Set to take place in Sheffield in May 2014, the festival brings together seven film screenings, an academic conference, an exhibition, a series of talks and several live performances. The focus of the festival is on the fascinating but often problematic process of adapting Broadway musicals for the big screen, ranging from Gene Kelly’s movie version of On the Town to Cameron Mackintosh’s landmark 2012 film production of his stage hit Les Misérables.

These films will be screened at the Showroom Cinema as part of the festival, along with other favourites such as The Band Wagon, Show Boat and Dreamgirls and lesser-known films such as Fred and Ginger’s Roberta and Barbra Streisand’s On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. The screenings will be introduced by a mixture of academics and celebrities to be announced soon, along with concert performances of a rarely-revived Broadway musical.

The festival will include a three-day academic conference, entitled Restaging the Song: Adapting Broadway for the Silver Screen. Professor Geoffrey Block, author of numerous important books on musicals, will be the keynote speaker for the event, and we look forward to welcoming other similarly distinguished scholars to Sheffield to enrich the intellectual discourse of the festival. Festival website

Also of note is a week-long exhibition that will run at the Workstation in Sheffield in tandem with the conference and festival. On display will be a range of posters and other memorabilia from The Overtures Trust, which is partnered with the Victoria and Albert Museum.