Overview
Shakespeare’s plays have been performed all over the world, translated into many other languages, and sets have been adapted beyond the traditional stage settings. In addition to movies made from the plays, there have been movies based on Shakespearean themes, operas and other musical works set to Shakespeare, as well as books, dance, and other forms of visual arts.
Theater Adaptations of Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s plays were staged elaborately when they were originally performed, with elaborate scenery, fencing, dance, music, sound effects, and even fireworks. The Globe Theatre itself burned in 1613 when a cannonball caught fire. Hamlet has been reset to Haiti, Macbeth to World War I, and Richard III to Nazi Germany. The Taming of the Shrew was reset as the Broadway musical Kiss Me Kate. Romeo and Juliet was reset to rival gangs in New York City in the Broadway musical West Side Story, later to be made into a movie.
Movies and TV
There have been more than 400 movie and TV adaptations of Shakespeare plots. Many of them have been based on Romeo and Juliet, besides the film adaptations such as the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet directed by Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 Romeo + Juliet. The movie Shakespeare in Love is a retelling of Shakespeare writing the play, and Romeo Must Die (2000) uses mixed martial arts to tell the story. There have also been many adaptations of other plays or Shakespearean concepts. The movie 10 Things I Hate About You is based on The Taming of the Shrew. Hamlet has been adapted to The Lion King, Let the Devil Wear Black, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Science fiction based on Shakespeare includes the Star Trek episode “The Conscience of the King”, a Doctor Who episode, “The Shakespeare Code”, and the android love story Romie-0 and Julie-8.
Books with Shakespearean Themes
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley and The Serpent’s Tooth by Diana L. Paxson are among the many books based on King Lear. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey is connected to Richard III, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley to The Tempest, and The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith to Macbeth. Every year brings new books and stories, as Shakespeare’s themes are universal.
Other Arts
Since music and dance were such a part of Shakespeare’s plays, many ballets have been staged to tell the stories, such as Romeo and Juliet with music by Prokofiev and by Tchaikovsky, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Mendelssohn, and a one-act version, The Dream by Ashton, along with many others. Verdi scored the dramatic operas Otello and Macbeth, as well as the comedy Falstaff, based on The Merry Wives of Windsor. Vaughn Williams composed the opera Sir John in Love, also based on The Merry Wives of Windsor. Many paintings were inspired by scenes and characters from Shakespeare, including work by William Blake, Millais, and others.
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