The familiarity is there, but it still feels like nothing ever seen before. Tina Fey's smart and sharply amusing Mean Girls is now out on Broadway (and crushing it) and the immersing magic of staged performances is once more powerfully reminding the intangible sense of uniqueness it can bring to any story. Over the past, many silver screen successes have also had the privilege (or not) of being converted into musicals. While taking a two dimensional piece and turning it into a full-blown visual and auditory spectacle undeniably represents a challenge, some have done it with more flair than others...

Probe the TV industry and you'll hardly find that everyone agrees there isn't a problem with the rebooted '90s TV series Roseanne, or more precisely, the woman who has portrayed its main character for nearly 10 years. As Emmy voters prepare to spend the next few months deliberating over which shows deserve nominations ahead of the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards, ABC's Roseanne revival, with staggering season premiere ratings (18 million viewers, to be exact, followed by a still jaw-dropping 15 million for the second episode), is virtually sure to compete for a statuette. But in the light of recent contentious political statements made by its star, comedian Roseanne Barr, not all members of the industry, or even the…