Abstract
Since 1908, there have been at least ninety musical theater adaptations of Shakespeare's plays. The relative dearth of studies dedicated to Shakespearean musical theater adaptations is surprising. Perhaps because musical theater itself has had trouble being serious, critics have had trouble taking it seriously. In response to this problem, Kalena Dickerson Chevalier, Stephen Clark, and I have researched, conceived of, composed, and produced a full-length modern-day vernacular musical adaptation of Shakespeare's most “preposterous contemporary Jacobean” play, Pericles, Prince of Tyre. The project was based on the hypothesis that an immersive approach would yield original, first-hand data that could be useful for both theater artists and literary scholars. This article responds to the problem of the critical community's routine underestimation, misapprehension, and neglect of Shakespearean musical adaptations. In an effort to show theory in action, the present study explains how our choices in adapting Pericles' setting, characters, and plot were based on contemporary adaptation theory, Pericles scholarship, and our own creative goals. This study yields sharper understanding of Pericles as well as the process of adapting Shakespeare to the musical theater genre.
