While theatre can transport an audience to imaginative worlds, sometimes the most riveting stories can come from reality. Playbill started thinking about the musicals based on true stories—some were adapted from books and films and others were original ideas, but these 35 musicals depict real-life stories, people, and/or events.
Jeremy Jordan and Laura Osnes in Bonnie & Clyde
Nathan Johnson
Patti LuPone in Evita
Martha Swope/©NYPL for the Performing Arts
Phillipa Soo and Lin-Manuel Miranda in Hamilton
Joan Marcus
Cast of Come From Away
Matthew Murphy
Bruce Yarnell and Ethel Merman in the 1966 Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun.
Friedman-Abeles / The New York Public Library
Cast of The Will Rogers Follies
Bernadette Peters, Joel Grey, and cast in George M!
Friedman-Abeles
Terrence Mann and Terri White in Barnum
A scene from The Civil War
The cast of Fiorello!
Emma Rothenberg-Ware
Adrienne Warren and cast of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
Manuel Harlan
Aaron Tveit and ladies in Catch Me If You Can on Broadway, 2011
Howard Da Silva, William Daniels, and Ken Howard in 1776
The original Broadway cast of Titanic
Joan Marcus
Harve Presnell and Tammy Grimes in The Unsinkable Molly Brown
Mary Martin and the cast of The Sound of Music
Friedman-Abeles / The New York Public Library
Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner in The King and I
Photo courtesy of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization
Ethel Merman, Jacqueline Mayro, and Karen Moore in Gypsy
Friedman-Abeles/©NYPL for the Performing Arts
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Ephraim Sykes and cast of Ain't Too Proud
Matthew Murphy
Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters in Mack & Mabel
Stephanie J. Block, Hugh Jackman and Isabel Keating in The Boy From Oz, Broadway
Joan Marcus
Jessie Mueller and Jake Epstein in Beautiful
J. Robert Spencer, John Lloyd Young, Daniel Reichard and Christian Hoff in Jersey Boys
Joan Marcus
Ana Villafañe and the cast of On Your Feet!
The cast of Million Dollar Quartet
Johnny Desmond and Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl
Friedman-Abeles / The New York Public Library
Cast of Six
Liz Lauren
Brent Carver and Carolee Carmello in Parade
Stephanie J. Block and cast
Joan Marcus
A scene from the original Broadway production of Pacific Overtures.
Martha Swope / The New York Public Library
Rob McClure in Chaplin
Photo by Joan Marcus
Emily Skinner and Alice Ripley
Joan Marcus
Joshua Henry and company in The Scottsboro Boys
Paul Kolnik
Michael Cerveris in LoveMusik
Christine Ebersole and Patti LuPone in War Paint
Joan Marcus
