‘If it’s good enough for Shakespeare, it’s good enough for us’

This chapter will look at how some plays of Shakespeare have been adapted as Broadway musicals, and how, in turn, the Broadway musical has influenced some productions of Shakespeare. In The Boys from Syracuse (1938) and Kiss Me, Kate (1948) Shakespeare is both treated as a showbiz personality and revered, albeit humorously, as a divine figure who brings healing to the characters. In West Side Story (1957) Shakespeare is not mentioned by name, but the memory of Romeo and Juliet hangs over the show, providing an ironic contrast with the world of gang-divided New York where there is no authority figure to impose order. In the seventies the Broadway show becomes an object of nostalgia. Kenneth Branagh’s film version of Love’s Labours Lost (2000) used songs popularized by Fred Astaire to provide a thoroughly familiar context in which to understand the play. The musical has appropriated Shakespeare’s plays, and in doing so, has given the audience a potential new set of aesthetic rules by which they can appreciate the plays themselves.