Broadway Guides

12 Broadway Musicals Based on Books (and How They Changed the Story)

By Thea LaneOctober 2, 2026Updated October 2, 20268 min read

Table of Contents~8 min left

Short Answer

Some of Broadway's best-known musicals based on books include Wicked, from Gregory Maguire's novel; Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera, from nineteenth-century French novels; Fiddler on the Roof, from Sholem Aleichem's Yiddish stories; and Hamilton, from Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton.

When Jerome Kern first proposed turning Show Boat into a musical, Edna Ferber was shocked. Her 1926 novel spans fifty years and deals with spousal abandonment, alcoholism, and interracial marriage, subjects she thought had no place in musical comedy. Show Boat opened on Broadway the next year anyway, and the pattern it set has repeated for a century: a novel, a memoir, a set of folk stories, or a biography gets picked up by songwriters who keep some of it, cut some of it, and change the rest outright.

This guide covers twelve of those adaptations, in the order they opened, with what each musical kept from its source and what it changed.

Show Boat (1927) — Based on Show Boat by Edna Ferber (1926)

Show Boat opened December 27, 1927, at the Ziegfeld Theatre, with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, based on Edna Ferber's 1926 novel. Our guide to the first Broadway musical covers Show Boat's place in Broadway history.

Fiddler on the Roof (1964) — Based on Sholem Aleichem's Tevye Stories (1894–1914)

Sholem Aleichem wrote his Tevye stories in Yiddish between 1894 and 1914. Fiddler on the Roof opened September 22, 1964, at the Imperial Theatre, ran 3,242 performances, the first musical ever to pass 3,000, and won nine Tony Awards including Best Musical. The ending changes the story's shape: Aleichem's stories leave Tevye alone, his daughters scattered, while the musical sends the whole family to America together, a more hopeful close than the book allows. Fiddler still ranks among Broadway's longest-running shows, at #19.

Les Misérables (1987) — Based on Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (1862)

More than a century separates Victor Hugo's 1862 novel from its Broadway opening. The show started as a French concept album in 1980, moved to London's Barbican Centre on October 8, 1985, and opened on Broadway at the Broadway Theatre on March 12, 1987. Lyricist Herbert Kretzmer has described the English lyrics as roughly a third rough translation from the French, a third adapted from the French lyrics, and a third entirely new material. The show is sung-through, with almost no spoken dialogue.

The Phantom of the Opera (1988) — Based on Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux (1910)

By his own account, Andrew Lloyd Webber came across a battered secondhand copy of Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel at a book stall on a day he had nothing else to do, read the whole thing that afternoon, and, in his words, "had an epiphany." His musical opened on Broadway in 1988 and became the longest-running show in Broadway history, with 13,981 performances before it closed. Our guide to the Phantom of the Opera book versus the musical covers what changes between the two.

Ragtime (1998) — Based on Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow (1975)

The Ragtime musical traces back to E. L. Doctorow's 1975 novel of the same name. It opened January 18, 1998, at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, and won four Tony Awards, including Best Book for Terrence McNally and Best Original Score for Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens. A 2025 revival at the Vivian Beaumont Theater won four more Tony Awards in 2026, Best Revival of a Musical, Leading Actor in a Musical for Joshua Henry, Leading Actress in a Musical for Caissie Levy, and Sound Design for Kai Harada, before closing August 16, 2026, after multiple extensions.

Wicked (2003) — Based on Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (1995)

Before it was a musical, Wicked was a 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire. For a full comparison of the novel and the musical, see Is the Wicked Book Like the Musical?. The stage version opened October 30, 2003, at the Gershwin Theatre, and won three Tony Awards: Best Actress for Idina Menzel, Best Scenic Design, and Best Costume Design. Book writer Winnie Holzman has credited Maguire with the college-roommate premise itself: "It was [Maguire's] brilliant idea to take this hated figure and tell things from her point of view, and to have the two witches be roommates in college, but the way in which their friendship develops—and really the whole plot—is different onstage."

The Color Purple (2005) — Based on The Color Purple by Alice Walker (1982)

The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction went to Alice Walker's The Color Purple in 1982. The musical opened December 1, 2005, at the Broadway Theatre, where LaChanze won the Tony for Best Actress, and the production recouped its $11 million investment within its first year. A 2015 revival won Best Revival of a Musical, with Cynthia Erivo winning Best Actress.

Matilda the Musical (2013) — Based on Matilda by Roald Dahl (1988)

Tim Minchin and Dennis Kelly adapted Roald Dahl's 1988 novel Matilda into a musical that premiered with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon on December 9, 2010. It opened on Broadway April 11, 2013, at the Shubert Theatre, running 1,555 performances before closing January 1, 2017. Kelly won the Tony for Best Book of a Musical.

Hamilton (2015) — Based on Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (2004)

Hamilton is the only musical on this list based on nonfiction: Ron Chernow's 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton. The musical opened August 6, 2015, at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. For more on the show itself, see our guides to how long Hamilton runs and Hamilton's characters. One difference: the musical has Jefferson, Madison and Burr confront Hamilton over the Reynolds affair, while in his own 1797 account Hamilton names James Monroe, Frederick Muhlenberg and Abraham Venable as the men who called on him in December 1792.

Fun Home (2015) — Based on Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (2006)

Published in 2006, Fun Home is Alison Bechdel's own graphic memoir about her family. The musical adaptation opened April 19, 2015, at Circle in the Square Theatre and closed September 10, 2016, after winning five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron became the first female writing team to win the Tony for Best Original Score.

The Outsiders (2024) — Based on The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton (1967)

S. E. Hinton wrote The Outsiders at sixteen, as a high school student in Tulsa, Oklahoma; it was published when she was about eighteen. The musical opened April 11, 2024, at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre and won four Tony Awards, including Best Musical. It's still running at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre as of this writing, with no closing date announced, and a North American tour began in September 2025.

Water for Elephants (2024) — Based on Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (2006)

Water for Elephants began as Sara Gruen's bestselling 2006 novel. The musical opened March 20, 2024, at the Imperial Theatre, earned seven Tony nominations including Best Musical, and won none of them. It closed December 8, 2024, after 300 performances. A bestselling book doesn't guarantee a long run on Broadway, and Water for Elephants is the clearest example on this list.

What Changes When a Book Becomes a Musical

A few patterns hold across these twelve shows.

Musicals often change a book's ending or structure outright. Fiddler on the Roof sends the Tevye family to America together, where Sholem Aleichem's stories leave them scattered. Wicked keeps Maguire's premise that Elphaba and Glinda are college roommates, but changes how their friendship develops, and the plot that follows from it, once the story moves to the stage.

The source material ranges far wider than "classic novel." Victor Hugo and Gaston Leroux wrote nineteenth-century doorstops; S. E. Hinton wrote her first novel as a teenager; Alison Bechdel adapted her own graphic memoir.

Some of Broadway's longest-running shows started as books: The Phantom of the Opera holds the all-time record, Wicked sits at #4, Les Misérables at #6, and Fiddler on the Roof at #19 on our ranking of the longest-running Broadway shows.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most famous musical based on a book?

By length of run, Phantom, Wicked, and Les Misérables are the clearest answers: all three are among Broadway's longest-running shows, and all three started as books, Phantom from Gaston Leroux's novel, Wicked from Gregory Maguire's, and Les Misérables from Victor Hugo's.

Is Wicked the musical the same as the book?

Not entirely. The college-roommate premise for Elphaba and Glinda comes from Maguire's novel. What changes, by Holzman's own account, is how their friendship develops, and the plot that follows from it, once the story moves to the stage.

Which Broadway musicals are based on nonfiction?

Of the twelve shows on this list, only one: Hamilton, based on Ron Chernow's 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton. Every other musical here started as a novel, a set of stories, or a memoir.

What musical is based on a graphic novel?

Fun Home is the closest example, though Alison Bechdel's book is technically a graphic memoir, a nonfiction account of her own family, rather than a graphic novel. Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron became the first female writing team to win the Tony for Best Original Score for the adaptation.

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