Ferb: Hmm. What assurance would we have that everyone else would also break into song and do the same thing?
Phineas: I dunno. I think they probably will.
A musical is any presentation in which a major part of the exposition and/or action comes through the medium of song (and often, but not necessarily, dance as well). This sounds simple, but it has so many permutations that it is a loaded term for most people. For example, if you were to say that the only real difference between an Opera and a musical is in what theaters they're showing it in, expect vehement protests—and yet, trying to come up with definitions that will perfectly separate one from the other is just about impossible. It doesn't help that musicals were influenced by opera—specifically the comic genre of "light" opera or operetta—and that many late-19th and early-20th century plays-with-singing could easily be classified as either. A prime example is the works of Gilbert and Sullivan: at the time they were called operas (they didn't call the company and theatre G&S wrote for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company playing at the Savoy Opera for nothing), but today they are often considered to be the earliest notable examples of musicals.
By far the most common perception of a musical is properly termed "musical theater", in which a play is performed with several songs interspersed at major plot points in the story. In the United States, these are most often associated with Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, and can be either original material or adapted from any number of sources (though adaptations are far more common than original musicals; see All Musicals Are Adaptations).
A distinction is made between "book musicals", in which songs are interspersed between chunks of spoken dialogue and action (the spoken dialogue being referred to as the "book"), and musicals that are "sung through" like an Opera, i.e. nearly every word is sung from curtain-up to curtain-down, with only occasional spoken lines.note Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Guys and Dolls are examples of book musicals; Cats and Les Misérables are sung through. Each variety has its advantages and disadvantages: with a sung through musical, there's the danger of having too much utterly mundane dialogue set to music in a way that draws the audience's attention to the blatant artificiality of the concept; with a book musical, the transitions from musical scenes to spoken dialogue and vice versa can be awkward and forced if they're not handled carefully.
In the West, musical films are often either animated, like classic Disney films, or adapted from stage musicals. Film adaptations of stage musicals have to deal with two major issues:
- First, theatre is typically more forgiving of grand, melodramatic gestures, such as well, bursting into song at highly emotional moments that just look silly on film. Directors often deal with this by adding in some sort of frame story to justify all the singing (as in Chicago, where the songs are envisioned as taking place inside Roxie's head; the song "Class" had to be cut because there was no way to fit that scheme); alternatively, they can just go with the inherent high camp of the genre and hope they get away with it.
- Second, films have bigger budgets than stage plays and often need to have "big names" to make sure of having an audience to justify the budget — but most Hollywood-standard "big names" can't carry a tune in a bucket. There was a time when the standard solution was to hire a real singer to dub over the "name" (as, for instance, with Natalie Wood being dubbed by Marni Nixon in West Side Story — Nixon also dubbed Deborah Kerr in The King and I and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady), but this has fallen out of favour — with the result that many "musical" films are distinctly unmusical. The alternative solution of hiring popular singers to play the roles brings with it the possibility that they can't act, which can be equally painful to watch.
There's also the problem that film and theater are very different media (as are television and film) and there are important differences that don't always translate well:
- Film can zoom in and pan out to control the audience's focus. Theatre controls this with dialogue and blocking (how actors and props are positioned). No less a luminary than Stephen Sondheim has said that one reason why it's hard to adapt a stage musical to film is that in film a close-up can tell you everything that a song can — so why bother with the song?
- Film is image driven, where theater is dialogue driven. Film can have little or no dialogue and tell the story with pictures; theater can have very little physical movement and tell the story with verbal images.
- Theater can be effective with very sparse or abstract sets, movies demand detailed and authentic backgrounds.
- Singing well requires the sort of physical movement and concentration that, on film, looks like overacting.
However, film and theater have one thing in common: you get 90 minutes of butt time, and if you run longer than that, you'd BETTER be good.
The movie/musical adaptation cycle goes both ways, with many Broadway musicals nowadays being based on films — the reasoning being that if it's already been a success in one medium, it's less of a risk — and the musical versions of the films then being adapted and returning to celluloid again (e.g. The Producers, Hairspray, Little Shop of Horrors).
There's also a new trend of the Jukebox Musical; adapting a musical play or film from the existing catalog of a musical artist, when the songs therein might not have anything to do with each other. Mamma Mia! (ABBA), Movin' Out (Billy Joel), and Across the Universe (The Beatles) are just a few examples. Moulin Rouge!, which didn't stick to one artist but repurposed a few decades of pop music, was likely a trend-setter here. Of course, this technique goes back a ways—Singin' in the Rain reused older songs—and prolific composers would often take songs from their less-successful shows and reuse them in new productions. For example, Gilbert and Sullivan took the song, "Climbing Over Rocky Mountain" from their nigh-forgotten first collaboration, Thespis, and recycled it in The Pirates of Penzance with minor lyrical changes.
The Rock Opera is an especially popular variant which may be album-based in origin.
Since far more people can see a Hollywood film than a Broadway musical (even one that runs for years), films adapting stage musicals are especially prone to Adaptation Displacement. It is very rare in the West for live-action musical films to be original, rather than adaptations.
In the Indian Hindi-language film industry known colloquially as Bollywood, musicals are the default genre. Japan has the Takarazuka Revue, among other classes of stage theater.
Generally considered to be strongly related to or descended from Opera. See also its bastard cousin, On Ice.
When this is incorporated into a TV show, see Musical Episode. A frequent sufferer of Title: The Adaptation, probably because All Musicals Are Adaptations.
Arguably, any non-fantasy musical could be considered an example of Magic Realism.
If you were wondering just where all that singing was coming from, see Musical World Hypotheses. Compare Hollywood Darkness, Musicalus Interruptus.
For a list of tropes related to Musical Drama and Songs you get to sing, see Musical Number Index.
Examples
- Death Note: The Musical
- Interstella 5555
- Osomatsu-san on Stage: Six Men's Show Time (and for the CD Six Men's Song Time)
- Love Live!: The School Idol Movie
- Sera Myu
- 36 Questions — The Podcast Musical
- Bride of Discord audio version (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic)
- Princess Trixie Sparkle audio version (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic); even has an opening theme for each episode.
- 8 Mile
- 8 Women
- 42nd Street
- Absolute Beginners
- Across the Universe (The Beatles)
- Aladdin
- Allegro
- An American in Paris
- Anchors Aweigh
- Applause
- The Apple
- The Apple Tree
- At Long Last Love, one of the most notorious flops in film history.
- The Band Wagon
- Beauty and the Beast (1991)
- Beauty and the Beast, the 2017 live-action remake.
- The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
- The Big Gay Musical
- Big River
- Bill & Ted's Excellent Musical Adventure
- Billy Elliot: The Musical
- Bring It On: The Musical
- The Blues Brothers
- Bugsy Malone
- Burlesque
- Cabin in the Sky
- Calamity Jane
- Cannibal! The Musical
- Can't Stop the Music
- Carefree
- Carmen Jones
- Chicago: Started as a series of newspaper articles before being adapted to film (twice) then adapted as a stage musical before being filmed again.
- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
- A Christmas Carol: The Musical
- The Cocoanuts
- Cover Girl
- Creating Rem Lezar
- Daddy Long Legs
- Dames
- Dancer in the Dark
- Darling Lili
- The Devil's Carnival
- Dimples
- Down Argentine Way
- Easter Parade
- Emo The Musical
- Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
- Everyone Says I Love You
- Fame
- Fashions of 1934
- The Fearless Vampire Killers was adapted for those musical-thirsty Germans. Why else would it be known world-wide under a German title, namely Tanz Der Vampire, which is the title of the film's German dub.
- Flirtation Walk
- Flying Down to Rio
- Follow the Fleet
- Footlight Parade
- From Justin to Kelly
- Frozen
- Funny Face
- The Gay Divorcee
- Get On Up
- Gigi
- God Help the Girl
- Going My Way
- Gold Diggers of 1933
- Good Vibrations
- Surf, a The Beach Boys Jukebox Musical in Las Vegas
- Grease
- The Greatest Showman
- Hairspray is an extreme case. The original non-musical film was released in 1988. It appeared to be ideal musical material even though the entire score had to be written from scratch. The musical came out in 2002, was made into another film in 2007 and a live production on NBC in 2016.
- Hallelujah!
- Hans Christian Andersen
- The Harry Hill Movie
- The Harvey Girls
- High School Musical
- High Society
- Hillbillys in a Haunted House
- Holiday Inn
- The Hollywood Revue of 1929
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- And the unrelated French production Notre-Dame de Paris
- Its Always Fair Weather
- Jeanne and the Perfect Guy
- Labyrinth
- La La Land
- La Légende du Roi Arthur
- The Little Mermaid (1989)
- Little Miss Sunshine
- Love Me Tonight
- Love Songs
- The Love Parade
- Madam Satan
- Marianne
- Mary Poppins
- Meet Me in St. Louis
- Le Million
- Monster Mash
- Monte Carlo
- Moon Over Miami
- Moulin Rouge!, a Setting Update of Verdi's La Traviata, based on La Dame aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas, fils
- (Almost) all films featuring The Muppets:
- My Depression
- My Week with Marilyn (one song at the end)
- Neptune's Daughter
- New York, New York
- Newsies
- Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy)
- Nudist Colony of the Dead
- Oh! What a Lovely War
- Once
- One Hour with You, one of the first musicals to be based on a film
- On Moonlight Bay
- Pal Joey, notable for introducing the first Broadway Anti-Hero.
- Pennies from Heaven
- The Pirate
- The Pirate Movie
- Popeye
- Porgy and Bess
- Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
- The Producers (the 1968 film is a comedy with musical elements, while the 2005 adaptation is a full-on musical)
- Rags
- Reefer Madness: The Musical
- Repo! The Genetic Opera
- Roberta
- Rock of Ages
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show
- Romance And Cigarettes
- Scrooge
- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
- Sextette
- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
- Shall We Dance? (1937)
- Sherina's Adventure
- Silk Stockings
- Singin' in the Rain
- Sing Street
- The Slipper and the Rose
- The Smiling Lieutenant
- Sonic: Live in Sydney
- Stage Fright
- A Star Is Born
- State Fair
- Stilyagi
- Stormy Weather
- Summer Holiday
- Sunny Side Up
- Sunset Boulevard
- Swing Time
- Tarzan
- Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
- This is the Night
- Thoroughly Modern Millie
- Top Hat
- Torch Song
- Trolls
- The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
- Veronica Dilogy
- Voyage of the Rock Aliens
- Walking on Sunshine
- Were the World Mine
- West Bank Story
- The Woman of My Dreams
- Xanadu
- The Wizard of Oz
- Yankee Doodle Dandy
- Yentl
- Young at Heart
- The Young Girls of Rochefort
- The Young Ones
- Ziegfeld Follies
- Ziegfeld Girl
- American Psycho
- Be More Chill
- The Bonesetter's Daughter, the (Chinese/American) opera.
- The Boy from Oz
- A Christmas Carol has at least three, including Scrooge (1970), The Muppet Christmas Carol, and the 1994 Madison Square Garden musical, which recieved a TV film adaptation in 2004 A Christmas Carol: The Musical
- The Color Purple
- Company (Takarazuka Revue)
- Flower Drum Song
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
- Kiss of the Spider Woman
- The Lord of the Rings, the opera.
- Mame, a musical adaptation of Auntie Mame
- Ragtime
- The Secret Garden
- The Wild Party, two unrelated adaptations of the same poem, by Michael John LaChiusa and Andrew Lippa.
- Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
- Cop Rock
- Galavant
- Glee
- Jerry Springer: The Opera
- The Noddy Shop has at least one musical number in every episode that's almost always related to the episode's moral or is about something that happens in the plot. Some episodes have two or more songs, and at least one was a Clip Show comprised of past songs from the show.
- Our Gay Wedding: The Musical
- Rags to Riches
- Smash is an odd case in that it features characters performing in in-universe musicals, characters spontaneously bursting into "real-life" choreographed numbers, characters singing in neither context and "mind palace" choreographed numbers.
- X-Play: The Musical
- Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist
- American Idiot
- Der Fluch des Drachen: Dubbed a "Fantastical", this fantasy-story was simultaneously released as a combination of audio book and Rock Opera and as a live Musical.
- Evita
- Jesus Christ Superstar
- Juno and Avos
- Omaha!
- The Silent City
- Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, based on the album by The Flaming Lips with selections from their other albums.
- Musicals dedicated to deceased (sometimes also living) musicians or disbanded music groups, telling their stories with their own music. These seem to be particularly popular in Europe and especially in German-speaking nations, no matter the nationality of the subject, and some of them never make it across the pond. One advantage of this format is that you don't necessarily have to hide the musicians in a pit, but you can and often have to put them on stage with the actors. A frequent case of Artist: The Adaptation. Examples include:
- ABBA. No, not Mamma Mia!. There is also a musical with ABBA's music that is about ABBA. It's named Thank You for the Music.
- The Beatles: All You Need Is Love!
- Boney M: Boney M. - The Musical
- Gloria Estefan: On Your Feet
- Falco: Falco - The Musical
- Buddy Holly: Buddy!
- Michael Jackson: Thriller - Live
- Elvis Presley: Elvis - The Musical
- Queen: Queenmania - A Special Kind Of Magic
- Tina Turner: Simply The Best
- 13
- 21 Chump Street
- The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
- 1776
- 1789
- The Addams Family
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- Aida, based on Verdi's opera of the same name
- AKB Kagekidan Infinity (AKB48)
- Alice
- Alice By Heart
- Allegiance
- All Shook Up
- Altar Boyz
- The Altos
- Anastasia
- Anne of Green Gables
- Ani
- Animal Crackers
- Annie, based on the classic newspaper comic strip.
- Annie Get Your Gun
- Anyone Can Whistle
- Anything Goes
- Aspects of Love
- Assassins
- Atlantis
- Avenue Q
- Back to the Eighties
- Baddy
- Bandstand
- Bare: A Pop Opera
- Batman The Musical
- Bat Out of Hell
- The Beatles LOVE
- Beetlejuice
- Bells Are Ringing
- Big Bad
- The Black Crook
- Blood Brothers
- Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
- Bonnie and Clyde, which was not adapted from the well-known film.
- The Book of Mormon
- Boo York, Boo York! A Monsterrific Musical
- The Boy Friend
- The Boys from Syracuse
- Bran Nue Dae
- The Bridges of Madison County
- Brigadoon
- Bright Star
- A Bronx Tale
- Bullets Over Broadway
- Bye Bye Birdie
- By Jeeves
- Cabaret
- Camelot
- Can-Can
- Carousel
- The Cat and the Fiddle
- Cats, until 2006 the longest-running show on Broadway.
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- As well as the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
- Chess
- Chicago
- Children of Eden
- A Chorus Line
- Cinderella (Rodgers and Hammerstein)
- City of Angels
- Closer Than Ever
- The Cocoanuts
- Company
- Come From Away
- Crazy for You
- Damn Yankees
- Dear Evan Hansen
- Disaster!
- Disco Inferno
- Disney Dreams: An Enchanted Classic
- Disney's Believe
- Dracula, the Frank Wildhorn musical.
- Dracula: A Love Stronger Than Death
- Dracula, Entre l'Amour et la Mort
- Drakula
- Dreamgirls
- Drood
- The Drowsy Chaperone
- A dzsungel könyve
- Ebenezer
- Elisabeth
- Everybody's Talking About Jamie
- Eugenius!
- Falsettos
- The Fantasticks, off-Broadway but tops both Cats and Phantom with its 42-year run.
- Fiddler on the Roof
- Finale
- Finian's Rainbow
- Fiorello!
- The Fix
- Florodora
- Follies
- Forbidden Broadway, the Troperiffic ever-changing parody revue of classic and contemporary Broadway.
- Freewill in 2112, a fan-made Rush musical
- Frozen
- Funny Girl
- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
- A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
- Ghost
- Godspell
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
- The Grinning Man
- Groundhog Day
- Guys and Dolls
- Gypsy
- HackPuntTool
- Hadestown, based on the concept album of the same name, in turn based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.
- Hair, the original Tribal Love Rock Musical
- Hallelujah, Baby!
- Hamilton
- Hands on a Hardbody
- Heathers
- Hello, Dolly!
- Holy Musical B@man!
- HONK!
- How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
- I Can Get It For You Wholesale
- I Am from Austria
- If/Then
- I Married an Angel
- I'm Sorry the Bridge Is Out, You'll Have to Spend the Night
- Imagine This
- In the Heights
- Into the Woods
- Jekyll & Hyde
- Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris
- Jersey Boys, a musical biography of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
- Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
- Jump Man - A Mario Musical (see here
): based on, of all things, the Mario Bros. characters. Actually sold out its entire first run and won a Best Musical award when it premiered at the 2014 NY Fringe Festival.
- KANDELites, a fan-made musical for Paul Kandel
- Keating! The Musical, based on the life and times of Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating
- The King and I
- Kismet
- Kiss Me, Kate
- Knickerbocker Holiday
- La Cage aux folles
- Lady in the Dark
- The Last Five Years
- Legally Blonde, based on the film of the same name.
- Lestat
- The Light Princess
- The Little Mermaid
- Like Dying Things Do
- The Likes of Us, a musical based on the true story of Thomas Barnardo, who founded homes for destitute children during the Victorian Era.
- Li'l Abner
- Lilium Shoujo Junketsu Kageki
- The Lion King
- A Little Night Music
- Little Shop of Horrors
- Lost: The Musical
, from the same creators of Shame
of Thrones
- Mack & Mabel
- Majora
- Mamma Mia! (ABBA)
- Man of La Mancha
- Marat/Sade
- Martin Guerre
- Matilda
- Me and Juliet
- Mean Girls
- Memphis, A New Musical
- Merrily We Roll Along
- Metropolis
- MID-LIFE! the Crisis Musical
- Midnight Channel The Musical, a fan-produced adaptation of Persona 4.
- Les Misérables, the longest-running musical in the world, bar none - it's been running in London's West End since 1985.
- Minnie's Boys, about how the Marx brothers became the Marx Brothers.
- Lizzie
- Marie Antoinette
- Miss Saigon
- The Most Happy Fella
- Movin Out (Billy Joel)
- Mozart!
- Mozart L'Opera Rock
- The Musical of Musicals: The Musical!
- The Music Man
- Musical YoRHa 1.2, part of the YoRHa series of plays.
- My Fair Lady
- Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812
- N.E.R.D.S.
- A New Brain
- Newsies, the stage adaptation of the 1992 film.
- Next to Normal
- Nine, based on Felini's 8 1/2
- Now Here This
- Nunsense
- Of Thee I Sing
- Oklahoma!
- Oliver!, adapted from Oliver Twist
- On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
- On the Town
- Once On This Island
- Once Upon a Mattress
- Once Upon A Time In New Jersey
- One Touch of Venus
- Ordinary Days
- Paint Your Wagon
- The Pajama Game
- Parade
- Passing Strange
- Passion
- Percy Jackson and the Olympians
- Peter Pan
- Phantom, Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit's take on The Phantom of the Opera.
- The Phantom of the Opera. London's second-longest running musical, opening in 1986, one year after Les Miserables, and Broadway's longest, opening in 1988.
- Pippin
- The Pirate Queen.
- Pokémon Live!!.
- Pokémon: The Mew-sical
- Portal 2: The (Unauthorized) Musical
- Prince Kaguya
- The Prince of Tennis
- The Prom
- Promises, Promises
- Rebecca
- Red: The Red Riding Hood Musical
- RENT, a loose Setting Update of the opera La Bohème as a Grunge Rock Opera.
- Return to the Forbidden Planet
- Ride The Cyclone
- The Robber Bridegroom
- Rock of Ages
- Rocky
- The Scarlet Pimpernel
- The Scottsboro Boys
- Sera Myu
- Seussical
- Schikaneder
- She Loves Me
- Shlomo Hamelech Veshalmai Hasandlar (King Solomon and Shalmai The Shoemaker) is a combination between a biblical version of The Prince and the Pauper, and Ecclesiastes - the Musical.
- A Shoggoth on the Roof
- Show Boat, created by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein in 1927, is often seen as the first modern musical, although the innovative ideas it introduced (most prominently the idea of incorporating the book into the plot to provide a logical justification for the songs) didn't really become par for course until Rodgers and Hammerstein created Oklahoma!! in 1942.
- Shrek: The Musical
- Side Show
- Silence! The Musical, based on The Silence of the Lambs.
- Six
- Something Rotten
- Somethings Afoot
- Sonny
- The Sound of Music
- South Pacific
- Spamalot, based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which gleefully parodies many of the tropes of Broadway musicals.
- Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
- The SpongeBob Musical
- Spring Awakening
- Starlight Express
- Subways Are for Sleeping
- The Sultan of Sulu
- Sunday in the Park with George
- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
- Sweet Charity, based on Fellini's Nights of Cabiria
- tick, tick... BOOM!
- Titanic, which surprisingly is not based on the hit film from the same year.
- [title of show]
- Tripod Versus the Dragon, based on Dungeons & Dragons.
- Tuck Everlasting
- Turnabout Musical
- Twice Charmed
- Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier
- Urinetown
- A Very Potter Musical and its sequels.
- Violet
- Viva Elvis
- Waitress
- Westeros: An American Musical
- West Side Story, another loose Setting Update of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
- We Will Rock You (based on the music of Queen)
- When Midnight Strikes
- Wicked
- Witches! The Musical
- The Wiz
- The Wizard of Oz (1902)
- The Wizard of Oz (2011)
- Wonderful Town
- A Year with Frog and Toad
- You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, which in turn was adapted as an animated TV special.
- Zanna, Don't!
- Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, a bit of a weird example in that it's a video game, and all the songs are sung by the Big Bad.
- Persona 3: The Weird Masquerade is based on Persona 3 and uniquely features the male and female protagonists in separate performances.
- Musical Touken Ranbu is one of the many alternate continuities of the Touken Ranbu franchise.
- A Treasure In My Garden
- The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin
- Babar: The Movie
- Central Park
- Doug Live!
- Freaknik: The Musical
- The Hobbit (1977)
- Mumfie's Quest
- Monster High: Boo York, Boo York
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Really Rosie
- South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
- Steven Universe: The Movie
- HBO Storybook Musicals is an HBO Family Original series that adapts various children's stories such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Mike Mulligan And His Steam Shovel into a 25 minute animated musical.
- Total Drama World Tour
- The Tune
- Yes Virginia: The Musical