8. The Donkey Show

Before she became a Tony winner directing the 2013 Broadway revival of Pippin, Diane Paulus made an early splash in the New York theatre scene co-writing (with husband Randy Weiner) and directing The Donkey Show, an Off-Broadway disco version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Immersive before it was on trend, The Donkey Show was performed in a club, Club El Flamingo. Midsummer’s Oberon, King of the Fairies, became a disco impresario, and his wife Titania a Donna Summer-like disco diva. Nick Bottom, who in Midsummer is an egotistical weaver who is transformed into a donkey, became a pair of disco-dancing twins in The Donkey Show. The show featured a jukebox score of disco hits, including “I Love the Nightlife,” “Ring My Bell,” “We Are Family,” and “Car Wash.”

When it opened Off-Broadway in August 1999, the production was scheduled to play a six-week limited engagement. The Donkey Show went on to run for nearly six years, becoming one of the longest-running Off-Broadway shows in history. The New York production led to productions around the world, and Paulus revived the show at American Repertory Theater in 2009. It now continues to play Saturday nights at A.R.T.

9. The Bomb-itty of Errors

Long before Hamilton, The Bomb-itty of Errors brought rap to musical theatre while updating the story of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. Written and performed by Jordan Allen-Dutton, Jason Catalano, GQ, and Erik Weiner, the show began as an NYU senior project in 1998. The following year, The Bomb-itty of Errors opened at Off-Broadway’s Bleecker Street Theatre and became an audience favorite. Bomb-itty updated Shakespeare’s original story to modern times, making the pairs of identical twins separated because of the foster care system. An onstage DJ was on hand to spin beats.

The show enjoyed a successful Off-Broadway, receiving a Drama Desk nomination for Best Lyrics and an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical. The show was later seen in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, and internationally in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Canada. Bomb-itty is still produced today by regional theatres across the country.

10. Play On!

Like All Shook Up, Play On! was a jukebox musical that used Twelfth Night as its inspiration. Director Sheldon Epps had the idea of mixing Shakespeare’s story with the music of legendary jazz musician Duke Ellington. He recruited book writer Cheryl L. West to transport the story to 1940s Harlem, telling the story of a female musician named Vy who disguises herself as a man so that she can be taken more seriously as a songwriter. The score included such standards as “Take the A Train,” “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got That Swing),” “I Got it Bad and That Ain’t Good,” and more.

Play On! premiered on Broadway in March 1997. Though the production was short-lived at only 61 performances, Play On! received three 1997 Tony Award nominations, for the featured performance of André De Shields, leading performance of Tonya Pinkins and Luther Henderson’s orchestrations.

11. The Lion King

Though the movie and resulting stage musical The Lion King is not directly credited as being based on Shakespeare, many have pointed out its clear similarities with Hamlet. Much as Hamlet looks to avenge the murder of his father at the hands of his uncle, Simba ultimately has to triumph over his uncle Scar following his murder of Mufasa. Even Timon and Pumbaa have Shakespearean connections to Hamlet’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Still, the Hamlet connection may be less intentional, as creative team member Lebo M told Playbill in 2017 about the story’s connection to his personal past.

The Lion King has become one of the most successful Broadway musicals in history. The show opened on Broadway in October 1997, becoming a near-instantaneous smash hit that is still running today around the world.

12. Return to the Forbidden Planet

This Off-Broadway musical was adapted by Bob Carlton from the classic 1950s sci-film Forbidden Planet, which was itself somewhat inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest. In Shakespeare’s play, we meet sorcerer Prospero, who lives in near isolation on a remote island. He conjures up a storm to bring the King of Naples to the island so that his daughter, Miranda, might marry the King’s son and assume her rightful title. Forbidden Planet features some similar plot notes and a similarly isolated setting to The Tempest, but the musical Return to the Forbidden Planet is much more directly based on the Shakespeare. The remote island becomes the faraway planet D’Illyria (a reference to the setting of Twelfth Night), which is home to Doctor Prospero and his daughter Miranda. A meteor shower leaves a spaceship marooned on D’Illyria, with Miranda ultimately falling for the ship’s commander, Captain Tempest. All of this is set to a jukebox score make up of hits of the ‘50s and ‘60s, including “Wipe Out,” “Good Vibrations,” Monster Mash,” and “Great Balls of Fire.”

This campy sci-fi spin on Shakespeare began in Australia, touring there in the early ’90s. An Off-Broadway production played the Variety Arts Theatre in 1991 for 243 performances, after which the show has been seen at regional companies across the country.

Logan Culwell-Block is a musical theatre historian, Playbill's manager of research, and curator of Playbill Vault. @loganculwell