While Bullets Over Broadway is making its debut on the Great White Way this spring, audiences will have a chance to celebrate the original on the big screen once again. The Film Society will host “From Screen to Stage: Bullets Over Broadway” for one night only, May 5 at 6:30pm. The evening will include a screening of the Woody Allen-directed award-winning film, starring John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Jennifer Tilly, Chazz Palminteri, Mary-Louise Parker, Rob Reiner, Jim Broadbent, Harvey Fierstein, and Tracey Ullman.

Following the screening, New York Film Festival Director Kent Jones will moderate a discussion with five-time Tony-winning director and choreographer Susan Stroman and lead producers Letty Aronson and Julian Schossberg. The conversation will focus on the creative process of turning a movie into a musical, touching on the “pleasures as well as the pitfalls of this particular transformation, including plenty of backstage stories.” Following the discussion, the audience is invited to a reception in the Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery.

The May 5 event celebrates the April opening of Bullets over Broadway: The Musical, starring Zach Braff and Marin Mazzie at the St. James Theatre.

New York Film Festival Director Ken Jones observed: “Bullets Over Broadway, like its illustrious predecessor The Producers, is a real New York story, perfect material  for the transition from screen to stage. Woody Allen? Susan Stroman? Sign me up!”

Allen’s 1994 Bullets Over Broadway screened as the first-ever Centerpiece selection of the New York Film Festival. The jazz-age comedy is a tale of life in the theater during the Roaring Twenties, complete with gangsters, showgirls, and more. Dianne Wiest, who won the Oscar in 1995 for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her part in the film, plays a fading diva with a lofty view of herself. She meets idealistic playwright  David Shayne (John Cusack), who is seduced by her charm and legendary status on the stage. Their friendship develops into something more, eventually threatening his marriage to his wife (Louise-Parker). In order to get his play financed, meanwhile, he is forced to cast a mobster's talentless girlfriend (Tilly).

The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1995, including Best Director for Woody Allen, Best Original Screenplay for Allen and Douglas McGrath, Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Chazz Palminteri, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Jennifer Tilly.

[The screening will take place on Monday, May 5 at 6:30PM at the Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street. Tickets go on sale today, Thursday, April 10. Admission is $13; $9 for students and seniors (62+); and $8 for Film Society members. Visit FilmLinc.com for more information.]