Adapting a stage play for the screen usually means handing it to someone else. The playwright’s words get trimmed, opened up and reshaped by a screenwriter who may never have sat in the rehearsal room. Sometimes, though, the person who wrote the play also writes the screenplay, and occasionally directs the film too.
The nine titles below all fit that description. Each one shows a writer deciding what to keep, what to cut and what to rebuild when a stage story moves to the cinema.
Doubt by John Patrick Shanley
Shanley’s play about a Catholic school principal who suspects a priest of misconduct opened off Broadway in 2004. It went on to win both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play in 2005. The story has no neat answers, and that ambiguity is the point.
Shanley wrote and directed the 2008 film himself. Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis headed the cast. He already had an Oscar for writing Moonstruck, so the screen was familiar ground for him.
- Play: 2004 off-Broadway premiere | Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play (2005)
- Film: 2008 | written and directed by Shanley
- Oscar nominations: 5, including all four lead and supporting performances and Best Adapted Screenplay
The Humans by Stephen Karam
Karam’s play follows a family gathering for Thanksgiving in a dilapidated two level apartment in lower Manhattan. It won the Tony Award for Best Play in 2016. The drama lives in the overlapping conversations and the odd noises coming from the building.
For the 2021 film, released by A24, Karam wrote the script and directed for the first time. Richard Jenkins, Amy Schumer, Beanie Feldstein, Steven Yeun and June Squibb appeared, and Jayne Houdyshell returned from the stage production. Because the story stays in one apartment, the film feels close to the theatrical original.
- Play: Broadway run in 2016 | Tony Award for Best Play | Pulitzer Prize finalist (2015)
- Film: 2021 | A24 | Karam’s directorial debut
- Stage carry-over: Jayne Houdyshell reprised her role
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
Stoppard’s absurdist comedy follows two minor Hamlet characters who wander through events they can’t understand. It premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1966, and the National Theatre staged it in 1967. That production made Stoppard’s name.
He wrote and directed the film version in 1990, with Gary Oldman and Tim Roth in the title roles. It won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Stoppard let the film range beyond one stage, though the wordplay stays as dense as ever.
- Play: Edinburgh Fringe 1966 | National Theatre 1967 | Tony Award for Best Play (1968)
- Film: 1990 | written and directed by Stoppard
- Top honor: Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival
Amadeus by Peter Shaffer
Shaffer’s 1979 play imagines the composer Salieri’s envy of Mozart. It is a mix of fiction and history, and it works as a study of mediocrity facing genius. The stage version leans on Salieri’s direct address to the audience.
Shaffer wrote the screenplay for Milos Forman’s 1984 film. He won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, and the film took eight Academy Awards in all, including Best Picture. Shaffer had to loosen the play’s confessional structure and let the music carry more of the load.
- Play: 1979 premiere at the National Theatre, London
- Film: 1984 | directed by Milos Forman | screenplay by Shaffer
- Oscars: 11 nominations, 8 wins (Best Picture, Director, Actor and Adapted Screenplay among them)
Educating Rita by Willy Russell
Russell’s play, first staged in 1980, centers on a hairdresser who enrolls in an Open University course and clashes with her weary tutor. Nearly all of it takes place in his office. The comedy sits on top of a sharper look at class and ambition.
Russell adapted it himself for the 1983 film directed by Lewis Gilbert. Michael Caine and Julie Walters starred, and both earned Oscar nominations. Walters also won a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for the role, which she had played on stage.
- Play: 1980 premiere | almost entirely set in one office
- Film: 1983 | directed by Lewis Gilbert | screenplay by Russell
- Oscar nominations: 3 (Caine, Walters and Russell’s adapted screenplay)
Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling
Harling wrote this play after the death of his sister, setting it in a Louisiana beauty salon where the women of a small town trade jokes and support one another. It opened off Broadway in 1987. The salon setting keeps it intimate and funny even when the story turns heartbreaking.
Harling wrote the screenplay for the 1989 film directed by Herbert Ross. The cast included Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Daryl Hannah and Julia Roberts. Roberts received an Oscar nomination, and the film let Harling show scenes the stage version only described.
- Play: 1987 off-Broadway | one-room salon setting
- Film: 1989 | directed by Herbert Ross | screenplay by Harling
- Recognition: Oscar nomination for Julia Roberts (Best Supporting Actress), who also won a Golden Globe
August: Osage County by Tracy Letts
Letts’s sprawling family drama about the Westons of Oklahoma won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play in 2008. It runs more than three hours on stage across three acts. The central event is a dinner after the father’s disappearance, and it’s famously brutal.
Letts wrote the screenplay for the 2013 film, which John Wells directed. Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts played mother and daughter, and both were nominated for Oscars. Letts condensed the long play to fit a feature running time and moved some scenes outdoors.
- Play: Premiered at Steppenwolf in Chicago, then Broadway in 2007 | Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award (2008)
- Film: 2013 | directed by John Wells | screenplay by Letts
- Oscar nominations: Streep (Best Actress) and Roberts (Best Supporting Actress)
Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet
Mamet’s 1984 play about desperate real estate salesmen won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Its rhythmic, profane dialogue became a hallmark of his writing. The pressure of a sales contest drives every scene.
Mamet wrote the screenplay for James Foley’s 1992 film. He added a new character, a corporate hotshot played by Alec Baldwin, to give the story a stronger opening. Al Pacino received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Ricky Roma.
- Play: 1984 | Pulitzer Prize for Drama
- Film: 1992 | directed by James Foley | screenplay by Mamet
- Added for the screen: Blake, the character played by Alec Baldwin
Frost/Nixon by Peter Morgan
Morgan’s play dramatizes the 1977 television interviews between British broadcaster David Frost and former US president Richard Nixon. It opened at the Donmar Warehouse in London in 2006 and moved to Broadway in 2007. Much of its tension comes from treating a talk-show duel like a heavyweight boxing match.
Morgan wrote the screenplay for the 2008 film, which Ron Howard directed. Frank Langella and Michael Sheen carried their stage roles as Nixon and Frost onto the screen. The film earned five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay, and Morgan used the camera to show the aftermath and the backroom planning the play could only suggest.
- Play: Donmar Warehouse 2006 | Broadway 2007
- Film: 2008 | directed by Ron Howard | screenplay by Morgan
- Oscar nominations: 5, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay
