Top 10 Musicals That Are Historically Inaccurate
Even if the media does not portray itself as completely historically accurate, the public can be influenced by certain portrayals of characters or events. In some cases, people form opinions that aren’t really based on facts, all because they saw it on TV or in a movie.
Many of the shows below are not deliberately intended to mislead the audience: in almost all cases, the inaccuracies mentioned are simply intended to make the show run better or more entertaining. But at least they all have some form of exaggeration, mistakes or outright lies embedded in the show.
Related: Top 10 Weird Things That Happen in English Renaissance Plays
10 Finding Neverland
The story of Peter Pan has been adapted so many times that it only makes sense that they would eventually focus on the origins of the story and the guys who inspired it. Finding Neverland is based on JM Barrie’s relationship with the Davies family, whose sons inspired the iconic story of Peter Pan and Neverland.
But the musical doesn’t tell the whole story. It is claimed that the Davies sons’ mother was a widow, with whom Barrie eventually develops a romance. This did not happen, mainly because the Davies’ father was still very much alive.
Likewise, the show claims that the Davies’ mother, Sylvia, died before the premiere of Peter Pan in 1904. While this makes for a dramatic melancholy ending Finding Neverlandshe actually died in 1910, long after the play had become a success.[1]
9 Catch me if you can
How are you supposed to tell a true story if the source material continues to lie?
It really shouldn’t have surprised anyone when it was revealed in 2023 that Frank Abagnale Jr., con artist, lied about many of the escapades he claimed in his autobiography: Catch me if you can. While the core facts are true, such as that he impersonated a Pan Am pilot for years and went to prison in France, many of the other cons, such as teaching at Brigham Young University and becoming an adviser to the US Senate Judiciary Committee , were false.
These discoveries also make the film of the same name inaccurate. Since there wasn’t really a way for the musical’s writers to know what was coming, this one is on the list due to technicalities.[2]
8 The king and I
While it is true that a British schoolteacher found her way into the Siamese court in the 1860s, the romantic relationship between her and the King of Siam, King Mongkut, is completely fake. Although this may not be entirely the doing of the show’s creators.
The musical is based on Anna Leonowens’ autobiography about her time in contemporary Thailand. The book was probably written to capitalize on the rampant orientalism in Victorian England. It included many freedoms that Thai government officials say are completely untrue, including the violent scene of a monk being tortured, which no Thai resident at the time remembers happening.
Upon reading the novel, the King of Siam responded that Anna “has supplied by her invention what is lacking in her memory.”[3]
7 Six
I know, it’s a crime not to put this one at number six.
Six took the world by storm when it premiered in Edinburgh in 2017. This pop musical is essentially a rock concert performed by the six wives of Henry VIII, with each woman competing to ‘win’ an audience-judged singing competition.
Artistic liberties are taken, but most are compounded to a point where no one would believe anything was true (such as Henry and Anne of Cleves meeting via a dating app).
However, some texts and personifications of these historical women detract from who they really were. The most striking of these is when Anne Boleyn sings, “I want to dance and sing / Politics, not my thing.” Her song still implies that she just wanted to have some fun with Henry in court, and didn’t want to become queen.
This is a disservice to the real Anne of Boleyn, as she was one of the most politically savvy and smartly engaged female leaders in history. Although not everything about her life is known, historians agree that her high status in court was the result of hard work and not luck.[4]
6 The sound of music
The hills are alive with the sound of falsehoods.
Well, that’s a bit dramatic. Most of the plot of this classic musical is true, but only technically. Although Maria eventually married Georg von Trapp, the father of many (ten) children, she was only a governess to one of them. Worse, even though she eventually married Georg, she never loved him. She says, “I loved the children, so in a sense I really married the children.”
But the most surprising of these comes from Maria herself, who is said to have been harsh and authoritarian. One of the daughters said she had a terrible temper and had outbursts of anger, including screaming, throwing things and slamming doors.
Not that the real Maria couldn’t also be the sweet stepmother she portrays in the musical, but I think we can all agree that it’s hard to imagine Julie Andrews or Mary Martin being anything other than sweet singing despite the children’s misfortunes.[5]
5 Funny girl
Funny girl focuses more on the entertainment aspect of musicals than the educational and historically accurate aspect. This is not surprising, since the main character himself wanted nothing more than to delight and captivate the audience.
Fanny Brice did not grow up in poverty and squalor, as the musical dramatically suggests, but in fairly affluent apartments throughout Brooklyn. And she was never a random member of a choir of beautiful girls, as one of the first scenes suggests: from the beginning she was a solo singer.
The Fanny in the musical is hopelessly devoted to gambling criminal Nick Arnstein. This is true in real life, although the historical narrative is not so pretty. Musical-Nick continues to gamble and work after Fanny’s fame, claiming he doesn’t want to use her money. Real-Nick was a criminal through and through and had no problem using his wife’s wages when he needed them.
At no time is this more evident than when Nick was arrested in 1920. Instead of turning himself in to the police for stealing Wall Street securities, as he does in the musical, Nick hid for four months and then fought the charges for years. His legal bills were, of course, paid by his wife. So while the musical portrays marital problems between the two, it romanticizes Nick as a brave and intelligent (and handsome) con man stuck between his life of crime and his wife, when there was never actually any competition between the two.[6]
4 Bloody bloody Andrew Jackson
No, President Andrew Jackson was not a rock star.
At least, not literally. But he was a controversial and imposing popular figure in his day, almost the modern-day equivalent of a star, and that’s where the plot of BBAJ comes from. Following Jackson’s rise to political prominence and influence and his eventual fall from grace, the musical makes some minor changes that don’t have much impact on the plot or the audience’s understanding of history.
But one big change could have a profound effect on viewers: the show features Jackson’s family being brutally murdered by Native Americans. Later in the show, this motivation helps explain why Jackson hates the American Indians so much, and in a way justifies his expulsion from them via the horrifically violent Trail of Tears.
However, most of Jackson’s family died of disease, and none at the hands of Native Americans. Really, there was no reason for Jackson to hate the Native Americans other than his own racism, which the show inadvertently gives excuses for through this single scene.[7]
3 Annie, get your gun
Girls and guns: what else do you need?
Annie Oakley captivated traveling marksman Frank Butler in 1875 when she defeated him in a shooting match at the age of 15. In real life and in the musical adaptation of her life, she eventually marries Frank and tours the world in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, but the plot of the show differs from real life.
Before they are finally happily married, Annie, get your gun depicts Frank as jealous that a girl could possibly be a better shot than him. The two compete for the highest prizes in shows until Annie finally organizes a competition to make Frank feel better about himself.
Anyone who knows what Anne Oakley was like knows that this never really happened. She took immense pride in her skills, and there is no evidence that she lost to feed her husband’s ego. There is also no historical record of a rivalry between her and Frank. This was previously between Annie and a younger girl named Lillian Smith.[8]
2 Gypsy
Rose Hovick was the ultimate stage mother. When her first daughter was born in 1911, she forced her to take dancing and singing lessons in the hopes that she would become the next big thing. When that didn’t work, she had another daughter, who eventually became a vaudeville hit.
Gypsy follows eldest daughter Louise as she leaves her controlling mother and becomes one of the most famous striptease artists of all time. It is based on the memoir of the same name, but the stage musical has made a few changes.
For starters, Louise and her sister June were only one year apart in age, not the number the musical suggests. The sisters also weren’t as friendly to each other as the show makes them out to be. In GypsyThe girls support each other’s dreams: June wants to become an artist and Louise wants to escape her mother’s clutches. In reality, Louise thought June’s act was juvenile and that her sister was foolish for doing it, while June thought she was better than her non-achieving sibling.[9]
1 News items
This Broadway musical is an adaptation of the 1992 film, which at the time of its release was one of the highest-grossing live-action Disney films of all time. But in 2012 News items was given a chance to redeem itself, and it did: News items on Broadway, it won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
The show follows a group of New York City newspaper boys who go on strike against Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the newspaper New York world. It is closely based on the Newsboys strike of 1899, which contributed to other strikes by underpaid and overworked workers in the early 20th century.
But when it comes down to it, News items is owned by Disney. And Disney has a long history of cleaning up history to make a story a little happier. There are therefore quite a few inaccuracies News items, starting with the end. In the film, the paperboys gather a crowd of children who eventually wear out Pulitzer until he agrees to lower the price of newspapers again. In reality, the strike ended in a compromise, with Pulitzer agreeing to buy back unsold paper from the news outlets.
The main character in the musical and film is Jack Kelly, who as far as history knows never existed. The real strike was led by a boy named Kid Blink, who appears as a side character in the film but was completely omitted from the Broadway adaptation. In real life, Kid Blink eventually accepted bribes from news executives and was subsequently discredited and mocked by the rest of the strikers.
Moreover, in 1899, the real Joseph Pulitzer had been retired for almost a decade and was virtually blind and deaf. But it’s not as much fun watching a disabled, elderly man lose as it is watching the musical’s creamy, oily Pulitlzer admit defeat.[10]