Any pantheon of classic Western musical comedy films would include 1952's "Singin' in the Rain" starring the legendary actor and dancer Gene Kelly. Set in late- 1920s Hollywood as it was transitioning from silent films to talkies, it depicts a romance between an established leading man named Don Lockwood (Kelly) and novice actress Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds).
Remarkably, it was more than 30 years after that before the first full-fledged stage version of the movie appeared, when a production starring and directed by pop singer Tommy Steele ran in the West End from 1983-85.
Other stagings followed, including one that ran on Broadway from 1985-86. Then in 2004, a version featuring choreography by and starring Adam Cooper — a former principal dancer with the Royal Ballet who also created the role of the Swan/Stranger in "Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake" in 1995 — played a short summer season at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in London.