As Seen on TV: Plays & Musicals Connected to Television

When television was first rising in popularity at the midpoint of the 20th century, the traditional stage play was a fitting genre for early adaptation. Young writers like Paddy Chayefsky created original anthology dramas, weekly series that presented new or adapted plays under a single umbrella title.

After that “Golden Age,” many of TV’s most popular programs and sitcoms were later adapted by their authors for presentation on the stage.

Check out this list of Concord Theatricals plays and musicals that began on TV, inspired a TV adaptation, or thoughtfully address television’s impact on culture.

’Allo ’Allo by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5f, 10m)
Based on the hugely successful British television series, which ran for seven seasons, this uproarious comedy relates the adventures of a hapless cafe owner, Rene, in occupied France. The play features fan-favorite TV characters like Rene’s tone-deaf wife Edith, Major-General von Klinkerhoffen, and the Gestapo officer Herr Flick. Its sequel, ’Allo ’Allo 2 (US/UK), features the characters in yet another escapade.

3C by David Adjmi (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Satire / 3f, 3m)
This black comedy by David Adjmi tries to excavate the grimy subtext lurking under a sitcom like Three’s Company. The war in Vietnam is over and Brad, an ex-serviceman, lands in LA to start a new life. When he winds up trashed in Connie and Linda’s kitchen after a raucous night of partying, the trio strike a deal with hilarious and devastating consequences.

A Charlie Brown Christmas by Charles M. Schulz, Eric Schaeffer, Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson (US/UK)
(Short musical, Dramatic Comedy / 5f, 5m, 1 any gender)
A 30-minute stage adaptation of the classic animated TV special featuring Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and the gang discovering the true meaning of Christmas. Fun fact: the original A Charlie Brown Christmas TV special was going to have a laugh track!

Abigail’s Party by Mike Leigh (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 3f, 2m)
Adapted from the UK teleplay filled with drinks, snacks and fatuous small talk. Laurence and Beverly’s daughter Abigail is having a party, to which new neighbor Susan has been dis-invited. As Laurence and Beverly entertain their neighbors with drinks, marital strain reveals itself, anxiety mounts, and rock music reverberates off the roof.

Are You Being Served? by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 4f, 8m)
Based on the popular British television comedy, this stage show revels in innuendo and nonstop double entendres. A motley crew of department store workers spend a staff holiday at a one star establishment in Spain, and their encounters with everything from a Spanish crumpet to randy revolutionaries leaves everything intact but their modesty.

Bad Ideas for Bad Television Shows by Don Zolidis (US/UK)
(One-Act Play, Comedy / 8w, 6m, 2 any gender)
Two desperate television executives need a new prime-time show, and they need help. Would-be producers show up in droves to pitch for the network’s next big hit, everything from a sitcom starring Jean-Paul Sartre to a sabotage-ridden singing competition. A zany, satirical take on the absurdity of contemporary entertainment.

Fade by Tanya Saracho (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 1w, 1m)
When Lucia, a Mexican-born novelist, gets her first TV writing job, she feels a bit out of place on the white male-dominated set. Lucia quickly befriends the only other Latino around, a janitor named Abel. As Abel shares his stories with Lucia, similar plots begin to find their way into the TV scripts that Lucia writes. Fade is a play about class and race within the Latine community, as well as at large, and how status does not change who you are at your core.

Family Ties by Daniel Goldstein (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 4w, 2m)
One of the most beloved TV families of the 1980s takes to the stage in this comedy based on the original CBS television series. The Keaton siblings Alex, Mallory and Jennifer return to their childhood home and relive important moments with fondness and appreciation for the simpler times that defined a generation.

Free to Be… You and Me conceived by Marlo Thomas and friends (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 2f, 2m, Expandable)
Marlo Thomas conceived a children’s book that, instead of telling boys and girls who they should be, would open them to the possibilities of who they could be. She gathered many of her supremely talented friends from various worlds of the arts and the remarkable result is highly regarded as a modern classic of children’s literature. First, the friends made a musical album. Then a 1974 TV special brought a selection of the album’s songs to the small screen via live-action, puppetry and animation.

2018 US National Tour Production of A Charlie Brown Christmas (Credit: Dan Norman)

Good Night, and Good Luck by George Clooney and Grant Heslov (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 12m)
As McCarthyism casts a shadow over America, newsman Edward R. Murrow and his team at CBS choose to confront the growing tide of paranoia and propaganda, even if it means turning the federal government and a worried nation against them. This electrifying stage adaptation of the critically acclaimed film about broadcast television journalism chronicles a time in American history when truth and journalistic integrity stood up to fear-mongering and disinformation – and won.

Happy Days – A New Musical by Gary Marshall and Paul Williams (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 7f, 10m + ensemble)
Based on the American sitcom that aired on ABC from 1974 to 1984, the Happy Days musical is set around the fourth season of the TV series. The famed drive-in malt shop and number one hangout, Arnold’s, is in danger of demolition. So the gang teams up to save it with a dance contest and a TV-worthy wrestling match.

Kim’s Convenience by Ins Choi (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 2w, 3m)
Popularized as a CBC sitcom, this story focuses on a Korean Canadian family who run a convenience store. A hilarious and heartwarming ode to generations of immigrants who have made Canada the country that it is with a focus on the relationship between a traditional father and a son who has left home.

Laughter on the 23rd Floor by Neil Simon (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 7m)
Inspired by the playwright’s youthful experience as a staff writer on Sid Caesar’s Emmy Award-winning television show Your Show of Shows, this ensemble comedy features a harried writing staff frantically scrambling to top each other with gags as they compete for the attention of star madman Max Prince.

Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, Mitch Leigh and Joe Darion (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy / 5f, 6m + ensemble)
Adapted from Dale Wasserman’s 1959 non-musical teleplay I, Don Quixote, the musical Man of La Mancha is the heartbreaking and inspirational story of one man’s refusal to give up his impossible dream. The show opens with Don Quixote author Miguel de Cervantes awaiting trial during the Spanish Inquisition; he and his fellow prisoners perform a play-within-a-play, telling the story of one man’s quest to right the world’s wrongs.

Mr. Burns, a post-electric play by Anne Washburn (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dark Comedy / 5f, 3m)
This play investigates how television becomes part of the cultural fabric and exists as common ground for conversation. After the collapse of civilization, a group of survivors share a campfire and begin to piece together the plot of The Simpsons “Cape Feare” episode entirely from memory. Seven years later, and snippets of cartoons, sitcoms, and pop culture have become the live entertainment of a post-apocalyptic society. Seventy-five years later, these are the myths and legends from which new performances are born.

Once Upon a Mattress by Mary Rodgers, Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller and Marshall Barer (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 4f, 7m +Ensemble)
This 1958 musical was adapted for television three times: first in 1964, in black and white, with Carol Burnett reprising her Broadway triumph as Princess Winnifred; next in 1972, in color, with Burnett again starring, this time alongside Bernadette Peters and Ken Berry; and finally, in a 2005 made-for-TV film on The Wonderful World of Disney, starring Tracey Ullman and featuring Burnett as evil Queen Aggravain. A clever reimagining of The Princess and the Pea, the musical follows Winnifred the Woebegone, a simple swamp princess looking for love.

Pride & Prejudice by Andrew Davies and Jane Austen (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 13w, 7m)
Adapted from Andrew Davies’ hit 1995 BBC TV series, this delightful comedy of manners revolves around the tumultuous relationship between Elizabeth Bennet, the lively and mischievous daughter of a gentleman from the country, and Darcy, a wealthy and proud lord. 

Quiz by James Graham (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 4w, 7m)
James Graham’s kinetic, thrilling play combines the tension of a courtroom with the energy of a game show as a winning contestant on Britain’s Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? television game show stands trial for cheating.

2017 Broadway Production of The SpongeBob Musical (Credit: Joan Marcus)

Rodger’s & Hammerstein’s Cinderella (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 6f, 5m +Ensemble)
This timelessly enchanting piece was produced by Walt Disney Television as a TV film in 1997. It featured singer/songwriter Brandy in the titular role, alongside a cast including Whoopi Goldberg, Bernadette Peters, Jason Alexander and Veanne Cox. Before the Disney TV movie, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella was adapted into a 1965 TV broadcast for CBS starring Lesley Ann Warren, and prior to that was the musical’s 1957 debut, live on television, starring Julie Andrews.

Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em by Guy Unsworth and Raymond Allen (UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2f, 4m)
This stage version of the 1970s English sitcom stays true to the original while delivering a fresh and unique farce. Betty has exciting news for Frank, but he’s preoccupied by possible newfound fame as a magician. With guests arriving for dinner and crossed wires all round, priceless misunderstanding is on the menu. Check out our exclusive interview with Raymond Allen about how his hit TV sitcom was adapted for the stage.

Talking Heads by Alan Bennett (US/UK)
(Monologue Collection, Dramatic Comedy / 1m or f)
Alan Bennett sealed his reputation as the master of observation with this series of 12 groundbreaking monologues, originally filmed for BBC Television. At once darkly comic, tragically poignant and wonderfully uplifting, Talking Heads is widely regarded as a modern classic.

The Family of Mann by Theresa Rebeck (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 4m)
A young writer learns that comedy can be a grim business when she gets a job working on a television sitcom. While her colleagues insist that the show is both decent and real, their world descends into a ferocious madness. A seriously funny behind-the-scenes look at the making of a TV sitcom that hilariously questions who and what are invited into homes when the television is turned on.

The Farnsworth Invention by Aaron Sorkin (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3f, 15m)
It’s 1929. Two ambitious visionaries race against each other to invent a device called “television.” Separated by two thousand miles, each knows that if he stops working, even for a moment, the other will gain the edge. Who will unlock the key to the greatest innovation of the 20th century: the ruthless media mogul, or the self-taught Idaho farm boy? The answer comes to compelling life in The Farnsworth Invention, a play from Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing, The Newsroom and The Social Network.

The Lover by Harold Pinter (US/UK)
(Short Play / 1f, 2m)
Pinter’s works appear in many forms, and many of his plays notably began as scripts for television. In The Lover, a married couple engages in erotic role-playing to keep their marriage fresh, until husband Richard blends his alter-ego with his true self. Other Pinter works that began on TV include Night School (UK) and The Basement (US/UK).

The Ruby Sunrise by Rinne Groff (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 3m)
From a young Indiana farm girl named Ruby who dreams of turning the first all-electrical television system into a reality to the future where her heirs fight over how her story should be told, this drama follows the journey of the phenomenon of television through Ruby’s story, compromises and all.

The SpongeBob Musical by Kyle Jarrow and Tina Landau (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 16 any gender)
Adapted from the iconic Nickelodeon series! SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy, Squidward and all of Bikini Bottom face total annihilation — until a most unexpected hero rises to take center stage. The SpongeBob Musical is based on the beloved animated series created by Stephen Hillenburg and features a book by Kyle Jarrow, with original songs by Yolanda Adams, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Sara Bareilles, Jonathan Coulton, Alexander Ebert of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, The Flaming Lips, Lady A, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, Panic! At the Disco, Plain White T’s, They Might Be Giants and T.I., and songs by David Bowie, Tom Kenny and Andy Paley. Additional lyrics are by Jonathan Coulton, with additional music by Tom Kitt.

Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 13m)
The classic American courtroom drama written by Reginald Rose began as a 1954 teleplay, before it was adapted for the stage a year later. The piece went on to be adapted as a film in 1957 starring Henry Fonda. A young delinquent is on trial for the murder of his aggressive father. The judge has directed the jury to find the boy guilty if there is no reasonable doubt. Eleven of the jurors declare there is no reasonable doubt, but one of them, while far from convinced of the boy’s innocence, feels that some of the evidence against him has been ambiguous.

For more TV-related plays and musicals, visit Concord Theatricals in the US or UK.