Musicals based off of NOTHING else

West Side Story is based on Romeo and Juliet.

Allegro, Me and Juliet, Ankles Aweigh, Wildcat, Kwamina, No Strings, Hot Spot

Updated On: 9/6/12 at 06:42 PM

Company was based on a series of one act plays George Furth had already written.

If we go by the OP's criteria he is not even looking for bio or historical musicals.

I took it to mean fictional works that weren't based on anything or anyone in history, or any book, movie, play etc.

As far as I know these would qualify:
Pippin
Plain and Fancy
Urinetown
Robber Bridgegroom (was this a play first?)
The Rink
The Act
Glory Days
The Story of My Life
Got Tu Go Disco
13
Do Re Mi
All American
Darling of the Day
Celebration
Drat! The Cat!
Via Galactica

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Ok. I'm confused. Is the OP asking about shows NOT based on any previous piece, or based on pieces that are NOT based on a book, movie, or band, but are based on something ELSE? Cuz SITPWG is based on a painting, of sorts.

This thread is giving a headache, and it's not anyone's fault (or basis)


Blah, blah, blah...

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The Drowsy Chaperone

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The Robber Bridegroom is based on the novel of the same name by Eudora Welty.

Sure I'm wrong about a few of these but here goes:

Avenue Q, Bye Bye Birdie, Hair, Caroline, or Change, Falsettos, City of Angels, Urinetown, The Drowsy Chaperone, I Love My Wife, Me And My Girl, On A Clear Day, Grease, Anything Goes, Dubarry Was A Lady, Passing Strange, Chess, Lady in the Dark, Oh, Kay, Of Thee I Sing, Plain and Fancy, They're Playing Our Song, Bells Are Ringing, Jamaica, Redhead, Milk and Honey, No Strings, Stop the World - I Want to Get Off, Hallelujah, Baby, Babes n Arms, How Now, Do w Jones, The Me Nobody Knows, Ain't Supposed to Die A Natural Death, A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, Sugar Babies, Pump Boys, Baby, Sarafina!, Steel Pier, The 25th Annual Putna..,, Curtains

And I almost forgot, A Chorus Line

Updated On: 9/6/12 at 07:36 PM

Robber Bridgegroom (was this a play first?)- Based on novella of same name
Got Tu Go Disco- liberal variation on Cinderella
All American - Based on novel, Professor Fodorski
Darling of the Day - Based on novel, Buried Alive

If you want to say that a painting or a photograph is a "narrative work," then you can exclude both Sunday in the Park and Follies.

IIRC, THE GIRLS UPSTAIRS (or whatever it was called) went through years of drafts (and other directors and producers) before Prince discovered the Swanson photo. The photo was the director's "doorway" into the material, not the inspiration for the material itself.

I think any of us who have done the sometimes tedious work of constructing a narrative will agree that a mere notion or the existence of an historical figure is not a true source for adaptation.

Now if the painter Georges Seurat really had a mistress named Dot who married a baker named Louie and emigrated to the States, that would be another matter. (I don't mean the names are important so much as the actions.) THEN I would consider it an adaptation.

There have been numerous musicals about kings of France. Few have been based on anything more than the name of an heir or a single (and probably apocryphal) incident with a consort. I'd call those "originals", too.

The MARVIN musicals are great examples, but some of the definitions employed here are so strict one would have to claim the second two plays were "adapted" from the first.

Likewise, Firth's 20-some plays on marriage were not produced before a few were combined to become the book of COMPANY, so that, too, is an "original" musical.

Updated On: 9/6/12 at 07:59 PM

Ave Q is a spoof of Sesame Street.

Doesn't a thread like this pop up annually?

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was based on a (largely improvised) show called C-R-E-P-E-S-C-U-L-E.

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