History OlderThanTheyThink / Theatre

** Also, while ''Oklahoma!'' tends to get credited as the first truly story-driven musical, with songs closely tied to the desires and actions of their characters rather than just examples of ThatRemindsMeOfASong, there are older examples out there; ''Theatre/ShowBoat'' is probably the most famous. Even the film musical ''Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' (1937) can be counted among these.

* The 1994 stage adaptation of Disney's ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' wasn't the first "legit" ScreenToStageAdaptation from the Franchise/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 even one of Disney's early [=VHS=] releases.

* ''Theatre/WesterosAnAmericanMusical'': A certain set of lyrics from the "I'll Be Back" song falls victim to this. The song was part of the version of the play that was put online in 2018, and already included the lyrics in which Daenerys threatens to [[spoiler:go mad and burn the Westeros countryside with dragon fire]]. In May 2019, a ''Series/GameOfThrones'' episode had exactly that happen. A couple weeks later, the 2019 version of the play went online. This resulted in people discovering the play via its 2019 version assuming "I'll Be Back" was a nod to what had happened in the series, when it was actually an accurate prediction inherited from its previous version.

* ''Theatre/WesterosAnAmericanMusical'': A certain set of lyrics from the "I'll Be Back" song fall victim to this. The song was part of the version of the play that was put online in 2018, and already included the lyrics in which Daenerys threatens to [[spoiler:go mad and burn the Westeros countryside with dragon fire]]. In May 2019, a ''Series/GameOfThrones'' episode had exactly that happen. A couple weeks later, the 2019 version of the play went online. This resulted in people discovering the play via its 2019 version assuming "I'll Be Back" was a nod to what had happened in the series, when it was actually an accurate prediction inherited from its previous version.

* ''Theatre/WesterosAnAmericanMusical'': A certain set of lyrics from the "I'll Be Back" song fall victim to this. The song was part of the version of the play that was put online in 2018, and already included the lyrics in which Daenerys threatens to [[spoiler:go mad and burn the Westeros countryside with dragon fire]]. In May 2019, a ''Series/GameOfThrones'' episode had exactly that happen. A couple weeks later, the 2019 version of the play went online. This resulted in people discovering the play via its 2019 version assuming "I'll Be Back" was a nod to what happened in the series, when it was actually an accurate prediction inherited from its previous version.

* 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? ''Literature/AClockworkOrange: TheMusical'', 20 years before ''SpiderMan: Turn Off The Dark''.

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

* Many people believe "I Feel Pretty" from ''Theatre/WestSideStory'' is [[{{Bowdlerise}} frequently censored]] to avoid HaveAGayOldTime. It's the other way around. "I feel pretty and witty and gay" is the censored version while the original is "I feel pretty and witty and bright". The lyrics were changed because the song was moved to an earlier scene than in the stage version and possibly to avoid implications of sex: "bright" rhymed with "tonight" instead of "today".

** ''Theatre/{{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.

** ''Theatre/TheComedyOfErrors'' is based off of ''Menaechmi'' by Plautus.

* One thing that practically ''everyone'' knows about 17th century English theatre is that women were banned from stage acting, forcing men to play female roles. While this is certainly not wrong, comparatively few people seem to know that the ban on female actors was lifted during the reign of Charles II, which began in 1660--less than half a century after Creator/WilliamShakespeare's death. Out of the 400-odd years that Shakespeare's plays have been performed, women have been allowed to play the female roles in them for roughly 350 years.

* 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 be an original plot by Shakespeare.

* It's no secret that the songs in ''Theatre/MammaMia'' are just recycled Music/{{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.

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

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

* The 1994 stage adaptation of Disney's ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' wasn't the first "legit" ScreenToStageAdaptation from the Franchise/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).

* Many people believe "I Feel Pretty" from ''Theatre/WestSideStory'' is [[{{Bowdlerise}} frequently censored]] to avoid HaveAGayOldTime. It's the other way around. "I feel pretty and witty and gay" is the censored version while the original is "I feel pretty and witty and bright". The lyrics were changed to avoid implications of sex ("bright" rhymed with "tonight" instead of "today").

* 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.

* It's no secret that the songs in ''Theatre/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.

* 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, or its opposite, YoungerThanTheyThink. As quoted in ''The Story of English'':