Don't Make Adaptations

If I have one complaint about Broadway these days, it is this. Over 3/4 of new Broadway shows are adaptations of movies, books, and other things. Let's look at what is on Broadway right now:

Avenue Q (Not new)
Billy Elliot (Based off a Film)
Burn the Floor (Not new)
Chicago (Not new)
Hair (Not new)
In the Heights (Actually new original)
Jersey Boys (Based off a bunch of old 60s to 70s songs)
The Lion King (Based off movie)
The Little Mermaid (Based off movie)
Mamma Mia (Based off the hits of ABBA)
Mary Poppins (Based off the movie and books)
Memphis: A New Musical (Got to take Broadway's word that this is "new" I guess)
Next to Normal (Actually new original)
9 to 5: The Musical (Based off a movie)
Phantom of the Opera (Not new)
Rock of Ages (Based off popular rock songs from 1980s)
Shrek the Musical (Based off a movie)
South Pacific (Not new)
West Side Story (Not new)
Wicked (Based off a book)

As you can see, most producers don't want to bother with new musicals now days that don't have already have proven music or story content. This isn't the way it should be, but it won't get any better if this generation of musical writers don't change things. Put down that Cher's Greatest Hits that you want to structure something around. Put down the copy of Ender's Game that you want to add music to.

Firstly, you have to go through lots of legal paperwork for all of this stuff. Most of the time they already want to have a finished work to consider whether they give their blessing or not. You know what that means? You spent six months writing Cher's Game and now you can't do anything with it. You can't even publish it. Seems like a waste of time, doesn't it. Oh wait, it isn't because you only put HALF THE WORK into it.

Secondly, alluded to above, is the fact that you in no way put as much work into your work as someone who wrote an original. No one cares how much time Winnie Holzman put into adapting. Everyone who cares remembers the person who wrote the original that the work was based off of. Oh wait. You don't who Winnie Holzman is? Ever heard of Wicked? See. No one will remember the time you put into doing the orchestral arrangements of Styx, various artists. They aren't even NAMED on Wikipedia.

Thirdly, if you had put in a little more effort, you could have a completely original work. This may seem trivial to you, since you have a "less chance" of getting the right people to produce your musical. The satisfaction that comes out of it so much greater though. Meridith Wilson just wrote the Music Man and Unsinkable Molly Brown. He's still umpteenth times more well known than Steven Schwarz, the guy who wrote the music for Godspell and Wicked, two adaptations. And Pippin, which was original, but he just wrote the music for that anyway.

Lastly, do you care about money? You don't get all the money for royalties or anything like that. You share them with the person whose work you are using. And you can kiss movie deals good bye. ABBA made so much more money than the person who wrote Mamma Mia off of the movie version, after already making a large chunk of money off of Mamma Mia itself in drama theatres.

Musical to movie adaptations on the other hand, are not only fine, but encouraged. You aren't being a sell out, you are merely allowing more people who don't live in New York City to see your work.

So don't make adaptations.