s fedora, every moment is etched in film history. It would make a great musical precisely because of this iconic imagery and story. The World War II setting provides the perfect excuse for exquisite period costumes and even music. It would be a beautiful, romantic epic, up there with West Side Story.

Casablanca already has “As Time Goes By”, the perfect song to build a play around. The sweeping tune serves as a reminder to Rick (Bogart) and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) of the better times they spent together. Pair that with a song called, “We’ll Always Have Paris” where they actually reminisce about those days, perhaps in a flashback, and the audience will be left swooning. It can also be a quite funny play with characters like Captain Renault (Claude Rains) getting songs about his *shock* over the gambling happening at Rick’s nightclub.

These are the kinds of plays we want to see on Broadway. Romantic, beautiful plays about history and romance and intrigue. A play starring a strong heroine who will do anything to help the man she loves and the broken hearted man who loves her. Think of a stage with smoke rolling in and a swanky jazz club or an airport with a plane idling on the tarmac, waiting for that final decision. Taking a classic film like Casablanca and putting it onstage gives us intimacy and puts us in the action. And that is a world I would like to be a part of.