The Frogs | |
---|---|
Music | Stephen Sondheim |
Lyrics | Stephen Sondheim |
Book | Burt Shevelove Nathan Lane |
Basis | The Frogs by Aristophanes |
Productions | 1974 Yale University Swimming Pool 1988 Chicago 2004 Broadway 2007 Pittsburgh 2007 Truman College Swimming Pool 2011 St. Petersburg, Florida 2014 Anglia Ruskin University 2015 Sydney 2017 West End |
The Frogs is a musical "freely adapted" by Stephen Sondheim and Burt Shevelove from The Frogs, an Ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes. In the musical, Dionysos, despairing of the quality of living dramatists, travels to Hades to bring George Bernard Shaw back from the dead. William Shakespeare competes with Shaw for the title of best playwright, which he wins. Dionysos brings Shakespeare back to the world of the living in the hope that art can save civilization.
The musical was originally performed in Yale University's gymnasium's swimming pool in 1974.[1] The show was produced on Broadway in 2004 with the book revised by Nathan Lane and the score expanded by Sondheim. This version was revived in London in 2017.