Book/Content Musicals

One afternoon, Oscar Hammerstein shared with Stephen Sondheim his four approaches to writing musicals:-

Approach 1: Rewriting good drama books;

example:

West Side Story

- Basis: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet play
- Book: Authur Laurentsjj
- Music: Leonard Bernstein
- Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
- Direction/Choreograph: Jerome Robbins
- Première: 1957 at Winter Garden Theater (732 performances)
- Film: West Side Story (1961)

- Film: West Side Story (2021)

West Side Story (2021) is directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg. It is the second feature-length adaptation of the 1957 stage musical of the same name.

Approach 2: Restructuring and rewriting weak drama books;

example:

Candide (comic operetta)

- Basis: Voltaire's 1759 novella Candide
- Book: Lillian Hellman, Hugh Wheeler
- Music: Leonard Bernstein
- Lyrics: Richard Wilbur et al
- Première: 1956 at Martin Bech Theater (73 performances)

Approach 3: Structuring and writing non-drama (e.g. fiction) books to musicals;

example:

Man of La Mancha

- Basis: Miquel de Cervantes' Don Quixote (17th-century novel)
- Book: Dale Wasserma
- Music: Mitch Leigh
- Lyrics: Joe Darion
- Première: 1965 at ANTA Washington Theater (2,328 performances)
- Film: Man of La Mancha (1972)

It tells the story of the "mad" knight Don Quixote as a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners as he awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition.

Approach 4: Original composition;

example:

Avenue Q

(musical comedy featuring puppets and human actors)

- Book: Jeff Whitty

- Music: Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx

- Lyrics: Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx

- Premiére: 2003 at Off-Broadway, then Broadway (over 2,500 performances)

“Avenue Q has received many favorable reviews for its approach on topics like racism, homosexuality, and Internet pornography.”

REFERENCE:

文樂(bunraku)是日本三大古典戲劇式之一，

名字來自大阪的「文樂座」劇埸；

也稱為「人形淨瑠璃」：

「人形」指木偶，「淨瑠璃」是說唱的形式。

Musicals by Oscar Hammerstein II, godfather of musicals:

Première	Title	Composer
1924	Rose-Marie	R Frimi, H Stothart
1925	Sunny	Jerome Kern
1926	The Desert Song	Sigmund Romberg
1927	Show Boat	Jerome Kern
1928	New Moon	Sigmund Romberg
1929	Sweet Adeline	Jerome Kern
1932	Music in the Air	Jerome Kern
1943	Carmen Jones	Georges Bizet
1943	Oklahoma!	Rodgers
1945	Carousel	Rodgers
1947	Allegro	Rodgers
1949	South Pacific	Rodgers
1951	The King and I	Rodgers
1953	Me and Juliet	Rodgers
1955	Pipe Dream	Rodgers
1958	Flower Drum Song	Rodgers
1959	The Sound of Music	Rodgers