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Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Did you Know that These Broadway Shows Are Inspired by Magazine Articles?
www.broadwayworld.com: Musicals and plays based on movies? Many. Based on books? Also plentiful. Based on true stories? Of course.
But musicals and plays based on or inspired by magazine articles? These are a rare breed.
Artistic inspiration can come from anything. It has often been said that there is always a basis of reality in every story that is told. Some stories take this old idiom more literally by basing their plot on real life. You can always find movies that start or end with the line ‘Based on a True Story’. I wonder how far off from real events a tale has to stray to lose its ability to claim such things. Some stories tend to drift from the source material quite a bit. And this continues as the stories are passed down through the line of creative iterations. Some tales have been altered by time and adaptations being adapted to new works and so on. I wonder how the play differs from the film, how the film differs from the article, and how the article differs from real world events. Some mainstream examples of stories being adapted through the ages include Cinderella, and Rapunzel.
I in fact did not know that those Broadway shows were inspired by magazine articles. I think it's interesting because a lot of them are really just inspired by or based on real life stories that were written about in magazines. But technically yes based off of magazine articles, although that was not what I was imagining when I read the title. I think it's interesting the variety of stories that inspired both book or movie adaptations as well as Musical and play adaptations. Because to me it's very obvious that real life stories inspire books and movies. I knew that already but I didn't think about how those stories could also be inspiring musicals or plays and how you might find out about these inspiring stories just by reading a magazine or the newspaper. Completely unrelated but interesting nonetheless this article mentions both Steven Adly Guirdis and Lynn Nottage, two playwrights that I was introduced to by taking Foundations of Drama this semester.
This article kind of shocked me. I forgot that art can be inspired by such small details that are read in something like a magazine. I was looking at the list of shows that have been inspired by just a magazine article or a few articles, and there are some shows that I have no idea about, but that's how they were inspired, like West Side Story. That's one of my favorite musicals, and I did not know the origin of the show came from a single magazine article, so that's kind of amazing. Other shows, such as My Fair Lady and Dog Day Afternoon, have also been inspired by magazine articles. Other musicals in this bunch were also directly based on a singular news article, which is crazy to create so much content from such a little piece of information. This is genuinely super cool, and I forget that art can be inspired by the smallest bits of detail.
inspiration comes from anywhere! This is a really cool thing to learn, and I assumed that this type of thing existed - people write about what's going on in the world - but not in such a literal way. It is wonderful to see that the playwright was inspired by an event in queer history, which is something I would love to see more of. No dramatics, none of that craziness, but it is cool to see people subtly educating those around them who see their plays on things that are occurring in the real world. Especially with Lyn Nottage, who is mentioned at the end of the article. She writes about people in real places, like in Sweat, where she wrote about the city of Reading, PA, and shed light on the culture of a place such as that one. I'd love to see more of this, especially with all the insane news that is happening right now.
4 comments:
Artistic inspiration can come from anything. It has often been said that there is always a basis of reality in every story that is told. Some stories take this old idiom more literally by basing their plot on real life. You can always find movies that start or end with the line ‘Based on a True Story’. I wonder how far off from real events a tale has to stray to lose its ability to claim such things. Some stories tend to drift from the source material quite a bit. And this continues as the stories are passed down through the line of creative iterations. Some tales have been altered by time and adaptations being adapted to new works and so on. I wonder how the play differs from the film, how the film differs from the article, and how the article differs from real world events. Some mainstream examples of stories being adapted through the ages include Cinderella, and Rapunzel.
I in fact did not know that those Broadway shows were inspired by magazine articles. I think it's interesting because a lot of them are really just inspired by or based on real life stories that were written about in magazines. But technically yes based off of magazine articles, although that was not what I was imagining when I read the title. I think it's interesting the variety of stories that inspired both book or movie adaptations as well as Musical and play adaptations. Because to me it's very obvious that real life stories inspire books and movies. I knew that already but I didn't think about how those stories could also be inspiring musicals or plays and how you might find out about these inspiring stories just by reading a magazine or the newspaper. Completely unrelated but interesting nonetheless this article mentions both Steven Adly Guirdis and Lynn Nottage, two playwrights that I was introduced to by taking Foundations of Drama this semester.
This article kind of shocked me. I forgot that art can be inspired by such small details that are read in something like a magazine. I was looking at the list of shows that have been inspired by just a magazine article or a few articles, and there are some shows that I have no idea about, but that's how they were inspired, like West Side Story. That's one of my favorite musicals, and I did not know the origin of the show came from a single magazine article, so that's kind of amazing. Other shows, such as My Fair Lady and Dog Day Afternoon, have also been inspired by magazine articles. Other musicals in this bunch were also directly based on a singular news article, which is crazy to create so much content from such a little piece of information. This is genuinely super cool, and I forget that art can be inspired by the smallest bits of detail.
inspiration comes from anywhere! This is a really cool thing to learn, and I assumed that this type of thing existed - people write about what's going on in the world - but not in such a literal way. It is wonderful to see that the playwright was inspired by an event in queer history, which is something I would love to see more of. No dramatics, none of that craziness, but it is cool to see people subtly educating those around them who see their plays on things that are occurring in the real world. Especially with Lyn Nottage, who is mentioned at the end of the article. She writes about people in real places, like in Sweat, where she wrote about the city of Reading, PA, and shed light on the culture of a place such as that one. I'd love to see more of this, especially with all the insane news that is happening right now.
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