Books have long been a source of inspiration for theatre writers with classic and contemporary titles reaching new audiences through introspective plays, moving musicals, slapstick parodies, and more.
Since a plethora of published works have taken theatre by storm throughout the decades, we wondered what stories should next appear on the Main Stem. We asked, you answered: Playbill readers share the books they most want to see adapted into Broadway shows.
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Holes by Louis Sachar
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The Shack by William Paul Young
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
The Great Night by Chris Adrian
The Books of Elsewhere series by Jacqueline West
Homeland by John Jakes
The Land of Stories series by Chris Colfer
Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
The Cold Millions by Jess Walters
The Salt-Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott with Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
She Got Up Off the Couch by Haven Kimmel
The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz
Sugar by Bernice McFadden
Landline by Rainbow Rowell
Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
That’s Not What Happened by Kody Keplinger
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
