My favourites are Much Ado about nothing, the 12th night, and a few others. 

I have even performed in a few, mostly the comedies. They are just as fun to be in as they are to read.

I saw A Midsummer Night's Dream as a ballet, does that count?

Posted by: @cobalt-jade

I saw A Midsummer Night's Dream as a ballet, does that count?

Yes. We're talking any adaptation there is out there of a Shakespeare play

@jasmine_tarkheena 

There was also Mendelssohn’s music which was inspired by the play.  It was the wonderful soundtrack in the 1935 movie adaptation which starred Mickey Rooney and James Cagney. I think it was some of the most beautiful music ever written to accompany a Shakespeare play.  The 1968 film of Romeo and Juliet also had great soundtrack music.

@narnian78 from reading 20th century novels in which some of the plays were staged, I discovered that a lot of the songs in Shakespeare had 19th and 20th century music collected and recorded. There are one or two songs I'd love to find tunes for (when I am motivated I may do a search for them!) but new tunes and rewrites for the songs keep happening.

Has anyone seen any of the Operas that tell the same story as a Shakespeare play? I have seen a film of Otello, an opera version of Othello.
A quick Search and wikipedia listed lots of examples:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Operas_based_on_works_by_William_Shakespeare
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Ballets_based_on_works_by_William_Shakespeare

And of course there are a lot of modern adaptations of the plays made as films.

@coracle I've seen an opera of Hamlet on OPB (Oregon Broadcasting Network) which is part of PBS. It was in Italian (and of course, Italy is best known for opera).

I think there were several movie versions of Hamlet. Some I could think of is one with Sir Lawrence Oliver, then there was another one with Mel Gibson, and there was one with Kenneth Branagh.

@jasmine_tarkheena

I liked both of the movie versions of Hamlet starring Laurence Olivier and Mel Gibson and I have them on DVD.  The set of DVD’s of Olivier’s Shakespeare movies is now out of print, but I think you can still buy the three movies of Hamlet, Richard III, and Henry V separately.  All three of the films are  masterpieces and well worth viewing. Olivier’s unique acting is perhaps the best of any modern actor playing Shakespeare. There is one of Olivier’s greatest speeches in Henry V .

And Disney's The Lion King was inspired by Hamlet, except for the tragic ending. I mean, Disney wouldn't do that. And yes, Prince Caspian has a similar story line as well. Yet, of course, like The Lion King, Prince Caspian doesn't have the tragic ending.

Some might even argue that Measure for Measure has similarities to The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Both Angelo and Claude Frollo claim to be righteous men or religious yet turn out to be hypocrites when lusting for the heroine (Isabella for Angelo and Esmeralda for Claude Frollo).

Anyhow, I think Shakespeare kind has an impact on pop culture. Even the Broadway musical West Side Story has often viewed as a re-telling of Romeo and Juliet.

Posted by: @cobalt-jade

I saw A Midsummer Night's Dream as a ballet, does that count?

 

Some years ago (back in Australia) I saw A Midsummer Night's Dream done in Bollywood style, which definitely counted — it was hilarious!!   It was all Shakespeare's exact words, unaltered, but with wonderful colourful costumes and settings and with a genuine Bollywood dance (by a professional choreographer) in just about every scene. Which all worked really well, given that it's quite a witty and wacky play to begin with and this somehow all made perfect sense...  

I wonder if any Shakespeare plays could be made into musicals.I can almost envision Romeo and Juliet singing a star-crossed duet, perhaps their own version of "Can You Feel The Love Tonight." Now I am envisioning Hamlet singing "To be Or Not to be" as a musical number or even Angelo singing his own version of "Hellfire". Even Othello and Iago could have a duel duet (rare for a hero and villain to sing a song together, but I've seen it done. It actually makes an interesting twist). And Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius, and Helena singing a song together.

Posted by: @jasmine_tarkheena

I wonder if any Shakespeare plays could be made into musicals.

Probably. Both Shakespeare plays and musicals feature characters saying what they're thinking out loud for the audience's benefit.

@jasmine_tarkheena 

Romeo and Juliet definitely has some potential as a musical. The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream would also be good offerings and especially Midsummer since since there already was one soundtrack that worked incredibly well (Mendelssohn’s music) when the play was made into a film back in 1935.  And there is already some music in As You Like It,  e.g., “Blow, blow, thou winter wind”.  I think Twelfth Night would work well too.  “If music be the food of love, play on”.  I think the magic of these plays would be greatly enhanced if music were set to certain parts of the dialogue.   🙂

@narnian78 

So true. While we don't know anything about Shakespeare's religious beliefs, he was not going after the church in Measure for Measure. Though it does touch on issues like love and hate, execution, even lust.

Yes, lust is one of the seven deadly sins in the Roman Catholic church, but at times we kind of dismiss it. We can kind of see the seven deadly sins in Shakespeare: envy in Othello, lust in Measure for Measure, greed in Macbeth, wrath in Hamlet, can't think of any where pride, gluttony and sloth would be though.

I saw Twelfth Night at a production near me called Stratford Festival. It was incredibly well done. It became my favourite Shakespeare play after that! 

Some could argue that Measure For Measure is perhaps Shakespeare's most religious play, though we're not certain of his religious beliefs.

It's a play that deals with religion, oppression, abuse of power. Angelo was left in charge while the Duke is away (well, not really away). He sentences Claudio to die. Isabella pleads Angelo to spare her brother Claudio's life, and Angelo says, "Sure, I'll save your brother if you agree to be mine." Yes, a man who claims to be religious but turns out to be a hypocrite.

As I've mentioned before, some could argue that Othello, which is probably my all-time favorite Shakespeare play was racist. I don't think we can know for sure what Shakespeare's intentions where for Othello. Once you get pass the racial issue, it's really an enjoyable play. Probably one of the reasons it's my all time favorite. That, and it deals with heavy themes on manipulation and jealousy. Iago is jealous that he didn't get the promotion he wanted. He becomes manipulative in order to get revenge on Othello, his own master.