History Main / AllMusicalsAreAdaptations

** Double aversions of TheEighties and TheNineties include ''{{Labyrinth}}'' and a significant chunk of DonBluth's work (''An American Tail'', ''AllDogsGoToHeaven'', ''RockADoodle'', ''ATrollInCentralPark'', and ''ThePebbleAndThePenguin'').

* Several of DonBluth's animated features double as original musicals:
** ''AnAmericanTail''
** ''AllDogsGoToHeaven''
** ''RockADoodle''
** ''ATrollInCentralPark''
** ''ThePebbleAndThePenguin''

Such decay is actually more common in musical dramas (as opposed to musical comedies) based on dark or serious properties, since the lurch in tone between serious and comedic is all the more jarring. The addition of three wise-cracking, singing, sentient gargoyles to Disney's TheHunchbackOfNotreDame is a good example (though in the stage version produced in Germany, they instead became fractured elements of Quasimodo's psyche).

* ''AcrossTheUniverse''

* {{Jukebox Musical}}s (''Mamma Mia'', etc.) may or may not count. They usually have original stories, but not original songs.

* ''SingingInTheRain'', although it was written to utilize a bunch of existing songs the studio already owned, is actually a double aversion: a movie musical that neither not based on an existing story or adapted from a broadway musical
** What's largely forgotten is that this was actually common practice for film musicals of the era, and had been for a good ten years. SingingInTheRain is simply the most famous example.

** The same is somewhat true of "Assassins" as well, which takes historical figures and events, and mashes them all together into one timeless [[BuffySpeak vacuum... type... thing.]]

* The SeraMyu is actully a series of musicals based on the Sailor Moon metaseries. Each muscial has a diffent plot though songs are reused between them and aside from a few exceptions are rarely tied into any version of canon or each-other. They are genenraly credited for popularizing musicals based on anime and manga due to it's success (it ran from 93-05, far longer then any other version of the series it was based on)

* ''City Of Angels'' is not an adaptation, though its ShowWithinAShow is a FilmNoir adapted from a novel.

* ''The Drowsy Chaperone''
* ''Follies''

* ''TheLastFiveYears'''

* ''Phoenix Wright: The Truth Revealed'', a Takarazuka musical based on the ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' series.

* ''MissSaigon'', an adapted and updated retelling of MadameButterfly.

* {{Rent}}, arguably. Although the basic plot was inspired by ''LaBoheme'', it's been changed and modernized so much that it's barely recognizable as such. It's also not credited as any sort of adaptation.
** YourMileageMayVary on that account - if, for example, you know the story of LaBoheme. It is most certainly recognizeable as a retelling, and if it's never credited as such, that's a shame.

* ''Lady in the Dark''

* ''Paint Your Wagon'', despite the author's preface (quoted above) to the published libretto advising musical writers against trying to write original stories.

** And the musical version of ''[[ShowWithinAShow Itchy and Scratchy]]'', parodying the style of the musical adaption of ''TheLionKing''.

** And the musical version of ‘‘[[ShowWithinAShow Itchy and Scratchy]]'', parodying the style of the musical adaption of ''TheLionKing''.

** And the musical version of the ''Simpsons''' own [[ShowWithinAShow]], ''Itchy and Scratchy'', parodying the style of the musical adaption of ''TheLionKing''.

This trope is common enough that it would be more useful to list [[AvertedTrope exceptions]] and parodies than straight examples. Note, however, that it can be difficult to define what counts as an "adaptation". Whilst many musicals draw their narrative structure directly from the movie, novel, stage play, comic book, short story, ancient Greek myth etc. on which they were based, many other musicals take their inspiration from a variety of unusual sources - a historical figure or event, a painting, a concept - but provide an original narrative. Going back to the roots of musical theater, a large number of {{opera}}s are also adaptations of older material... and a fair number of ''them'' have been turned into musicals.

* {{Rent}}

* ''In The Heights''

* In a recent episode of {{The Venture Brothers}}, Rusty wants to make a musical about his life (which was Johnny Quest boy-adventurer sort of childhood with its own cartoon show), though this never gets off the ground. He does get a duet with the in-universe version of Spiderman, (the Brown Widow), which might be a parody of the new {{Spiderman}} musical.

* In a recent episode of "{{The Venture Brothers}}", Rusty wants to make a musical about his life (which was Johnny Quest boy-adventurer sort of childhood with its own cartoon show), though this never gets off the ground. He does get a duet with the in-universe version of Spiderman, (the Brown Widow), which might be a parody of the new {{Spiderman}} musical.

* In a recent episode of "{{[The Venture Brothers}}", Rusty wants to make a musical about his life (which was Johnny Quest boy-adventurer sort of childhood with its own cartoon show), though this never gets off the ground. He does get a duet with the in-universe version of Spiderman, (the Brown Widow), which might be a parody of the new Spiderman musical.

* In a recent episode of {{[The Venture Brothers}}, Rusty wants to make a musical about his life (which was Johnny Quest boy-adventurer sort of childhood with its own cartoon show), though this never gets off the ground. He does get a duet with the in-universe version of Spiderman, (the Brown Widow), which might be a parody of the new Spiderman musical.

* In a recent episode of [[The Venture Brothers]], Rusty wants to make a musical about his life (which was Johnny Quest boy-adventurer sort of childhood with its own cartoon show), though this never gets off the ground. He does get a duet with the in-universe version of Spiderman, (the Brown Widow), which might be a parody of the new Spiderman musical.

* ''The Producers'' notes a musical adaptation of ''Hamlet'', called ''Funny Boy''; it isn't depicted, but [[Main/TakeOurWordForIt its audience informs us]] "It's the worst show in town!" in the first scene of the stage version, which takes place on its opening ''and'' closing night.

-->'''Mr. Burns:''' A musical about a doll? Why not a musical about the common cat? Or the King of Siam?

** They also did an article conceiving musical versions of ''Moby Dick'', ''Julius Caesar'', and ''A Tale of Two Cities'' (the last one is also staged as a musical in the Martin Short comedy ''A Simple Wish''), and versions of StarWars ("The Force and I") and TheLordOfTheRings ("The Ring and I"). As it happens, ''A Tale of Two Cities'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'' have since been seriously adapted into stage musicals.
*** There is a musical version of Moby Dick. It's called, imaginately, ''Moby Dick! The Musical''.

* ''TheSimpsons'' has done this several times, often parodying the concept by having its musicals draw from bizarre or inappropriate sources. Marge starred in a musical adaptation of ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' (opposite Ned Flanders) whose cheery closing song managed to [[CompletelyMissingThePoint completely miss the point]]. Then there's ''[[PlanetOfTheApes Stop the Planet of the Apes: I Want to Get Off!]]'', which featured breakdancing chimps and spontaneous piano solos. Smithers also wrote a musical inspired by Malibu Stacey dolls, providing an example of a musical based on a pre-existing concept while not being a direct adaptation.

** As a matter of fact there ''is'' a musical based on Streetcar, it's an opera.
*** Whose composer, Andre Previn, explicitly cited the "Simpsons scenario" ("Stella, Stella, can't you hear me yella?") as an instance of what he tried to avoid.