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See also Songs from the Musicals.
This section is for questions where the answer is the name of the musical: typically, "Which musical is based on ... ?"
This section is for questions where it's the answer that identifies the source.
Loosely based on the life of Ohio sharpshooter Annie Oakley | Annie Get your Gun | |
Opened on Broadway in 2011: written by Matt Stone, Trey Parker (creators of South Park) and Bobby Lopez (composer for the musical Avenue Q); follows two missionaries in Uganda; characters include Nabulungi, Elder (Arnold) Cunningham, Mafala Hatimbi, and General Butt F***ing Naked | The Book of Mormon | |
A village appears for one day, once every 100 years, in | Brigadoon | |
1960: satire featuring a rock star called Conrad Birdie – included the song Kids ("Why can't they be like we were / Perfect in every way / Oh, what's the matter with kids today?") | Bye Bye Birdie | |
Rogers & Hammerstein musical: central character Billy Bigelow return 15 years after committing suicide, to help his family | Carousel | |
Music by Benny and Bjorn out of Abba, lyrics by Tim Rice | Chess | |
Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly – vaudevillians and murderers – are the central characters in | Chicago | |
First produced on Broadway in 1981; filmed in 2006 starring Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé and Eddie Murphy; ran in London's West End, 2016–19; based on the show business aspirations and successes of African–American R&B acts such as the Supremes, the Shirelles, James Brown and Jackie Wilson | Dreamgirls | |
Based on the stories of Sholem Aleichem, about Tevye the milkman and his struggle to maintain Jewish traditions in his family of five daughters | Fiddler on the Roof | |
Features the songs of Louis Jordan – first produced 1990 in London's West End | Five Guys Named Moe | |
Based on the life of US actress and comedian Fanny Brice | Funny Girl | |
Nathan Detroit, Miss Adelaide, Sky Masterson, Sister Sarah Brown, Nicely Nicely Johnson, Arvide Abernathy, Big Jule, Brandy Bottle Bates, Harry the Horse, Benny Southstreet, Rusty Charlie: characters in | Guys and Dolls | |
Subtitled "The American Tribal Love/Rock Musical" | Hair | |
Music by Galt McDermott, lyrics Gerome Ragni and James Rado | ||
Opened in London on the day after theatre censorship ended | ||
Tells the story of a "pleasantly plump" teenager, Tracey Turnblad, and her rivalry with the brattish but talentless Amber Von Tussle; Tracey's shy and overweight mother (Edna – a drag role) runs a laundry business from home; Tracey dreams of winning a place on a TV dance show, produced by Amber's mother Velma | Hairspray | |
Book, music and lyrics by Lin–Manuel Miranda, who described it as "America then, as told by America now"; opened off Broadway in February 2015, on Broadway in August 2015, and in London's West End in December 2017; won 11 Tonys and a Pulitzer Prize in 2016, and 7 Olivier Awards in 2018 | Hamilton | |
Harry Hill's ill–fated musical based on The X–Factor: premiered at the London Palladium in March 2014, closed after 6 weeks | I Can't Sing | |
Based on the story of Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons (opened on Broadway 2005, West End 2008) | Jersey Boys | |
Based on a 1994 Disney animated film; music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice (who had written the songs for the Disney original); premiered in Minneapolis in 1997, opened on Broadway two months later and in the West End in 1999; passed Phantom of the Opera in 2014 as the highest–earning title (theatre and film) ever | The Lion King | |
Mainly set in Mr. Mushnik's flower shop on Skid Row; tells the story of a man–eating plant called Audrey II | Little Shop of Horrors | |
Sequel to Phantom of the Opera – set in 1907, which Lloyd Webber said was "ten years roughly after the end of the original Phantom," although the events of the original actually took place in 1881; lyrics by Glenn Slater, book by Lloyd Webber, Ben Elton, Frederick Forsyth and Glenn Slater; opened in London in 2010 | Love Never Dies | |
Bill Snibson is the protagonist (one of the title characters) of | Me and My Girl | |
Tells the story of an American soldier's love for a Vietnamese girl | Miss Saigon | |
Based on Federico Fellini's semi–autobiographical film Eight and a Half; 1998 film version starred Daniel Day Lewis | Nine | |
Adapted from a radio play, in 1963, by Joan Littlewood and her Theatre Workshop; features many songs from World War I | Oh! What a Lovely War | |
Rodgers & Hammerstein's first together; soundtrack was the first million–selling LP | Oklahoma! | |
Music by Leonard Bernstein: about three American sailors on 24–hour shore leave in New York; the (adapted) film version starred Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly | On the Town | |
The jazz ballet Slaughter on Tenth Avenue features in (Rodgers & Hart, 1936) | On Your Toes | |
2005 musical by former Radio 1 DJ Mike Read: closed after one night (the West End's shortest ever run) | Oscar Wilde | |
Lerner & Loewe, 1951: follows the lives and loves of the people in a mining camp in Gold–Rush–era California, particularly Ben Rumson, "a crusty old miner" (played in the film by Lee Marvin), and his 16–year–old daughter Jennifer | Paint Your Wagon | |
Title character is known only as Erik; a singer named Christine Daaé is the other central character | The Phantom of the Opera | |
Closed in 2023 after the longest run in Broadway history (opened in 1988; 13,981 performances) | ||
Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom are central characters in | The Producers | |
"I would like – if I may – to take you on a strange journey ... " (opening line – spoken by the Narrator) | The Rocky Horror Show | |
A group of singers – modern versions of a group of historical characters – stage a pop concert, in which they take turns to state the reasons why they have suffered the most and should be the lead singer (first presented by Cambridge University students at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2017) | Six | |
Ends with the line "I now pronounce you men and wives" | 7 Brides for 7 Brothers | |
Rodgers & Hammerstein's last collaboration (Hammerstein died nine months after its premiere) | The Sound of Music | |
A story of love and racial prejudice, set during World War II, involving Nellie Forbush (a Navy nurse), Emile de Becque (a mysterious French colonialist) and Lt. Joseph Cable (a young Marine officer); Bloody Mary is a sassy middle–aged native, and Luther Billis is a Navy construction worker | South Pacific | |
Borrowed its title from an unsuccessful children's play, first performed over Christmas and New Year 1915–16 and never revived, for which Edward Elgar wrote the songs and incidental music | Starlight Express | |
Performed on roller skates | ||
Tells the story of The Kinks; premiered at the Hampstead Theatre, London, in 2014, and opened in the West End later that year | Sunny Afternoon | |
Tells the story of Norma Desmond, a fictional movie star whose glory days are long gone but who dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen | Sunset Boulevard | |
Based on the songs of the Proclaimers; title song is the title track of their second album, which has become an anthem for fans of Hibernian FC | Sunshine on Leith | |
1979 musical: based on a character that first appeared in The String of Pearls: a Romance, in serial form, 1846–7 | Sweeney Todd | |
1966 musical: music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, book by Neil Simon; directed and choreographed, on both stage and film (1969) by Bob Fosse; based on the 1957 Italian film Nights of Cabiria, directed and co–written by Federico Fellini | Sweet Charity | |
2002 musical: featuring, and named after, the real–life London club opened in 1985 by Australian controversialist Lee Bowery; Boy George appears as a supporting character, and several of his songs are featured | Taboo | |
Written by Victoria Wood, on commission from the Manchester International Festival, first performed at the Manchester Opera House in July 2011: about a famous recording of Henry Purcell's song Nymphs and Shepherds, made at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in 1929 | That Day We Sang | |
West End production (1986) starred Cliff Richard (later replaced by David Cassidy) as rock star Chris Wilder; theme and some characters inspired by Doctor Who | Time | |
Lionel Bart's disastrous musical based on the legend of Robin Hood – lasting only 43 performances after its West End premiere in December 1965. Cast included Barbara Windsor, Ronnie Corbett and Bernard Bresslaw | Twang!! | |
Based on the songs of Queen: opened in the West End in 2002; characters include Galileo, Scaramouche, Killer Queen, Khashoggi, Brit, Meat, Pop and Macca | We Will Rock You | |
Based on a 1961 film directed by Bryan Forbes and starring Hayley Mills, which in turn was based on a novel by Mary Hayley Bell; all of the same title; music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Jim Steinman | Whistle Down the Wind |
Lyrics | Stephen Sondheim | |
Music | Leonard Bernstein | |
Rival gangs | Sharks, Jets | |
The Sharks were immigrants from | Puerto Rico |
The Sound of Music: number of children in the Von Trapp family | 7 |
© Haydn Thompson 2017–24