We’ve put together a quarantine reading list with a touch of theatrical sparkle!

Here are 10 books that have inspired some of the world’s greatest musicals. We can’t promise jazz hands or showtunes, but you might discover something special in the original source material.


1. Les Misérables (1862) by Victor Hugo
An epic novel centring on the struggles and redemption of ex-convict Jean Valjean. More than a quarter of the book is devoted to moralistic essays on topics varying from the Battle of Waterloo to sewage systems. Not surprisingly, these deviations were left out of the musical adaptation!


2. Tevye’s Daughters (1894) by Sholom Aleichem
A collection of tales about Tevye, a dairyman living in a Jewish shtetl in Russia, were the inspiration for Fiddler on the Roof. Originally written in Yiddish, they tell of Tevye’s troublesome daughters, his business dealings and the encroachment of outside influences on his way of life. 


3. The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown (1933) by Damon Runyon
Along with Runyon’s other short stories exploring Broadway in the Prohibition era, this tale was the basis for Guys and Dolls, a love story between a gambler and a missionary.


4. The Phantom of the Opera (1910) by Gaston Leroux
First serialised in newspapers, this gothic novel was inspired by the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris. Leroux claimed, even on his death bed, that the book was based on true events. Indeed, an underwater pool can still be found under the opera house today!


5. Goodbye to Berlin (1933) by Christopher Isherwood
The basis for Cabaret, this semi-autobiographical book takes place in 1930s Berlin. It’s written as a loosely connected collection of six stories inspired by the intriguing people Isherwood met in the city just before the Nazis came to power. The cabaret singer, Sally Bowles, is his most memorable creation. 


6. Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939) by T.S. Eliot
Eliot originally wrote these whimsical poems about a group of cats for his godchildren under the name ‘Old Possum’. Adapted by Andrew Lloyd Webber into Cats in the 1980s, the musical is as quirky as the poetry!


7. Anna and the King of Siam (1944) by Margaret Landon
This novel is based on the memoirs of Anna Leonowens who travelled to Siam (now Thailand) in the 1860s to teach the King’s children and wives. Landon embellished these writings into a love story which  later inspired the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, The King and I.


8. The Color Purple (1982) by Alice Walker
Mainly written in the form of letters, this novel focuses on the lives of African-American women in rural Georgia in the 1930s. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1983 and was adapted into a Broadway musical in 2005. Birmingham Hippodrome staged a triumphant production of the show in 2019, co-produced with Leicester Curve.


9. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995) by Gregory Maguire
The first in The Wicked Years series of books, this novel gives an alternative backstory to characters encountered in The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum and is also a commentary on the nature of good and evil. The main character, Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West), is derived from the initials of Baum: L-F-B.


10. Alexander Hamilton (2004) by Ron Chernow
This biography about one of the Founding Fathers of the United States became an international bestseller after Lin-Manuel Miranda read the book on holiday and convinced Chernow he could turn it into a Hip-Hop musical. Chernow worked as historical consultant on Hamilton for six years while Miranda devised the show.