Shakespeare Musicals?

From opera to Disney, people have been putting Shakespeare to music for a very long time.

When I saw an article titled The 10 best Shakespeare-inspired pieces of music – in pictures I was assuming that they meant songs. Albums.  Individual short pieces.  Wasn't sure where the pictures part came in.

Now I know! They're talking about full-length musicals of all sorts - Broadway, opera, film - that feature Shakespeare's work.  Sure they included Lion King, but there's also several operas and classical pieces.

Like many of these lists I find it amusing how they struggle to fill their quota and get more liberal in the interpretation of their premise.  For instance ... the soundtrack to Olivier's Henry V makes the list. Just about every other entry on the list involves taking the actual words of Shakespeare (or their modern interpretation) and setting them to music.  Not this one, this one is the background music playing while Shakespeare goes about its business in the foreground.  But still...."Shakespeare inspired" it is.

Don't miss the ridiculously random Elvis Costello cameo!


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