The Three Musketeers, the 1844 novel by Alexandre Dumas, has been adapted as a musical.

The team behind The Three Musketeers' includes composer George Stiles, his partners are book writer Peter Raby, the Cambridge University professor whose first adapted The Three Musketeers in 1968 for the Shakespeare Festival Theatre in Stratford, Ontario; and Paul Leigh, the lyricist whose credits include Stiles' Moll Flanders.

Wherever The Three Musketeers rides, it will continue the already long journey dotted with rewrites and retoolings ever since the idea was first proposed:

1968: Peter Raby, then a dramaturg at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada, adapts The Three Musketeers for stage.

"I always loved Dumas,'' Raby says, "and the whole French Romantic movement.''

His version became a mainstay of regional theaters in England and the United States.

1972: Nottingham Playhouse in Nottingham, England, produces the play in a production that includes William Hobbs as the fight director. Hobbs is later enlisted as fight arranger for Richard Lester's version of The Three Musketeers in 1973 as well as sequels in 1974 and 1989.

1989: Hobbs approaches Raby about adapting The Three Musketeers into a musical. "Bill is undoubtedly responsible for kick-starting the project,'' Raby says. The adaptation of the 700-plus page novel is a darker take focusing on D'Artagnan's introduction to the Musketeers and the recovery of Queen Anne's diamonds.

1990: George Stiles and Anthony Drewe are approached to write music and lyrics. Drewe, who continues to collaborate with Stiles, declines.

"He took one look at the script idea and said, `It's not me,' '' Stiles recalls.

"As a result, I didn't give it much consideration.''

Stiles changes his mind when lyricist Paul Leigh, his collaborator on Moll Flanders, suggests that they work on The Three Musketeers.

"He gave me some lyrical ideas, and before long, we had three songs.'' - Riding to Paris - Any Day - It's a Funny Thing Being a Hero - are the musical beginning of The Three Musketeers"

1991-93: Each member of the creative team works on the script between regular jobs. Stiles and writing partner Drewe continue writing Honk! which opens in '93. "What Bill wanted was a very non-literal, French style of presentation,'' Stiles says. "To some extent, there was always a bit of tension to what Bill had set out to do and what we had started to write. Bill realized it was substantially different from his original vision.''

Hobbs voluntarily diminishes his role and continues to receive 'original concept' credit.

Autumn 1994: A weekend workshop of Act 1 of The Three Musketeers' in London so inspires the trio that they pound out Act 2 in a few months.

January 1995: A nine-day The Three Musketeers' workshop that Hobbs directs in London culminates with three performances. Three London producers express interest and begin unsuccessful negotiations for a West End premiere.

September 1996: The Three Musketeers' places second in the International Competition for Best Musical at Arhus, Denmark.

"I thought they had won,'' says composer Craig Bohmler, whose chamber musical Enter The Guardsman took first prize.

"I thought it was so spectacular.''

October 1996: A new West End producer sees the showcase in Denmark and buys the option for the The Three Musketeers. They begin work on casting and finding a director.

June 1997: An 80-minute concert version of the show with a British cast tours Denmark and is broadcast on television and radio. Songs include - Riding to Paris, Lilacs and Take a Little Wine.

1998: Plans for London production unravel.

May 1998: Marc Jacobs, American Musical Theatre associate artistic director who recently directed the company's concert version of The Most Happy Fella, is given the videotape of the Denmark telecast by Bohmler, the assistant conductor on 'Fella.'

September 1998: After searching in vain for Stiles' home number in the London phone listings, Jacobs sees Stiles' name and picture in a magazine and learns that his musical Just So is being produced by Cameron Mackintosh by the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn.

Jacobs contacts Stiles, who sends the script and tape. Jacobs suggests trims and shows the Denmark tape to American Musical Theatre executive producer Stewart Slater and artistic director Dianna Shuster.

June 1999: The University of South Florida mounts a workshop production of The Three Musketeers' with British director Francis Matthews.

August 1999: American Musical Theatre presents a reading of the latest version of The Three Musketeers' script for an invited audiences of 30 donors and subscribers.

September 1999: American Musical Theatre sponsors a staged reading of The Three Musketeers at National Alliance of Music Theatre's annual New Works Festival. Matthews directs again. Richard White, who had the lead in American Musical Theatre's Phantom, plays Athos, and Jim Stanek is D'Artagnan.

"I knew this show had potential,'' says Slater, "because outside of the theater after the show, people from across the country whom I respect were saying,`Please keep me updated on the show's progress.' ''

November 1999: American Musical Theatre signs up to produce a workshop and the American premiere of The Three Musketeers.

Feb. 26, 2000: A more operatic The Three Musketeers premieres in German at the Stadttheatre in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Shuster and Jacobs attend and suggest that Stiles, Raby and Leigh make changes before the upcoming American Musical Theatre workshop. The creators are initially resistant, but come around and make the changes.

June 2000: American Musical Theatre hosts a three-week, six-performance workshop directed by Shuster. Invited audience members are asked to submit suggested changes in writing, some of which are incorporated into the show.

The workshop is "fantastic because for the first time the three of us were able to work continuously with a director, a company and a wonderful cast and production team,'' Raby says. "As a result, we were able to refine and hone.''

The creative team eliminates the song This Business of Love, strengthens the women's roles and, at the suggestion of musical director Bohmler, moves the intermission.

August 2000: American Musical Theatre changes the show's title to "The 3hree Musketeers.''

September 2000: Auditions are held in New York and Los Angeles. Stanek, who has repeatedly been cast as D'Artagnan in workshops, returns for the U.S. premiere. Broadway veterans White, Inkley and Mammana are cast as the title characters.

Bay Area actor James Carpenter, who recently performed in American Conservatory Theater's Glengarry Glen Ross, is cast as Cardinal Richelieu, and Rachel DeBenedet, who performed in national touring production of The Sound of Music, is hired to play Milady de Winter.

January 2000: Cast members participate in classes in American Musical Theatre's rehearsal space to develop their fencing and acrobatic skills. Richard Lane, fight director for the show, teaches.

Feb. 5, 2001: Rehearsals for Equity cast members begin.

March 1 2001: The show's first orchestra rehearsal. "It's always one of the most thrilling moment in any production,'' says Stiles, "to hear the cast walk in and suddenly hear what's going to be behind them.''

March 10, 2001: Shuster is scheduled to direct the opening of the American premiere of The 3hree Musketeers at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. Producers for potential future productions begin attending.

March 20-23, 2001: The entire cast assembled at the Music Annex to record a 70-minute original cast CD of show highlights, the first such disc recorded by the American Musical Theatre.

"We're committed to helping this show to the next step,'' Slater says. ``We think that the CD is a part of that process.'

March 25, 2001: The American Musical Theatre production comes to a highly successful end.