Adaptational Context Changes in Theatre.
- In the 2000s, there was a pantomime production of Aladdin which used the songs from the Disney film. However, the pantomime changed the context of the song "Never Had A Friend Like Me". In the Disney film, it is sung by the Genie, after Aladdin meets him in the Cave of Wonders. In the pantomime, it is now sung between both Abanazar (the villain) and Aladdin, as part of the former's plan to entice Aladdin to come to the cave to find Genie's lamp.
- In the Disney film of Aladdin, Aladdin's mother was alive in the earlier drafts of the screenplay, and the song "Proud of Your Boy" was written for Aladdin to sing to her. The song was cut when Aladdin was rewritten as an orphan, however. But in the 2011 stage adaptation, the song is reimagined as a case of Talking to the Dead.
- The 1936 adaptation of The Children's Hour, These Three, censored the plot. In the original play the accusation is Martha and Karen are a couple, and Karen is cheating on her fiancee. In the 1936 version it's assumed Martha and Joe are cheating. Thus many of Joe's lines are given to Karen, and his anxiety over the concept of his girlfriend cheating on him is transferred to her. The climax and ending are completely different. Instead of Joe leaving Karen it is Karen who didn't believe Joe. The dialogue afterwards between Karen and Martha is considerably less dramatic as Martha is calmly confessing her unrequited feelings for Joe instead of giving a gayngst filled Anguished Declaration of Love to Karen. The ending is a Bittersweet Ending where Karen and Joe reunite but the reputation of their school remains ruined instead of the Downer Ending of the play where Martha killed herself and Karen and Joe stay separated.
- Different quartos of Hamlet place the iconic 'To be, or not to be' monologue in different points in the play, significantly changing its implications on the eponymous protagonist's mental state when it is uttered. In one quarto it is used as a more generic philosophical musing, and in another it is Hamlet seriously contemplating suicide, his mental stability in shambles.
- In the American production of the stage musical The Hunchback of Notre Dame, based on the Disney film The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Cut Song "In a Place of Miracles" was intended to be sung after Esmeralda interrupted the hanging of Quasimodo and Phoebus. In the American production of the stage musical, it is performed after Frollo and his men discover the Gypsies' hideout and they are forced to evacuate, and incorporates a Dark Reprise of "Heaven's Light," in which Quasimodo laments that his love for Esmeralda will never be returned.
- In the stage version of The Little Mermaid, based on the 1989 film:
- Unlike in the film, where Ariel found it in a sunken ship, the fork that Scuttle calls a "dinglehopper" is thrown overboard from Eric's ship along with several other royal treasures.
- The music from the film's sailor jig scene is lyricized as "One Step Closer" and used for Ariel and Eric's Dance of Romance.
- The Broadway production had Sebastian and the sea creatures perform "Under The Sea" to console Ariel after the destruction of her grotto, rather than to get her mind off Eric as in the film. The revised production restored it to its original context. Conversely, the Junior version places the number earlier, between "Part of Your World" and "The Storm".
- The song "Beyond My Wildest Dreams" is based on the film's leitmotif for Scuttle, who is not present during this number.
- Some productions of Macbeth move the Porter's Act II humorous soliloquy to the beginning as a prologue spoken by one of the three witches, changing it into a dark foreshadowing of things to come.
- Mary Poppins: The stage musical of the film Mary Poppins has a few songs swapped around so that their context is different.
- The film has "A Spoonful of Sugar" as the first song Mary sings to the children, helping them tidy up the nursery and serving as an introduction to her general magic. In the musical it happens later after the children accidentally mess up the kitchen.
- "Feed The Birds" is changed from a lullaby in the film, to a duet between Mary and the bird woman as she personally takes the children to visit the bank.
- "Let's Go Fly A Kite" is the film's finale, establishing the new bond between Mr. Banks and his children. In the musical it's instead sung by Bert trying to cheer the children up after they've fled from Miss Andrew.
- The Matchmaker to Hello, Dolly!:
- In The Matchmaker, Cornelius has an Audience Monologue shortly after he falls in love with Irene in which he says that even if he gets caught out and loses his job, the memory of this day will sustain him. In Hello, Dolly!, the monologue occurs close to the end, after he's been rumbled by his boss, and the bit about being caught out and losing his job is in the past tense. In one version, he's looking optimistically at a possibility that might never happen; in the other, it has happened and reality has had time to sink in, but he's declaring that all things considered it was still worth it. (Interestingly, the bit about not being sure whether Irene returns his feelings remains the same.)
- In The Matchmaker, Dolly has an Audience Monologue near the end where she talks about her motivations for what she's been doing. In Hello, Dolly!, it's split into several shorter monologues spread through the play, with the earlier ones talking about what she's about to do instead of what she's done.
- Mrs. Doubtfire:
- The film opens with Daniel Hillard singing "Largo al factotum"(AKA "Figaro! Figaro! Figaro!") from The Barber of Seville in a cartoon voiceover role. The Musical instead has him performing a jingle for a "Pizzacato Pizza Rolls" commercial, beginning with the mondegreen "Pizza roll, pizza roll, pizza roll". Also, Daniel is fired rather than voluntarily quitting his job as in the movie.
- The musical replaces the film's "run by fruiting" scene at the pool with an aerobics number ("The Shape of Things To Come") at a gym.
- The musical's version of the restaurant scene is set at a Spanish restaurant and incorporates a flamenco song and dance("He Lied to Me").
- The Phantom of the Opera: the line "It's over now, the music of the night" is sung by the Phantom as an admission of defeat, as Christine's left him for good. In this cover
by RafScrap and Lacy, it's song in triumph as this Christine has definitely chosen her Phantom. - In the original Richard III, the opening "Now is the winter of our discontent" monologue is Richard lamenting how great the world is right now and what a Card-Carrying Villain he is. In the 1995 film with Ian McKellen, Richard gives the first half as a public speech, appearing to be genuine praise about how great things are in the kingdom now... until he mutters the second half of the soliloquy while at a urinal, rambling about how unfair the world is while metaphorically pissing on his rivals.
- Tommy was originally a concept album Rock Opera by The Who in 1969.
- When it was filmed in 1975, they changed who died in the confrontation between Tommy's father and his mother's lover (originally the lover dies, in the film Tommy's father dies.) In both cases the survivors sing the "You didn't see it, you didn't hear it" number to Tommy
- When it was staged as a Broadway musical in 1993, they rewrote the meaning of the ending so that instead of Tommy insisting you have to work and suffer for the spiritual revelations, you should strive to be normal because that's the best gift. In both cases his disciples reject him with the "We're Not Gonna Take It" song.
- Some amateur productions of Tommy, particularly those which might have younger or more conservative audiences watching, have staged the "Fiddle About" number as a song about Uncle Ernie taking advantage of the Walkers' trust by using their home for romantic trysts with women, rather than molesting Tommy.
- In Cirque du Soleil's VOLTA:
- The opening Show Within a Show was originally called Quid Pro Quo and was hosted by protagonist Waz himself with clown Shood Kood Wood as his sidekick. After the show crossed the border to the US, the opener was retooled into The Mr. Wow Show, hosted by the eponymous clown, with Waz as a contestant.
- After the "Hall of Equals" act/scene, where Waz was originally initiated into the Freespirits, was retired, his initiation instead had him participate in the "Urban Jungle" hoop/shape diving act.
