Books which inspired musical adaptations

[neh]

I feel it would be horendous of either myself or Lostgirl to not begin a thread for the novels that have played a major role in our and many fellow musical theatre lovers' lives.... examples of such would be:
- The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (and if you want to include it, coz it's so darn good "Phantom" by Susan Kay)
- The Light in the Piazza by Elisabeth Spencer
- (if you want to be really abstract) In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust (i do have that right, don't i LG? it was the basis for My Life with Albertine?)
etc. etc. etc.

Please feel free to come here and discuss musical theatre works adapted from literature - and be prepared for me randomly quoting lyrics at any turn! ;D Do stop by; it's fun!

[zeldafitzgerald]

I own Wicked, it's still sitting on my shelf - unread so far. I've heard it's amazing, but I haven't gotten around to it. I'm new in New York and I'm really excited to be able to see so many musicals, and Wicked is one of the first ones I want to see.

Mary Poppins is brand new too....I would love to read the original books, especially the sequels to find out what happens after.

[Dominique]

I don't think I knew Mary Poppins was a book first, that's cool.

I know they made Margaret Atwood's "A Handmaid's Tale" into an opera or a stage musical or something, it would be interesting to see how that worked.

[zeldafitzgerald]

There's also a new bio out about the author of the Mary Poppins books that looks really good.

Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P. L. Travers
by Valerie Lawson

[neh]

Yeh, i saw a video bio on P.L. Travers - she was an Aussie, bless her! She had a rather depressing and neglected childhood, which brought about her desire to create a figure who could come in and change the dreary family dynmaic - i remember that she always said that "Mary Poppins didnt come for the children - she came for Mr. Bnaks". There was in fact series of Mary Poppins stories, i believe and Michael and Jane had a baby sister in the first book from memory..... but it's lovely that it (the musical adatpation) has finally gone to the stage, coz kids will adore it!
The novel of Wicked, written by Gregory Maguire, is excellent (it also has a sequal - or rather, follow-up) , but immensely different in tone from the musical; much of the subject matter is extremely adult (you could never put it on a children's or adolescent shelf in a store, IMO), the social and political themes are more pronounced and the characters, realistically, not near as clearcut. I love the musical - it's fun and has some great numbers and a rather poignant plot - but the book is a horse of a different colour (to reference another book to musical case). It's an original and inventive work, and i highly recommend it - just be prepared for some.... bizarre moments (when you read it, you'll get what i mean)

[lostgirl]

neh said:

- (if you want to be really abstract) In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust (i do have that right, don't i LG? it was the basis for My Life with Albertine?)
etc. etc. etc.

You do indeed have that right Neh. Sometimes the title is translated as The Rememberece of Thinngs Past but it's the same book and My Life With Albertine is based on it. Actually many of my favorite musicals are based on books. The three you mentioned are biggies. Others:
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (musical by Claude Boubil and Alain Schoenberg) This has some great translated lyrics considering that both the novel and the musical were originally written in French: "Through sufferning upon suffering he gradually came to the conclusion that life is a war and in that war he was the vanquished. He had do weapon but his hatred" becomes
Have I fallen so far and is the hour so late
That nothing remains but the cry of my hate
The cry in the dark that nobody hears
Here where I stand at the turning of the years
If there's another way to go
I missed it twenty long years ago
My Life was a war that could never be won
They gave me a number and murdered Valjean
When they chained me and left me for dead....

Passion by IU Tarchettu Musical but Stephen Somdheim (actually some of the lyrics are taken almost verbatem from dialogue) "Fosca alone merited my love, she alone had loved me, she who had braved ridicule, scorn, anger, she wo renounced her woman's pride "
becomes:
No one has ever loved me like that woman has
No one has truely loved me like Fosca
Love without reason, love without mercy
Love without pride or shame
Love unconcerned with being returned
No wisdom no judgement
No caution no blame

For me those are examples of how it's done best. Other good ones are
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Ragtime by EL Docterow
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brone
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Secret Garden by Frances Hogsden Burnett

[neh]

Drat it - thery're some of the most obvious titles and i forgot them! Good work, LG; good work. As i'll be reading soley Jane Eyre once Uni finishes in a week, i'll need to check out the musical immediately upon concluding.

[lostgirl]

It's very good,. The novel is a favorite of mine and I thought the musical was very well done

[neh]

This is good to know. It's always a shame when a favourite work is spoiled by a medium you particuarly care for and usually enjoy; you feel let down on two levels.

[Kristie]

I loved The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux! And then I heard the music Andrew Lloyd Weber had made for it and loved it. And then the musical came out a couple of years ago and it followed the book really well and had the awesome music. I'd died and gone to heaven But question. I remember Raoul was trapped in the room of mirrors for a lot longer than the movie showed. And wasn't he helped out by the Persian? At first I'd thought the Phantom and the Persian were the same, in the book, but the Persian wasn't even in the movie. Am I remembering this correctly from the book?

[neh]

Yes, you are remembering it exactly, but see the movie was based on the stage musical which in turn was "based" (loosely) on Leroux's novel, and there were many omissions ans changes from canon to stage - a notable one being that Nadir/The Persian/Daroga isn't included at all. But certainly, in Leroux Raoul and Naidr are trapped in the room of mirrors for at least an hour, and both start to go mad from the heat and the mind-games played upon them by the illusions surrounding them; poor sods.
From original book to stage there were MANY changes... in my mind one of the greatest is that of character: for example i really feel for Raoul in Leroux, but in ALW he (excuse the french) pisses me off to no end, for he appears to be a bit of a pompous, domineering ingnorant fop. And in Leroux, i am happy for Christine to be with Raoul (though i think she leads him on a little) so long as she acknowldges that she cares for Erik (for she does, we all know this) but in the stage and film version, i'm rather a tubborn E/C shipper (we're deadly, we are - so don't get into arguements with us!!!!!! *kidding* wait... no i'm not! hehe!)
But if you enjoyed Leroux's work Kristie, i highyl encourage you to hunt down a copy of Susan Kay's "Phantom"; it's utterly excellent.. there are very few Phans who don't delight in her rendition and expansion of the story.

[Kristie]

I can see what you mean by Raoul being a little pompous in the movie. I hadn't really thought about the characters as much I suppose, but just how the events seemed to happen somewhat accurately. In the movie Christine does sorta seem to not know who she actually likes, and I wish they had called the phantom Erik in the movie. But thanks for reminding me the Persian really did exist. I was beginning to think I'd made him up in my mind.

[bookworm148]

I loved Phantom of the Opera (book and musical)!!

[Kristie]

Well, some of my favourite musicals are based off of books. Pygmalion, a play by George Bernard Shaw, inspired My Fair Lady. Sholom Aleichem's Tevye's Daughters inspired Fiddler on the Roof. I haven't read either of those, but I love the musicals. Then you have all the classic Disney animations that have many songs taken from very old tales (Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Aladdin, etc).

[Lu]

kdreichert06 said:

Well, some of my favourite musicals are based off of books. Pygmalion, a play by George Bernard Shaw, inspired My Fair Lady. Sholom Aleichem's Tevye's Daughters inspired Fiddler on the Roof. I haven't read either of those, but I love the musicals. Then you have all the classic Disney animations that have many songs taken from very old tales (Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Aladdin, etc).

What a coincidence! I'm going to watch My Fair Lady in a minute I haven't seen it yet because I wanted to read Pygmalion first (actually...I've read it more than a year ago..). There were some pics from My Fair Lady which looks great and some very good extracts from the play in my English Lit school text, so I decided to read the book and see the movie.