Something I've been thinking about recently is where stories come from and how they get to the point of being told. This led me to thinking about some of my favourite musicals and where their stories originated. A common theme that occurred to me is that some of my favourites (obviously not all, but enough for it to be interesting) are based on existing stories that, in turn, are based on something else. Let's have a look at a few examples.
Other examples:Hamilton: An American Musical Historical figure/Reality -> Biography (Chernow) -> Musical Into The Woods Multiple different fairytales from different sources -> [inspiration from Book on psychoanalysis of fairytales (Bettelheim) ->] Musical [and then -> Musical Film (Marshall)] Billy Elliot [developed from Play (Hall)] -> Film (Daldry) -> Musical Legally Blonde Novel (Brown) AND Film (Luketic) -> Musical Why does this matter?Well, arguably, it doesn't. But I think in some ways it's interesting, and can tell us something about story creation and the way that stories evolve over time. Charting the progress of a single story over decades and throughout forms can be really interesting, showcasing the differences between those times and forms, although I haven't done that in much detail here. My aim with this post is to point out the influential nature of storytelling. Not all musicals or, indeed, stories, are based on other stories. But all stories are undeniably influenced by others. The 'sources upon sources' nature of many musicals' backgrounds also illustrates just how collaborative that particular medium is: assuming these are all different people there is a collaboration between the writers of the book, the lyrics and the score, and even if these are all written by one person there is further collaboration between the director, the choreographer, the producers, the set designer, the costume designer... Some of these might not seem like they have much to do with the story, but they all come together to tell it. In this way (and in others), mediums like theatre, film and TV differ heavily from the likes of novels and poetry, where one person tells the story with perhaps some input from a co-writer or editor. It's important to acknowledge that collaboration is everywhere in storytelling, whether directly or through influence, and that sometimes a new creative team or new medium can bring fresh and important things to a story that has already been told.
*Author of book or director of film in brackets after medium Image Credits Wicked: http://musicalsonline.com/wicked-catalan-language-resum/ Fun Home: http://ticket.heraldtribune.com/2015/12/07/behind-the-scenes-a-gift-of-broadway-music/ West Side Story: http://keywordsuggest.org/gallery/650421.html
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"After nourishment, shelter, and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world."- Philip Pullman Archives
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