The book has been adapted for the stage, motion pictures, and television.
McCullers herself adapted the novel for a Broadway production directed by Harold Clurman. It opened on January 5, 1950 at the Empire Theatre, where it ran for 501 performances. The cast included Ethel Waters, Julie Harris, and introduced Brandon deWilde, a seven-year-old second-grader at the time.
Waters, Harris, and deWilde reprised their stage roles, with Arthur Franz, Nancy Gates, and Dickie Moore joining the cast, for the 1952 film version The Member of the Wedding. The screenplay was adapted by Edna and Edward Anhalt and directed by Fred Zinnemann. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for Julie Harris, in her debut screen appearance.
A stage musical version, F. Jasmine Addams, was produced Off-Broadway in 1971.[12][13] Another unauthorized musical adaptation was written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane and produced by the University of Alabama at Birmingham's "Town and Gown Theater" in 1987.[14]
A 1982 television adaptation, directed by Delbert Mann, starred Pearl Bailey, Dana Hill, and Howard E. Rollins, Jr.[15]
A 1989 Broadway revival production with Roundabout Theatre (directed by Harold Scott, set design by Thomas Cariello) starred Esther Rolle as Berenice, Amelia Campbell as Frankie, and Calvin Lennon Armitage as young John Henry.[16]
The 1997 film version, adapted by David W. Rintels and directed by Fielder Cook, starred Anna Paquin, Alfre Woodard, Corey Dunn, and Enrico Colantoni. Rintels used the original novel rather than the play as his source material.[17]
The Young Vic theatre in London produced the stage version of The Member of the Wedding in 2007, directed by Matthew Dunster. Frankie Addams was played by Flora Spencer-Longhurst and Berenice Sadie Brown by Portia, a member of Philip Seymour Hoffman's LAByrinth Theater Company.[18][19]
