Why did it take nearly 10 years...
to make the movie? Were they waiting for the Broadway run to finish or taper off? I understand this was a very popular musical. Does anyone know why?
shareThat's a question I've asked for ages. Why did they wait until 1957 to film this? Hollywood's golden age was about over and so were most musicals (with a few exceptions) Now earlier in the decade we had musicals such as Singing in the Rain (1952) Show Boat (1951) Oklahoma (1955) the King and I (1956)to name a few & South Pacific should have been done during that time span.
And then sometimes Broadway productions flopped in film versions so they held off or had skepticism about filming it. I don't think that would have been the case here.
Until the mid 50s, most major movie musicals were originalsd like Singin in the Rain, and this changed with Oklahoma and later stage musicals which integrated story and song, making them more attractive to film. On film, Oklahoma was made in 1955, 12 years after it first appeared on stage, and others followed.
Usually movies would follow the stage show by a few years, but long stage runs changed that. FOr example, My Fair Lady ran 6 years on Broadway from 56-62 so the film wasn't released until 64. So MFL took as long to get to the screen as SP.