Adaptation in Musical Theatre

Short introductory books on significant theories, concepts, forms and elements of musical theatre.

Adaptation in Musical Theatre positions musical theatre as part of a broader cultural trend of recycling, referencing, remixing and alluding to existing creative works and texts. Despite critics often dismissing stage adaptations as lazy and safe bet options for producers, this book argues that crafting an adaptation enables creative teams to take fresh and imaginative approaches to a source text, given the multitude of ways in which the structures and styles of two (or more) different media can be combined.

From Les Misérables to Wicked, by way of Legally Blonde and Fun Home, this lively book addresses several modern musicals, each adapted from a different type of source – including fiction, film and graphic novels – and each offering a different approach to adapting existing work.

Published in Methuen Drama's Topics in Musical Theatre series, this book offers students a concise and readable study of a key and ever-evolving forms within musical theatre studies using relevant and contemporary case studies.