When a novel is adapted for film, there is one almost-certainty: Someone saying, “The book was better.”
While the phrase can be used sincerely, it’s most often uttered by someone trying to impress a date by pointing out that they, unlike the common rabble, read books. And that this makes them more attractive as a prospective partner. (It never works, by the way.) It would be kind of funny if someone said it leaving a screening of The Ten Commandments or something. Maybe.
Musicals are mostly immune from this bit of snark because relatively few musicals are based directly on novels. Many of the productions you’ll see in this year’s Broadway Season have their roots in the printed page but went to the soundstage before arriving on the Broadway stage.
Water for Elephants, The Outsiders and The Notebook all originated as novels before being adapted for film and then retooled as musicals. According to the musicals’ official websites, Water is based on Sara Gruen’s 2006 novel (no mention of the 2011 film); The Outsiders is based on S.E. Hinton’s 1967 novel and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film version; while The Notebook is based on Nicholas Sparks’ 1996 novel that inspired the 2004 film.
Other shows on this year’s schedule have literary roots but feel more like distant creative cousins rather than immediate family. Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors follows the plot line of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel but swaps growing terror for wall-to-wall outrageousness. The Wiz is a revival of the 1975 musical, which retold L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s book with black characters and an urban setting.
Les Misérables, on the other hand, has been filmed many times, both before and after the blockbuster musical premiered, but the musical cites Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel as its source. It returns to Straz this season as part of our Encore Series.
Opera Tampa’s upcoming season features works with literary lineages as well. The Turn of the Screw is an adaptation of Henry James’ creepy 1989 novella, while The Shining uses Stephen King’s 1977 novel as its source. It does not draw from Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film, which King famously hated for the massive changes Kubrick made to the story.
The Shining is an extreme example, but the fact is a movie based on a novel is going to be different no matter how faithfully it follows the book. And that goes double for a musical based on a novel because, good grief, man, the novel didn’t have songs in it, now did it?
So, there’s no foolproof formula. Great books can make terrible movies. Great films can make awful musicals. Then again, Mario Puzo’s potboiler novel The Godfather was turned into cinematic brilliance by Francis Ford Coppola. Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West had so-so sales until it was turned into the Broadway hit Wicked.
Sept. 6 is National Read a Book Day. Want to celebrate but don’t know where to start? Find the sources of your favorite musicals. Chances are there’s a book in print that’s at least part of the show’s lineage.