Musicals based on comic strips

Cafe Society
1

Years ago, I read a book called On Mermaid Avenue. (It’s good but not great.) Anyway, late in the story, the main character’s friend gets engaged to a guy that everyone thinks is a complete dolt. One example of this is, he plans to produce a Broadway musical based on a comic strip. Not necessarily a bad idea in itself, but the main character replies, “There’s already been a musical based on that strip.”

Now, the name of the comic strip was not given, but reading this thread reminded me of that scene, and I’m wondering now, as I did then, how many musicals have been based on comic strips? Or comic books?

Peanuts (You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown)

Doonesbury

(Little Orphan) Annie

(It’s a Bird It’s a Plane It’s) Superman

L’il Abner

Any others?

2

I remember my parents talking about a groaner based on Dick Tracy they had seen in '50s. Since they had never been to New York to see a Broadway production, I have to believe it was either a touring company or a regional theater production. My father used the badness of this production to refuse to go to any more for decades.

His comment was, “I’ve seen a musical - didn’t like it. Why waste any more of my time?” (There was a bit of Archie Bunker in my father)

I also heard sometime in the last year or so that there was in production a musical of Kathy. I don’t know where I heard it and I don’t know how valid the statement was.

3

I just remembered another. Jules Feiffer who did a strip for the Village Voice for years had a musical called The Explainers run on Broadway.

4

And of course, there was Oh Marmaduke that ran on Broadway for over sixteen years.

5

But on a serious note, while it wasn’t a stage production there was an animated musical version of For Better of Worse.

6

The short-lived production of **Family Circus ** at the Circle in the Square is legendary, right up there with the Frankenstein musical, for bad ideas over Broadway.

7

Wasn’t there a Dagwood and Blondie movie series that desended from a stage play?

8

There was, it seems, a stage play of Captain America.

I have never found anyone who’s seen it.

9

Well, the Popeye movie was a musical, based on cartoons based on a comic strip.

10

Cool! Thanks for responding.

11

Back in the '70s, I saw a musical based on The Wizard of Id at the University of Maryland at College Park. Don’t know if it ever played elsewhere.

12

Here are two that are a slight stretch:

Shinbone Alley, an animated adaptation of the old Archy & Mehitabel stories from the Don Marquis/George Herriman Sundial column. Not, strictly speaking, a comic strip, but Herriman’s Krazy Kat work makes it worth mentioning.

There was a Lynda Barry play about 15 years ago called The Good Times are Killing Me. Many of the storylines were taken from her comic strip. I think there were a couple of musical numbers.

There were a couple of other plays based on comic strips–American Splendor and Carmen Cru, for example–but I have no idea if they were musicals or not.

13

I don’t think it was actually produced.

There was an Andy Capp musical

There’s also

Snoopy!
Annie Warbucks (the sequel)
The musical “The Apple Tree” features three short 1 act musicals. One of them is “Passionella”, based on a Jules Fiffer
archy & mehitabel was also on stage (with the same songs as Shinbone Alley) under it’s own name

Fenris

14

I remember someone mentioning seeing the Captain America play, once. It was, however, on usenet, if I’m remembering correctly. The post was not about it, so the probability of veracity is increased. Plus, as it was part of a contest, I think they had to stage at least one show, or bad things happened.