12 musicals on Broadway and Furthermore it comes from Shakespeare Plays

Lists12 musicals on Broadway and Furthermore it comes from Shakespeare PlaysOf West Side Story after Kiss me, kateDo you know all these music-influenced musicals?

William Shakespeare’s 39 plays – give or take, depending on who you ask – are constantly acting all over the world thanks to his truly unparalleled way with words and dramatic storytelling. Broadway writers also regularly turned to Shakespeare for source material, and for good reason; Shakespeare’s works are filled with high drama and big laughter – and they are not protected by copyright.

Here we look at 12 musicals based on the work of Shakespeare.

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12 musicals on Broadway and further inspired by Shakespeare Plays

1. West Side Story

We need to start with the typical Shakespeare Music: West Side Storya retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It was director Choreographer Jerome Robbins who first had the idea of ​​updating Shakespeare’s tragic story of star-crossed lovers doomed by their false families in the 14th-century Italy to a modern daycenario of two competitive gangs at the Upper West Side of New York. Robbins works with book writer Arthur Laurents, composer Leonard Bernstein, and lyricist Stephen Sondheim to create the show, which led in Broadway in 1957.

Although West Side Story is not a direct adjustment of Romeo and JulietDivide the two multiple plot points, such as a balcony scene between the lovers (a firefly in West Side Story) And the Romeo figure, Tony, who kills a close relative of his love. Also note that Tony’s famous “Something’s Coming” replaces Romeo’s monologue about Rosamond, but mimics the feeling of him to emotion and on the brink of change. However, the musical takes on a deviation to adjust Romeo and JulietThe famous-trachic end, which kills both the title characters. In West Side StoryTony (the Romeo-modeled character) is killed, but his love, Mary, lives on with the trauma of the experience.

West Side Story adapted in a very successful and Oscar award-winning film in 1961, and became a staple of English teachers in high school as a tool to cover Romeo and Juliet.

2. Everyone shook

The book writer Joe Dipietro looked at Shakespeare’s Twelfth night When choosing an intrigue that connects songs made by Elvis Presley, can be connected in this Jukebox musical, produced in Broadway in 2005. We will encounter it again on this list. Everyone shook Took a sign of Presley’s legacy to move the action to the US Middle West in the 1950s and turn Shakespeare’s viola-who as cesario in the original disguised Natalie, the car mechanic, who disguises her as Ed, so that the Elvis-like Chad will pay more attention to her.

Everyone shook was finally short -lived on Broadway, and offered only 213 performances, but enjoyed us and British tours, as well as a number of local productions. Cheyenne Jackson played his first starring role on Broadway and created the role of Chad.

3. Kiss me, kate

This Shakespeare -Musical Adjustment Get Meta. Shakespeare’s The pace of the shedThe stormy lovers Petruchio and Katherina become Fred and Lilli, two actors who lead the company of a musical version of The taming of the shed—and play Petruchio and Katharine in it – but also share a relationship beyond the stage similar to that of their Screw Characters. The idea is reportedly inspired by Kiss me, kate Producer Arnold Saint-Subber’s experience looks at the relationship between and outside the stage of the man and woman acting team Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne during a 1935 production of The pace of the shed. Saint-Subber made Samuel and Bella Spewack to adapt the story in a musical, with Cole Porter providing the songs. Kiss me, kate becomes a classic of the genre almost immediately after being promoted in 1948.

The show won the first best musical Tony Award in 1949 and has since been popular on Broadway and around the world. A revival in 1999 played Brian Stokes Mitchell and Marin Mazzie, and a 2019 production, starring Will Chase and Kelli O’hara, earned four Tony nominations.

4. Rockabye Hamlet

Shakespeare’s classic story of the Danish prince who avenges his father’s death has received the rock music treatment with Cliff Jones’ Rockabye Hamlet. The musical began in 1973 as a Canadian radio broadcast under the title Kronborg: 1582observe his name from the castle Ham takes place. In February 1976, a revised version (now mentioned Rockabye Hamlet) was opened on Broadway with a cast that included Larry Marshall in the title role and meat bread as the priest. Rockabye Hamlet After the opening night, the seven performances lasted famous, but the show has emerged in new productions through the years, usually with more revisions and even more new titles. The show played Los Angeles for 18 months in 1981 as Somethin ‘Rockin’ in Denmarkhas been revived in Astoria, New York, as Rockabye Hamlet in 2014, and returned to the earliest title Kronborg: 1582 For a 2017 concert production at the Charlottetown Festival in Canada.

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8. The donkey show

Before she became a Tony winner who was the 2013 Broadway revival of PippinDiane Paul made an early splash in the co-writing of the New York scene (along with the man Randy Weiner) and directed The donkey showan off-broadway disco version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Compelling before it was on a trend, The donkey show was staged in a club, Club El Flamingo. Midsummer‘S Oberon, king of the fairies, became a disco impresario, and his wife Titania a Donna summer-like Disco diva. Nick Bottom, who in Midsummer is an selfish weaver converted into a donkey, some disco-dancing twins in The donkey show. The show contains a Jukebox score of disco hits, including ‘I love the nightlife’, ‘ring my bell’, ‘we are family’ and ‘car wash.’

When it opened off-broadway in August 1999, production would play a limited involvement of six weeks. The donkey show There has been running for almost six years and becomes one of the longest running off-broadway performances in history. The production in New York led to productions around the world, and Paul revived the show in the American repertory Theater in 2009. It now now Still playing at Art on Saturday nights

9. The bomb-hitty of errors

Long before Hamilton, The bomb-hitty of errors brought rap to musical theater while updating the story of Shakespeare’s The comedy of errors. The show was written and performed by Jordan Allen Dutton, Jason Catalano, GQ and Erik Weiner, and began in 1998 as a senior project of the NYU. The next year, the following year, The bomb-hitty of errors Opened in the Bleecker Street Theater of Off-Broadway and becomes a favorite in the audience. Bomb-itty The original story of Shakespeare’s original story updated in modern times, which separated the pairs of identical twins because of the foster care system. A DJ on stage was on hand to turn beats.

The show enjoyed a successful off-broadway, with a nomination of the dramaless for best lyrics and a nomination of the outer critics circle for excellent off-broadway muscle. The show was later seen in Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, and internationally in England, Ireland, Scotland and Canada. Bomb-itty is still produced today by local theaters across the country.

10. Play on!

As Everyone shook, Play on! was a Jukebox Music Muscle that used Twelfth night As inspiration. Director Sheldon Epps had the idea of ​​mixing Shakespeare’s story with the music of the legendary jazz musician Duke Ellington. He recruited the book writer Cheryl L. West to transport the story to Harlem of the 1940s and told the story of a female musician named Vy who disguised herself as a man so that she could be more serious than a songwriter. The score contains standards such as ‘Take the Train’, ‘it doesn’t mean a thing (if it doesn’t swing like that),’ ‘I got it bad and it’s not good,’ and more.

Play on! promoted in March 1997 on Broadway. Although the production was short -lived with only 61 performances, Play on! Three 1997 Tony Awards Nominations received for the excellent performance of André de Shields, the leading performance of Tonya Pinkins and Luther Henderson’s orchestrations.

11. The lion king

Although the film and the resulting stage music The lion king are not directly credited as based on Shakespeare, but many have the clear similarities to Ham. Much like Ham Simba wants to avenge the murder of his father at the hands of his uncle, and eventually Simba has to triumph over his uncle scar after his murder of Mufasa. Even Timon and Pumbaa have Shakespearean connections Ham‘S Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Yet, the Ham connection can be less intentional, such as The creative team member Lebo M told Playbill in 2017 about the story’s connection to his personal past.

The lion king has become one of the most successful Broadway music remains in history. The show was opened in Broadway in October 1997 and becomes an almost attractive hit that still runs worldwide today.

12. Return to the forbidden planet

This off-broadway musical was adapted by Bob Carlton of the Classic 1950s Sci film Forbidden planetwhich is somewhat inspired by Shakespeare’s The storm. In Shakespeare’s play we meet the wizard Prospero, who lives in a separate island in a remote island. He calls on a storm to bring the king of Naples to the island, so that his daughter, Miranda, can marry the king’s son and accept her rightful title. Forbidden planet contains some similar plotnotes and a similar isolated setting The stormbut the musical Return to the forbidden planet is much more directly based on the Shakespeare. The remote island becomes the distant planet d’i -Illyria (a reference to the introduction of Twelfth night), which is home to Doctor Prospero and his daughter Miranda. A meteor shower drops a spaceship on D’Allyria, with Miranda eventually falling for the ship’s commander, Captain Tempest. All of this is set to a Jukebox count consisting of the hits of the ’50s and’ 60s, including ‘Wipe Out’, ‘Good Vibrations’, Monster Mash,’ and ‘Great Balls of Fire’.

This Campy Sci-Fi turn on Shakespeare started in Australia and toured there in the early 90s. An off-broadway production played the Variety Arts Theater for 243 performances in 1991, after which the show was seen at regional companies across the country.

Logan Culwell-Block is a musical theater historian, Playbill’s manager of research, and curator of Playbill Vault. @loganculwell