Historical Domain Character / Theatre

• The characters in Swedish and Finnish Spexes tends to be almost exclusively historical domain characters, often mixed up with little regard for historical correctness and even anachronistically mixing characters from widely different eras and places in order to create comedy.
• The Takarazuka Revue is fond of historical musicals - see their page for a short list of people whose lives have been adapted for stage by the company.
• In 1776, with the exception of the courier and McNair's assistant — called only "Leather Apron" — every single person who appears in the Congressional chambers, speaking role or not, is a historically documented person. Yes, even Thomson and McNair were real people. Though it takes some liberties with the characterization of the Founding Fathers (to start with, that they sang and danced their way through the writing of the Declaration), a good deal of the dialogue and lyrics are taken from the actual writings of the people involved.
• 1789 provides Danton, Maximilien Robespierre, Desmoulins, Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI. Some examples of less important characters taken from Real Life are Necker, the Duchess of Polignac, Count von Fersen, the Count of Artois and Louis Joseph of France.
• Adriana Lecouvreur's titular Adrienne Lecouvreur is a Historical Domain Character as are Maurice de Saxe, and Louise Henriette Françoise de Lorraine, who is simply called the Princess de Bouillon in the opera.
• Agilulf The Wise's Agilulf, was a historical Lombard king in Italy in the early seventh century., dying in 616. Teudelinga, or Theodolinda was his queen in actual history, and the two had a son together. The previous Lombard king, Authari, is also mentioned a number of times - he is almost remembered as a pirate king, romantically seducing Saracen women in Africa.
• Most of the cast of Agrippina.
• Ainadamar's Lorca and Xirgu. In-Universe, Mariana Pineda is being put on and Mariana Pineda was a real person.
• All the characters in All the Way, a play about Lyndon Johnson's first year in the presidency.
• Anastasia's title character Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova. The Romanov family was real too, although Dmitry, Vlad, and Gleb are invented (though representative of actual types of people in the era).^note Though Gleb happens to share his name with Gleb Botkin, son of Dr. Eugene Botkin, the physician who was executed with the Romanovs. Funnily enough Gleb Botkin was one of the biggest advocates of Anna Anderson's claims as Anastasia. This is likely a coincidence, however.
• Angels in America's Roy. Except for the ghostly visions, the portrayal of the last year of Roy Cohn's life is pretty accurate.
• In Annie, Franklin D. Roosevelt is an onstage character and there's a song about his New Deal, "A New Deal for Christmas." His cabinet members Harold Ickes, Frances Perkins, Cordell Hull, and Henry Morgenthau Jr.; and his political advisor Louis Howe also make onstage appearances. Herbert Hoover doesn't appear himself but is sarcastically thanked by characters for The Great Depression in "We'd Like To Thank You, Herbert Hoover."
• Antony and Cleopatra's Augustus, Agrippa, Cleopatra VII, Mark Antony, Sextus Pompey, Lepidus, Octavia, and even Cleopatra's handmaidens, are retained from Plutarch.
• Assassins portrays real historical figures who attempted to assassinate Presidents of the United States.
• In Boris Godunov, almost everyone among the main characters – Boris Godunov, his family and court, the Pretender, Marina Mniszech and Rangoni.
• In The Audience, Queen Elizabeth II, as well as all the PMs she interacts with. Among them are Winston Churchill, Harold Wilson, David Cameron and others.
• Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson follows the life of Andrew Jackson, including many Historical Domain Characters from his life and presidential administration.
• Bonnie and Clyde’s Bonnie Parker and Clyde, Buck, and Blanche Barrow were all real people.
• The Crucible is about the Salem Witch Trials, and features many people who were involved in them.
• Dr Atomic is about the Manhattan Project—specifically, the day of the Trinity test—with most of the major characters (J. Robert Oppenheimer, his wife Kitty Oppenheimer, project military director Gen. Leslie Graves, and the physicists Edward Teller and Robert R. Wilson) being historical figures.
• Einstein on the Beach's Albert Einstein. Possibly. It's arguable whether the opera has characters at all in the usual sense.
• Most of the characters in Elisabeth. All of Elisabeth's family, Habsburg Emperor Franz Josef I, Sophie, Rudolf, Lucheni and even some of the obscure minor ones. One could say everyone — Death is certainly present in history...
• All around in Emperor and Galilean. Some of the church fathers living at the time are thrown in, like Gregor of Nyssa and Basilius of Caesarea.
• In Dorothy L. Sayers' The Emperor Constantine, most of the characters.
• Evita is a Rock Opera musical about the life of Eva Perón, First Lady of Argentina from 1946 to 1952. Other historical domain characters include Juan Perón, her husband and President of Argentina, Agustín Magaldi, a tango singer, and Che Guevara as the story's Interactive Narrator.
• The Feast at Solhaug gives Audun Hugleiksson, chancellor of King Hakon V, a namecheck. Because he is said to have been "deposed", we may conclude that the actual year of the play is 1302 (he was executed that year).
• Gypsy is loosely based on the memoirs of the real striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, and includes her mother Rose and sister June Havoc.
• In Hamilton, every named character is a real historical figure who was involved in Alexander Hamilton's life somehow, from the title character to minor characters like James Reynolds and George Eacker.
• Writer E. M. Forster is a character ("Morgan") in The Inheritance, who lampshades the show's similar structure to that of his work. He also represents the pre-gay rights movement generations of men who hid their sexuality due to much more overt societal homophobia.
• Iolanta's Iolanta, Vaudemont (although renamed Gottfried instead of Frederick), and King René.
• Niccolò Machiavelli delivers the prologue to The Jew of Malta, he makes pithy comments on how "I consider religion a childish toy" which fits with the Elizabethan perception of the Florentine.
• The King Amuses Himself's King Francis I and Triboulet were both real people, but the story itself is fictional.
• The King and I's main characters are King Mongkut of Siam and the governess of his children Anna Leonowens.
• Pretty much the entire cast of Lady Inger at Austraat. Inger and her daughters, the Danish nobleman Niels Lykke, Sten Sture from Sweden, and namechecks on the heroic Knut Alvsson. Even Martin Luther is referred to in passing.
• The Lion in Winter's main characters, including Richard The Lion Heart. Katherine Hepburn is a descendant of Eleanor Of Aquitaine — not only through Eleanor's marriage to Henry II, but also Eleanor's earlier marriage to the French King Louis VII.
• Little Shop of Horrors's Mrs. Luce (in real life, Clare Booth Luce) really was the wife of the editor of Life Magazine. She was also a playwright, journalist, socialite, ambassador and congresswoman.
• Macbeth is a Very Loosely Based on a True Story tale of Macbeth written by William Shakespeare. Aside from the titular character, other historical figures seen in the play include Gruouch (Macbeth's wife), Malcolm, and Duncan.
• Virtually the entire cast of characters in The Madness of George III, except for Captain Fitzroy.
• All the named characters in Marat/Sade. Bonus for the fact that de Sade himself is doing this, within the play.
• Mariana Pineda's titular Mariana Pineda was a real person.
• Everyone but Margrid in Marie Antoinette (Musical).
• In Newsies, Joseph Pulitzer and Theodore Roosevelt.
• Mozart! is a musical based on the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and as such features casts of historical characters.
• Mozart L'Opera Rock is a musical based on the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and as such features casts of historical characters.
• Mrs. Hawking play series: In Vivat Regina the client Mrs. Braun is a historical figure of the Victorian period under a false name. Though Mrs. Hawking indicates she has figured out her identity and hints at it, it is never explicitly revealed in the text. According to Word of God on the official website, she is Princess Beatrice, the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria.
• All of the minimalist opera Nixon in China's named characters are real people. It focuses on the historic visit of Richard Nixon to China and his meeting with Mao Zedong. All major characters save Mao were still alive when the opera premiered in 1987.
• The entire cast of Pippin except Catherine, Theo, and the Leading Player are historical figures. The main character Pippin is the firstborn son of the major character Charlemagne. Charlemagne has a son Lewis, a wife Fastrada, and a mother Berthe. These characters are derived from Charlemagne, his oldest son Pippin the Hunchback, his son Louis, his third wife Fastrada, and his mother Bertrada.
• The Pretenders in spades. A possible exception for Peter Skulason, though.
• In The Ring of the Nibelung, oddly enough, Gunther, who is based on an actual 6th century Burgundian ruler, Gunthahari.
• Most of the characters in Saint Joan, including Joan of Arc.
• In The Scarlet Pimpernel, Marguerite's best friend Marie Grosholtz, later Marie Tussaud. Yes, that Madame Tussaud.
• As befitting a historical musical, everyone in Theatre/Schikaneder existed in real life. It's about the life of Mozart collaborator Emanuel Schikaneder (and his wife Eleonore).
• Six: The Musical stars the six wives of Henry VIII, in order Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. The backing band counts too, named for the queens' real ladies-in-waiting.
• The Sound of Music is loosely based on the real-life von Trapp family. The romantic leads Georg and Maria von Trapp were real people, and there were seven children although the real ones' names differ from the names given in the musical.
• One of the Nazi chorus line members Spies Are Forever in "Not So Bad" turns out to be father of rocketry Wernher von Braun himself. (Some brutally satirical Artistic License – History, of course, since by 1961 von Braun was a proud American citizen staunchly proclaiming he'd renounced all Nazi ties since he'd become a born-again Christian.)
• The titular ''Sultan of Sulu''. In Real Life, Hadji Mohammed Jamalul Kiram II ruled Sulu from 1894 to his death in 1936, but properly signed over much of his ruling powers to the Americans in the Carpenter Agreement of 1915, making him Sulu's last sovereign ruler. Sulu was subordinated to the (majority-Catholic) Filipino government in Manila after the Americans formally granted "independence" in 1946.
  • The Private Secretary's full name is Hadji Tantong, but he may be based on the real Sultan Kiram's principal advisor, Hadji Butu (1865–1937), who was later appointed to the Philippine Senate.^note In the U.S. colonial era, the Philippine Senate included appointed members from the non-Catholic provinces, including Sulu. Hadji Butu served from 1916–19 and then from 1922–31. Kiram himself was also appointed Senator from 1931–34. The real Hadji was considered far more competent and intelligent, however, and though he bent the knee to the American colonialists out of pragmatism, he also vigorously campaigned for Philippine/Moro independence, and was distinguished in politically resisting the Spanish colonisers previously.
  • There was also a real-life Datto (or Datu) Mandi; "Datu" is his title, meaning roughly Chief.
• The first act of Sunday in the Park with George focuses on post-Impressionist painter George Seurat.
• Tannhäuser has quite a few: der Tannhäuser (c. 1205 - c. 1270) himself (though, as far we know, he was not named Heinrich — he may have been named Liutpolt), a mid-thirteenth century minnesinger, some of whose songs have survived; Herman, Landgrave of Thuringia (c. 1160 - 1217); Wolfram von Eschenbach (c. 1170 - c. 1220), possibly the greatest of mediæval Germany's narrative poets (whose Parzival inspired Wagner's Parsifal); Walther von der Vogelweide (c. 1175-c. 1230), certainly mediæval Germany's greatest lyric poet; ; Heinrich der Schreiber (c. 1180 - c. 1230); and Reinmar von Zweter (c. 1200 - c. 1250.
• In the 1931 film of The Threepenny Opera, Queen Victoria actually does show up in the Beggars Protest March during her coronation parade. She is shown quite unsympathetically needless to say.
• In full effect in ''Musical Touken Ranbu'. From the Yoshitsune household to the Bakamatsu era, the series looks at many well known historical figures.
• In The Trail to Oregon!, none appear onstage, but a few are mentioned, such as then-current President Polk, whom the Mother would play as when she played Oregon Trail or former President Martin van Buren, whom Grandpa apparently used to go skinny-dipping with. It's unclear whether the lobster leader Cornwallis from Grandpa's stories is supposed to be the same person as British Revolutionary War General Cornwallis or if he just had the same name. He does turn out to be real, though.
• In Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier, Ja'far's lover, Scheherazade, was a real woman, best known for epic-length bedtime stories and being mailed to the Sultan wrapped up in a carpet.
• Most characters in Wallenstein, except the bit characters, and Max Piccolomini.
• In The Yeomen of the Guard, Sir Richard Cholmondeley was Lieutenant of the Tower of London from 1513 to 1520. ^note This indicates that the play is set early in the reign of King Henry VIII, although a reference to Anne Boleyn's execution suggests a date after 1536.