No New Tale To Tell Quiz | Musicals Mixture

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. If you're short of a plot, why not brush up your Shakespeare? Which of these musicals was NOT inspired by a William Shakespeare play?

Answer: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Winner of Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Author, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" was based on farces by Plautus, an ancient Roman playwright.

"The Boys from Syracuse" was inspired by "The Comedy of Errors", "Kiss Me Kate" by "The Taming of the Shrew" and "West Side Story" by "Romeo and Juliet".

2. George Bernard Shaw's play "Pygmalion" was itself an updating of a Greek legend. Who transformed it into the musical "My Fair Lady"?

Answer: Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe

Opening on Broadway in 1956, "My Fair Lady" ran for six and a half years, a record at that time. "Pygmalion", inspired by the tale of a sculptor who fell in love with one of his statues, was successfully filmed in both German and English in the 1930s, but Shaw had expressly forbidden the production of a musical version. Following Shaw's death in 1950, Alan Jay Lerner was asked by the owner of the film rights to produce a musical adaptation. "My Fair Lady" is closer to the 1938 British film of "Pygmalion" than to the stage play.

3. The tale of an orphan boy who wanted more, which musical based on a Charles Dickens novel won an Oscar for Best Picture?

Answer: Oliver!

Lionel Bart's musical based on "Oliver Twist" opened in London in 1960 and on Broadway in 1963. Future Monkee Davy Jones appeared in both productions. Carol Reed directed the 1968 film version, which was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won six, including Best Film and Best Director.

"Pickwick", a musical version of "The Pickwick Papers" starring Harry Secombe in the title role, ran for two years in London before having a brief Broadway run in 1965. "Scrooge", a musical film version of "A Christmas Carol" with Albert Finney in the title role, was released in 1970 and was nominated for four Oscars but won none. "Drood", a musical version of Dickens' unfinished novel "The Mystery of Edwin Drood, became the first Broadway musical with multiple endings. Opening in 1985, it won five Tony Awards.

4. Based on the novel "Kipps" by H G Wells, which musical tells the tale of a draper's apprentice who inherits, and then loses, a fortune?

Answer: Half a Sixpence

Starring Tommy Steele as Arthur Kipps, "Half a Sixpence" opened in London in 1963. It transferred to Broadway in 1965, running for over 500 performances. Steele also starred in the 1967 film version, with Julia Foster as Ann, the girl with whom Kipps halves a sixpence before acquiring his fortune.

5. "Jeeves", an early Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, was based on stories by which humorous writer, himself a sometime lyricist?

Answer: P G Wodehouse

Reginald Jeeves, valet to Bertie Wooster, made his first appearance in the short story "Extricating Young Gussie", by P G Wodehouse, in 1915. An incredibly prolific writer, Wodehouse provided lyrics for a number of musical comedies. His best known song is probably "Bill" from the Jerome Kern musical "Show Boat".

Based on various Wodehouse stories and with book and lyrics by Alan Ayckbourne, "Jeeves" opened in London in 1975, but closed after a month. A revised version of the musical, renamed "By Jeeves", opened in 1996 and enjoyed greater success.

6. One of the greatest Broadway musicals was, appropriately, inspired by a writer who specialised in depicting Broadway characters. Whose story "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" provided a plot for "Guys and Dolls"?

Answer: Damon Runyon

Published in 1933, "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" relates the unlikely love story of gambler Sky Masterson and mission girl Sarah. "Guys and Dolls", which opened on Broadway in 1950 with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, was also partially inspired by the story "Blood Pressure" and used characters and plot elements used elsewhere in Damon Runyon's fiction.

Originally a journalist, Runyon had a distinctive prose style, notable for an absence of contractions or of verbs in the past or future tenses.

7. Though taking place on the coast of Maine, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Carousel" is based on a play set in which landlocked country?

Answer: Hungary

"Carousel" is based on "Liliom" by Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnar. Liliom, like Billy Bigelow in "Carousel", is a barker who kills himself following a robbery that goes wrong. After sixteen years in Purgatory he is allowed back to Earth for one day to do a good deed for the daughter he never knew. Success would permit him to enter Heaven, but he fails in the attempt. "Carousel" ends more happily, with Billy able to help his daughter and enter Heaven.

8. "Nights of Cabiria", winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1958, is perhaps not the most obvious inspiration for a Broadway show. Directed by Federico Fellini, this tale of an Italian lady of the night and her vain search for love was transplanted to another part of the world for which stage and movie musical?

Answer: Sweet Charity

With music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and book by Neil Simon, "Sweet Charity" opened on Broadway in 1966. Gwen Verdon played Charity, a New York taxi dancer, and the show was choreographed by Bob Fosse, who later directed the screen version starring Shirley MacLaine.

9. Comic strips can provide good material for musicals. Which of these cartoon characters is the only one NOT to see his or her name up in Broadway lights during the 20th century?

Answer: Oor Wullie

"Oor Wullie", a spiky-haired boy dressed in dungarees and seated on a bucket, has featured in a comic strip in the Scottish newspaper "The Sunday Post" since 1936, but at the start of 2015 Broadway fame continues to elude him.

Created by Harold Gray, the comic strip "Little Orphan Annie" first appeared in 1924, inspiring a radio show and film adaptations before being turned into the musical "Annie", which opened on Broadway in 1977. "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown", based on Charles M Schulz's comic strip "Peanuts", opened off Broadway in 1967 before having a brief Broadway run in 1971. A musical based on Al Capp's comic strip "Li'l Abner" opened on Broadway in 1956, a movie version being released in 1959.

10. When you're Stephen Sondheim you can take inspiration from anywhere. Which of these gave him the idea for the musical "Sunday in the Park with George"?

Answer: a French painting

The "George" in question is pointillist painter Georges Seurat, and the musical is concerned with the production of his painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte". "Sunday in the Park with George" won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Source: Author dellastreet

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor looney_tunes before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

No New Tale To Tell Trivia Quiz

Writing a musical is hard enough without having to come up with an original plot. These shows all recycled ideas that had been used before.

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