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This was one of my prompt suggestions (I wasn't alone though!). I read The Phantom of the Opera this year. Other books that come to mind are:

Les Misérables
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Alexander Hamilton

Thank you for the Alexander Hamilton suggestion Sara. I'll be in New York next May to see Hamilton and I think I should read it before I see the play!

Some other options I've seen while looking for ideas:

Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
Carrie by Stephen King
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Man of La Mancha)
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (Oliver)
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Sholem Aleichem wrote a collection of stories that the musical Fiddler on the Roof is based on.

Also, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Anna wrote: "Also, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic"

I was just about to suggest that.

Also The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Would Fences work?

Also War Horse, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, The Secret Garden, and Tuck Everlasting

If you can't get through Chernow's Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote Hamilton: The Revolution, which is about the creation of the musical and includes the entire libretto. Other books like this exist, too; I still have my Phantom of the Opera book from 1989.

Other ideas:
Gypsy: Memoirs of America's Most Celebrated Stripper
War and Peace - The Great Comet
Kiss of the Spider Woman
Little Women
Jane Eyre
Oliver Twist
The Arabian Nights - Aladdin
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Vampire Lestat
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Anything Dr. Seuss - Suessical

If you're including plays to musicals:
Spring's Awakening

Trina wrote: "If you can't get through Chernow's Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote Hamilton: The Revolution, which is about the creation of the musical and includes the entire libretto. Other books li..."

I echo this suggestion. Hamilton: The Revolution is an excellent read andgreat prep for seeing the show.

If I got it right, it must be something in screenplay/theater style, right? So anything by Shakespeare. Also Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
If it can be a novel too, Wicked is great!

The Three Musketeers (also a musical)
The Count of Monte Cristo (adapted as a musical by Frank Wildhorn)
Rebecca (adapted as a musical by Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay)

Misery was adapted as a stage play a while back

If you're into classic detective stories: Agatha Christie adapted tons of her own books for the stage. You can almost pick any of her books and it's pretty safe to assume there's a stage version floating around, too.

They made Valley of the Dolls into a play

Anna wrote: "Also, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic"

I read that for a graphic novel prompt a few years ago. It was great!

Does this category exclude plays written as plays, such as Wasserstein, Williams, Miller, Ibsen, Shakespeare, Euripides, etc?

Ragtime was made into a musical as was The Dead by James Joyce apparently!

Any collection of fairy tales would work for Into the Woods.

Do you have to read the whole Bible to count Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat? ;)

The Life Before Us

One of the best book I read. I don't know about the english translation though.

I'm probably going to read Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood - the play (and movie) Cabaret was based on this.

Letizia wrote: "If I got it right, it must be something in screenplay/theater style, right? So anything by Shakespeare. Also Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
If it can be a novel too, Wicked is great!"

It is a book that is a stage play or musical. I donxt believe this is reading the actual play or the book of a musical, but what inspired it originally. And since 'stage' precedes 'play or musical' then has to have been performed as a live production, not just a movie. I.e. 'South Pacific' is a movie but was first a stage musical, which came from James Michener's Tales of the South Pacific - a wonderful read.

So Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One and Two do not qualify [it is the actual play]. No Shakespeare. No Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them [became just a movie not stage pay or musical].

Hamilton: The Revolution might qualify because essays about making and writing the musical, not just the book of the musical itself.

Ronni wrote: "Ragtime was made into a musical as was The Dead by James Joyce apparently!

Any collection of fairy tales would work for Into the Woods.

Do you have to read the whole Bi..."

Let's not forget Jesus Christ Superstar - just New Testament at least.

Nadine wrote: "Does this category exclude plays written as plays, such as Wasserstein, Williams, Miller, Ibsen, Shakespeare, Euripides, etc?"

I firmly believe it does. Otherwise it would be a prompt that says read a play or the book of a musical.

Nicholas Nickleby - became a play
Les Liaisons dangereuses - ditto
Dracula - made Frank Langella a stage star
The Light in the Piazza
Wolf Hall
Washington Square - became The HeiressThe Turn of the Screw - became The Innocents directed by Harold Pinter
1984
Oliver Twist
The Phantom of the Opera - musical
Daddy-Long-Legs - a recent off-broadway musical
Tales of the South Pacific - musical of course
The Sobbin' Women - became Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
War and Peace - became The Great Comet
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - became the Big River
Anna and the King of Siam - might add Uncle Tom's Cabin as it inspired the play performed within the musical.
Gigi
Don Quixote - remember Man of La Mancha?

And if you want a challenge...last night I saw 3 one act plays based on 3 separate novels by Samuel Beckett - Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable. Of the 3, Molloy probably easiest read, The Unnamable the hardest. Funny and pessimistic at the same time. It's Beckett after all.

The 39 Steps - original
The 39 Steps - adaptation

Frankenstein
Jane Eyre
Treasure Island
A Tale of Two Cities
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Cyrano de Bergerac
Doctor Zhivago
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
The Lord of the Rings

Some Shakespeare plays have been turned into musicals, if you want to read some Shakespeare. Off the top of my head:
Twelfth Night
As You Like It
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Love's Labour's Lost
Romeo and Juliet (to West Side Story, at least)
Much Ado About Nothing
You can also read Lysistrata by Aristophanes, since that too was turned into a musical.

I might read Flowers for Algernon for this one, as I've read only the script before now.

So, question. Great comet is based on War and Peace.
However, there's also a book out that is specifically the selection GC is based on:

Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812

Would both of those work?

I'd count either

I'm going with King Hereafter which tells the story of a young man called... Macbeth. It's been on my shelf for a long time, looking forward to reading it.

I’d like to read something I’ve seen, but since I lived a decade in a country where I didn’t speak the language fluently, I haven’t seen a lot since I was a teenager.

Miss Saigon was based on the opera Madame Bitterfly, which was based on the short story Madame Butterfly, which was based on another book Madame Chrysantheme, which is free for kindle.

Maybe Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, which inspired Cats.

Or The Phantom of the Opera.

I wonder if plays count if they were the source material for another piece? I saw the Reduced Shakespeare Comapny in London.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is based on plays by Plautus.

Carrie is a great idea, its famously the shortest running musical on Broadway.

Chinook wrote: "Maybe Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, which inspired Cats."

I just noticed that the Finnish translation will be published for the first time next year. I guess I got my answer why I couldn't find it anywhere...

I’m going to stick with a classic and go with A Raisin in the Sun

In case you are looking for something different...ACT in San Francisco adapted some of the stories in Monstress into a play and I have been meaning to read the source material ever since. The book is a collection of short stories about Filipino-American communities of California and the Philippines.

I’ve been wanting to read The Story of the Von Trapp Family Singers, which of course inspired the Sound of Music. Perfect!

This one I have several ready made choices for since I am in a Broadway Book Club at our arts center (I just love that it's a thing!), but one we are reading that I didn't see on this list is The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr Norris/Goodbye to Berlin which inspired the musical "Cabaret"

The Good Soldier Å vejk was turned into an opera, which is totally a musical, right?

So was Faust

This mentions 13 classics that were made into operas:
The Great Gatsby
Alice in Wonderland
The Grapes of Wrath
Lolita
Death in Venice
Of Love and Other Demons
The Little Prince
1984
The Handmaid's Tale
The Secret Garden
Moby-Dick or, The Whale
Dolores Claiborne
Shalimar the Clown

If you are struggling with this and like to read comics, you can check out:

- Spiderman
(I'm not sure if there was a specific book or arc that inspired the very short lived Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark.)

- Peanuts
(Charles Shultz work inspired two musicals: You're A Good Man Charlie Brown and Snoopy: The Musical)

Of course, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (as mentioned above) also comes highly recommended!

Conny wrote: "The Three Musketeers (also a musical)
The Count of Monte Cristo (adapted as a musical by Frank Wildhorn)
Rebecca (adapted as a musical by Michael Kunze and S..."
OMG!!!!!!!!!!! I am SO glad about Rebecca!!! I have heard SO many good things about this book, and I have been wanting to read it so I will for this category! YEAH! :)
Thanks for sharing!

Conny wrote: "... If you're into classic detective stories: Agatha Christie adapted tons of her own books for the stage. You can almost pick any of her books and it's pretty safe to assume there's a stage version floating around, too. ..."

Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration. The official AC site lists 27 plays, and a good number of those are not adaptations of books. (A few do have novelizations by a different writer, but I've not heard good things about those books.) These are the novels and stories that I'm fairly certain have stage adaptations:
"Philomel Cottage"
And Then There Were None
Appointment with Death
The Hollow
"Three Blind Mice"
"Witness for the Prosecution"
Towards Zero
The Secret of Chimneys
A Daughter's a Daughter
"The Wasp's Nest"
"Yellow Iris"
Five Little Pigs

Allie wrote: "This one I have several ready made choices for since I am in a Broadway Book Club at our arts center (I just love that it's a thing!), but one we are reading that I didn't see on this list is [book..."
ooh, great recommendation! I am totally going with this one.

Thank you Marianne for the suggestion of 'Big Fish'. I didn't actually know it was a musical. I've only ever watched the film, which I adored and have always wanted to read the book. Looks like i'll have to try watch the musical online somewhere too now!! Cheers for the awesome suggestion :)

I'm struggling with this one, I wish it was "read a play" instead of "read a book that was turned into a play," because there are a lot of plays I still want to read, but of the books that have been turned into plays, I've already read the ones that interest me. So I have a long list of books turned into plays, but I'm extremely luke warm on all of them. I'm planning to find a short book, so if I don't like it, at least it's short. I'm open to comments on my short list!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time(Haddon) (honestly I don't really want to read this, but I see it mentioned ALL the time, so maybe I will just cave and read it)
Girl with a Pearl Earring (Chevalier) (another book I don't really want to read, but I OWN this one, so ...)
A Lesson Before Dying (Gaines 256p)
A Death in the Family (Agee) (honestly the only reason I want to read this is that there was a Batman comic w/ the same name)
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (Koenig)
Appointment with Death (Christie, Poirot#19, 303p)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (Dahl, 96p)
Good Morning, Midnight (Rhys, 159p) (this would be a re-read, but it's been a long time)
Jane Eyre (Bronte) (this would be a re-read, but it's been a long time)
Treasure Island (Stevenson, 311p)
The War of the Worlds (Wells, 192p)
The Color Purple (Walker) (I am planning to read this for "favorite color" so I won't be able to use it here .... unless I read another "purple" book next year, which is always possible)
The Secret Garden (Burnett) (the only appeal with this one is that my daughter was in her middle school production of this story)
The Tiger Who Came to Tea (Viorst)
Breakfast at Tiffany's (Capote, 142p)
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (Eliot) (I am not a cat person, but I like poetry)
Madame Butterfly (Long) (I've always been fascinated by this opera, but the book gets dreadful reviews, so it's unlikely I'll read this, but it stays on my list for now)

To Kill a Mockingbird was adapted for the stage.

Wikipedia has a very helpful page called "Category: Musicals Based on Novels":

The first 3 entries (under Subcategories) take you to specific listings for Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl, and fairy tales, then there is an alphabetical listing of 200 other novels that became musicals.

What do people think about including radio plays based on books? Is that an acceptable variant or is the "stage" aspect important to the spirit of the prompt?

I think ANYTHING is ok just to make it through this dreadful prompt! Radio plays = A-OK But ... that's me. I'm over here in the corner stewing over this one.

Nadine wrote: "I think ANYTHING is ok just to make it through this dreadful prompt! Radio plays = A-OK But ... that's me. I'm over here in the corner stewing over this one."

Hahaha! This is not my favorite prompt either. At all! But I figure the overarching goal of these challenges is to get me to read more often and more widely, so if liberally interpreting a prompt makes me do that, I go for it!

Well, if I may muddle the discussion a bit, I'll point out that I once attended a stage production of the Hitchhiker's Guide radio scripts.

What about plays that were adapted into musicals? Like Pygmalion (My Fair Lady) or The Taming of the Shrew (Kiss Me Kate).

Honestly, though, I think I'm just gonna go with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and call it with a day.

Thanks to , I think I'll finally read The Once and Future King. It's stuck in my TBR list from 2015, I think :/