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It's been a decade since America voted for Pedro and made Napoleon Dynamite a hipster touchstone. The 2004 indie comedy, about a small-town loser (Jon Heder) with mad dance skills determined to elect his pal Pedro (Efren Ramirez) class president, divided audiences when it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. But Fox Searchlight saw the zeitgeist-shifting potential of director Jared Hess's first film (written with his wife, Jerusha) and turned the $400,000 oddball into a sleeper hit that raked in $45 million. How did that happen? With the help of the stars—and one stand-in llama—EW went searching for answers. —Jake Perlman...

This weekend saw Clint Eastwood’s stage-to-screen musical Jersey Boys struggle to strike a chord with moviegoers. But for every fourth-place finish, there’s a smash success like Les Misérables, Chicago, or Mamma Mia!—which all speak to the power of a musical adaptation done right.

Below, EW staffers name their top picks for adaptation—some of which have been announced and need to be expedited, others which are still but a glint in our theater-geek eyes.

Spring Awakening

Sure, the 2007 Best Musical Tony winner is a little racy: abortion, rape, child abuse, suicide… for starters. But Duncan Sheik’s rock opera,...

There are people out there who have never seen The Princess Bride. They walk among us, holding down jobs, contributing to society, and generally living happy, semi-fulfilled lives. But whisper a perfectly-timed “mawage” in their direction during a wedding, and the resulting blank stare or awkward chuckle will expose an inconceivable pop-cultural blind spot. Someone failed them when they were growing up.

In many ways it’s too late for them, but we can still save the next generation. The 55 Essential Movies Kids Must Experience (Before They Turn 13) is a starting point. This isn’t a list of the 55 “best” kids movies,...

Not too long ago, we were all living in the New Millennium, less affectionately known as the age of Y2K. Or if you want to be technical about it, it was the first decade of the 21st century. And during those 10 years, pop culture thrived. Not only did Nipplegate change the way we looked at Super Bowl halftime shows, but things like Laguna Beach made us rethink “reality,” Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight redefined the term “Oscar-worthy,” and Glee revived the television musical.

So with VH1′s I Love the 2000s wrapping up tonight, we thought...

To paraphrase Stephen Sondheim: Another theater season just got off of the train. But the start of the 2014-15 season is already threatening to jump off the track a little. After Sunday night’s mixed-results Tonys ceremony (No “in memoriam” segment? And did we really need to see Hugh Jackman embarrass himself rap?), the Tony administration committee announced that they would be discontinuing the sound design categories, to much consternation; in fact, 19,000 theater professionals and fans have already signed a petition to reinstate them, and the number keeps growing. (Ironic, too, as the Tony telecast at Radio City Music...

There’s some news in Hedwig land, fresh off the very, very high heels of Sunday’s Tony Awards ceremony in which the first Broadway production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch took home four trophies (including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Actor in a Musical for Neil Patrick Harris).

Tony nominee Andrew Rannells (Girls, The Book of Mormon) will slip on the fishnets of transgender rocker Hedwig as the first replacement for Harris, who departs the show on Aug. 17, the date the production was originally slated to end its limited run. Following Sunday’s Tony victories, the...

The 2014 Tony nominations were announced on Tuesday, and left many elated and just as many puzzled. No Denzel? Or Daniel Radcliffe? And nothing for everyone’s favorite traveling NYC duo? But there were some wonderful surprises (four acting nods for Twelfth Night!) and the lack of frontrunners (minus Neil Patrick Harris, Bryan Cranston, and perhaps this divine gal) will make the Hugh Jackman-hosted ceremony on CBS June 8 full of nail-biters. But here are some fun trivia bits about this year you can chew over until then (many of them compiled by our own Jake Perlman):

-If Audra McDonald...

The Mother has a new best friend: Tiya Sircar has been cast at the last minute to replace Krysta Rodriguez on How I Met Your Dad.

Sircar will play the “sexy and flamboyant best friend” of Sally (Greta Gerwig) on the eagerly awaited CBS How I Met Your Mother spinoff pilot.

The actress just wrapped an arc on CBS’ The Crazy Ones playing Sarah Michelle Gellar’s assistant and Hamish Linklater’s love interest. She was also one of the leads in The Internship this past summer and just did an arc on The Witches of East End for Lifetime.

Disney can show you the world. Shining. Shimmering. Splendid. And given the mid-show standing ovation for “Friend Like Me” at every performance of Broadway’s Aladdin and the oohs and aahs of the young children who witness the literal magic carpet ride the show depicts, it’s safe to assume that Disney has its latest long-runner. (Now whether it can ever unseat The Lion King as the fourth longest-running show ever is another question.) In other news this week, Chris Pine and Lauren Ambrose will be taking on Sam Shepard’s lovers-in-squabble drama Fool for Love for three weeks in Williamstown,...

EW has reporters covering tonight’s Oscars from every angle: on the red carpet, backstage, inside the theater, in the press room, and at the parties. Keep checking back throughout the night to find out what they’re seeing and hearing—and what you’re missing on TV.

On the red carpet:

++ The fans in the bleachers have started chanting “We want Ellen!”

Leonardo DiCaprio hugs Michael Fassbender #Oscars http://t.co/wi2aal51AO— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) March 03, 2014

Sudeikis gives us the thumbs up. #Oscars http://t.co/dIfweFd4ly— Lindsey Bahr (@ldbahr) March 03, 2014

The prom King and Queen:...

Two-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper announced this week (in an EW exclusive) that he’ll be returning to Broadway this fall to star in a revival of The Elephant Man opposite Patricia Clarkson and Alessandro Nivola. (Yes, it sounds like a stretch for People’s former Sexiest Man Alive — especially since Bernard Pomerance’s play does not require any prosthetics for the title role.) The David Byrne-Fatboy Slim musical Here Lies Love, which made EW’s Top 10 list last year, will return to the Public Theater in March for an open-ended run. And there were a handful of notable openings on both coasts,...

EW is inside all the Golden Globes parties tonight. Check out our reports from inside all the carousing and celebrating. Check back often for updates and follow us on Twitter at #EWglobes.

.@JaredLeto on winning for #DallasBuyersClub: “I was surprised! I didn't think I was going to get it!” #EWGlobes http://t.co/lsSPZgaS3m— Pamela Gocobachi (@pamelagocobachi) January 13, 2014

HBO Party

Spotted: Blue Jasmine supporting actress nominee Sally Hawkins chatting with fellow Woody Allen alum Mariel Hemingway. Also working the room were the entire Girls cast. Zosia Mamet posed with boyfriend Evan Jonigkeit, who will appear in this summer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past.