CURTAINS RISE, AND CURTAINS FALL (2024)

And later this season, a sweet-natured 1988 movie will become the $10 million musical "Big" -- without Tom Hanks, but with the memorable dancing-on-the-giant-keyboard scene set at F.A.O. Schwarz.

It used to happen the other way around. Traditionally, first came the show and then -- after it had been the proverbial toast of Broadway -- came the movie, often with a different, more photogenic or more ticket-selling star in the lead role.

But this Broadway season turns tradition upside down. Continuing a vertiginous trend noticeable last year, a host of old movies are being spun into new shows. Besides the aforementioned, there's "State Fair," the only movie for which Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote an original score; it's having a thoroughly successful national tour and is heading New Yorkward, probably in the spring. Meanwhile, two of last year's screen-to-stage metamorphoses -- Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Sunset Boulevard" and Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" -- are still pulling crowds.

With top ticket prices hitting $70 for musicals, producers say they need to lure audiences with the familiar, the proven hit. "Any edge you can get, you take," says Tony Adams, producer of both versions of "Victor/Victoria." Its celluloid success provides "real name recognition. Most people know the subject matter and have a positive feeling about it. . . . To some extent, it's a pre-sold title."

But it's not only audiences that crave the reassurance of a known quantity; investors are just as wary. "The money looks for something proven," says James Freydberg, producer of "Big." He remembers making the rounds several years ago, looking for money to mount "Fool Moon," starring neo-vaudevillians David Shiner and Bill Irwin. "Nobody wanted to touch it," Freydberg found. "They said, What is it? Clowns? Audience participation? A mime show? Forget it.' " But "Big" was an easy sell, no explanation required. "It was, Oh yes, I loved that movie, it's perfect.' "

A few years back, Broadway's supposed sure thing was the revival, especially after "Guys and Dolls" demonstrated how an old favorite could glisten in a lavish reincarnation. A few revivals may still dribble into town: "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," with Nathan Lane clowning in the Zero Mostel role, is scheduled to open in April. But the supply of recognizable old hits to refurbish is growing depleted. Besides, not all of those revivals proved profitable. So the latest talisman is the transmogrified movie.

Technology makes the film-to-stage transition easier than it used to be, back when every musical included scenes played in front of the curtain so that behind it, stagehands could lug cumbersome scenery around. Computer-controlled sets and lighting now permit quick changes that approach the fluidity of film. In "Big," says Freydberg, "you have a scene of a town, a whole little community. And a shopping mall. An apartment, a loft, a big office, plus F.A.O. Schwarz. And those scenes flow into each other, almost the way a film would. They don't stop."

Advances in stagecraft also make possible some of the special effects -- helicopters landing onstage, a beast morphing into a prince -- that were once strictly the province of Hollywood wizards.

Still, some stunts are possible only in the movies. That scene in "Victor/Victoria" in which an impoverished Andrews tries to beat a restaurant check -- and causes a near-riot -- by dropping a co*ckroach onto her plate? It's gone. "How'd you like to train a co*ckroach to perform every night?" Adams groans. "And the bigger problem is, you can't see it."

The business of adapting films for theater is a tricky one, several participants in the process noted. If a familiar title appeals to audiences, it can also generate enormous expectations and, if they are unmet, bitter disappointment. When "Sunset Boulevard" was first announced, recalls lyricist and book author Don Black, "so many of my friends called and said, Oh my God, you're not going to have people dancing on pianos, are you? You're going to ruin something we've all loved.' " Accordingly, Black says, "we agonized for ages about the tone of every scene."

"Sunset Boulevard," with much of director and co-screenwriter Billy Wilder's dialogue intact, managed to make the transition. The non-musical "On the Waterfront," on the other hand, lasted just eight performances last spring.

That was a "problematic production," producer Hugh Hays acknowledges: A lead actor left, the director was replaced, another actor actually suffered a heart attack onstage. But even without such misfortunes the show was missing a key ingredient of the 1954 film classic -- Marlon Brando. Name recognition "can help and it can hurt," says Hays. "We were up against some very powerful images."

Other recent adaptations have also foundered, despite the best efforts of well-regarded theater pros. The musical "Nick and Nora," based on the William Powell-Myrna Loy "Thin Man" series of the '30s, died a swift death. So did "The Red Shoes," inspired by the 1948 melodrama.

"There are things that are such successes in their own medium that they should not be transferred to another," decrees Barry Weissler, who's producing "Busker Alley." He keeps saying no, for instance, to a proposed musical of "The Producers," Mel Brooks's demented 1968 screen comedy starring Mostel and Gene Wilder. "Producers, writers and composers have been playing with that material for 10 years and it never works," Weissler says. "You're playing with fire. Certain things should be left alone."

Beyond the risks of losing millions, producers worry that relying too heavily on properties with track records takes a toll on theatrical innovation and creativity. Writers and composers may be loath to take a flyer on an idea that hasn't already grossed $80 million and made critics happy. Ditto, or double ditto, for financial backers. "I'd like to produce a musical that's totally original, based on' nothing but someone's imagination," Freydberg says mournfully. "Would that be easy? Not in today's environment."

A note on the perversity of the entire process, however: Freydberg did manage to pull together money to produce "Fool Moon" in 1993. It did so well, charming critics and audiences and giving investors a 60 percent profit, that he's bringing it back this fall. Who knows whether "Big," the supposedly sure shot, can match that return?

"If they're all hits, {producers} should rush to the video store," says Don Black of these movies-to-Broadway projects. But since no season brings wall-to-wall hits, the movie mania could last another couple of seasons -- or dissipate within months. "There's no formula for any of this," Black sighs. "I'd compare it to doing your own root-canal work."

Black also issues a warning for anyone foolhardy enough to tamper with one of his favorite movies. "If someone does Casablanca: The Musical,' " he says, "I think I'll take a sick bag with me." CAPTION: Julie Andrews in "Victor/Victoria." CAPTION: Gloria Swanson and William Holden in Hollywood's "Sunset Boulevard," above, and Glenn Close in Broadway's.