Xanadu (film) actual order in the film: The plot of the 1947 film "Down to Earth" was used as the basis for "Xanadu". In the film, Rita Hayworth played Terpsichore, opposite male lead Larry Parks, who played a producer of stage plays. The film was originally conceived as a relatively low-budget roller disco picture. As a number of prominent, A-list performers joined the production, it evolved into a much larger project, while retaining rollerskating as a recurring theme, especially in the final scenes of the club's opening night. Earlier versions of the story established that Sonny was the artist who created the
Xanadu (musical) Xanadu (musical) Xanadu is a musical comedy with a book by Douglas Carter Beane and music and lyrics by Jeff Lynne and John Farrar, based on the 1980 film of the same name, which was, in turn, inspired by the 1947 Rita Hayworth film "Down to Earth", a sequel to the 1941 movie "Here Comes Mr. Jordan", which was an adaptation of the play "Heaven Can Wait" by Harry Segall. The title is a reference to the poem "Kubla Khan, or A Vision in a Dream. A Fragment," by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Xanadu is the name of the Chinese province