Take a gander at broadway.com. More than a dozen of the musicals listed on the site are based on movies — in most cases, movies that once were books.

Interestingly, the sources for some of these productions are not strictly "serious," like "Les Miserables."

For example, there's the wildly popular "Wicked," based on characters from L. Frank Baum's "The Wizard of Oz." Then there's "Tarzan" and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

It's clear that musical theater has gone Hollywood, most likely for reasons that make fiscal sense. Producers have always been reluctant to invest in risky properties, and a musical remake of a box-office smash is more likely to draw in tourists who only visit Broadway once in a blue moon.

It's also clear that recent Broadway and off-Broadway productions have been giving a respectful nod to all things geeky, with source material derived from the genres of science fiction and horror.

It's not exactly a recent development, considering "Little Shop of Horrors" came into Broadway production in 1982 (based on the 1960 Roger Corman film). And while "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" was released in 1975 as a film, it deserves special adulation for being one of the first cult-science-fiction-horror-musical-comedies around (of course, it's a Broadway musical now).

Just think, there's "Bat Boy: The Musical," the less popular "Area 51" and the off-Broadway production of "Evil Dead: The Musical," which Entertainment Weekly called a "bloody good time!"

Back in March 2006, the "Lord of the Rings" musical premiered in Toronto.

The production was three and half hours long, had two intermissions and came with a 40-ton revolving stage outfitted with elevators and moving platforms.

Fans came from around the world to see the show, which cost more than $8 million to produce.

Some critics hated its complexity; others thought it was overproduced.

But there were only rave reviews for "Evil Dead: The Musical," a much cheaper production that didn't take itself so seriously. The show was done in the spirit of fan fiction, with the writers assuming their target audience would have knowledge of the "Evil Dead" universe.

It helped that the writers, Frank Cipolla, Christopher Bond, Melissa Morris and George Reinblatt, are great admirers of Sam Raimi's films. They jam-packed the musical with enough in-jokes, taglines and violence to satisfy the most die-hard fans.

The creative team behind "Evil Dead: The Musical" also understood that their show (which closed last week) was a parody of musicals. The show featured dancing demons, for goodness sake, and outrageous ballads like, "All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons."

In general, when it comes to musicals derived from cult sci-fi and horror fiction, the fan productions often have more bite than full-scale performances with a blockbuster budget.

Another example of a much-loved, low-budget, derivative musical is "Shoggoth on the Roof," which combines the work of H.P. Lovecraft with the musical "Fiddler on the Roof."

Students and alumni from MIT wrote and performed "Star Wars Trilogy: Musical Edition," melding the plot of "Star Wars" with music from well-known Broadway plays.

These creative teams may not have Broadway backing, but they do a lot with a little money. A low-budget fan musical can have more heart than a big-budget production — which fans appreciate.

And it's just plain fun to imagine your favorite science fiction or horror film as a musical. It can be a game you play with all of your friends.

I played it here at the office, in fact.

I wasn't exactly surprised that our outdoor writer said he wanted to see "Planet of the Apes" as a musical, but Happenings editor Jed Reinert surprised me when he picked "Scanners," a 1981 thriller directed by David Cronenburg.

For the uninitiated, "Scanners" is about rogue psychics that have the ability to kill with their thoughts. The most famous scene in the film comes when a character's head blows up.

Since Jed is such a big zombie fan, I asked him why he didn't pick a George Romero film.

"Aw, come on," he said, smiling. "Musical numbers about heads exploding? That would just be ... ." He trailed off and made an "OK" gesture with his fingers.

"!\p'Cujo' as a musical would be funny," said one of our staff photographers. "But, like, there shouldn't be a guy in a dog suit. They could use a slide projector to show fangs and claws, maybe across the windshield of the car the mother and son are trapped in. That would be much scarier than a guy in a dog suit."

Their enthusiasm in discussing the subject explains why these unconventional musicals are suddenly growing in number. It's all about fandom, stupid.

Make fun of fans if you want, whether they're Trekkies, or Rocky Horror fanatics or Browncoats ("Firefly" fans) — but they're a devoted lot, not easily deterred. If "Dune" is your thing, you never get tired of reading the novel or watching the films. It's also reasonable to conclude that you wouldn't mind seeing a musical with Fremen dancers and the Baron Harkonnen floating above the stage with the help of invisible wires.

And what's the harm?

True, fan gratification is yet another tactic that allows producers to rake in more dough, but not all of these shows are created by people with dollar signs in their eyes.

Some of these creative teams are part of the fan communities they're writing for, and that makes their work sincere — not silly.

Culture Shocked! is a biweekly pop culture column written alternately by Carla DiFonzo and Jed Reinert. E-mail is welcome at cdifonzo@lnpnews.com or jreinert@lnpnews.com.