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Post by Phantom of London on Apr 2, 2017 15:19:26 GMT
I understand over the years various attempts have been made to turn Shakespeare into song and and dance musicals?
The most successful piece of entertainment across all the genres was losely based on Hamlet, from that perspective I think this musical is brilliant. Not to mention Two Gentlemen of Verona won a Tony and Comedy of Errors won a Olivier Award and was penned by Trevor Nunn.
But for every success I am sure there have been many failure and I assume for good reason?
So is music really the food of love?
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Post by Michael on Apr 2, 2017 15:34:00 GMT
Don't forget Something Rotten
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Post by theatremadness on Apr 2, 2017 15:40:11 GMT
Well there's the Lion King, as you mention, and West Side Story & Kiss Me, Kate haven't done too badly, either. Also The Boys from Syracuse, a musical also based on Comedy of Errors.
With a bit of digging, the jazz musical Swingin' The Dream, based on Midsummer, ran for 13 performances. Another Hamlet-based musical Rockabye Hamlet lasted just 7 performances. Another Comedy of Errors based musical, Oh, Brother!, ran for only 3 performances!
The Elvis Presley musical All Shook Up (renamed Love Me Tender for the recent UK Tour) is based on Twelfth Night, apparently - never seen it!
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Post by oxfordsimon on Apr 2, 2017 17:03:19 GMT
The RSC tried a Merry Wives of Windsor musical not that many years ago - but it didn't achieve much success.
Return to the Forbidden Planet, of course, is derived from The Tempest
There are also many Shakespeare operas - but they don't really count as song and dance musicals!
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Post by Phantom of London on Apr 2, 2017 19:27:27 GMT
Completely forgot about West Side Story and Kiss Me, Kate, can not believe that.
Saw Rturn to the Forbidden Planet over 20 years ago and hated it, many years later with my tastes more refined I saw it again on tour in Dartford and still hated. However I have never seen The Tempest, so cannot relate the two.
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Post by Dawnstar on Apr 2, 2017 20:07:39 GMT
It doesn't look like anyone has mentioned Howard Goodall yet. He has done A winter's Tale & The Dreaming (adapted from A Midsummer's Night's Dream). When I saw The Dreaming he was in the audience & I spoke to him afterwards & he mentioned he has composed a musical of Much Ado About Nothing but it has never been performed. I wish it would be. I love his music. Saw Rturn to the Forbidden Planet over 20 years ago and hated it, many years later with my tastes more refined I saw it again on tour in Dartford and still hated. However I have never seen The Tempest, so cannot relate the two. Whereas I saw Return To The Forbidden Planet as both a child & an adult & have loved it throughout. I cannot really relate The Lion King to Hamlet. Apart from the very basic plot outline they are so different in location & treatment. There are also many Shakespeare operas - but they don't really count as song and dance musicals! Amusing myself by listing Shakespeare operas, even if it is off topic: Macbeth (Verdi) Otello (Verdi) Falstaff (Verdi) Romeo et Juliette (Gounoud) I Capuletti e i Montecchi (Bellini) A Midsummer's Night's Dream (Britten) Beatrice et Benedict (Berlioz) Sir John In Love (Vaughan Williams) King Lear (Reimann) Hamlet (Thomas, also a new one by Brett Dean premiering at Glyndebourne this summer) The Fairy Queen (Purcell) I'm sure there are loads more as well but those are the ones that come to mind instantly. |
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Post by bellboard27 on Apr 2, 2017 20:29:56 GMT
On opera of course there is the very recent The Winter's Tale by Wigglesworth. And it was also adapted to a ballet by Wheeldon. In the past nine months I've caught both of these and two different productions of the play.
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Post by martin1965 on Apr 3, 2017 5:39:15 GMT
Merry Wives at Stratford in 2006 was a curiousity. I saw it with the family and we all enjoyed it as did the sold out auditorium. It had a starry cast including La Dench, Simon Callow and Hadyn Gwynne. The critics hated it tho.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2017 6:40:22 GMT
Merry Wives at Stratford in 2006 was a curiousity. I saw it with the family and we all enjoyed it as did the sold out auditorium. It had a starry cast including La Dench, Simon Callow and Hadyn Gwynne. The critics hated it tho. Saw this and enjoyed it too especially Ms Dench's faux acrobatics and Simon Callow's fat suit. There was also a rock opera Othello in the early 70s based on Othello called Catch My Soul. Don't remember a lot about it except that P.J.Proby and P.P.Arold were involved in it. |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Apr 3, 2017 7:16:09 GMT
WSS and Kate are two of the best Bard-Musicals
Elsewhere Tom Ades Tempest (opera) and Wheeldon Winters Tale (ballet) are both astounding
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 3, 2017 18:07:17 GMT
It doesn't look like anyone has mentioned Howard Goodall yet. He has done A winter's Tale & The Dreaming (adapted from A Midsummer's Night's Dream). When I saw The Dreaming he was in the audience & I spoke to him afterwards & he mentioned he has composed a musical of Much Ado About Nothing but it has never been performed. I wish it would be. I love his music. Saw Rturn to the Forbidden Planet over 20 years ago and hated it, many years later with my tastes more refined I saw it again on tour in Dartford and still hated. However I have never seen The Tempest, so cannot relate the two. Whereas I saw Return To The Forbidden Planet as both a child & an adult & have loved it throughout. I cannot really relate The Lion King to Hamlet. Apart from the very basic plot outline they are so different in location & treatment. There are also many Shakespeare operas - but they don't really count as song and dance musicals! Amusing myself by listing Shakespeare operas, even if it is off topic: Macbeth (Verdi) Otello (Verdi) Falstaff (Verdi) Romeo et Juliette (Gounoud) I Capuletti e i Montecchi (Bellini) A Midsummer's Night's Dream (Britten) Beatrice et Benedict (Berlioz) Sir John In Love (Vaughan Williams) King Lear (Reimann) Hamlet (Thomas, also a new one by Brett Dean premiering at Glyndebourne this summer) The Fairy Queen (Purcell) I'm sure there are loads more as well but those are the ones that come to mind instantly. To be pedantic, I Capuletti e i Montecchi is not based on Shakespeare, but an Italian play adaptation of the same folk story that inspired Shakespeare. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Capuleti_e_i_Montecchien.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Capuleti_e_i_Montecchi |
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Post by crabtree on Apr 3, 2017 18:17:00 GMT
and then there was Fire Angel....in the late 70's /80s
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2017 10:58:51 GMT
Everyone knows Hamilton is based on Hamlet ... clues in the title...  *joke |
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