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Damn Yankees (the musical and film) completely displaced The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant.
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* David Belasco's once-popular plays ''Theatre/MadameButterfly'' and ''The Girl Of The Golden West'' have been displaced by Puccini, as has Victorien Sardou's play ''Theatre/{{Tosca}}''.
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* David Belasco's once-popular plays ''Theatre/MadameButterfly'' and ''The Girl Of The of the Golden West'' have been displaced by Puccini, as has Victorien Sardou's play ''Theatre/{{Tosca}}''.
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* Maurine Watkins' play ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'' was highly acclaimed when it was first produced in 1926, but now remembered only as the source of the musical adaptation written half a century later.
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* Maurine Watkins' play ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'' was highly acclaimed when it was first produced in 1926, but now remembered only as the source of the musical adaptation written half a century later.later, which in turn became the source of a [[Film/{{Chicago}} film adaptation]] a quarter-century after that.
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* Before ''Theatre/{{Kismet}}'' became a musical, it was a play by Edward Knoblock popular enough to have been filmed more than once. Since "Stranger in Paradise", the non-musical original has been forgotten. The melody for "Stranger in Paradise" comes from the "Polovtsian Dances" from Alexander Borodin's opera ''Prince Igor''. While the opera itself is fairly obscure, the Polovtsian Dances are a popular symphonic favorite - but people still always think of the melody as "Strangers in Paradise". And other tunes in the show are also pillaged from Borodin's portfolio, including his 2nd Symphony ("Fate"), his String Quartet No. 2 ("And This Is My Beloved") and ''In The Steppes of Central Asia'' ("Sands of Time").
to:
* Before ''Theatre/{{Kismet}}'' became a musical, it was a play by Edward Knoblock popular enough to have been filmed more than once. Since "Stranger in Paradise", the non-musical original has been forgotten. The melody for "Stranger in Paradise" comes from the "Polovtsian Dances" from Alexander Borodin's opera ''Prince Igor''. While the opera itself is fairly obscure, the Polovtsian Dances are a popular symphonic favorite - but people still always think of the melody as "Strangers "Stranger in Paradise". And other tunes in the show are also pillaged from Borodin's portfolio, including his 2nd Symphony ("Fate"), his String Quartet No. 2 ("And This Is My Beloved") and ''In The Steppes of Central Asia'' ("Sands of Time").
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* Most people familiar with ''Theatre/DamnYankees'' and its film adaptation don't know it was based on the novel ''The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant''.
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** Creator/ColleyCibber's ''Richard III'' (1700) displaced [[Theatre/RichardIII Shakespeare's version]] until the late nineteenth century, and remained well-known until at least the 1920s.
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** Creator/ColleyCibber's ''Richard III'' (1700) displaced [[Theatre/RichardIII Shakespeare's version]] until the late nineteenth century, and remained well-known until at least the 1920s. A handful of the lines Cibber wrote remain popular and are sometimes interpolated into modern productions and adaptations.
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if it's averted it's just not used
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** Averted by ''Theatre/TroilusAndCressida''. Not even Shakespeare can beat ''Literature/TheIliad''. He ''did'' largely displace [[Creator/GeoffreyChaucer Chaucer's]] ''Troilus and Criseyde'', though.
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** Averted by ''Theatre/TroilusAndCressida''. Not ''Theatre/TroilusAndCressida'' proves that not even Shakespeare can could beat ''Literature/TheIliad''. He ''Literature/TheIliad'', but it ''did'' largely displace [[Creator/GeoffreyChaucer Chaucer's]] ''Troilus and Criseyde'', though.Criseyde''.
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* Colm Wilkinson, who starred in ''Theatre/LesMiserables'' on Broadway and the West End, has spoken publicly about his shock at people who didn't know the musical was based on [[Literature/LesMiserables a novel]]. Creator/LiamNeeson, while working on the [[Film/LesMiserables1998 1998 film version]], was reportedly annoyed with all the people asking him if he was going to sing.
** Even fewer people are aware that the book is partially based on real history - there really was a student-inspired republican rebellion in France in 1832, sparked by the death of General Lamarque.
*** Locally averted in France, where Les Misérables as a musical is only mildly known (even though the original one is French as well. Films with Gabin or Depardieu are better known anyway) but the book is still considered a monument of national literature and a must-read for anyone with half a brain.
** Even fewer people are aware that the book is partially based on real history - there really was a student-inspired republican rebellion in France in 1832, sparked by the death of General Lamarque.
*** Locally averted in France, where Les Misérables as a musical is only mildly known (even though the original one is French as well. Films with Gabin or Depardieu are better known anyway) but the book is still considered a monument of national literature and a must-read for anyone with half a brain.
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* Colm Wilkinson, who starred in ''Theatre/LesMiserables'' on Broadway and the West End, has spoken publicly about his shock at people who didn't know the musical was based on [[Literature/LesMiserables a novel]]. Creator/LiamNeeson, while working on the [[Film/LesMiserables1998 1998 film version]], was reportedly annoyed with all the people asking him if he was going to sing.
**sing. Even fewer people are aware that the book is partially based on real history - there really was a student-inspired republican rebellion in France in 1832, sparked by the death of General Lamarque.
*** Locally averted in France, where Les Misérables as a musical is only mildly known (even though the original one is French as well. Films with Gabin or Depardieu are better known anyway) but the book is still considered a monument of national literature and a must-read for anyone with half a brain.Lamarque.
**
*** Locally averted in France, where Les Misérables as a musical is only mildly known (even though the original one is French as well. Films with Gabin or Depardieu are better known anyway) but the book is still considered a monument of national literature and a must-read for anyone with half a brain.
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** Similarly, the original 1988 film version of ''Film/{{Hairspray}}'' is seldom remembered.
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** Similarly, the original 1988 film version of ''Film/{{Hairspray}}'' ''Film/{{Hairspray|1988}}'' is seldom remembered.
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** ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' - yes, there ''was'' an earlier play of unknown authorship, now totally lost. The original story comes from a very old Danish Legend, recorded in detail by Saxo Grammaticus in the Gesta Danorum.
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** ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' - yes, there ''was'' an earlier play of unknown authorship, now totally lost. The original story comes from a very old Danish Legend, recorded in detail by Saxo Grammaticus in the Gesta Danorum.Danorum. There was also an ''earlier'' Hamlet play of unknown authorship, seemingly lost; it may have been what Shakespeare based ''his'' play off of, or an earlier draft by Shakespeare himself.
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As decided by NREP crowner
vote. New intro text added, reflecting the nature of the examples - will also double-check the threatre-to-theatre scenario with TRS
vote. New intro text added, reflecting the nature of the examples - will also double-check the threatre-to-theatre scenario with TRSAdded DiffLines:
Examples of AdaptationDisplacement where an existing work has been adapted into some form of theatre (including plays, musicals and opera). In some cases these are examples of existing theatrical works adapted into different works for the stage.
'''A Administrivia/{{No Recent Examples|please}} rule applies to this trope'''. Examples shouldn't be added until '''six months''' after the adaptation is released, to avoid any knee-jerk reactions.
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'''A Administrivia/{{No Recent Examples|please}} rule applies to this trope'''. Examples shouldn't be added until '''six months''' after the adaptation is released, to avoid any knee-jerk reactions.
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* Almost all of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's plays were based on earlier sources.
** ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' - yes, there ''was'' an earlier play of unknown authorship, now totally lost. The original story comes from a very old Danish Legend, recorded in detail by Saxo Grammaticus in the Gesta Danorum.
** ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' was adapted from Arthur Brooke's poem "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet," which was itself adapted from an older Italian story.
** ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' was originally the Italian short story "A Moorish Captain" by Cinthio, in which Disdemona [sic] is the only named character. Compared to the original, Shakespeare's version was very FairForItsDay.
** ''Theatre/KingLear'' is based on an ancient British legend. [[DuelingWorks Another play ]]based on the same source material was around when Shakespeare's play was written.
** ''Theatre/MeasureForMeasure'' is from Cinthio's work: "The Story of Epitia"; and also some borrowing from George Whetstone's ''Promos and Cassandra''.
** ''Theatre/AllsWellThatEndsWell'' is from a short story in ''Literature/TheDecameron'' (day 3, story 9).
** ''Theatre/AsYouLikeIt'' is based on Thomas Lodge's "Rosalynde, Euphues' Golden Legacy", which in turn was derived from "The Tale of Gamelyn", wrongly attributed to Chaucer and printed in some editions of ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales''.
** ''Theatre/TheComedyOfErrors'' is based on an Ancient Roman play, Creator/{{Plautus}}' ''Menaechmi''.
** ''Theatre/TwelfthNight'' is based on Matteo Bandello's story of "Apollonius and Silla."
** Averted by ''Theatre/TroilusAndCressida''. Not even Shakespeare can beat ''Literature/TheIliad''. He ''did'' largely displace [[Creator/GeoffreyChaucer Chaucer's]] ''Troilus and Criseyde'', though.
* This happened to Shakespeare himself.
** Nahum Tate's rewrite ''The History of King Lear'' (1681), which returns to the more upbeat ending of the original source material and pairs Edgar off with Cordelia, displaced [[Theatre/KingLear Shakespeare's version]] until the nineteenth century.
** George Granville's ''The Jew of Venice'' (1701) was almost as successful. It displaced Shakespeare's ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'' for most of the eighteenth century.
** Creator/ColleyCibber's ''Richard III'' (1700) displaced [[Theatre/RichardIII Shakespeare's version]] until the late nineteenth century, and remained well-known until at least the 1920s.
* ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' musical has displaced [[Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera the original Gaston Leroux novel]] in the minds of many. And also -- though not quite to so grotesque an extent -- [[Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera1925 the silent Lon Chaney movie]], which was relatively faithful to the book. Other movie and stage adaptations have long faded from public consciousness thanks to the Creator/AndrewLloydWebber version.
* Creator/RodgersAndHammerstein:
** Their first two musicals, ''Theatre/{{Oklahoma}}'' and ''Carousel'', are legendary works of American theatre, whereas the plays on which they are based, ''Green Grow the Lilacs'' and ''Liliom'' (by renowned playwright Ferenc Molnar), are all but unknown in America. In Europe, ''Liliom'' is more popular than ''Carousel''.
** One of their most famous works, ''Theatre/SouthPacific'', was based on two stories from James A. Michener's short story collection ''Literature/TalesOfTheSouthPacific'', now mostly forgotten.
* The phrase 'amazing technicolor dreamcoat' is not used in the Literature/BookOfGenesis to describe the garment given by Jacob to his son Joseph ("technicolor" wasn't even a thing until 1916). However, the popularity of the Creator/AndrewLloydWebber[=/=]Creator/TimRice musical ''Theatre/JosephAndTheAmazingTechnicolorDreamcoat'' means that many are more familiar with this description of the coat (and the story of Joseph) than the more simple 'coat of many colours' found in the King James Version of Literature/TheBible – let alone the even simpler "ornate robe" or "long robe with sleeves" found in more recent and likely more accurate translations. In fact, some especially liberal Jewish families reference the musical during the retelling of the story of the Exodus at Passover to help explain why the Jews were even in Egypt in the first place.
* The operatic adaptations of ''Theatre/TheMarriageOfFigaro'' and ''Theatre/TheBarberOfSeville'' are both far better-known than the Beaumarchais plays that they're based on. Also that the Rossini version of ''Barber'' is the second (popular) version. Which makes sense if you consider that he wrote his opera 30+ years after Mozart wrote the sequel. Rossini's version completely displaced the earlier opera treatment of the same play by Paisiello; which makes the attempts by Paisiello's admirers to wreck it by disrupting its first performance appear HarsherInHindsight.
* Music/GeorgeGershwin's famous opera ''Theatre/PorgyAndBess'' was faithfully adapted from a once-famous play called ''Porgy'', which itself was adapted from a novel of the same name. [=DuBose=] Heyward wrote or helped write all three.
* Colm Wilkinson, who starred in ''Theatre/LesMiserables'' on Broadway and the West End, has spoken publicly about his shock at people who didn't know the musical was based on [[Literature/LesMiserables a novel]]. Creator/LiamNeeson, while working on the [[Film/LesMiserables1998 1998 film version]], was reportedly annoyed with all the people asking him if he was going to sing.
** Even fewer people are aware that the book is partially based on real history - there really was a student-inspired republican rebellion in France in 1832, sparked by the death of General Lamarque.
*** Locally averted in France, where Les Misérables as a musical is only mildly known (even though the original one is French as well. Films with Gabin or Depardieu are better known anyway) but the book is still considered a monument of national literature and a must-read for anyone with half a brain.
* The famous ballet ''Theatre/TheNutcracker'' is actually based on [[Literature/TheNutcracker a book]] with a slightly different plot and a different backstory for the Nutcracker himself. The ending is also different -- many productions of the ballet have Clara awaken at the end to learn it was AllJustADream, whereas the book ends with Marie discovering that it was all real and [[ThePowerOfLove her love for the Nutcracker breaking his curse]]. Some productions of the ballet actually include elements of the original ending anyway; Mark Morris' tongue-in-cheek SettingUpdate ''The Hard Nut'' spends much of the second act telling said backstory.
* Puccini's opera ''Theatre/LaBoheme'' has handily displaced Henri Murger's novel ''Scènes de la Vie de Bohème'' (interestingly, there was a rival operatic adaptation by Ruggiero Leoncavallo, composer of ''Theatre/{{Pagliacci}}''; this is also forgotten). It, in turn, is probably displaced with the masses by ''Theatre/{{Rent}}''.
* David Belasco's once-popular plays ''Theatre/MadameButterfly'' and ''The Girl Of The Golden West'' have been displaced by Puccini, as has Victorien Sardou's play ''Theatre/{{Tosca}}''.
* The musical ''Theatre/MyFairLady'' is much more popular than the original ''Theatre/{{Pygmalion}}''.
* Maurine Watkins' play ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'' was highly acclaimed when it was first produced in 1926, but now remembered only as the source of the musical adaptation written half a century later.
* The musical ''Little Me'' seems to be better known than the Patrick Dennis book it was based on -- which is somewhat odd considering that the show was neither a Broadway hit nor made into a movie.
* Before ''Theatre/{{Kismet}}'' became a musical, it was a play by Edward Knoblock popular enough to have been filmed more than once. Since "Stranger in Paradise", the non-musical original has been forgotten. The melody for "Stranger in Paradise" comes from the "Polovtsian Dances" from Alexander Borodin's opera ''Prince Igor''. While the opera itself is fairly obscure, the Polovtsian Dances are a popular symphonic favorite - but people still always think of the melody as "Strangers in Paradise". And other tunes in the show are also pillaged from Borodin's portfolio, including his 2nd Symphony ("Fate"), his String Quartet No. 2 ("And This Is My Beloved") and ''In The Steppes of Central Asia'' ("Sands of Time").
* ''Theatre/HelloDolly'':
** It is only arguably more popular than Creator/ThorntonWilder's play ''Theatre/TheMatchmaker'', but that in turn was a revision of Wilder's earlier play ''The Merchant of Yonkers'', which was adapted from the 19th-century Austrian farce ''Einen Jux will er sich machen'' (''He'll Have Himself a Good Time'') by Johann Nestroy, which was in turn adapted from the English one-act farce ''A Day Well Spent'' by John Oxenford.
** And many fans of ''WesternAnimation/WallE'' are unaware that the latter's title music is from ''Hello, Dolly!'' -- even though the relevant clip is included in the movie.
* Many people have seen ''Theatre/GuysAndDolls''; few today have read any of Creator/DamonRunyon's stories.
* Georges Bizet's popular opera ''Theatre/{{Carmen}}'' was originally based on a novel by Prosper Merimée. Merimée also wrote the novel "Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX" (1829) on which Giacomo Meyerbeer and Eugène Scribe based ''Les Huguenots'', one of the most successful operas of the 19th century.
* Though [[Literature/{{Wicked}} the book series]] is still popular, most people when they hear ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'' think of the musical first. Due to [[Literature/{{Wicked}} the book]] being much DarkerAndEdgier, most fans of the stage show haven't read it, and many aren't even aware of its existence.
* Trivia clue for ''Theatre/{{Aida|JohnRice}}'': "Disney musical by Music/EltonJohn and Creator/TimRice". The actual source material Creator/{{Disney}} bought the rights to was a picture book written by Leontyne Price, most famous for portraying the title character of the [[Theatre/AidaVerdi original Verdi opera]].
* ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors'' is remembered as [[Film/LittleShopOfHorrors a film adaptation]] of an off-Broadway musical by Music/AlanMenken and Howard Ashman, but few remember that the musical was in fact based on [[Film/TheLittleShopOfHorrors a (non-musical) comedy]] made in TheSixties.
** Similarly, the original 1988 film version of ''Film/{{Hairspray}}'' is seldom remembered.
* Before the 1954 play, the 1956 film, and the respective 1985 and 2018 TV movie remakes, ''Literature/TheBadSeed'' was originally a novel by William March.
* ''Theatre/TheThreepennyOpera'' has become considerably more popular than the 18th-century ''[[Theatre/TheBeggarsOpera Beggar's Opera]]'' it was based on.
* So maybe [[Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet the film]] hasn't completely displaced [[Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet the musical]], but how many people knew that everyone's favorite AxCrazy barber Sweeney Todd originated in ''Literature/TheStringOfPearls'', a serialised penny dreadful novel from UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain? Even the musical's immediate source material, a play by Christopher Bond, is obscure in comparison.
* More people will be familiar with ''Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung'' by Music/RichardWagner than will have read either of the medieval works on which it is based, the ''Literature/{{Nibelungenlied}}'', the ''Literature/PoeticEdda''/''Literature/ProseEdda'' or the ''Literature/VolsungaSaga''.
* Everyone knows ''Cabaret'' either as a [[Theatre/{{Cabaret}} stage musical]] or a [[Film/{{Cabaret}} film]]. People familiar with the film often forget that the original Broadway version was not choreographed by Creator/BobFosse, didn't use the {{Movie Bonus Song}}s that revivals often insert, had a slightly different plot and presented some of the songs in different contexts. Many people will be aware that it was VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, but few have read the original novella, ''Goodbye to Berlin'' by Christopher Isherwood. ''Cabaret'' itself was based on a previous non-musical theater adaptation, ''I Am a Camera'', and ''that'' has been quite decisively displaced.
* ''Theatre/TheMousetrap'', the play by Creator/AgathaChristie is much better known than "Three Blind Mice", the short story it was based on, which in turn was based on a radio play also called "Three Blind Mice". This is because, since DoNotSpoilThisEnding is SeriousBusiness for the play, "Three Blind Mice" has not been reprinted (or rebroadcast) for 60 years. At least, not in the UK.
* Modern opinion of ''Literature/UncleTomsCabin'' - particularly the titular Uncle Tom - has been strongly tainted by minstrel shows and early cinema based on those shows. Whereas the original book was about the horrors of slavery, and Uncle Tom died refusing to give up the location of two escaped slave women, the stage shows and movies whitewashed the harsher aspects of slavery and {{flanderiz|ation}}ed Uncle Tom's passivity into outright cowardice. (As you probably guessed by now, the pejorative use of [[NWordPrivileges "Uncle Tom"]] stems from the shows, not from the books).
* Vincenzo Bellini's ''Norma'' (famously played be Maria Callas) is based on the five-act tragedy ''Norma, ou l'Infanticide'' by Alexandre Soumet. The operatic adaptation opened less than a year after the play it displaced.
* Benjamin Britten's opera ''Peter Grimes'' is based on the 1810 poem ''The Borough'' by George Crabbe.
* Music/ClaudeDebussy's opera ''Pelleas and Melisande'' is based on the play of the same name by Belgian writer Maurice Maeterlinck.
* Outside of the English-speaking world it is a safe bet to say that Gaetano Donizetti's opera ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' is better known than Creator/WalterScott's story ''The Bride of Lammermoor''.
* Leos Janacek's opera ''Jenufa'' was adapted from the play ''Její pastorkyna'' ("Her adoptive daughter") by Gabriele Preiß.
* The operas ''Manon Lescaut'' by Francois Auber and Music/GiacomoPuccini, and also ''Manon'' by Jules Massenet are more well-known worldwide than ''Les Aventures du Chevalier Des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut'', which forms part of the 1728 novel ''Mémoires d'un homme de qualité'' by the Abbé Prévost d'Exiles.
* Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart:
** The libretto to ''Idomeneo'' was adapted and brought up to current tastes from that of the earlier French opera by Antoine Danchet and André Campra.
** ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail'' is based on Christoph Friedrich Bretzner's libretto for ''Belmonte und Konstanze oder die Verführung aus dem Serail'' by Johann André (1781), which in turn was based on a 1769 British operetta called ''The Captive''. Bretzner even public protested against Mozart and Johann Gottlieb Stephanie using his libretto and making changes to it.
** World-wide, ''Theatre/DonGiovanni'' is more well-known than any earlier or later adaptation of the Don Juan story, including Moliere's classic play.
** ''Theatre/TheMagicFlute'' started out as a straight adaptation of the fairy tale ''Lulu oder die Zauberflöte'' from [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Christoph Martin Wieland's]] ''Dschinnistan''. However, when another adaptation of the same plot hit the stage first, Mozart and Emanuel Schikaneder completely reworked the libretto, so it became something else.
* Modest Mussorgsky's opera ''Boris Godunov'' is closely modeled on Creator/AlexanderPushkin's play, which in turn is deeply indebted to Nikolay Karamzin's multi-volume "History of the Russian Empire".
* Music/JacquesOffenbach's bio-opera ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' is based on the bio-stage play ''Les Contes d'Hoffmann'' by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier.
* Sergei Prokofiev's "The Love of Three Oranges" (best known for the march which was used as the theme for ''Gangbusters'') is based on the 1761 play of the same name by Carlo Gozzi; Gozzi also wrote the play ''Turandot'', on which Puccini based his last opera.
* Music/GiuseppeVerdi:
** The opera ''Rigoletto'' has displaced the play on which it is based, ''Le roi s'amuse'' by Creator/VictorHugo. Not the first time this happened: one of Verdi's earliest operatic successes, ''Ernani'', was based on another Hugo play, ''Hernani''.
** ''Il trovatore'' is based on the Spanish play ''El Trovador'' by Antonio García Gutierrez. Gutierrez also wrote the play ''Simón Bocanegra'', on which Verdi based the opera ''Simon Boccanegra''.
** ''Theatre/LaTraviata'' is based on the novel ''La dame aux camélias'' by Creator/AlexandreDumasFils, which was also adapted into the 1936 movie ''Camille''.
** ''Un ballo in maschera'' is based on Eugène Scribe's libretto for Francois Auber's earlier opera ''Gustave III''; the censors forced Verdi to transpose the story from Sweden to Boston, Massachusetts.
** ''La forza del destino'' adapts the now largely forgotten "Don Alvaro or the Force of Destiny" by Angelo de Perez de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas.
** The opera ''Theatre/{{Aida|Verdi}}'' is based on a little-known text story by the French archaeologist Edouard Mariette.
* Music/RichardWagner adapted ''Rienzi'' (which later became UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler's favourite opera) from the 1835 novel ''Rienzi, the Last of the Roman Tribunes'' by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. He also clearly lifted the plot for ''Der fliegende Holländer'' from the description of a fictional play in ''Die Memoiren des Herrn von Schnabelewopski'' by [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Heinrich Heine]].
* Carl Maria von Weber and Ludwig Kind loosely adapted ''Theatre/DerFreischutz'' from the story of the same name in the ''Gespensterbuch'' by August Apel and Fr. Laun. The same obscure story was later adapted by Robert Wilson, Music/TomWaits and Creator/WilliamSBurroughs into the musical ''Music/TheBlackRider''.
* ''The Woman In Black'' is best known as a play (or even as the more recent Creator/DanielRadcliffe [[Film/TheWomanInBlack film and sequel]]), but was originally [[Literature/TheWomanInBlack a novel]].
* Most fans of the musical ''Film/{{Waitress}}'' would not know it was a film first, which is justified due to the nature of its release. [[note]] The film was released in only 707 theaters in the United States compared to the typical 2,500 or 4,000 for a hit movie.[[/note]]
* A theme that Music/LudwigVanBeethoven originally composed for the ballet with songs ''The Creatures of Prometheus'' is vastly better remembered as the theme of two other Beethoven works: a large set of variations for piano (Op. 35), and the finale of his "Eroica" Symphony. The piano variations therefore have become commonly known as the "Eroica" variations.
* Website/{{Tumblr}}'s favorite musical, ''Theatre/BeMoreChill'', is based on a 2004 novel [[Literature/BeMoreChill of the same name]] by Ned Vizzini. Few fans of the show have actually read the book, and even among those who have, the musical is far more popular.
* ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'', an immensely popular hip-hop musical, is ''far'' more popular than Creator/RobChernow's ''Literature/AlexanderHamilton''. Although, given that Creator/LinManuelMiranda is not shy about being a fan of the author, [[TheRedStapler fans of the show have taken to reading the original book]].
** ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' - yes, there ''was'' an earlier play of unknown authorship, now totally lost. The original story comes from a very old Danish Legend, recorded in detail by Saxo Grammaticus in the Gesta Danorum.
** ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' was adapted from Arthur Brooke's poem "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet," which was itself adapted from an older Italian story.
** ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' was originally the Italian short story "A Moorish Captain" by Cinthio, in which Disdemona [sic] is the only named character. Compared to the original, Shakespeare's version was very FairForItsDay.
** ''Theatre/KingLear'' is based on an ancient British legend. [[DuelingWorks Another play ]]based on the same source material was around when Shakespeare's play was written.
** ''Theatre/MeasureForMeasure'' is from Cinthio's work: "The Story of Epitia"; and also some borrowing from George Whetstone's ''Promos and Cassandra''.
** ''Theatre/AllsWellThatEndsWell'' is from a short story in ''Literature/TheDecameron'' (day 3, story 9).
** ''Theatre/AsYouLikeIt'' is based on Thomas Lodge's "Rosalynde, Euphues' Golden Legacy", which in turn was derived from "The Tale of Gamelyn", wrongly attributed to Chaucer and printed in some editions of ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales''.
** ''Theatre/TheComedyOfErrors'' is based on an Ancient Roman play, Creator/{{Plautus}}' ''Menaechmi''.
** ''Theatre/TwelfthNight'' is based on Matteo Bandello's story of "Apollonius and Silla."
** Averted by ''Theatre/TroilusAndCressida''. Not even Shakespeare can beat ''Literature/TheIliad''. He ''did'' largely displace [[Creator/GeoffreyChaucer Chaucer's]] ''Troilus and Criseyde'', though.
* This happened to Shakespeare himself.
** Nahum Tate's rewrite ''The History of King Lear'' (1681), which returns to the more upbeat ending of the original source material and pairs Edgar off with Cordelia, displaced [[Theatre/KingLear Shakespeare's version]] until the nineteenth century.
** George Granville's ''The Jew of Venice'' (1701) was almost as successful. It displaced Shakespeare's ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'' for most of the eighteenth century.
** Creator/ColleyCibber's ''Richard III'' (1700) displaced [[Theatre/RichardIII Shakespeare's version]] until the late nineteenth century, and remained well-known until at least the 1920s.
* ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' musical has displaced [[Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera the original Gaston Leroux novel]] in the minds of many. And also -- though not quite to so grotesque an extent -- [[Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera1925 the silent Lon Chaney movie]], which was relatively faithful to the book. Other movie and stage adaptations have long faded from public consciousness thanks to the Creator/AndrewLloydWebber version.
* Creator/RodgersAndHammerstein:
** Their first two musicals, ''Theatre/{{Oklahoma}}'' and ''Carousel'', are legendary works of American theatre, whereas the plays on which they are based, ''Green Grow the Lilacs'' and ''Liliom'' (by renowned playwright Ferenc Molnar), are all but unknown in America. In Europe, ''Liliom'' is more popular than ''Carousel''.
** One of their most famous works, ''Theatre/SouthPacific'', was based on two stories from James A. Michener's short story collection ''Literature/TalesOfTheSouthPacific'', now mostly forgotten.
* The phrase 'amazing technicolor dreamcoat' is not used in the Literature/BookOfGenesis to describe the garment given by Jacob to his son Joseph ("technicolor" wasn't even a thing until 1916). However, the popularity of the Creator/AndrewLloydWebber[=/=]Creator/TimRice musical ''Theatre/JosephAndTheAmazingTechnicolorDreamcoat'' means that many are more familiar with this description of the coat (and the story of Joseph) than the more simple 'coat of many colours' found in the King James Version of Literature/TheBible – let alone the even simpler "ornate robe" or "long robe with sleeves" found in more recent and likely more accurate translations. In fact, some especially liberal Jewish families reference the musical during the retelling of the story of the Exodus at Passover to help explain why the Jews were even in Egypt in the first place.
* The operatic adaptations of ''Theatre/TheMarriageOfFigaro'' and ''Theatre/TheBarberOfSeville'' are both far better-known than the Beaumarchais plays that they're based on. Also that the Rossini version of ''Barber'' is the second (popular) version. Which makes sense if you consider that he wrote his opera 30+ years after Mozart wrote the sequel. Rossini's version completely displaced the earlier opera treatment of the same play by Paisiello; which makes the attempts by Paisiello's admirers to wreck it by disrupting its first performance appear HarsherInHindsight.
* Music/GeorgeGershwin's famous opera ''Theatre/PorgyAndBess'' was faithfully adapted from a once-famous play called ''Porgy'', which itself was adapted from a novel of the same name. [=DuBose=] Heyward wrote or helped write all three.
* Colm Wilkinson, who starred in ''Theatre/LesMiserables'' on Broadway and the West End, has spoken publicly about his shock at people who didn't know the musical was based on [[Literature/LesMiserables a novel]]. Creator/LiamNeeson, while working on the [[Film/LesMiserables1998 1998 film version]], was reportedly annoyed with all the people asking him if he was going to sing.
** Even fewer people are aware that the book is partially based on real history - there really was a student-inspired republican rebellion in France in 1832, sparked by the death of General Lamarque.
*** Locally averted in France, where Les Misérables as a musical is only mildly known (even though the original one is French as well. Films with Gabin or Depardieu are better known anyway) but the book is still considered a monument of national literature and a must-read for anyone with half a brain.
* The famous ballet ''Theatre/TheNutcracker'' is actually based on [[Literature/TheNutcracker a book]] with a slightly different plot and a different backstory for the Nutcracker himself. The ending is also different -- many productions of the ballet have Clara awaken at the end to learn it was AllJustADream, whereas the book ends with Marie discovering that it was all real and [[ThePowerOfLove her love for the Nutcracker breaking his curse]]. Some productions of the ballet actually include elements of the original ending anyway; Mark Morris' tongue-in-cheek SettingUpdate ''The Hard Nut'' spends much of the second act telling said backstory.
* Puccini's opera ''Theatre/LaBoheme'' has handily displaced Henri Murger's novel ''Scènes de la Vie de Bohème'' (interestingly, there was a rival operatic adaptation by Ruggiero Leoncavallo, composer of ''Theatre/{{Pagliacci}}''; this is also forgotten). It, in turn, is probably displaced with the masses by ''Theatre/{{Rent}}''.
* David Belasco's once-popular plays ''Theatre/MadameButterfly'' and ''The Girl Of The Golden West'' have been displaced by Puccini, as has Victorien Sardou's play ''Theatre/{{Tosca}}''.
* The musical ''Theatre/MyFairLady'' is much more popular than the original ''Theatre/{{Pygmalion}}''.
* Maurine Watkins' play ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'' was highly acclaimed when it was first produced in 1926, but now remembered only as the source of the musical adaptation written half a century later.
* The musical ''Little Me'' seems to be better known than the Patrick Dennis book it was based on -- which is somewhat odd considering that the show was neither a Broadway hit nor made into a movie.
* Before ''Theatre/{{Kismet}}'' became a musical, it was a play by Edward Knoblock popular enough to have been filmed more than once. Since "Stranger in Paradise", the non-musical original has been forgotten. The melody for "Stranger in Paradise" comes from the "Polovtsian Dances" from Alexander Borodin's opera ''Prince Igor''. While the opera itself is fairly obscure, the Polovtsian Dances are a popular symphonic favorite - but people still always think of the melody as "Strangers in Paradise". And other tunes in the show are also pillaged from Borodin's portfolio, including his 2nd Symphony ("Fate"), his String Quartet No. 2 ("And This Is My Beloved") and ''In The Steppes of Central Asia'' ("Sands of Time").
* ''Theatre/HelloDolly'':
** It is only arguably more popular than Creator/ThorntonWilder's play ''Theatre/TheMatchmaker'', but that in turn was a revision of Wilder's earlier play ''The Merchant of Yonkers'', which was adapted from the 19th-century Austrian farce ''Einen Jux will er sich machen'' (''He'll Have Himself a Good Time'') by Johann Nestroy, which was in turn adapted from the English one-act farce ''A Day Well Spent'' by John Oxenford.
** And many fans of ''WesternAnimation/WallE'' are unaware that the latter's title music is from ''Hello, Dolly!'' -- even though the relevant clip is included in the movie.
* Many people have seen ''Theatre/GuysAndDolls''; few today have read any of Creator/DamonRunyon's stories.
* Georges Bizet's popular opera ''Theatre/{{Carmen}}'' was originally based on a novel by Prosper Merimée. Merimée also wrote the novel "Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX" (1829) on which Giacomo Meyerbeer and Eugène Scribe based ''Les Huguenots'', one of the most successful operas of the 19th century.
* Though [[Literature/{{Wicked}} the book series]] is still popular, most people when they hear ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'' think of the musical first. Due to [[Literature/{{Wicked}} the book]] being much DarkerAndEdgier, most fans of the stage show haven't read it, and many aren't even aware of its existence.
* Trivia clue for ''Theatre/{{Aida|JohnRice}}'': "Disney musical by Music/EltonJohn and Creator/TimRice". The actual source material Creator/{{Disney}} bought the rights to was a picture book written by Leontyne Price, most famous for portraying the title character of the [[Theatre/AidaVerdi original Verdi opera]].
* ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors'' is remembered as [[Film/LittleShopOfHorrors a film adaptation]] of an off-Broadway musical by Music/AlanMenken and Howard Ashman, but few remember that the musical was in fact based on [[Film/TheLittleShopOfHorrors a (non-musical) comedy]] made in TheSixties.
** Similarly, the original 1988 film version of ''Film/{{Hairspray}}'' is seldom remembered.
* Before the 1954 play, the 1956 film, and the respective 1985 and 2018 TV movie remakes, ''Literature/TheBadSeed'' was originally a novel by William March.
* ''Theatre/TheThreepennyOpera'' has become considerably more popular than the 18th-century ''[[Theatre/TheBeggarsOpera Beggar's Opera]]'' it was based on.
* So maybe [[Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet the film]] hasn't completely displaced [[Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet the musical]], but how many people knew that everyone's favorite AxCrazy barber Sweeney Todd originated in ''Literature/TheStringOfPearls'', a serialised penny dreadful novel from UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain? Even the musical's immediate source material, a play by Christopher Bond, is obscure in comparison.
* More people will be familiar with ''Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung'' by Music/RichardWagner than will have read either of the medieval works on which it is based, the ''Literature/{{Nibelungenlied}}'', the ''Literature/PoeticEdda''/''Literature/ProseEdda'' or the ''Literature/VolsungaSaga''.
* Everyone knows ''Cabaret'' either as a [[Theatre/{{Cabaret}} stage musical]] or a [[Film/{{Cabaret}} film]]. People familiar with the film often forget that the original Broadway version was not choreographed by Creator/BobFosse, didn't use the {{Movie Bonus Song}}s that revivals often insert, had a slightly different plot and presented some of the songs in different contexts. Many people will be aware that it was VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, but few have read the original novella, ''Goodbye to Berlin'' by Christopher Isherwood. ''Cabaret'' itself was based on a previous non-musical theater adaptation, ''I Am a Camera'', and ''that'' has been quite decisively displaced.
* ''Theatre/TheMousetrap'', the play by Creator/AgathaChristie is much better known than "Three Blind Mice", the short story it was based on, which in turn was based on a radio play also called "Three Blind Mice". This is because, since DoNotSpoilThisEnding is SeriousBusiness for the play, "Three Blind Mice" has not been reprinted (or rebroadcast) for 60 years. At least, not in the UK.
* Modern opinion of ''Literature/UncleTomsCabin'' - particularly the titular Uncle Tom - has been strongly tainted by minstrel shows and early cinema based on those shows. Whereas the original book was about the horrors of slavery, and Uncle Tom died refusing to give up the location of two escaped slave women, the stage shows and movies whitewashed the harsher aspects of slavery and {{flanderiz|ation}}ed Uncle Tom's passivity into outright cowardice. (As you probably guessed by now, the pejorative use of [[NWordPrivileges "Uncle Tom"]] stems from the shows, not from the books).
* Vincenzo Bellini's ''Norma'' (famously played be Maria Callas) is based on the five-act tragedy ''Norma, ou l'Infanticide'' by Alexandre Soumet. The operatic adaptation opened less than a year after the play it displaced.
* Benjamin Britten's opera ''Peter Grimes'' is based on the 1810 poem ''The Borough'' by George Crabbe.
* Music/ClaudeDebussy's opera ''Pelleas and Melisande'' is based on the play of the same name by Belgian writer Maurice Maeterlinck.
* Outside of the English-speaking world it is a safe bet to say that Gaetano Donizetti's opera ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' is better known than Creator/WalterScott's story ''The Bride of Lammermoor''.
* Leos Janacek's opera ''Jenufa'' was adapted from the play ''Její pastorkyna'' ("Her adoptive daughter") by Gabriele Preiß.
* The operas ''Manon Lescaut'' by Francois Auber and Music/GiacomoPuccini, and also ''Manon'' by Jules Massenet are more well-known worldwide than ''Les Aventures du Chevalier Des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut'', which forms part of the 1728 novel ''Mémoires d'un homme de qualité'' by the Abbé Prévost d'Exiles.
* Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart:
** The libretto to ''Idomeneo'' was adapted and brought up to current tastes from that of the earlier French opera by Antoine Danchet and André Campra.
** ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail'' is based on Christoph Friedrich Bretzner's libretto for ''Belmonte und Konstanze oder die Verführung aus dem Serail'' by Johann André (1781), which in turn was based on a 1769 British operetta called ''The Captive''. Bretzner even public protested against Mozart and Johann Gottlieb Stephanie using his libretto and making changes to it.
** World-wide, ''Theatre/DonGiovanni'' is more well-known than any earlier or later adaptation of the Don Juan story, including Moliere's classic play.
** ''Theatre/TheMagicFlute'' started out as a straight adaptation of the fairy tale ''Lulu oder die Zauberflöte'' from [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Christoph Martin Wieland's]] ''Dschinnistan''. However, when another adaptation of the same plot hit the stage first, Mozart and Emanuel Schikaneder completely reworked the libretto, so it became something else.
* Modest Mussorgsky's opera ''Boris Godunov'' is closely modeled on Creator/AlexanderPushkin's play, which in turn is deeply indebted to Nikolay Karamzin's multi-volume "History of the Russian Empire".
* Music/JacquesOffenbach's bio-opera ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' is based on the bio-stage play ''Les Contes d'Hoffmann'' by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier.
* Sergei Prokofiev's "The Love of Three Oranges" (best known for the march which was used as the theme for ''Gangbusters'') is based on the 1761 play of the same name by Carlo Gozzi; Gozzi also wrote the play ''Turandot'', on which Puccini based his last opera.
* Music/GiuseppeVerdi:
** The opera ''Rigoletto'' has displaced the play on which it is based, ''Le roi s'amuse'' by Creator/VictorHugo. Not the first time this happened: one of Verdi's earliest operatic successes, ''Ernani'', was based on another Hugo play, ''Hernani''.
** ''Il trovatore'' is based on the Spanish play ''El Trovador'' by Antonio García Gutierrez. Gutierrez also wrote the play ''Simón Bocanegra'', on which Verdi based the opera ''Simon Boccanegra''.
** ''Theatre/LaTraviata'' is based on the novel ''La dame aux camélias'' by Creator/AlexandreDumasFils, which was also adapted into the 1936 movie ''Camille''.
** ''Un ballo in maschera'' is based on Eugène Scribe's libretto for Francois Auber's earlier opera ''Gustave III''; the censors forced Verdi to transpose the story from Sweden to Boston, Massachusetts.
** ''La forza del destino'' adapts the now largely forgotten "Don Alvaro or the Force of Destiny" by Angelo de Perez de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas.
** The opera ''Theatre/{{Aida|Verdi}}'' is based on a little-known text story by the French archaeologist Edouard Mariette.
* Music/RichardWagner adapted ''Rienzi'' (which later became UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler's favourite opera) from the 1835 novel ''Rienzi, the Last of the Roman Tribunes'' by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. He also clearly lifted the plot for ''Der fliegende Holländer'' from the description of a fictional play in ''Die Memoiren des Herrn von Schnabelewopski'' by [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Heinrich Heine]].
* Carl Maria von Weber and Ludwig Kind loosely adapted ''Theatre/DerFreischutz'' from the story of the same name in the ''Gespensterbuch'' by August Apel and Fr. Laun. The same obscure story was later adapted by Robert Wilson, Music/TomWaits and Creator/WilliamSBurroughs into the musical ''Music/TheBlackRider''.
* ''The Woman In Black'' is best known as a play (or even as the more recent Creator/DanielRadcliffe [[Film/TheWomanInBlack film and sequel]]), but was originally [[Literature/TheWomanInBlack a novel]].
* Most fans of the musical ''Film/{{Waitress}}'' would not know it was a film first, which is justified due to the nature of its release. [[note]] The film was released in only 707 theaters in the United States compared to the typical 2,500 or 4,000 for a hit movie.[[/note]]
* A theme that Music/LudwigVanBeethoven originally composed for the ballet with songs ''The Creatures of Prometheus'' is vastly better remembered as the theme of two other Beethoven works: a large set of variations for piano (Op. 35), and the finale of his "Eroica" Symphony. The piano variations therefore have become commonly known as the "Eroica" variations.
* Website/{{Tumblr}}'s favorite musical, ''Theatre/BeMoreChill'', is based on a 2004 novel [[Literature/BeMoreChill of the same name]] by Ned Vizzini. Few fans of the show have actually read the book, and even among those who have, the musical is far more popular.
* ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'', an immensely popular hip-hop musical, is ''far'' more popular than Creator/RobChernow's ''Literature/AlexanderHamilton''. Although, given that Creator/LinManuelMiranda is not shy about being a fan of the author, [[TheRedStapler fans of the show have taken to reading the original book]].
