In the film world today, it is not uncommon for books to be adapted into movies, or movies to become musicals. Unfortunately though, their Broadway counterparts often are quite unnecessary. Let us be real; not every book or movie needs a musical adaptation. Some should be left untouched. I do love a good musical, but it feels like every popular movie has a musical on Broadway.

Having a musical adaptation of a popular movie or book, or movie adaptation of a popular book does make sense in some ways, as movies and musicals are usually shorter than reading the book. However, I feel like some should not have songs added to the storyline. For example, there is “The Outsiders”. I like the book and love the movie. I think it is one of the best books that we were required to read for school. The only problem is that they made a Broadway adaptation. My problem with having songs is that I feel like it is just hurting the original book. Having too many songs breaks up the storyline and ends up dragging out certain parts too long. There are a few moments where songs would enhance the film, like the scene at the drive-in theatre or after Johnny and Ponyboy run away and hide in an old church would be a good ballad part, but throwing a random dance montage does not would not work very well.

There’s also some negatives to having so many musicals out there. For one thing, there is a lot of competition for awards, like the Tony Awards. Next, I think that having musical adaptations of popular stories may make it harder for original stories to be in the spotlight. In essence, works that were originally produced to be performed as a musical are overshadowed by ones that were made into musicals as adaptations. While people are certainly more likely to go view a play and/or musical if they are familiar with the work that came out previously, it often feels like there is a pressure to turn every bestselling book or high grossing movie into a musical when it is simply unneeded.

When it comes to wanting to make a popular book or movie into a Broadway show, try making it into a play first. There’s so many unnecessary songs in musicals. Even movies that are already musicals seem to get more songs when they get a Broadway show, example “Frozen”. There is a song in “Frozen” from Broadway with a song called “What do you know about love?” which is a duet between Anna and Kristoff about going to find Elsa. In the movie they just talk, but on Broadway it becomes a song, and it extends the conversation too long for my taste. For future Broadway musicals, try to make some that are in the middle, or just make it into a play.