# Has a stage production ever lead to two different musicals? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 13, 2010, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-stage-production-ever-lead-to-two-different-musicals/563954 "2010-12-13T04:24:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-stage-production-ever-lead-to-two-different-musicals/563954/21 "2010-12-14T11:21:31Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > **Phantom of the Opera** began as a 1911 novel by Gaston Leroux. Any stage production that followed was based upon that original novel. As long as the stage production came before the musical versions, it counts. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-stage-production-ever-lead-to-two-different-musicals/563954/22 "2010-12-14T11:36:14Z")
Lloyd Webber has also written a sequel to **Phantom** called **Love Never Dies**. Pierre Beaumarchais’ play \*\*The Barber of Seville, or the Useless Precaution \*\* (Le _Barbier de Séville ou la Précaution inutile_) might qualify: > [@Wikipedia](#): > > Giovanni Paisiello’s opera based on the play was first performed in 1782, but it is Gioachino Rossini’s opera, The Barber of Seville, premiered in 1816, that has better stood the test of time. Other lesser-known adaptions include those by Nicolas Isouard in 1796, Alexander Reinagle and Samuel Arnold in 1794, and Francesco Morlacchi in 1816. The second play in the trilogy, **The Marriage of Figaro** , seems only to have inspired Mozart but boy howdy, what an opera. The third Figaro play, **The Guilty Mother** , has spawned a few modern adaptations but nothing too exciting: > [@Wikipedia](#): > > Darius Milhaud’s La mère coupable was the first, in 1966, and Inger Wikström has made an adaptation called Den Brottsliga Modern. John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles makes frequent allusions in a subplot as well. On April 23, 2010, the opera L’amour coupable by Thierry Pécou, also based on the Beaumarchais play, received its world premiere at L’Opéra de Rouen. Of those, I’ve only ever heard the Corigliano and frankly Rossini and Mozart have nothing to worry about. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-stage-production-ever-lead-to-two-different-musicals/563954/23 "2010-12-14T13:58:02Z")
To the ‘Merry Wives of Windsor’ list, there’s also the Ralph Vaughn Williams ‘Sir John in Love’. Othello, Boheme, Barber of Seville, Romeo and Juliet have all been previously mentioned. Assuming it counts even if the first stage production was itself an opera, Orfeo by Jacopo Peri is widely considered to be the first ‘opera’ ever written. Orfeo as a subject was hugely popular with the earliest composers of opera, who were self-consciously trying to base their musical-dramatic works on their perception of what Greek drama had been like, and the story of a singer who charmed his way into Hades was irresistible to them. Wiki has conveniently provided a [List of Orphean Operas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Orphean_operas). There are at least four Tempests - one by [Thomas Ades](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tempest_(opera)), one by [Lee Hoiby](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Hoiby), one by [Michael Nyman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noises,_Sounds_%26_Sweet_Airs), entitled 'Noises, Sounds and Sweet Airs, and one by [Henry Purcell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Purcell). Trivial reference - while I was learning the role of ‘Trinculo’ for a production of the Lee Hoiby, a colleague was learning the role of ‘Prospero’ in the Thomas Ades, and another colleague was learning some excerpts from the Henry Purcell. We were all working with the same vocal coach, and thus there were three ‘Tempests’ sitting on his piano at the same time. I’m not sure if we ever found a teapot big enough to fit them all. [The Taming of the Shrew](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Taming_of_the_Shrew) has led to ‘Kiss Me, Kate’ and the Giannini ‘Taming of the Shrew’, among many others. (Scroll down that wiki link to ‘Opera’ and ‘Musicals’ for a complete list.) I don’t think it is published yet, but I once had dinner with a man who was working on a complete critical list of all of the operas based on Shakespeare. Every play has been set as an opera at least once, and most of them have been set many times over. I’ll send some e-mails and see if his work is available yet. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-stage-production-ever-lead-to-two-different-musicals/563954/24 "2010-12-14T14:19:42Z")
The Jeeve story were adapted for stage as [Come On Jeeves](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeeves#Plays), and later turned in the musical Jeeves by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Alan Ayckbourne, which was later rewritten into By Jeeves. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-stage-production-ever-lead-to-two-different-musicals/563954/25 "2010-12-14T15:44:24Z")
First off, the Jacopo Peri opera is Euridice, not Orfeo. :smack: It took me a while to track the title down but [Volume 9 of the Mellen Opera Reference Index](http://www.mellenpress.com/mellenpress.cfm?mvp=17&fc=5&pc=11) is arranged by Opera Subjects, for anyone who wants to pursue the opera question further. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-stage-production-ever-lead-to-two-different-musicals/563954/26 "2010-12-14T16:22:34Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > As long as the stage production came before the musical versions, it counts. I don’t see how. Anyway, the production \*\*Annie \*\*was talking about was a musical as well. I don’t know if there \*was \*a straight play adaption of the book. (I’m also a bit confused by your wording. Musicals are stage productions. You’re looking for something that began as a play and was then adapted into two musicals?) ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-stage-production-ever-lead-to-two-different-musicals/563954/27 "2010-12-14T18:21:15Z")
El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra. ([Don Juan/Don Giovanni](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_juan)) (Wait, do operas count as “musicals?”) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-stage-production-ever-lead-to-two-different-musicals/563954/28 "2010-12-14T19:13:56Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > I don’t see how. Anyway, the production \*\*Annie \*\*was talking about was a musical as well. I don’t know if there \*was \*a straight play adaption of the book. > > (I’m also a bit confused by your wording. Musicals are stage productions. You’re looking for something that began as a play and was then adapted into two musicals?) Yes, exactly-sorry about my wording. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-stage-production-ever-lead-to-two-different-musicals/563954/29 "2010-12-14T20:08:10Z")
Ugh, this doesn’t quite fit but I noted that _Madame Butterfly_ (opera) led to both _M. Butterfly_ (play, not musical) and _Miss Saigon_ (musical). ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-stage-production-ever-lead-to-two-different-musicals/563954/30 "2010-12-14T20:22:37Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > Ugh, this doesn’t quite fit but I noted that _Madame Butterfly_ (opera) led to both _M. Butterfly_ (play, not musical) and _Miss Saigon_ (musical). Oh, and it was originally a play by David Belasco. His ‘Girl of the Golden West’ also became Puccini’s ‘Fanciulla del’West’. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-stage-production-ever-lead-to-two-different-musicals/563954/31 "2010-12-14T20:31:52Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > Ugh, this doesn’t quite fit but I noted that _Madame Butterfly_ (opera) led to both _M. Butterfly_ (play, not musical) and _Miss Saigon_ (musical). _M. Butterfly_ is not the same story as _Madame Butterfly_ or _Miss Saigon_. The opera and musical is about a soldier who has an affair during wartime and then leaves the woman behind, only to find out a few years later that he has a child. Pinkerton is pretty much a jerk who had planned on bailing on Cio-Cio San all along. Whereas Chris was genuinely in love with Kim, but was torn away from her during the fall of Saigon. _M. Butterfly_ is loosely based on the real-life espionage case of Bernard Boursicot, a French diplomat who was seduced and then essentially blackmailed into espionage. (Google the case only if you are prepared for spoilers). ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-stage-production-ever-lead-to-two-different-musicals/563954/32 "2010-12-15T05:05:31Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Was it first known as a dramatic play? Anything to do with Oz was first known for the novels, but there were multiple stage plays developed in the early 20th century, then silent films, then of course the big movie, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-stage-production-ever-lead-to-two-different-musicals/563954/33 "2010-12-15T14:43:47Z")
> [@Leiko](#): > > Anything to do with Oz was first known for the novels, but there were multiple stage plays developed in the early 20th century, then silent films, then of course the big movie, and so on. The Wizard of Oz wasn’t adapted as a straight play till[1987](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptations_of_The_Wizard_of_Oz#Stage_adaptations). Thus, the musical came first. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-stage-production-ever-lead-to-two-different-musicals/563954.md?page=1)