Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita were written by which pair?

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice

Hamilton tells the story of which figure?

Alexander Hamilton, an American founding father

A fictional Broadway impresario

In a book musical, what holds the songs together?

A continuous story that the songs advance

A narrator speaking between numbers

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Theatre & Dance Medium ⚡ 10 Questions ⏱️ ~7 Mins +100 XP

The Musical, From Broadway to the West End

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Almost every major musical is an adaptation of something. These ten questions follow the sources and the partnerships.

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About this topic

The stage musical is an adaptor's form. Show Boat came from a novel, My Fair Lady from a Shaw play, Les MisÃ©rables from Hugo, Cats from a book of light verse written for children. Even West Side Story, the most self-consciously modern of the mid-century shows, is Romeo and Juliet moved to Manhattan. Original stories exist, but the pattern is old and persistent, partly because a familiar plot leaves the audience free to concentrate on the songs. The other constant is the partnership. Musicals are written by pairs and trios far more often than by individuals: a composer, a lyricist and a writer of the spoken scenes, who are rarely the same person. The famous names in the form are usually two names joined by an ampersand, and the split between them is a large part of why the shows sound the way they do.

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The Musical, From Broadway to the West End: all 10 questions and answers

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1Which musical is adapted from Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion?
- A Carousel
- B My Fair Lady Correct
- C Kiss Me, Kate
- D Gigi
Answer: B. My Fair Lady

Why: Lerner and Loewe added a romantic ending that Shaw had explicitly refused to write. The stage version opened in 1956 and the film followed eight years later.
2West Side Story moves which Shakespeare play to New York?
- A Romeo and Juliet Correct
- B Twelfth Night
- C The Comedy of Errors
- D Much Ado About Nothing
Answer: A. Romeo and Juliet

Why: Leonard Bernstein wrote the music and Stephen Sondheim, then still in his twenties, the lyrics. Jerome Robbins conceived and choreographed it.
3Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita were written by which pair?
- A Rodgers and Hammerstein
- B Kander and Ebb
- C Boublil and SchÃ¶nberg
- D Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice Correct
Answer: D. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice

Why: Both began life as concept albums and reached the stage afterwards, which was unusual at the time. The pair had met while still students.
4Les MisÃ©rables is adapted from a novel by whom?
- A Ãmile Zola
- B Gustave Flaubert
- C Victor Hugo Correct
- D Alexandre Dumas
Answer: C. Victor Hugo

Why: The musical opened in French in Paris in 1980. An English version, substantially reworked, followed in London five years later.
5Hamilton tells the story of which figure?
- A A Caribbean shipping magnate
- B Alexander Hamilton, an American founding father Correct
- C A fictional Broadway impresario
- D The Marquis de Lafayette
Answer: B. Alexander Hamilton, an American founding father

Why: Lin-Manuel Miranda based it on Ron Chernow's biography, which he read on holiday. The founding generation is played largely by Black and Latino performers.
6Which Rodgers and Hammerstein musical is set in Austria before the Second World War?
- A The Sound of Music Correct
- B Oklahoma!
- C South Pacific
- D The King and I
Answer: A. The Sound of Music

Why: It opened in 1959 and was the last show the pair wrote together. Hammerstein died the following year.
7"Ol' Man River" comes from which 1927 musical?
- A Anything Goes
- B No, No, Nanette
- C The Desert Song
- D Show Boat Correct
Answer: D. Show Boat

Why: It is often treated as the first musical to bind songs to a serious plot rather than stringing numbers together. Jerome Kern wrote the music and Oscar Hammerstein II the lyrics.
8The lyrics of Cats are taken almost entirely from what?
- A A collection of folk songs
- B A series of newspaper columns
- C A book of poems by T. S. Eliot Correct
- D A Victorian children's novel
Answer: C. A book of poems by T. S. Eliot

Why: The book is Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, written for his godchildren. Eliot's widow gave permission and supplied unpublished material.
9In a book musical, what holds the songs together?
- A A narrator speaking between numbers
- B A continuous story that the songs advance Correct
- C A single composer's style
- D One unchanging set
Answer: B. A continuous story that the songs advance

Why: The alternative form is the revue, which strings together unconnected numbers and sketches. The "book" is the spoken script, written separately from the songs.
10Bertolt Brecht wrote The Threepenny Opera with which composer?
- A Kurt Weill Correct
- B Hanns Eisler
- C Paul Hindemith
- D Carl Orff
Answer: A. Kurt Weill

Why: It opened in Berlin in 1928 and drew on an English ballad opera of 1728. Its song "Mack the Knife" became a jazz standard decades later.

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