History OlderThanTheyThink / Theatre

* While Creator/{{Shakespeare}}'s ''plots'' might not be as original as people think, his use of language certainly was, and that leads to this trope in and of itself. As quoted in ''The Story of English'':

* Unlike the stereotypical musical comedy, ''{{Oklahoma}}'' doesn't use the standard OpeningChorus; its opening number is a solo. But neither did half of the musical comedies that came before it; in fact, many of them didn't have an opening number of any sort, unless you count the short passage of nondescript music the orchestra plays while the curtain opens on a scene of expository dialogue. (And though ''Oklahoma!'' was indeed the first Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, they had first collaborated in 1919, when their careers had barely started.)

* It's no secret that the songs in ''MammaMia'' are just recycled {{ABBA}} hits, but the plot isn't exactly original, either: the 1968 film ''Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell'' used largely the same plot, as did ''Carmelina'', a 1979 Broadway musical flop by Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane.

** ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' was an adaptation of an Italian narrative poem called ''The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet'', which had been translated into English about thirty years before Shakespeare's play. The poem's basic story is itself very similar to Creator/{{Ovid}}'s "Pyramus and Thisbe" in ''Literature/TheMetamorphoses'' from ClassicalMythology.

* The 1994 stage adaptation of Disney's ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' wasn't the first "legit" ScreenToStageAdaptation from the DisneyAnimatedCanon. ''Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' had ''several'' stage adaptations in varying cities/venues long before that, including a 1979 version that ran as a limited engagement in New York City at the huge Radio City Music Hall and had the same scope and scale as later Disney stage musicals (a videotaped version was one of Disney's early [=VHS=] releases).

* In ''{{Godspell}}'', many of the lyrics that aren't from Literature/TheBible are from old hymns and prayerbooks.

* Unlike the stereotypical musical comedy, ''{{Oklahoma}}!'' doesn't use the standard OpeningChorus; its opening number is a solo. But neither did half of the musical comedies that came before it; in fact, many of them didn't have an opening number of any sort, unless you count the short passage of nondescript music the orchestra plays while the curtain opens on a scene of expository dialogue. (And though ''Oklahoma!'' was indeed the first Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, they had first collaborated in 1919, when their careers had barely started.)

* In ''{{Godspell}}'', many of the lyrics that aren't from TheBible are from old hymns and prayerbooks.

* Fans of ''{{Rent}}'' and ''{{Dreamgirls}}'' cried TheyChangedItNowItSucks when some of the lyrics were converted to spoken dialogue in the movie versions. Not many people know it, but the spoken dialogue leading into the second act finale of ''Theatre/HMSPinafore'' was originally sung as a recitative.

* Most plays created from the Renaissance until the end of the Neoclassical period were based on pre-existing plays or histories, usually by Greek or Latin authors. Exceptions were only acceptable in comedies; for instance, Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli's comedy, ''La Mandragola'', is set in modern Florence and is not based on any historical event or classical play.

* Fans of ''{{Rent}}'' and ''{{Dreamgirls}}'' cried TheyChangedItNowItSucks when some of the lyrics were converted to spoken dialogue in the movie versions. Not many people know it, but the spoken dialogue leading into the second act finale of ''[[GilbertAndSullivan H.M.S. Pinafore]]'' was originally sung as a recitative.

* Almost all of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's plays are based on pre-existing works, legends, and historical figures. Out of all his plays, only ''Theatre/TheTempest'' seems to lack a specific source.

*** And "Pyramus and Thisbe," of course, found its way into the play-within-a-play in ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream''.

*** While the plot shares several similarities with ''Theatre/TheOresteia''

--> ''If you cannot understand my argument, and declare "It's Greek to me", you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger, if your wish is father to the thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise - why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare; if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I were dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then - by Jove! O Lord! Tut, tut! for goodness' sake! what the dickens! but me no buts - it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare. (The Story of English, 145)''
* ALL plays created from the Renaissance until the end of the Neoclassical period were based on pre-existing play or histories, usually Greco-Roman. There were actually rules that playwrights HAD to do this.
** That's not exactly true for comedy. An examples is Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli's comedy, ''La Mandragola'', set in modern Florence and were not based on any historical event or classical play.

** That's not exactly true for comedy. An examples is NiccoloMachiavelli's comedy, ''La Mandragola'', set in modern Florence and were not based on any historical event or classical play.

** ''Theatre/KingLear'' and ''Theater/{{Cymbeline}}'' were taken from Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Literature/HistoriaRegumBritanniae'', a 12th-century pseudohistorical text.

* Almost all of WilliamShakespeare's plays are based on pre-existing works, legends, and historical figures. Out of all his plays, only ''TheTempest'' seems to lack a specific source.
** ''RomeoAndJuliet'' was an adaptation of an Italian narrative poem called ''The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet'', which had been translated into English about thirty years before Shakespeare's play. The poem's basic story is itself very similar to Ovid's "Pyramus and Thisbe" in ''Literature/TheMetamorphoses'' from ClassicalMythology.
*** And "Pyramus and Thisbe," of course, found its way into the play-within-a-play in ''{{A Midsummer Nights Dream}}''.
** ''Theatre/TitusAndronicus'' bears many similarities to another myth {{Ovid}} recorded: the story of Philomena. Lavinia actually grabs a copy of ''Literature/TheMetamorphoses'' to tell her family what had happened to her.
** ''{{Othello}}'' was taken from Italian author Cinthio's short story "Un Capitano Moro," in his anthology ''Gli Hecatommithi''. In the original story, the Moor gets away with his crime for a while, Iago's motive is lust over Desdemona, and the moral is that European women should not fall in love with foreigners.
** ''{{Macbeth}}'' was taken from stories Shakespeare found in Raphael Holinshed's ''Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland''.
** ''{{Hamlet}}'' was based on a legendary Danish prince of the same name. Scholars also suspect that Shakespeare's play was an adaptation of a previous play based the legend. No copies of the "''Ur-Hamlet''," if it ever existed, have survived.
*** While the plot and perhaps the legend also share several similarities with ''Theatre/TheOresteia''
*** Shakespeare's version is quite similar to the story of Amleth as recorded by Saxo Grammaticus in around 1200.
** ''{{King Lear}}'' and ''{{Cymbeline}}'' were taken from Geoffery of Monmouth's ''Literature/HistoriaRegumBritanniae'', a 12th-century pseudohistorical text.
** ''{{The Comedy of Errors}}'' is based off of Menaechmi by Platus.
** ''{{The Tempest}}'' was inspired by an actual shipwreck caused by a hurricane; the description of Bermuda, where the victims landed, just sounded that cool to English audiences.
* While [[WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare's]] ''plots'' might not be as original as people think, his use of language certainly was, and that leads to this trope in and of itself. As quoted in ''The Story of English'':

** That's not exactly true for comedy. An examples is Niccolo Machiavelli's comedy, ''La Mandragola'', set in modern Florence and were not based on any historical event or classical play.

----

** ''TitusAndronicus'' bears many similarities to another myth {{Ovid}} recorded: the story of Philomena. Lavinia actually grabs a copy of ''Literature/TheMetamorphoses'' to tell her family what had happened to her.

* An unusual choice of source material for a musical, stuck in previews, ends up abandoned by its original writer due to horrible reception. Bono and The Edge wrote the songs. The show in question? ''AClockworkOrange: TheMusical'', 20 years before ''SpiderMan: Turn Off The Dark''.

----

** ''{{King Lear}}'' and ''{{Cymbeline}}'' were taken from Geoffery of Monmouth's ''Historia Regum Britanniae'', a 12th-century pseudohistorical text.

*** While the plot and perhaps the legend also share several similarities with TheOresteia

** ''RomeoAndJuliet'' was an adaptation of an Italian narrative poem called ''The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet'', which had been translated into English about thirty years before Shakespeare's play. The poem's basic story is itself very similar to Ovid's "Pyramus and Thisbe" in ''TheMetamorphoses'' from ClassicalMythology.

** ''TitusAndronicus'' bears many similarities to another myth {{Ovid}} recorded: the story of Philomena. Lavinia actually grabs a copy of ''TheMetamorphoses'' to tell her family what had happened to her.

* An [[UnderStatement unusual]] choice of source material for a musical, stuck in previews, ends up abandoned by its original writer due to horrible reception. Bono and The Edge wrote the songs. The show in question? ''AClockworkOrange: TheMusical'', 20 years before ''SpiderMan: Turn Off The Dark''.

* An [[UnderStatement unusual]] choice of source material for a musical, stuck in previews, ends up abandoned by its original writer due to horrible reception. Bono and The Edge wrote the songs. The show in question? AClockworkOrange: TheMusical, 20 years before SpiderMan: Turn Off The Dark.

* A Broadway musical about cats, based on a series of poems, and with considerably more dancing than plot? ''Shinbone Alley'', which opened 25 years before ''Cats''. However, ''Shinbone Alley'' failed to put its cats in any kind of cat costumes, which may help account for its far shorter run.

** The story of {{Rent}} is itself OlderThanTheyThink, being essentially the story of LaBoheme by Puccini. Puccini's MadamaButterfly was updated and set in the Vietnam war for the sake of MissSaigon.