The Art of Adaptation
When an artist or group of artists is inspired by a particular story—whether it is from a novel, play, movie or other work of art—they may choose to re-‐create that story to fit a different format. This process is known as adaptation. ONCE the musical is adapted from the film Once.
Although it may sound easy to begin writing a play or musical with a story already in mind, adaptation is full of difficult choices: the adaptors have to decide which parts of the original story will remain the same, which parts will change, what needs to be added and how to rethink or modify parts of the story so that they will work on the stage. Adaptors may want to keep only the main points of the story, or they may even decide to use exact words from the original material, like Elevator Repair Service’s production of The Select (The Sun Also Rises), produced at New York Theatre Workshop in Fall 2011.
Can you think of any books that have been made into movies? What about movies or books that have been made into musicals? You probably can: Hollywood and Broadway producers have been focusing more and more of their attention on adaptations recently. Producers know that when they adapt a popular book (like the Twilight or Harry Potter series) or a popular movie (like Lion King or Beauty and the Beast) into a new form, the fans of the original stories will want to see the adaptation. In uncertain economic times, it is important to producers to make sure that people will pay to see any new movie or musical that they make. An adaptation of
To the left is the original Sundance poster for the filmOnce, and to the right, the poster for the
musical. Do they suggest differences in the way their shared story will be told?
something that is already popular means that there is already an audience in place.
Producers are using a similar kind of reasoning when they work on jukebox musicals, which are a type of adapted musical. Jukebox musicals are created around hit songs that have already been written—often all by one artist. The creators of musicals like Mamma Mia (ABBA), American Idiot (Green Day), and Baby It’s You! (the Shirelles) hope that theatre-‐goers will pay to come and see the show because they already know and love the music. Because the songs of The Swell Season (the same songs that you will hear in ONCE) are popular in their own right, some people might argue that ONCE is a jukebox musical. What do you think?
When you watch an adaptation, do you think about it separately from the original material? Is it possible to consider the merits of an adaptation without comparing it to the original, especially if the original is beloved by fans?
Why do people get attached to certain works of art? How do those works of art change when they are adapted into different media? 6
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