Singin' in the Rain: stage vs screen

Singin' in the Rain began as the 1952 MGM film musical directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, starring Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, and Jean Hagen. The stage musical came decades later, opening at the London Palladium in 1983 and on Broadway at the Gershwin Theatre in 1985, with the film's writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green credited for the book. Here is how the two compare.

Stage

Broadway musical (1985)

Screen

Singin' in the Rain (1952), directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen

1. The title number has to rain on a live stage

In the film, Gene Kelly danced the title song in a street set while sick with a fever. On stage the water is real and live: at the Gershwin Theatre in 1985, rain fell in sheets from the flies at the end of Act One. In London in 1983, a reviewer noted the downpour was so loud, and so risky for the microphones, that Tommy Steele mimed the song to a recording.

2. The story stays very close to the film

Comden and Green's story carries over almost intact: silent star Don Lockwood, his shrill co-star Lina Lamont, and Kathy Selden, the young actress who secretly dubs Lina's voice when The Dueling Cavalier is reworked into the talkie The Dancing Cavalier. The 1927 Hollywood setting and the shock of The Jazz Singer are kept. The stage show changes how the story is told, not what happens.

3. Mostly the same songs, with period extras

The film paired two new numbers, "Make 'Em Laugh" and "Moses Supposes," with older Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed songs from earlier MGM musicals. For London in 1983, the score was filled out with period songs by other writers, including the Gershwins and Cole Porter. Broadway's Act Two opens with "Wedding of the Painted Doll," a Brown and Freed song from The Broadway Melody (1929) that the film also uses, in its "Beautiful Girl" montage.

4. The finales are different

Both versions climax at the premiere of The Dancing Cavalier, where Lina lip-syncs while Kathy sings behind a curtain and Don exposes the trick, calling Kathy the real star. The film ends with Don and Kathy kissing in front of a billboard for a new picture called Singin' in the Rain. The stage show ends with a full-company finale of the title song, and saves its rain scene for the end of Act One.

5. Different stars in the main roles

Kelly, O'Connor, Reynolds, and Jean Hagen played Don, Cosmo, Kathy, and Lina on screen, and Hagen earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. The 1985 Broadway cast was led by Don Correia as Don, Peter Slutsker as Cosmo, Mary D'Arcy as Kathy, and Faye Grant as Lina. Correia was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

6. Same writers, new directors

Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote the film's screenplay and are credited with the stage book, which earned them a Tony nomination for Best Book. Where Kelly and Donen directed and choreographed the film, Twyla Tharp directed and choreographed the Broadway production, while Tommy Steele directed and starred as Don in London, with choreography by Peter Gennaro.

7. London came before Broadway

The stage musical opened at the London Palladium on June 30, 1983, two years before New York, and ran there until September 1985. The Broadway production opened on July 2, 1985, and closed on May 18, 1986, after 367 performances. Sarah Payne received an Olivier Award nomination as Lina in the London original.

8. A film classic, a shorter stage life

The 1952 film was only a modest hit at first and won no Oscars from its two nominations, but it has since topped the American Film Institute's 2006 list of the greatest movie musicals. The stage version had a shorter Broadway life, though its British revivals fared well, including a 2000 National Theatre production that won the Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival.

Singin' in the Rain movie vs musical: FAQs