Broadway in Different Languages

[MadPhan]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 3:13pm

I have been wondering for a while, since taking Spanish, how they translate shows into different languages. I know that shows go abroad and that they MUST be translated or else people won't go because they won't understand what is being said (I know I wouldn't shell out that kind of money to go to a show I wouldn't understand!), but how do they do that while still keeping true to the original content and music? Anyone have any experience with this?

[blaxx]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 3:29pm

You need to adapt, more than translate. This is very tricky, and the reason why a lot of shows never really take off in other countries - the English language is obviously a essential part to a lot of them (the good ones, mostly). Some survive with the big spectacle behind them.

Plays are more generous because you don't need to fit words into structured music - a lot of musicals use a lot of monosyllabic words, and it makes it very hard for the song to make sense.

[musicaltheatrefan3]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 6:46pm

How they translate? Well, translation is easier for some languages than it is for others. For example, an English-language show can very easily be translated into Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, or German without major difficulties. All of these languages belong to the Germanic group of the Indo-European family of languages. "Wicked" in German is actually quite true to the original, and was not a major challenge for German translators (well, every translation is a challenge, but it was not as hard of a task, as for example "The Drowsy Chaperone" in Japan will be. Are they finished translating that one?"). Many times, a show can have multiple translations. For example, "The Phantom of the Opera" has 2 German translations: the one used for Hamburg, Stuttgart, and Essen and the one used in Vienna and THIS IS NOT JUST BECAUSE AUSTRIAN GERMAN IS DIFFERENT FROM STANDARD GERMAN! The translators were different, and translated the show differently. I think that the Vienna is better, but that's just my opinion. I have experiences with this: I translate shows for fun, and I'd like to become a translator for musicals. I only translate lyrics, by the way.

Some of my works include:

"Natürlich Blond" - "Legally Blonde" - German (Modern High German, NOT Swabian or Austro-Bavarian. I can understand those, but I was thinking that "Natürlich Blond" would do better if it played in Berlin, and I learned the Berlin dialect)
"Wicked" - (I don't like it when they change the title of "Wicked") - Danish - I LOVE how I translated this one. One of my best. Especially, "Fri og vægtløs - Defying Gravity"
"The Phantom of the Opera" - "Operafantomet" - Norwegian - This was difficult, and required EXTENSIVE dictionary use.
"Kungen av lejon" - "The Lion King" - Swedish - This was fun, actually. I only translated the songs new for the show, because I don't see the point of ME re-translating anything.
"Hairspray" - Dutch - Again, not a good one to mess with the title. I regret doing this. I should have translated this into French or German.
"Avenue Q" - German - This was a fun one. I liked doing this one. I have so much fun singing "jeder ist ein bißchen rassistisch". I loved doing this one.
"Wicked" - Portuguese - I've done this one in Portuguese also and it was MUCH harder than the Danish. I only translated 3 songs. To translate the rest of the songs would take so long, and it would be pointless.
"Spamalot" - Italian - VERY HARD TO TRANSLATE MONTY PYTHON HUMOR, ESPECIALLY INTO ITALIAN! Not such a fun one. I spent HOURS translating this show.

Next up: "Мэри Поппинс" - "Mary Poppins" - Russian

I would like to do: Spring Awakening in Danish, Legally Blonde in Norwegian, Xanadu in Swedish, and Flemish translations are not so hard for me so maybe something like "Young Frankenstein" in Flemish, and if I knew the languages:

[title of show] - would be very fun in an Asian language. Maybe Thai, Japanese, Cantonese, or Mandarin

[Mekroth]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 7:05pm

I hate you.

[BillyE]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 7:15pm

mtfan, Avenue Q's "A Little Bit Racist" in German would be funny, but how would you handle "It Sucks To Be Me"?

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 8:33pm

I have tons of Spanish language cast recordings of numerous shows, and the songs are translated almost verbatim. Nothing is altered in the plot element of the lyrics. The rest of the book is easy to translate, so nothing is altered when a show is translated into another language.

The Spain productions of MAMMA MIA! and RENT are literally verbatim in every way (entire libretto) to their original English language counterparts.