German-Russian composer Zinaida Petrovna Ziberova composed a musical setting for The Misanthrope in 1934.[8]
Modern adaptations of the play have been written by Tony Harrison and Liz Lochhead. Lochhead's version is set in the early years of the revived Scottish Parliament and satirises Scottish Labour's relationship with the media. Originally written in 1973, Harrison's version was updated and revived at the Bristol Old Vic in 2010.
A 1996 verse adaptation by Martin Crimp for the Young Vic updated the play to the "media-celebrity complex" of contemporary London.[9] Uma Thurman and Roger Rees starred in run of this version for Classic Stage Company in New York in 1999 directed by Barry Edelstein.[10] and it was revived by Thea Sharrock at the Comedy Theatre, London starring Damian Lewis and Keira Knightley in December 2009.[11]
Robert Cohen's 2006 translation into heroic couplets was praised by the Los Angeles Times as "highly entertaining... with a contemporary flavor full of colloquial yet literate pungency."[12] Professor Cohen's version has been popular in productions staged by his former students, and it is the version staged by Keith Fowler in 2011 for UC Irvine's celebration of Cohen's fifty years at the university.[13]
The Grouch, a more modern verse version of The Misanthrope by Ranjit Bolt was first performed at West Yorkshire Playhouse in February 2008. It is set in contemporary London, and most of the characters' names are recognisably linked to Molière's: in the sequence of the above cast list they are Alan, Celia, Phil, Eileen, Orville, Fay (Arsinoe), Lord Arne, Chris, and manservant Bates. Another adaptation by Roger McGough was premiered by the English Touring Theatre at the Liverpool Playhouse in February 2013 prior to a national tour[14] – this adaptation is largely in verse, but has Alceste speaking in prose.[15] In June 2014, Andy Clark, Rosalind Sydney and Helen MacKay appeared in a three-handed 50-minute Classic Cuts version of The Misanthrope, written in rhyming couplets by Frances Poet, set and performed in the basement theatre of Glasgow's Òran Mór. The Scotsman noted 'the sheer, sharp-edged wit of Poet’s rhyming text, which pays perfect homage to the original, while diving boldly into the new world of fall-outs and friendships conducted on social media.'
The School for Lies by David Ives (2011) was described by the New York Times as a "freewheeling rewrite of The Misanthrope".[16] Justin Fleming has translated and adapted The Misanthrope in varied rhyme scheme with Alceste as a woman and Celimene as a young man for Bell Shakespeare Company and Griffin Theatre Company co-production in the Sydney Opera House Playhouse Theatre 2018.
