THEATERLE

Musical lists

Musicals based on true stories

Real history has given Broadway some of its most gripping material. Hamilton follows the life of Alexander Hamilton, Evita traces Eva Peron's rise in Argentina, and Come From Away tells how a small town in Newfoundland took in thousands of stranded travelers after September 11. Others follow real performers, like Jersey Boys and Beautiful, or real disasters and struggles, like Titanic and Suffs.

Each show below links to a guide with the plot, songs, and characters. Keep in mind that musicals compress and dramatize history, so the guides are a good starting point for learning what happened and what the writers changed.

18 musicals on this list.

  • Gypsy1959 · Jule Styne · Golden AgeBased on Gypsy Rose Lee's 1957 memoir Gypsy: A Memoir, adapted loosely.
  • The Sound of Music1959 · Richard Rodgers · Golden AgeBased on Maria von Trapp's 1949 memoir The Story of the Trapp Family Singers.
  • Funny Girl1964 · Jule Styne · Golden AgeBased on the life of comedian Fanny Brice and her marriage to gambler Nick Arnstein.
  • Evita1979 · Andrew Lloyd Webber · Sung-throughBased on the life of Eva Perón, the actress who became First Lady of Argentina, with a storyline influenced by Mary Main's critical 1952 biography The Woman with the Whip.
  • Sunday in the Park with George1984 · Stephen Sondheim · DramaBased on Georges Seurat's painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-1886).
  • The Will Rogers Follies1991 · Cy Coleman · ComedyBased on the life of the American cowboy humorist and entertainer Will Rogers, who often headlined the Ziegfeld Follies.
  • Side Show1997 · Henry Krieger · DramaBased on the true story of Daisy and Violet Hilton, conjoined twins who became vaudeville stars in the 1920s and 1930s.
  • Titanic the Musical1997 · Maury Yeston · Sung-throughBased on the real sinking of the RMS Titanic on its maiden voyage in April 1912.
  • Parade1998 · Jason Robert Brown · DramaBased on the true story of Leo Frank, convicted in Atlanta in 1913 of murdering 13-year-old Mary Phagan and lynched in 1915.
  • Assassins2004 · Stephen Sondheim · DramaBased on the real people who killed or tried to kill American presidents, from an idea by Charles Gilbert Jr..
  • Jersey Boys2005 · Gaudio & Crewe · JukeboxBased on the true story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
  • Beautiful: The Carole King Musical2014 · Carole King · JukeboxBased on the life and early career of singer-songwriter Carole King.
  • Hamilton2015 · Lin-Manuel Miranda · Rock/PopBased on Ron Chernow's 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton.
  • Come From Away2017 · Sankoff & Hein · Rock/PopBased on the true story of Gander, Newfoundland, where 38 planes were diverted after the September 11, 2001 attacks and townspeople took in about 7,000 stranded passengers.
  • Ain't Too Proud2019 · Kenny Seymour · JukeboxBased on Otis Williams's 1988 memoir Temptations, about his life with the Temptations.
  • Six2021 · Toby Marlow & Lucy Moss · Rock/PopBased on the lives of the six wives of King Henry VIII.
  • MJ the Musical2022 · Michael Jackson · JukeboxBased on the life of Michael Jackson, framed around rehearsals for his 1992 Dangerous World Tour.
  • Suffs2024 · Shaina Taub · DramaBased on the true story of Alice Paul and the American suffragists who fought for the Nineteenth Amendment, ratified in 1920.

More lists of musicals

All Broadway musicals A to ZMusicals by composer