Musicals are being produced in more countries than ever before. The question is: how can they translate?

Historically, musical comedies have largely been an American and British tradition.

In the past, musical comedy productions were relatively rare in some countries, and were often presented with the dialogue translated into the country’s native tongue, but leaving the songs intact.

However, as mega-hits like Mamma Mia make their way across the globe, even to China, there is a trend toward translating both the book and the lyrics.

As you can imagine, this type of translation provides a specific set of challenges.

Baptiste Delval, musical playwright and translator, explains some of the process in a post on the question-and-answer site Quora.

Bringing a musical to a new country and a new language imply to do more than a translation: it is a work of adaptation, where rhyme is not the only challenge. You want to be able to translate cultural references that might not speak to your local audience, you want to respect the rhythm that was created by the original lyricist and composer, and of course, you want to respect the meaning of the original song!

Producing American or British musical comedies on foreign stages actually involves an element of localization, or adapting content to another culture.

I doubt there are a lot of specialists in this field, but a chosen few could find their niche as the demand for quality musical comedies reaches even more countries.

Betty Carlson

See Also

• Language Translation, Inc.
  A leading language translation and interpretation service provider for more than 20 years.