How a Musical Tells a Story With Songs and Dance

In 1994, Disney turned its animated film The Lion King into a Broadway musical — and it has now been seen by more than 100 million people in over 20 countries. But turning a movie into a stage musical takes more than just adding songs. Every musical is built from three separate ingredients that have to work together perfectly: the book, the music, and the lyrics.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: Explain the difference between a musical's book, music, and lyrics. Describe what an "I Want" song is and find one example. Name at least four jobs it takes to put on a musical. Explain how choreography can tell part of a story without any words.

Every musical has three separate ingredients. The 'book' is the spoken dialogue and the plot — it's written by a book writer, like Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi for The Lion King. The music is the melodies, usually written by a composer — Elton John composed The Lion King's music. The lyrics are the words that get sung, written by a lyricist — Tim Rice wrote the lyrics, including for the song 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight,' which won the 1995 Academy Award for Best Original Song. Sometimes one person does two or even all three jobs, like Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the book, music, and lyrics for Hamilton in 2015.

A good musical doesn't just stop the story so someone can sing a pretty song — every song has a job to do. One of the most common jobs is the 'I Want' song, which usually comes early in the show and tells the audience exactly what the main character wants most in the world. In Beauty and the Beast, Belle sings about wanting adventure beyond her small town. In The Little Mermaid, Ariel sings 'Part of Your World' about wanting to live on land. If you cut the 'I Want' song from a musical, the audience would have no idea what the character is working toward for the rest of the show.

A Broadway musical needs far more people than the ones singing onstage. The director decides how the whole story is staged and guides the actors' performances. The choreographer designs every dance movement. The music director rehearses the singers and conducts the band or orchestra. The stage manager calls every lighting, sound, and set cue during the actual performance, and if something goes wrong, they're the one who has to fix it in seconds. A long-running Broadway show like Hamilton employs more than 100 people to put on just eight performances a week — actors, musicians, dressers, carpenters, and crew.