Older Than They Think/Theatre: Difference between revisions

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** ''[[King Lear]]'' and ''[[Cymbeline]]'' were taken from Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]'', a 12th-century pseudohistorical text.

** ''[[The Comedy of Errors]]'' is based off of ''Menaechmi'' by Plautus.

** ''[[The Tempest]]'' was inspired by an actual shipwreck caused by a hurricane; the description of Bermuda, where the victims landed, just sounded that cool to English audiences.

* While [[William Shakespeare|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. As quoted in ''The Story of English'':

{{quote|''If you cannot understand my argument, and declare "It's Greek to me", you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger, if your wish is father to the thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise - why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare; if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I were dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then - by Jove! O Lord! Tut, tut! for goodness' sake! what the dickens! but me no buts - it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare. (The Story of English, 145)''}}

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* 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.

* 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? ''[[A Clockwork Orange (novel)|A Clockwork Orange]]: [[The Musical]]'', 20 years before ''[[Spider-Man]]: Turn Off The Dark''.

* It's no secret that the songs in ''[[Mamma Mia]]'' 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.

* It's no secret that the songs in ''[[Mamma Mia!]]'' 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.

* The 1994 stage adaptation of Disney's ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'' wasn't the first "legit" [[Screen to Stage Adaptation]] from the [[Disney Animated Canon]]. ''[[Snow White (Disney film)|Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs]]'' 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).

* The 1994 stage adaptation of Disney's ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'' wasn't the first "legit" [[Screen to Stage Adaptation]] from the [[Disney Animated Canon]]. ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs]]'' 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).