Best movies like Sing Sing

The story of a small-time vaudeville trio and their rise to the big time.

In the year 2022, a ruthless prison warden has created the ultimate solution for his most troublesome and violent inmates: Absolom, a secret jungle island where prisoners are abandoned and left to die. But Marine Captain John Robbins, convicted of murdering a commanding officer, is determined to escape the island in order to reveal the truth behind his murderous actions and clear his name.

After a scientific experiment goes horribly wrong during a demonstration, a scientist finds himself trapped in an alternate reality that bears some similarities to our own, but also has some striking differences. In this other reality the Second World War had never occurred, mankind had not yet traveled into Space and Mt. Everest had not yet been conquered, just to name a few things. Also in this other reality he is no longer a scientist but rather a well known author. After a personal tragedy in this alternate world, he finds himself back in his own world and desperately trying to locate the woman he fell in love with in the other world. Little does she know, however, that her life depends on him finding her.

Thrown to rot in a narrow and gloomy cell of a hideous Soviet prison, a weary new inmate struggles to come to terms with the new reality. Within the grey cage, an unwelcoming fellow convict cautions the newcomer not to touch the intriguingly mysterious red wooden box which rests on the lower bunk, moreover, not even think of opening it. Why is there so much secrecy about the contents of the box? Could there be hiding the means to his escape?

A prisoner about to be pardoned puts it off until he can put on one last variety show for his fellow inmates.

Liverpool. 1947. Right after World War II, a star struck naive teenage girl joins a shabby theatre troupe in Liverpool. During a winter production of Peter Pan, the play quickly turns into a dark metaphor for youth as she becomes drawn into a web of sexual politics and intrigue and learns about the grown-up world of the theater.

Jim Fletcher, waking up from a coma, finds he is to be given a court martial for treason and charged with informing on fellow inmates in a Japanese prison camp during WWII. Escaping from the hospital he tries to clear himself by enlisting the aid of Martha Gregory, widow of a service buddy he was accused of informing on. Helped also by Ted Niles, a surviving fellow prisoner, he gets closer to finding the answers he needs, and becomes ensnared in a grandiose scheme involving his Japanese ex-prison guard, $10,000,000 of US currency forged by the Japanese and a burgeoning crime network poised to wreak havoc throughout southern California.

Al Pacino's deeply-felt rumination on Shakespeare's significance and relevance to the modern world through interviews and an in-depth analysis of "Richard III."

A young girl, institutionalised by her abusive stepfather, retreats to an alternative reality as a coping strategy and envisions a plan to help her escape.

A detective who has "four hours to kill" before delivering his prisoner, an escaped killer, spends the time in the lobby of a Broadway theater where a musical is playing. The film focuses on the relationship between the two men, and also between various characters in the theater audience, staff and cast.

Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women's lives.

Buster Keaton is a bank teller who becomes involved with a hold-up, counterfeiters, and a theatrical troupe posing as spooks in a haunted house.

The story of a family troupe of English actors who travel around the towns and villages in India giving performances of Shakespearean plays. Through their travels we see the changing face of India as the old is replaced by the new, Maharajas become hotel owners, sports become more important than culture and the theater is replaced by Bollywood movies. Based on the travels of Geoffrey Kendal with his daughter Felicity Kendal.

Chorus girl Peggy Lane, finds a small part in a new show for David North, a stages-truck country boy. At rehearsal, David meets Delerys Devore, the show's star, and she quickly offers him a larger part in her act. Quite taken with David, Delerys invites him to her home on the pretext that Peggy will be there; when Peggy does not show up, David leaves, infuriating his hostess. Derelys has Peggy fired the next day, and in reprisal Peggy goads her into a Carmenesque fight backstage just before the show. Derelys is unable to go on stage, and Peggy takes her place, becoming the hit of the show. Peggy and David are later married and give up show business, finding contentment living on a farm.

The famous matinee idol and blackface comedian, Don Wilson, heads out of town to escape adulation. There, calling himself Harry Mann, he accidentally joins a traveling acting troupe, and falls in love with Ginger Bolivar, who runs the troupe and stars in their Civil War melodrama. Don's producer sees the play, and thinks it's a comic masterpiece, and just what Don's Broadway show needs. But when Ginger finds out she's been played for a fool, will she forgive Don?

A group of inmates escape from Dartmoor prison. They hide out in the English country side but are doggedly chased by police.

In the year 2005, the prison system has been completely privatized and cyber prisons have become the new means for housing the guilty. The bodies of inmates are kept in suspended animation while their minds are kept in a virtual reality prison. Business tycoon R.D. Crowley has found a way to capitalize on these virtual prisons by allowing rich men to pay in order to engage in a form of virtual reality hunting that has real-life consequences for the inmates. Will, a guard at one of these prisons, soon finds himself coerced into one of these virtual cat and mouse games. Armed with his knowledge of history, along with his expert skills in VR combat, Will must work with the inmates in order to save their lives and escape from the prison before it's too late.

Set in some distant future, one man must restore order when a mainframe system crashes in a virtual reality prison where computers control the inmates thoughts.

This film is about Japanese women, escape, glamour and dreams. The Takarazuka Revue is an enormously successful spectacular where the all-women cast create fantasies of erotic love and sensitive men. It is also a world for young girls desperate to do something different with their lives. In return for living a highly disciplined and reclusive existence, they will be adored and envied by many thousands of Japanese women. They will look, act and behave like young men while having no real men in their lives. Dream Girls explores the nature of sexual identity and the contradictory tensions that face young women in Japan today.

The Theatre of Death in Paris specialises in horror presentations. A police surgeon finds himself becoming involved in the place through his attraction to one of the performers. When bloodless bodies start showing up all over town he realises there could be links with the theatre.

Helena Mora, the head of an eccentric theatrical family, has decided to sell her large estate in the Hamptons because of her recent money troubles. Before she completes the sale, she wants to have one last gathering of family and friends, with dramatic performances. Bringing everyone together, though, creates rivalries and tension, especially for Oona, a temperamental but successful movie actress who seeks the approval of her creative peers.

A man watching a musical show at the Windmill theatre is shot apparently from the stage. The cast continues the performance so that the detective can solve the murder.

In an underground prison an inmate escapes during a riot. One year later, a group of friends set out to locate an old hermit shack. They're worst nightmares are revealed when they spawn an evil darkness within the escaped prisoner.

In the summer of 2013, a community theatre group from Albuquerque, NM decided to stage a production of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Since the majority of the play takes place in an enchanted forest, the troupe thought it would be a good idea to rehearse in the woods. So they rented a cabin... In the woods... They never returned.

Fleabag may seem oversexed, emotionally unfiltered and self-obsessed, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. With family and friendships under strain and a guinea pig café struggling to keep afloat, Fleabag suddenly finds herself with nothing to lose.

A feuding fairy King and Queen of the forest cross paths with four runaway lovers and a troupe of actors trying to rehearse a play. As their dispute grows, the magical royal couple meddle with mortal lives leading to love triangles, mistaken identities and transformations… with hilarious, but dark consequences.

"Femrat" is a movie about a guy who's life goes smoothly until all women around him decide he is a good catch. Being a divorce lawyer, marriage is more of a horror show to him as woman are - in his eyes- wonderful creatures that desire one thing: to trap you forever! A crazy inmate who will do anything to stop his divorce, an obsessive mother who wants him settled, two very demanding twins in search of a husband, and a wife-dependent taxi-driver are his world... until the sky strikes and he finds himself in an abandoned buss stop, at the mercy of a beautiful brunette.The smarter he becomes in avoiding the luring traps build by women around him, the more impossible it becomes to escape forever... because in the end, love is a game and the winner sometime is the one who doesn't like to play.

A theatrical troupe from the west end of London loses its leading lady when she goes off to marry a rich young man from the other side of town. The rest of the play deals with the budding romance and trials and tribulations of their love, as well as the changing face of late-19th-century theatre.

As the star of his church choir, there's nothing that brings Billy more joy than the opportunity to sing for an audience. However, as his desire to perform grows, the stalwart youth finds that waiting until Sunday to get his fix just simply isn't enough. Going against the advice of his pastor, Billy follows his girlfriend into the world of secular entertainment, joining the local community theatre troupe. There, Billy is introduced to a whole new world, where his fellow thespians dabble in drugs, sexual perversion, and table-top game-play. Yet, for all the newly minted depravities Billy encounters, none could prepare him for the darkest truth of them all: The theatre group is actually a front for a Satanic cult intent on raising Dracula from the grave!

A riot in a state prison is staged to cover up an escape attempt, during which many inmates and guards are killed. Shot on location at Arizona State Prison.

The greatest prison break in history became America's most notorious cold case. The escape from Alcatraz in 1962 forced the government into a merciless manhunt. Still, the three inmates were never found.

A celebration of John Cleese and Connie Booth's acclaimed sitcom following the misadventures of Torquay hotel owner Basil Fawlty. The programme explores its phenomenal success, with a selection of its finest moments, and contributions from fans, experts and supporting cast members.

For one night only, Professor Brian Cox goes unplugged in a specially recorded programme from the lecture theatre of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. In his own inimitable style, Brian takes an audience of famous faces, scientists and members of the public on a journey through some of the most challenging concepts in physics. With the help of Jonathan Ross, Simon Pegg, Sarah Millican and James May, Brian shows how diamonds - the hardest material in nature - are made up of nothingness; how things can be in an infinite number of places at once; why everything we see or touch in the universe exists; and how a diamond in the heart of London is in communication with the largest diamond in the cosmos.

A tribute to British comedian Mel Smith, who died in July 2013, aged 60, featuring home video footage, rare archive material and many classic sketches. Far more than a comic actor, Smith also wrote and edited a host of celebrated TV comedies in the 1980s and 90s. He was a theatre and film director, and as a TV producer he was responsible for several innovative comedy series. Friends and colleagues, including Griff Rhys Jones, John Lloyd and Richard Curtis, talk about Smith's talents, both in front of- and behind the camera. The programme also traces his time at Oxford and, before that, Latymer Upper School, where Smith's talents were first spotted.

As the world faces its Second World War, John Halder, a good, intelligent German professor, finds himself pulled into a movement with unthinkable consequences.

A disgraced White House chef finds himself many years later working in a maximum-security prison cooking last meals for inmates on death row.

Based on the acclaimed 1971 Tony-winning Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Goldman, FOLLIES tell the story of former cast members of Weissman Follies, reunited for the last time in their theatre which is to be demolished.

Hamlet has the world at his feet. Young, wealthy and living a hedonistic life studying abroad. Then word reaches him that his father is dead. Returning home he finds his world is utterly changed, his certainties smashed and his home a foreign land. Struggling to understand his place in a new world order he faces a stark choice. Submit, or rage against the injustice of his new reality. Simon Godwin (The Two Gentlemen of Verona 2014) directs Paapa Essiedu as Hamlet in Shakespeare's searing tragedy. As relevant today as when it was written, Hamlet confronts each of us with the mirror of our own mortality in an imperfect world. Hamlet played in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon until throughout summer 2016.

Special People is based on a true story of Diane Dupuy. Diane Dupuy creates a unique black light theatre company called Famous People Players. The cast consists of people who are developmenatlly challenged. Seven members of the cast play themselves in the movie as well as the man who discovered this talented performance group and gave them their start in show business: Liberace.

Riley Burdett, the artistic director of the Onota Theatre in Massachusetts, learns that the theatre’s Scrooge-like owner Regina is preparing to close. So, she calls upon the ghosts of Regina’s past, present, and future to change her mind. Meanwhile, Riley casts a big TV star, Sam Palmer, who has moved to the area to escape, as Bob Cratchit in “A Christmas Carol.”

A convicted racketeer becomes prison trustee when an inmate whom he persuaded to escape is killed.

Director Ted Brooks and comedians Jack Norcross, Dandy Joslyn and Phil Miller are part of a troupe of promising young players rehearsing for a WPA show at the Garrick Theater in New York and are stunned when the government withdraws their funding on the day of the show's dress rehearsal. Destitute, the troupe plans to return home when Mac, the stage doorman, offers to allow four of the men, Phil, Dandy, Jack and Ted, to use the theater for a boardinghouse. After accepting Mac's offer, the men improvise bedrooms out of the set pieces and meet amateur actress Lorie Fenton from Cleveland, who is eager to audition for them. When the men learn she recently received a small inheritance, they allow her to audition, hoping she will back the show.

A group of feisty, talented young performers pool their resources and buy a dilapidated theatre to showcase their acts – but unscrupulous property developers also want the theatre and resort to dirty tricks to disrupt the first night's performance!

Nineteenth century Wyoming: the wild West. Mild-mannered Tom Healy has a two-wagon theater troupe hounded by creditors because Angela, his leading lady and the object of his affection, constantly buys clothes. In Cheyenne, they meet with applause, so they hope to stay awhile: the theater owner likes Angela, and she keeps him on a string. She's also the object of the attentions of Mabry, a gunslinger who's owed money by the richest man in Bonanza.

In 1863, having escaped from a rock-quarry prison in Salt Lake, six inmates led by convicted murderer Pete Black take over a small wagon train headed by preacher Jacob Karns. Tensions and hardships grow as the travelers continue to trek toward California across dry, desolate country.

When Tad Wallace's act flops on Broadway, he joins a troop heading west. In a small town, they run into Jeffries who has just burned down the theater. When Jeffries kills Griswold, Tad has a plan to trap him by using the talents of Shakespearian actor Thorndyke.

Chicago cabbie Mitch Lawrence is a man whose dreams are starting to fade. His only shining light is his loving and pregnant wife. When one of his clients, author Lou Webber offers him money to eliminate a drug dealer who is stalking him, Mitch refuses. Days later, Mitch is diagnosed with inoperable stomach cancer. He reconsiders Lou's offer, and for the sake of his wife and baby, eliminates the threat. But after that night, everything changes, Mitch's stomach pains disappear. The Drug dealer suddenly resurfaces in a crowd. Then events conspire to drag Mitch deeper into a game that proves that at the right price any man is for hire.

A young man follows a theatre troupe during their tour.

Based on the true story of Quawntay “Bosco” Adams. Sentenced to 35 years for attempted possession of marijuana, Adams miraculously escaped from a Federal maximum-security prison while under 24-hour surveillance in solitary confinement with the help of an older woman he met through a lonely-hearts ad.

A fun filled weekend turns deadly when a group of unsuspecting theatre goers are trapped inside, after a ravenous spirit is resurrected and released from a Ouija board. They must confront their most terrifying fears and destroy the spirit before it finds and kills them first.