Applause (musical) resulting musical could not contain any dialogue or characters that had been created for the movie but could use the original material that the movie also used. In April 1969, it was announced that Strouse, Adams, and book writer Sidney Michaels were beginning to work on the show, with Lawrence Kasha producing. In July 1969, movie star Lauren Bacall was cast as aging theater star Margo Channing, the role played by Bette Davis in "All About Eve". Bacall greatly identified with the role, explaining, "The Margo Channing of "Applause" and myself were ideally suited. She was approaching middle age. So
Emlyn Williams Green" (1938), partly based on his own childhood in Wales. He starred as a Welsh schoolboy in the play's London premiere. The play came to Broadway in 1940 with Ethel Barrymore as the schoolteacher Miss Moffat. A 1950 Broadway revival starred Eva La Gallienne. The play was turned into a film starring Bette Davis, and again into a made-for-television film starring Katharine Hepburn, under the direction of Williams's close friend George Cukor. An attempt to turn the play into a musical in the 1970s, with Davis again in the role of the schoolteacher with lyrics by Williams, failed. So did