The Cinema of Theatre

What does it mean when there’s a play in a movie?

A scene from A Streetcar Named Desire in All About My Mother (1999)

In an ongoing effort to create rigidly defined categories based on my own fixations¹, I spent a couple of hours this week composing a list of every movie I could think of that features a scene of theatre: rehearsal, audience, backstage, script reading, theatre making, and in the case of My Dinner with André, something…else. I have mostly excluded films that feature musicals, opera, dance, or comedy because I believe these to be their own categories. With the exception of Vanya on 42nd Street and Swimming to Cambodia, I have not included any straightforward cinematic adaptations of stage plays. Television is too huge to consider at this moment, but I do, and I will.

With the oversight of my friend Daniel Warth, a wonderful filmmaker who has possibly seen every movie in existence, below is my current list of movies starring (or cameo-ing) theatre. I’ve put release years beside the ones that share titles with other unrelated movies and a ♥ beside my favourite examples of the category. Please tell me if I’ve missed any! And do let me know if you’ve seen Stage Fright (1987), because it looks outstanding. It bears mentioning, I have not seen all of these movies, but it is now my life’s goal to see every film with even a bit of theatre stink on it.

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A

A Bread Factory 1 & 2
A Chorus Line
A Double Life (1947)
À nos amours
After the Rehearsal
All About Eve
All About My Mother ♥
All That Jazz ♥
Asteroid City

B

Barton Fink ♥
Beaches
Birdman
Bullets Over Broadway ♥

C

Clouds of Sils Maria
Conte d'hiver (1992)
Cradle Will Rock 
Curtain Up 

D

Dead Poets Society
Dim the Fluorescents² 
Drive My Car

E

Esther Kahn

F

Fanny and Alexander (1983 TV version) ♥
First Time Female Director
Floating Weeds 
42nd Street 

G

Ghostlight 
Golden Coach

H

n/a

I

I Am Self-Sufficient 
Imitation of Life 
Illuminata 

J

n/a

K

n/a

L

L’Amour Fou
Les Enfants du Paradis ♥
Limelight
Love on the Ground

M

Madeline’s Madeline
Margaret ♥
Marriage Story
Materialists
Method (2017)
My Dinner with André ♥

N

Noises Off

O

Opening Night ♥
Ordinary People
Out 1 (1971)

P

Pain & Glory ♥
Past Lives 
Privates on Parade 

Q

n/a

R

Rushmore ♥

S

Salome’s Last Dance 
See How They Run 
Seven Veils 
Shakespeare in Love
Shakespeare-Wallah
Spider-Man 2 
Stage Beauty
Stage Door 
Stage Fright (1950) 
Stage Fright (1987) 
Stage Fright (2014) 
Summer Interlude  
Swimming to Cambodia
Synecdoche, New York

T

Tetro
Theater Camp
Theatre of Blood
The Big Sick 
The Dresser 
The Forty Year Old Version 
The Last Metro 
The Producers (1967)
The Red Shoes
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum
Thor: Ragnarok 
To Be or Not to Be (1942)
To Be or Not to Be (1983)
Topsy-Turvy ♥
Tootsie ♥
Twentieth Century (1934)

U

n/a

V

Vanya on 42nd Street 
Venus in Fur

W

Waiting for Guffman ♥

X

n/a

Y

You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet!

Z

n/a

Gena Rowlands in Opening Night (1977)

1. We all need hobbies!

2. Daniel directed this film (and I am in it) so I have benevolently permitted him to include it in the list.