![Crookfinale](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Crookfinale.jpg)
Musical theatre is a form of
theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken
dialogue
Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is c ...
, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor,
pathos
Pathos (, ; plural: ''pathea'' or ''pathê''; , for "suffering" or "experience") appeals to the emotions and ideals of the audience and elicits feelings that already reside in them. Pathos is a term used most often in rhetoric (in which it is c ...
, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals.
Although music has been a part of dramatic presentations since ancient times, modern Western musical theatre emerged during the 19th century, with many structural elements established by the works of
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...
in Britain and those of
Harrigan and
Hart in America. These were followed by the numerous
Edwardian musical comedies and the musical theatre works of American creators like
George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan (July 3, 1878November 5, 1942) was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and theatrical producer.
Cohan began his career as a child, performing with his parents and sister in a vaudev ...
at the turn of the 20th century. The
Princess Theatre musicals (1915–1918) were artistic steps forward beyond
revues and other frothy entertainments of the early 20th century and led to such groundbreaking works as ''
Show Boat'' (1927), ''
Of Thee I Sing'' (1931) and ''
Oklahoma!'' (1943). Some of the most famous musicals through the decades that followed include
''
My Fair Lady'' (1956), ''
The Fantasticks
''The Fantasticks'' is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and book and lyrics by Tom Jones. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the 1894 play ''The Romancers'' (''Les Romanesques'') by Edmond Rostand, concerning two neigh ...
'' (1960), ''
Hair
Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals.
The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and f ...
'' (1967), ''
A Chorus Line'' (1975), ''
Les Misérables
''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century.
In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original ...
'' (1985), ''
The Phantom of the Opera'' (1986), ''
Rent
Rent may refer to:
Economics
*Renting, an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property
*Economic rent, any payment in excess of the cost of production
*Rent-seeking, attempting to increase one's share of e ...
'' (1996), ''
The Producers'' (2001), ''
Wicked
Wicked may refer to:
Books
* Wicked, a minor character in the ''X-Men'' universe
* ''Wicked'', a 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire that inspired the musical of the same name
* ''Wicked'', the fifth novel in Sara Shepard's ''Pretty Little Liars'' ser ...
'' (2003) and ''
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
'' (2015).
Musicals are performed around the world. They may be presented in large venues, such as big-budget
Broadway or
West End productions in New York City or London. Alternatively, musicals may be staged in smaller venues, such as
fringe theatre
Fringe theatre is theatre that is produced outside of the main theatre institutions, and that is often small-scale and non-traditional in style or subject matter. The term comes from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.Kemp, Robert, ''More that is Fre ...
,
off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
,
off-off-Broadway,
regional theatre, or
community theatre productions, or
on tour. Musicals are often presented by
amateur and school groups in churches, schools and other performance spaces. In addition to the United States and Britain, there are vibrant musical theatre scenes in continental Europe, Asia, Australasia, Canada and Latin America.
Definitions and scope
Book musicals
![GaietyGirlDudleyHardy](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/GaietyGirlDudleyHardy.jpg)
Since the 20th century, the "book musical" has been defined as a musical play where songs and dances are fully integrated into a well-made story with serious dramatic goals and which is able to evoke genuine emotions other than laughter.
[Rubin and Solórzano, p. 438] The three main components of a book musical are its ''music'', ''lyrics'' and ''book''. The book or
script
Script may refer to:
Writing systems
* Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire
* Script (styles of handwriting)
** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...
of a musical refers to the story, character development and dramatic structure, including the spoken dialogue and stage directions, but it can also refer to the dialogue and lyrics together, which are sometimes referred to as the ''
libretto
A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...
'' (Italian for "little book"). The music and lyrics together form the ''
score
Score or scorer may refer to:
*Test score, the result of an exam or test
Business
* Score Digital, now part of Bauer Radio
* Score Entertainment, a former American trading card design and manufacturing company
* Score Media, a former Canadian m ...
'' of a musical and include songs,
incidental music
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as t ...
and musical scenes, which are "theatrical sequence
set to music, often combining song with spoken dialogue."
The interpretation of a musical is the responsibility of its creative team, which includes a
director
Director may refer to:
Literature
* ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine
* ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker
* ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty
Music
* Director (band), an Irish rock band
* ''Di ...
, a
musical director
A music(al) director or director of music is the person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert band, the ...
, usually a
choreographer
Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...
and sometimes an
orchestrator
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...
. A musical's production is also creatively characterized by technical aspects, such as
set design
Scenic design (also known as scenography, stage design, or set design) is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly trained ...
,
costume
Costume is the distinctive style of dress or cosmetic of an individual or group that reflects class, gender, profession, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch. In short costume is a cultural visual of the people.
The term also was tradition ...
s,
stage properties (props),
lighting
Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylig ...
and
sound
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...
. The creative team, designs and interpretations generally change from the original production to succeeding productions. Some production elements, however, may be retained from the original production, for example,
Bob Fosse's choreography in ''
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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''.
There is no fixed length for a musical. While it can range from a short one-act entertainment to several
acts
The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message ...
and several hours in length (or even a multi-evening presentation), most musicals range from one and a half to three hours. Musicals are usually presented in two acts, with one short
intermission, and the first act is frequently longer than the second. The first act generally introduces nearly all of the characters and most of the music and often ends with the introduction of a dramatic conflict or plot complication while the second act may introduce a few new songs but usually contains reprises of important musical themes and resolves the conflict or complication. A book musical is usually built around four to six main theme tunes that are reprised later in the show, although it sometimes consists of a series of songs not directly musically related. Spoken dialogue is generally interspersed between musical numbers, although "sung dialogue" or
recitative may be used, especially in so-called "
sung-through" musicals such as ''
Jesus Christ Superstar
''Jesus Christ Superstar'' is a sung-through rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. Loosely based on the Gospels' accounts of the Passion, the work interprets the psychology of Jesus and other characters, with ...
'', ''
Falsettos'', ''
Les Misérables
''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century.
In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original ...
'', ''
Evita Evita may refer to:
Arts
* Evita (1996 film), ''Evita'' (1996 film), a 1996 American musical drama film based on the 1976 concept album of the same name
* Evita (2008 film), ''Evita'' (2008 film), a documentary about Eva Péron
* Evita (album), ''E ...
'' and ''
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
''. Several shorter musicals on Broadway and in the West End in the 21st century have been presented in one act.
Moments of greatest dramatic intensity in a book musical are often performed in song. Proverbially, "when the emotion becomes too strong for speech, you sing; when it becomes too strong for song, you dance." In a book musical, a song is ideally crafted to suit the character (or characters) and their situation within the story; although there have been times in the history of the musical (e.g. from the 1890s to the 1920s) when this integration between music and story has been tenuous. As ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' critic
Ben Brantley described the ideal of song in theatre when reviewing the 2008 revival of ''
Gypsy
The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...
'': "There is no separation at all between song and character, which is what happens in those uncommon moments when musicals reach upward to achieve their ideal reasons to be." Typically, many fewer words are sung in a five-minute song than are spoken in a five-minute block of dialogue. Therefore, there is less time to develop drama in a musical than in a straight play of equivalent length, since a musical usually devotes more time to music than to dialogue. Within the compressed nature of a musical, the writers must develop the characters and the plot.
The material presented in a musical may be original, or it may be adapted from novels (''
Wicked
Wicked may refer to:
Books
* Wicked, a minor character in the ''X-Men'' universe
* ''Wicked'', a 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire that inspired the musical of the same name
* ''Wicked'', the fifth novel in Sara Shepard's ''Pretty Little Liars'' ser ...
'' and ''
Man of La Mancha
''Man of La Mancha'' is a 1965 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, music by Mitch Leigh, and lyrics by Joe Darion. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay ''I, Don Quixote'', which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes ...
''), plays (''
Hello, Dolly!'' and ''
Carousel
A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (List of sovereign states, international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in South Australia, SA) is a type of amusement ...
''), classic legends (''
Camelot
Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described as the ...
''), historical events (''Evita'') or films (''
The Producers'' and ''
Billy Elliot''). On the other hand, many successful musical theatre works have been adapted for
musical film
Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks ...
s, such as ''
West Side Story
''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents.
Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid-1 ...
'', ''
My Fair Lady'', ''
The Sound of Music
''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, '' The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. Se ...
'', ''
Oliver!
''Oliver!'' is a coming-of-age stage musical, with book, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the 1838 novel '' Oliver Twist'' by Charles Dickens.
It premiered at the Wimbledon Theatre, southwest London in 1960 before op ...
'' and ''
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, coordinates =
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''.
Comparisons with opera
![George Gershwin 1937](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/George_Gershwin_1937.jpg)
Musical theatre is closely related to the theatrical form of
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
, but the two are usually distinguished by weighing a number of factors. First, musicals generally have a greater focus on spoken dialogue.
[Cohen and Sherman, p. 233] Some musicals, however, are entirely accompanied and sung-through, while some operas, such as ''
Die Zauberflöte'', and most
operetta
Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...
s, have some unaccompanied dialogue.
[ Second, musicals usually include more dancing as an essential part of the storytelling, particularly by the principal performers as well as the chorus. Third, musicals often use various genres of ]popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...
or at least popular singing and musical styles.
Finally, musicals usually avoid certain operatic conventions. In particular, a musical is almost always performed in the language of its audience. Musicals produced on Broadway or in the West End, for instance, are invariably sung in English, even if they were originally written in another language. While an opera singer is primarily a singer and only secondarily an actor (and rarely needs to dance), a musical theatre performer is often an actor first but must also be a singer and dancer. Someone who is equally accomplished at all three is referred to as a "triple threat". Composers of music for musicals often consider the vocal demands of roles with musical theatre performers in mind. Today, large theatres that stage musicals generally use microphone
A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike (), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and public ...
s and amplification of the actors' singing voices in a way that would generally be disapproved of in an operatic context.
Some works (e.g. by George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...
, Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
and Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March 22, 1930November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. One of the most important figures in twentieth-century musical theater, Sondheim is credited for having "reinvented the American musical" with sho ...
) have been made into both "musical theatre" and "operatic" productions. Similarly, some older operettas or light operas (such as '' The Pirates of Penzance'' by Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...
) have been produced in modern adaptations that treat them as musicals. For some works, production styles are almost as important as the work's musical or dramatic content in defining into which art form the piece falls. Sondheim said, "I really think that when something plays Broadway it's a musical, and when it plays in an opera house it's opera. That's it. It's the terrain, the countryside, the expectations of the audience that make it one thing or another." There remains an overlap in form between lighter operatic forms and more musically complex or ambitious musicals. In practice, it is often difficult to distinguish among the various kinds of musical theatre, including "musical play", "musical comedy", "operetta" and "light opera".
Like opera, the singing in musical theatre is generally accompanied by an instrumental ensemble
A musical ensemble, also known as a music group or musical group, is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instrumentalists, ...
called a pit orchestra
A pit orchestra is a type of orchestra that accompanies performers in musicals, operas, ballets, and other shows involving music. The terms was also used for orchestras accompanying silent movies when more than a piano was used. In performances ...
, located in a lowered area in front of the stage. While opera typically uses a conventional symphony orchestra
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families.
There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ce ...
, musicals are generally orchestrated for ensembles ranging from 27 players down to only a few players. Rock musical
A rock musical is a musical theatre work with rock music. The genre of rock musical may overlap somewhat with album musicals, concept albums and song cycles, as they sometimes tell a story through the rock music, and some album musicals and concept ...
s usually employ a small group of mostly rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
instruments, and some musicals may call for only a piano or two instruments. The music in musicals uses a range of "styles and influences including operetta
Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...
, classical techniques, folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...
, jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
ndlocal or historical styles hatare appropriate to the setting."[ Musicals may begin with an ]overture
Overture (from French ''ouverture'', "opening") in music was originally the instrumental introduction to a ballet, opera, or oratorio in the 17th century. During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn composed overt ...
played by the orchestra that "weav stogether excerpts of the score's famous melodies."
Eastern traditions and other forms
There are various Eastern traditions of theatre that include music, such as Chinese opera
Traditional Chinese opera (), or ''Xiqu'', is a form of musical theatre in China with roots going back to the early periods in China. It is an amalgamation of various art forms that existed in ancient China, and evolved gradually over more tha ...
, Taiwanese opera, Japanese Noh
is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Developed by Kan'ami and his son Zeami, it is the oldest major theatre art that is still regularly performed today. Although the terms Noh and ' ...
and Indian musical theatre, including Sanskrit drama, Indian classical dance, Parsi theatre and Yakshagana.[Gokulsing, 2004, p. 98.] India has, since the 20th century, produced numerous musical films, referred to as "Bollywood
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
" musicals, and in Japan a series of 2.5D musical
A , also known as an anime musical, is a type of modern Japanese musical theatre production based exclusively on popular Japanese anime, manga, or video games. The term "2.5D musical" was coined to describe stories presented in a two-dimensional m ...
s based on popular anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
and manga
Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
comics has developed in recent decades.
Shorter or simplified "junior" versions of many musicals are available for schools and youth groups, and very short works created or adapted for performance by children are sometimes called minimusical Minimusical refers to works of musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – ...
s.
History
Early antecedents
The antecedents of musical theatre in Europe can be traced back to the theatre of ancient Greece
Ancient Greek theatre was a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece from 700 BC. The city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political, and religious place during this period, was its centre, where the theatre was ...
, where music and dance were included in stage comedies and tragedies during the 5th century BCE. The music from the ancient forms is lost, however, and they had little influence on later development of musical theatre.[ Kenrick, John]
"A Capsule History"
Musicals101.com, 2003, accessed October 12, 2015 In the 12th and 13th centuries, religious dramas taught the liturgy
Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...
. Groups of actors would use outdoor Pageant wagons (stages on wheels) to tell each part of the story. Poetic forms sometimes alternated with the prose dialogues, and liturgical chants gave way to new melodies.
The European Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
saw older forms evolve into two antecedents of musical theatre: commedia dell'arte
(; ; ) was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is also known as , , and . Charact ...
, where raucous clowns improvised familiar stories, and later, opera buffa
''Opera buffa'' (; "comic opera", plural: ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramm ...
. In England, Elizabethan and Jacobean plays frequently included music, and short musical plays began to be included in an evenings' dramatic entertainments. Court masques developed during the Tudor period
The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in History of England, England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in Englan ...
that involved music, dancing, singing and acting, often with expensive costumes and a complex stage design
Scenic design (also known as scenography, stage design, or set design) is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly trained ...
. These developed into sung plays that are recognizable as English operas, the first usually being thought of as '' The Siege of Rhodes'' (1656).[Buelow, p. 328] In France, meanwhile, Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...
turned several of his farcical comedies into musical entertainments with songs (music provided by Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully ( , , ; born Giovanni Battista Lulli, ; – 22 March 1687) was an Italian-born French composer, guitarist, violinist, and dancer who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he ...
) and dance in the late 17th century. These influenced a brief period of English opera[Carter and Butt 2005, p. 280] by composers such as John Blow and Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell (, rare: September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer.
Purcell's style of Baroque music was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements. Generally considered among the greatest E ...
.[
From the 18th century, the most popular forms of musical theatre in Britain were ballad operas, like ]John Gay
John Gay (30 June 1685 – 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for ''The Beggar's Opera'' (1728), a ballad opera. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peac ...
's '' The Beggar's Opera'', that included lyrics written to the tunes of popular songs of the day (often spoofing opera), and later pantomime
Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speaking ...
, which developed from commedia dell'arte, and comic opera
Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue.
Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...
with mostly romantic plot lines, like Michael Balfe's ''The Bohemian Girl'' (1845). Meanwhile, on the continent, singspiel, comédie en vaudeville, opéra comique, zarzuela and other forms of light musical entertainment were emerging. ''The Beggar's Opera'' was the first recorded long-running play of any kind, running for 62 successive performances in 1728. It would take almost a century afterwards before any play broke 100 performances, but the record soon reached 150 in the late 1820s.[Gillan, Don]
"Longest Running Plays in London and New York"
Stage Beauty (2007), accessed May 26, 2009 Other musical theatre forms developed in England by the 19th century, such as music hall, melodrama and burletta, which were popularized partly because most London theatres were licensed only as music halls and not allowed to present plays without music.
Colonial America did not have a significant theatre presence until 1752, when London entrepreneur William Hallam sent a company of actors to the colonies managed by his brother Lewis Hallam, Lewis.[Wilmeth and Miller, p. 182] In New York in the summer of 1753, they performed ballad-operas, such as ''The Beggar's Opera'', and ballad-farces.[ By the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. Other early musical theatre in America consisted of British forms, such as burletta and pantomime,][ but what a piece was called did not necessarily define what it was. The 1852 Broadway extravaganza ''The Magic Deer'' advertised itself as "A Serio Comico Tragico Operatical Historical Extravaganzical Burletical Tale of Enchantment."][Kenrick, John]
"History of Stage Musicals"
Musicals101.com, 2003, accessed May 26, 2009 Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown from around 1850, and did not arrive in the Times Square area until the 1920s and 1930s. New York runs lagged far behind those in London, but Laura Keene's "musical burletta" ''The Seven Sisters (play), Seven Sisters'' (1860) shattered previous New York musical theatre record, with a run of 253 performances.
1850s to 1880s
Around 1850, the French composer Hervé (composer), Hervé was experimenting with a form of comic musical theatre he called opérette.[Mark Lubbock, Lubbock, Mark]
"The Music of 'Musicals'"
''The Musical Times'', vol. 98, no. 1375 (September 1957), pp. 483–485, accessed 17 August 2010 The best known composers of operetta
Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...
were Jacques Offenbach from the 1850s to the 1870s and Johann Strauss II in the 1870s and 1880s.[ Offenbach's fertile melodies, combined with his librettists' witty satire, formed a model for the musical theatre that followed.][ Adaptations of the French operettas (played in mostly bad, risqué translations), Victorian burlesque, musical burlesques, music hall, pantomime and burletta dominated the London musical stage into the 1870s.][Jessie Bond, Bond, Jessie]
Introduction to ''The Life and Reminiscences of Jessie Bond''
, reprinted at ''The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive'', accessed March 4, 2011
In America, mid-19th century musical theatre entertainments included crude variety show, variety revue, which eventually developed into vaudeville, minstrel shows, which soon crossed the Atlantic to Britain, and Victorian burlesque, first popularized in the US by British troupes.[ A hugely successful musical that premiered in New York in 1866, ''The Black Crook'', was an original musical theatre piece that conformed to many of the modern definitions of a musical, including dance and original music that helped to tell the story. The spectacular production, famous for its skimpy costumes, ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, ''The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post'' was the first show to call itself a "musical comedy." Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart (theater), Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 (''The Mulligan Guard Picnic'') and 1885. These musical comedies featured characters and situations taken from the everyday life of New York's lower classes and represented a significant step forward towards a more Legitimate theater, legitimate theatrical form. They starred high quality singers (Lillian Russell, Vivienne Segal and Fay Templeton) instead of the ladies of questionable repute who had starred in earlier musical forms.
As transportation improved, poverty in London and New York diminished, and street lighting made for safer travel at night, the number of patrons for the growing number of theatres increased enormously. Plays ran longer, leading to better profits and improved production values, and men began to bring their families to the theatre. The first musical theatre piece to exceed 500 consecutive performances was the French operetta ''The Chimes of Normandy'' in 1878.] English comic opera
Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue.
Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...
adopted many of the successful ideas of European operetta, none more successfully than the series of more than a dozen long-running Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...
comic operas, including ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' (1878) and ''The Mikado'' (1885).[ These were sensations on both sides of the Atlantic and in Australia and helped to raise the standard for what was considered a successful show.][Kenrick, John]
"G&S in the USA" at the musicals101 website
''The Cyber Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre, TV and Film'' (2008). Retrieved on 4 May 2012. These shows were designed for family audiences, a marked contrast from the risqué burlesques, bawdy music hall shows and French operettas that sometimes drew a crowd seeking less wholesome entertainment.[ Only a few 19th-century musical pieces exceeded the run of ''The Mikado'', such as ''Dorothy (opera), Dorothy'', which opened in 1886 and set a new record with a run of 931 performances. Gilbert and Sullivan's influence on later musical theatre was profound, creating examples of how to "integrate" musicals so that the lyrics and dialogue advanced a coherent story.][Jones, 2003]
pp. 10–11
/ref> Their works were Cultural influence of Gilbert and Sullivan#Musical theatre and comedy, admired and copied by early authors and composers of musicals in Britain and America.[
]
1890s to the new century
''A Trip to Chinatown'' (1891) was Broadway's long-run champion (until ''Irene (musical), Irene'' in 1919), running for 657 performances, but New York runs continued to be relatively short, with a few exceptions, compared with London runs, until the 1920s. Gilbert and Sullivan were widely pirated and also were imitated in New York by productions such as Reginald De Koven's ''Robin Hood (De Koven opera), Robin Hood'' (1891) and John Philip Sousa's ''El Capitan (operetta), El Capitan'' (1896). ''A Trip to Coontown'' (1898) was the first musical comedy entirely produced and performed by African Americans on Broadway (largely inspired by the routines of the minstrel shows), followed by ragtime-tinged shows. Hundreds of musical comedies were staged on Broadway in the 1890s and early 20th century, composed of songs written in New York's Tin Pan Alley, including those by George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan (July 3, 1878November 5, 1942) was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and theatrical producer.
Cohan began his career as a child, performing with his parents and sister in a vaudev ...
, who worked to create an American style distinct from the Gilbert and Sullivan works. The most successful New York shows were often followed by extensive national tours.
Meanwhile, musicals took over the London stage in the Gay Nineties, led by producer George Edwardes, who perceived that audiences wanted a new alternative to the Savoy opera, Savoy-style comic operas and their intellectual, political, absurdist satire. He experimented with a modern-dress, family-friendly musical theatre style, with breezy, popular songs, snappy, romantic banter, and stylish spectacle at the Gaiety Theatre, London, Gaiety and his other theatres. These drew on the traditions of comic opera and used elements of burlesque and of the Harrigan and Hart pieces. He replaced the bawdy women of burlesque with his "respectable" corps of Gaiety Girls to complete the musical and visual fun. The success of the first of these, ''In Town (musical), In Town'' (1892) and ''A Gaiety Girl'' (1893) set the style for the next three decades. The plots were generally light, romantic "poor maiden loves aristocrat and wins him against all odds" shows, with music by Ivan Caryll, Sidney Jones (composer), Sidney Jones and Lionel Monckton. These shows were immediately widely copied in America, and Edwardian musical comedy swept away the earlier musical forms of comic opera and operetta. ''The Geisha'' (1896) was one of the most successful in the 1890s, running for more than two years and achieving great international success.
''The Belle of New York (musical), The Belle of New York'' (1898) became the first American musical to run for over a year in London. The British musical comedy ''Florodora'' (1899) was a popular success on both sides of the Atlantic, as was ''A Chinese Honeymoon'' (1901), which ran for a record-setting 1,074 performances in London and 376 in New York. After the turn of the 20th century, Seymour Hicks joined forces with Edwardes and American producer Charles Frohman to create another decade of popular shows. Other enduring Edwardian musical comedy hits included ''The Arcadians (musical), The Arcadians'' (1909) and ''The Quaker Girl'' (1910).
Early 20th century
Virtually eliminated from the English-speaking stage by competition from the ubiquitous Edwardian musical comedies, operettas returned to London and Broadway in 1907 with ''The Merry Widow'', and adaptations of continental operettas became direct competitors with musicals. Franz Lehár and Oscar Straus (composer), Oscar Straus composed new operettas that were popular in English until World War I. In America, Victor Herbert produced a string of enduring operettas including ''The Fortune Teller (operetta), The Fortune Teller'' (1898), ''Babes in Toyland (operetta), Babes in Toyland'' (1903), ''Mlle. Modiste'' (1905), ''The Red Mill'' (1906) and ''Naughty Marietta (operetta), Naughty Marietta'' (1910).
In the 1910s, the team of P. G. Wodehouse, Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, following in the footsteps of Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...
, created the " Princess Theatre shows" and paved the way for Kern's later work by showing that a musical could combine light, popular entertainment with continuity between its story and songs.[ Historian Gerald Bordman wrote:
The theatre-going public needed escapist entertainment during the dark times of World War I, and they flocked to the theatre. The 1919 hit musical ''Irene (musical), Irene'' ran for 670 performances, a Broadway record that held until 1938.][Kenrick, John]
Hellzapoppin – History of The Musical Stage 1930s: Part III – Revues
Musicals101.com, accessed October 8, 2015 The British theatre public supported far longer runs like that of ''The Maid of the Mountains'' (1,352 performances) and especially ''Chu Chin Chow''. Its run of 2,238 performances was more than twice as long as any previous musical, setting a record that stood for nearly forty years.["Salad Days History, Story, Roles and Musical Numbers"]
guidetomusicaltheatre.com, accessed March 16, 2012 Revues like ''The Bing Boys Are Here'' in Britain, and those of Florenz Ziegfeld and his imitators in America, were also extraordinarily popular.[
]
The musicals of the Roaring Twenties, borrowing from vaudeville, music hall and other light entertainments, tended to emphasize big dance routines and popular songs at the expense of plot. Typical of the decade were lighthearted productions like ''Sally (musical), Sally''; ''Lady, Be Good (musical), Lady, Be Good''; ''No, No, Nanette''; ''Oh, Kay!''; and ''Funny Face (musical), Funny Face''. Despite forgettable stories, these musicals featured stars such as Marilyn Miller and Fred Astaire and produced dozens of enduring popular songs by Kern, George Gershwin, George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hart. Popular music was dominated by musical theatre standards, such as "Fascinating Rhythm", "Tea for Two (song), Tea for Two" and "Someone to Watch Over Me (song), Someone to Watch Over Me". Many shows were revues, series of sketches and songs with little or no connection between them. The best-known of these were the annual ''Ziegfeld Follies'', spectacular song-and-dance revues on Broadway featuring extravagant sets, elaborate costumes and beautiful chorus girls.[ These spectacles also raised production values, and mounting a musical generally became more expensive.][ ''Shuffle Along'' (1921), an all-African American show was a hit on Broadway. A new generation of composers of operettas also emerged in the 1920s, such as Rudolf Friml and Sigmund Romberg, to create a series of popular Broadway hits.
In London, writer-stars such as Ivor Novello and Noël Coward became popular, but the primacy of British musical theatre from the 19th century through 1920 was gradually replaced by American innovation, especially after World War I, as Kern and other Tin Pan Alley composers began to bring new musical styles such as ragtime and ]jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
to the theatres, and the Shubert Brothers took control of the Broadway theatres. Musical theatre writer Andrew Lamb (writer), Andrew Lamb notes, "The operatic and theatrical styles of nineteenth-century social structures were replaced by a musical style more aptly suited to twentieth-century society and its vernacular idiom. It was from America that the more direct style emerged, and in America that it was able to flourish in a developing society less hidebound by nineteenth-century tradition." In France, ''comédie musicale'' was written between in the early decades of the century for such stars as Yvonne Printemps.
''Show Boat'' and the Great Depression
Progressing far beyond the comparatively frivolous musicals and sentimental operettas of the decade, Broadway's '' Show Boat'' (1927), represented an even more complete integration of book and score than the Princess Theatre musicals, with dramatic themes told through the music, dialogue, setting and movement. This was accomplished by combining the lyricism of Kern's music with the skillful libretto of Oscar Hammerstein II. One historian wrote, "Here we come to a completely new genre – the musical play as distinguished from musical comedy. Now ... everything else was subservient to that play. Now ... came complete integration of song, humor and production numbers into a single and inextricable artistic entity."[Lubbock (2002)]
As the Great Depression set in during the post-Broadway national tour of ''Show Boat'', the public turned back to mostly light, escapist song-and-dance entertainment.[ Audiences on both sides of the Atlantic had little money to spend on entertainment, and only a few stage shows anywhere exceeded a run of 500 performances during the decade. The revue ''The Band Wagon (musical), The Band Wagon'' (1931) starred dancing partners Fred Astaire and his sister Adele Astaire, Adele, while Porter's ''Anything Goes'' (1934) confirmed Ethel Merman's position as the First Lady of musical theatre, a title she maintained for many years. Coward and Novello continued to deliver old fashioned, sentimental musicals, such as ''The Dancing Years'', while Rodgers and Hart returned from Hollywood to create a series of successful Broadway shows, including ''On Your Toes'' (1936, with Ray Bolger, the first Broadway musical to make dramatic use of classical dance), ''Babes in Arms'' (1937) and ''The Boys from Syracuse'' (1938). Porter added ''Du Barry Was a Lady'' (1939). The longest-running piece of musical theatre of the 1930s was ''Hellzapoppin (musical), Hellzapoppin'' (1938), a revue with audience participation, which played for 1,404 performances, setting a new Broadway record.][
Still, a few creative teams began to build on ''Show Boat''s innovations. '' Of Thee I Sing'' (1931), a political satire by the Gershwins, was the first musical awarded the Pulitzer Prize.][ ''As Thousands Cheer'' (1933), a revue by Irving Berlin and Moss Hart in which each song or sketch was based on a newspaper headline, marked the first Broadway show in which an African-American, Ethel Waters, starred alongside white actors. Waters' numbers included "Supper Time", a woman's lament for her husband who has been lynched. The Gershwins' ''Porgy and Bess'' (1935) featured an all African-American cast and blended operatic, folk and jazz idioms. ''The Cradle Will Rock'' (1937), directed by Orson Welles, was a highly political pro-trade union, union piece that, despite the controversy surrounding it, ran for 108 performances.][ Rodgers and Hart's ''I'd Rather Be Right'' (1937) was a political satire with ]George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan (July 3, 1878November 5, 1942) was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and theatrical producer.
Cohan began his career as a child, performing with his parents and sister in a vaudev ...
as President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Kurt Weill's ''Knickerbocker Holiday'' depicted New York City's early history while good-naturedly satirizing Roosevelt's good intentions.
The motion picture mounted a challenge to the stage. Silent films had presented only limited competition, but by the end of the 1920s, films like ''The Jazz Singer'' could be presented with synchronized sound. Sound film, "Talkie" films at low prices effectively killed off vaudeville by the early 1930s. Despite the economic woes of the 1930s and the competition from film, the musical survived. In fact, it continued to evolve thematically beyond the gags and showgirls musicals of the ''Gay Nineties'' and ''Roaring Twenties'' and the sentimental romance of operetta, adding technical expertise and the fast-paced staging and naturalistic dialogue style led by director George Abbott.[
]
The Golden Age (1940s to 1960s)
1940s
The 1940s would begin with more hits from Porter, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, Weill and Gershwin, some with runs over 500 performances as the economy rebounded, but artistic change was in the air.
Rodgers and Hammerstein's '' Oklahoma!'' (1943) completed the revolution begun by '' Show Boat'', by tightly integrating all the aspects of musical theatre, with a cohesive plot, songs that furthered the action of the story, and featured dream ballets and other dances that advanced the plot and developed the characters, rather than using dance as an excuse to parade scantily clad women across the stage.[ Rodgers and Hammerstein hired ballet choreographer Agnes de Mille, who used everyday motions to help the characters express their ideas. It defied musical conventions by raising its first act curtain not on a bevy of chorus girls, but rather on a woman churning butter, with an off-stage voice singing the opening lines of ''Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin''' unaccompanied. It drew rave reviews, set off a box-office frenzy and received a Pulitzer Prize. Brooks Atkinson wrote in ''The New York Times'' that the show's opening number changed the history of musical theater: "After a verse like that, sung to a buoyant melody, the banalities of the old musical stage became intolerable."][John Steele Gordon, Gordon, John Steele]
''Oklahoma'!'
. Retrieved June 13, 2010 It was the first "blockbuster" Broadway show, running a total of 2,212 performances, and was made into a hit film. It remains one of the most frequently produced of the team's projects. William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird wrote that this was a "show, that, like ''Show Boat'', became a milestone, so that later historians writing about important moments in twentieth-century theatre would begin to identify eras according to their relationship to ''Oklahoma!''".
"After ''Oklahoma!'', Rodgers and Hammerstein were the most important contributors to the musical-play form... The examples they set in creating vital plays, often rich with social thought, provided the necessary encouragement for other gifted writers to create musical plays of their own".[ The two collaborators created an extraordinary collection of some of musical theatre's best loved and most enduring classics, including '']Carousel
A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (List of sovereign states, international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in South Australia, SA) is a type of amusement ...
'' (1945), ''South Pacific (musical), South Pacific'' (1949), ''The King and I'' (1951) and ''The Sound of Music'' (1959). Some of these musicals treat more serious subject matter than most earlier shows: the villain in ''Oklahoma!'' is a suspected murderer and psychopath with a fondness for lewd post cards; ''Carousel'' deals with spousal abuse, thievery, suicide and the afterlife; ''South Pacific'' explores miscegenation even more thoroughly than ''Show Boat''; and the hero of ''The King and I'' dies onstage.
The show's creativity stimulated Rodgers and Hammerstein's contemporaries and ushered in the "Golden Age" of American musical theatre.[ Americana was displayed on Broadway during the "Golden Age", as the wartime cycle of shows began to arrive. An example of this is ''On the Town (musical), On the Town'' (1944), written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, composed by ]Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
and choreographed by Jerome Robbins. The story is set during wartime and concerns three sailors who are on a 24-hour shore leave in New York City, during which each falls in love. The show also gives the impression of a country with an uncertain future, as the sailors and their women also have. Irving Berlin used sharpshooter Annie Oakley's career as a basis for his ''Annie Get Your Gun (musical), Annie Get Your Gun'' (1946, 1,147 performances); Burton Lane, E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy combined political satire with Irish whimsy for their fantasy ''Finian's Rainbow'' (1947, 725 performances); and Cole Porter found inspiration in William Shakespeare's ''The Taming of the Shrew'' for ''Kiss Me, Kate'' (1948, 1,077 performances). The American musicals overwhelmed the old-fashioned British Coward/Novello-style shows, one of the last big successes of which was Novello's ''Perchance to Dream (musical), Perchance to Dream'' (1945, 1,021 performances). The formula for the Golden Age musicals reflected one or more of four widely held perceptions of the "American dream": That stability and worth derives from a love relationship sanctioned and restricted by Protestant ideals of marriage; that a married couple should make a moral home with children away from the city in a suburb or small town; that the woman's function was as homemaker and mother; and that Americans incorporate an independent and pioneering spirit or that their success is self-made.
1950s
The 1950s were crucial to the development of the American musical. Damon Runyon's eclectic characters were at the core of Frank Loesser's and Abe Burrows' ''Guys and Dolls'', (1950, 1,200 performances); and the California Gold Rush, Gold Rush was the setting for Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's ''Paint Your Wagon (musical), Paint Your Wagon'' (1951). The relatively brief seven-month run of that show didn't discourage Lerner and Loewe from collaborating again, this time on '' My Fair Lady'' (1956), an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's ''Pygmalion (play), Pygmalion'' starring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, which at 2,717 performances held the long-run record for many years. Popular Hollywood films were made of all of these musicals. Two hits by British creators in this decade were ''The Boy Friend (musical), The Boy Friend'' (1954), which ran for 2,078 performances in London and marked Andrews' American debut, and ''Salad Days (musical), Salad Days'' (1954), with a run of 2,283 performances.[
Another record was set by ''The Threepenny Opera'', which ran for 2,707 performances, becoming the longest-running off-Broadway musical until '']The Fantasticks
''The Fantasticks'' is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and book and lyrics by Tom Jones. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the 1894 play ''The Romancers'' (''Les Romanesques'') by Edmond Rostand, concerning two neigh ...
''. The production also broke ground by showing that musicals could be profitable off-Broadway in a small-scale, small orchestra format. This was confirmed in 1959 when a revival of Jerome Kern and P. G. Wodehouse's ''Leave It to Jane'' ran for more than two years. The 1959–1960 off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
season included a dozen musicals and revues including ''Little Mary Sunshine'', ''The Fantasticks'' and ''Ernest in Love'', a musical adaptation of Oscar Wilde's 1895 hit ''The Importance of Being Earnest''.
''West Side Story'' (1957) transported ''Romeo and Juliet'' to modern day New York City and converted the feuding Montague and Capulet families into opposing ethnic gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. The book was adapted by Arthur Laurents, with music by Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
and lyrics by newcomer Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March 22, 1930November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. One of the most important figures in twentieth-century musical theater, Sondheim is credited for having "reinvented the American musical" with sho ...
. It was embraced by the critics, but failed to be a popular choice for the "blue-haired matinee ladies", who preferred the small town River City, Iowa of Meredith Willson's ''The Music Man'' (1957) to the alleys of Manhattan's Upper West Side. Apparently Tony Award voters were of a similar mind, since they favored the former over the latter. ''West Side Story'' had a respectable run of 732 performances (1,040 in the West End), while ''The Music Man'' ran nearly twice as long, with 1,375 performances. However, the West Side Story (1961 film), 1961 film of ''West Side Story'' was extremely successful. Laurents and Sondheim teamed up again for ''Gypsy
The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...
'' (1959, 702 performances), with Jule Styne providing the music for a backstage story about the most driven stage mother of all-time, stripper Gypsy Rose Lee's mother Rose. The original production ran for 702 performances, and was given four subsequent revivals, with Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone later tackling the role made famous by Ethel Merman.
Although directors and choreographers have had a major influence on musical theatre style since at least the 19th century, George Abbott and his collaborators and successors took a central role in integrating movement and dance fully into musical theatre productions in the Golden Age.[Kenrick, John]
"Dance in Stage Musicals – Part III"
Musicals101.com, 2003, accessed August 14, 2012 Abbott introduced ballet as a story-telling device in ''On Your Toes'' in 1936, which was followed by Agnes de Mille's ballet and choreography in ''Oklahoma!''. After Abbott collaborated with Jerome Robbins in ''On the Town'' and other shows, Robbins combined the roles of director and choreographer, emphasizing the story-telling power of dance in ''West Side Story'', ''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' (1962) and ''Fiddler on the Roof'' (1964). Bob Fosse choreographed for Abbott in ''The Pajama Game'' (1956) and ''Damn Yankees'' (1957), injecting playful sexuality into those hits. He was later the director-choreographer for ''Sweet Charity'' (1968), ''Pippin'' (1972) and ''Chicago'' (1975). Other notable director-choreographers have included Gower Champion, Tommy Tune, Michael Bennett (theater), Michael Bennett, Gillian Lynne and Susan Stroman. Prominent directors have included Hal Prince, who also got his start with Abbott,[ and Trevor Nunn.
During the Golden Age, automotive companies and other large corporations began to hire Broadway talent to write industrial musical, corporate musicals, private shows only seen by their employees or customers. The 1950s ended with Rodgers and Hammerstein's last hit, ''The Sound of Music'', which also became another hit for Mary Martin. It ran for 1,443 performances and shared the Tony Award for Best Musical. Together with its extremely successful The Sound of Music (film), 1965 film version, it has become one of the most popular musicals in history.
]
1960s
In 1960, ''The Fantasticks'' was first produced off-Broadway. This intimate allegorical show would quietly run for over 40 years at the Sullivan Street Theatre in Greenwich Village, becoming by far the longest-running musical in history. Its authors produced other innovative works in the 1960s, such as ''Celebration (musical), Celebration'' and ''I Do! I Do!'', the first two-character Broadway musical. The 1960s would see a number of blockbusters, like ''Fiddler on the Roof'' (1964; 3,242 performances), '' Hello, Dolly!'' (1964; 2,844 performances), ''Funny Girl (musical), Funny Girl'' (1964; 1,348 performances) and ''Man of La Mancha
''Man of La Mancha'' is a 1965 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, music by Mitch Leigh, and lyrics by Joe Darion. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay ''I, Don Quixote'', which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes ...
'' (1965; 2,328 performances), and some more risqué pieces like ''Cabaret (musical), Cabaret'', before ending with the emergence of the rock musical. Two men had considerable impact on musical theatre history beginning in this decade: Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March 22, 1930November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. One of the most important figures in twentieth-century musical theater, Sondheim is credited for having "reinvented the American musical" with sho ...
and Jerry Herman.
The first project for which Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics was ''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' (1962, 964 performances), with a book based on the works of Plautus by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, starring Zero Mostel. Sondheim moved the musical beyond its concentration on the romantic plots typical of earlier eras; his work tended to be darker, exploring the grittier sides of life both present and past. Other early Sondheim works include ''Anyone Can Whistle'' (1964, which ran only nine performances, despite having stars Lee Remick and Angela Lansbury), and the successful ''Company (musical), Company'' (1970), ''Follies'' (1971) and ''A Little Night Music'' (1973). Later, Sondheim found inspiration in unlikely sources: the opening of Japan to Western trade for ''Pacific Overtures'' (1976), a legendary murderous barber seeking revenge in the Industrial Revolution, Industrial Age of London for ''Sweeney Todd (musical), Sweeney Todd'' (1979), the paintings of Georges Seurat for ''Sunday in the Park with George'' (1984), fairy tales for ''Into the Woods'' (1987), and a collection of President of the United States, presidential assassins in ''Assassins (musical), Assassins'' (1990).
While some critics have argued that some of Sondheim's musicals lack commercial appeal, others have praised their lyrical sophistication and musical complexity, as well as the interplay of lyrics and music in his shows. Some of Sondheim's notable innovations include a show presented in reverse (''Merrily We Roll Along (musical), Merrily We Roll Along'') and the above-mentioned ''Anyone Can Whistle'', in which the first act ends with the cast informing the audience that they are mad.
Jerry Herman played a significant role in American musical theatre, beginning with his first Broadway production, ''Milk and Honey (musical), Milk and Honey'' (1961, 563 performances), about the founding of the state of Israel, and continuing with the blockbuster hits '' Hello, Dolly!'' (1964, 2,844 performances), ''Mame (musical), Mame'' (1966, 1,508 performances), and ''La Cage aux Folles (musical), La Cage aux Folles'' (1983, 1,761 performances). Even his less successful shows like ''Dear World'' (1969) and ''Mack and Mabel'' (1974) have had memorable scores (''Mack and Mabel'' was later reworked into a London hit). Writing both words and music, many of Herman's show tunes have become popular standards, including "Hello, Dolly! (song), Hello, Dolly!", "We Need a Little Christmas", "I Am What I Am", "Mame", "The Best of Times", "Before the Parade Passes By", "Put On Your Sunday Clothes", "It Only Takes a Moment", "Bosom Buddies" and "I Won't Send Roses", recorded by such artists as Louis Armstrong, Eydie Gormé, Barbra Streisand, Petula Clark and Bernadette Peters. Herman's songbook has been the subject of two popular musical revues, ''Jerry's Girls'' (Broadway, 1985) and ''Showtune (musical), Showtune'' (off-Broadway, 2003).
The musical started to diverge from the relatively narrow confines of the 1950s. Rock music would be used in several Broadway musicals, beginning with ''Hair
Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals.
The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and f ...
'', which featured not only rock music but also nudity and controversial opinions about the Vietnam War, race relations and other social issues.
Social themes
After ''Show Boat'' and ''Porgy and Bess'', and as the struggle in America and elsewhere for minorities' civil rights progressed, Hammerstein, Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg and others were emboldened to write more musicals and operas that aimed to normalize societal toleration of minorities and urged racial harmony. Early Golden Age works that focused on racial tolerance included ''Finian's Rainbow'' and ''South Pacific (musical), South Pacific''. Towards the end of the Golden Age, several shows tackled Jewish subjects and issues, such as ''Fiddler on the Roof'', ''Milk and Honey (musical), Milk and Honey'', ''Blitz!'' and later ''Rags (musical), Rags''. The original concept that became ''West Side Story'' was set in the Lower East Side during Easter-Passover celebrations; the rival gangs were to be Jewish and Italian-American, Italian Catholic Church, Catholic. The creative team later decided that the Polish (white) vs. Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rican conflict was fresher.
Tolerance as an important theme in musicals has continued in recent decades. The final expression of ''West Side Story'' left a message of racial tolerance. By the end of the 1960s, musicals became racially integrated, with black and white cast members even covering each other's roles, as they did in ''Hair''. Homosexuality has also been explored in musicals, starting with ''Hair'', and even more overtly in ''La Cage aux Folles (musical), La Cage aux Folles'', '' Falsettos'', ''Rent
Rent may refer to:
Economics
*Renting, an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property
*Economic rent, any payment in excess of the cost of production
*Rent-seeking, attempting to increase one's share of e ...
'', ''Hedwig and the Angry Inch (musical), Hedwig and the Angry Inch'' and other shows in recent decades. ''Parade (musical), Parade'' is a sensitive exploration of both anti-Semitism and historical American racism, and ''Ragtime (musical), Ragtime'' similarly explores the experience of immigrants and minorities in America.
1970s to present
1970s
After the success of ''Hair'', rock musicals flourished in the 1970s, with ''Jesus Christ Superstar
''Jesus Christ Superstar'' is a sung-through rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. Loosely based on the Gospels' accounts of the Passion, the work interprets the psychology of Jesus and other characters, with ...
'', ''Godspell'', ''The Rocky Horror Show'', ''Evita'' and ''Two Gentlemen of Verona (musical), Two Gentlemen of Verona''. Some of those began as "concept albums" which were then adapted to the stage, most notably ''Jesus Christ Superstar'' and ''Evita''. Others had no dialogue or were otherwise reminiscent of opera, with dramatic, emotional themes; these sometimes started as concept albums and were referred to as rock operas. Shows like ''Raisin (musical), Raisin'', ''Dreamgirls (musical), Dreamgirls'', ''Purlie'' and ''The Wiz'' brought a significant African-American influence to Broadway. More varied musical genres and styles were incorporated into musicals both on and especially off-Broadway. At the same time, Stephen Sondheim found success with some of his musicals, as mentioned above.
In 1975, the dance musical '' A Chorus Line'' emerged from recorded group therapy-style sessions Michael Bennett (theater), Michael Bennett conducted with "gypsies" – those who sing and dance in support of the leading players – from the Broadway community. From hundreds of hours of tapes, James Kirkwood Jr. and Nick Dante fashioned a book about an audition for a musical, incorporating many real-life stories from the sessions; some who attended the sessions eventually played variations of themselves or each other in the show. With music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Edward Kleban, ''A Chorus Line'' first opened at Joseph Papp's Public Theater in lower Manhattan. What initially had been planned as a limited engagement eventually moved to the Shubert Theatre (Broadway), Shubert Theatre on Broadway for a run of 6,137 performances, becoming the longest-running production in Broadway history up to that time. The show swept the Tony Awards and won the Pulitzer Prize, and its hit song, ''What I Did for Love (A Chorus Line), What I Did for Love'', became a standard.
Broadway audiences welcomed musicals that varied from the golden age style and substance. John Kander and Fred Ebb explored the rise of Nazism in Germany in ''Cabaret (musical), Cabaret'', and murder and the media in Prohibition-era ''Chicago
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'', which relied on old vaudeville techniques. ''Pippin (musical), Pippin'', by Stephen Schwartz (composer), Stephen Schwartz, was set in the days of Charlemagne. Federico Fellini's autobiographical film ''8½'' became Maury Yeston's ''Nine (musical), Nine''. At the end of the decade, ''Evita'' and ''Sweeney Todd'' were precursors of the darker, big budget musicals of the 1980s that depended on dramatic stories, sweeping scores and spectacular effects. At the same time, old-fashioned values were still embraced in such hits as ''Annie (musical), Annie'', ''42nd Street (musical), 42nd Street'', ''My One and Only (musical), My One and Only'', and popular revivals of ''No, No, Nanette'' and ''Irene''. Although many film versions of musicals were made in the 1970s, few were critical or box office successes, with the notable exceptions of ''Fiddler on the Roof (film), Fiddler on the Roof'', ''Cabaret (1972 film), Cabaret'' and ''Grease (film), Grease''.
1980s
The 1980s saw the influence of European "megamusicals" on Broadway, in the West End and elsewhere. These typically feature a pop-influenced score, large casts and spectacular sets and special effects – a falling chandelier (in '' The Phantom of the Opera''); a helicopter landing on stage (in ''Miss Saigon'') – and big budgets. Some were based on novels or other works of literature. The British team of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and producer Cameron Mackintosh started the megamusical phenomenon with their 1981 musical ''Cats (musical), Cats'', based on the poems of T. S. Eliot, which overtook ''A Chorus Line'' to become the longest-running Broadway show. Lloyd Webber followed up with ''Starlight Express'' (1984), performed on roller skates; ''The Phantom of the Opera'' (1986; also with Mackintosh), derived from the The Phantom of the Opera, novel of the same name; and ''Sunset Boulevard (musical), Sunset Boulevard'' (1993), from the 1950 Sunset Boulevard (film), film of the same name. ''Phantom'' would surpass ''Cats'' to become the longest-running show in Broadway history, a record it still holds.[Everett and Laird, pp. 250–256][Allain and Harvie, pp. 206–207] The French team of Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil wrote ''Les Misérables'', based on the Les Misérables, novel of the same name, whose 1985 London production was produced by Mackintosh and became, and still is, the Long-running musical theatre productions, longest-running musical in West End and Broadway history. The team produced another hit with ''Miss Saigon'' (1989), which was inspired by the Puccini opera ''Madama Butterfly''.
The megamusicals' huge budgets redefined expectations for financial success on Broadway and in the West End. In earlier years, it was possible for a show to be considered a hit after a run of several hundred performances, but with multimillion-dollar production costs, a show must run for years simply to turn a profit. Megamusicals were also reproduced in productions around the world, multiplying their profit potential while expanding the global audience for musical theatre.
1990s
In the 1990s, a new generation of theatrical composers emerged, including Jason Robert Brown and Michael John LaChiusa, who began with productions off-Broadway. The most conspicuous success of these artists was Jonathan Larson's show ''Rent
Rent may refer to:
Economics
*Renting, an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property
*Economic rent, any payment in excess of the cost of production
*Rent-seeking, attempting to increase one's share of e ...
'' (1996), a rock musical (based on the opera ''La bohème'') about a struggling community of artists in Manhattan. While the cost of tickets to Broadway and West End musicals was escalating beyond the budget of many theatregoers, ''Rent'' was marketed to increase the popularity of musicals among a younger audience. It featured a young cast and a heavily rock-influenced score; the musical became a hit. Its young fans, many of them students, calling themselves RENTheads], camped out at the Nederlander Theatre in hopes of winning the lottery for $20 front row tickets, and some saw the show dozens of times. Other shows on Broadway followed ''Rents lead by offering heavily discounted day-of-performance or standing-room tickets, although often the discounts are offered only to students.
The 1990s also saw the influence of large corporations on the production of musicals. The most important has been Disney Theatrical Productions, which began adapting some of The Walt Disney Company, Disney's animated film musicals for the stage, starting with ''Beauty and the Beast (musical), Beauty and the Beast'' (1994), ''The Lion King (musical), The Lion King'' (1997) and ''Aida (musical), Aida'' (2000), the latter two with music by Elton John. ''The Lion King'' is the List of highest-grossing musicals, highest-grossing musical in Broadway history. ''The Who's Tommy'' (1993), a theatrical adaptation of the rock opera ''Tommy (The Who album), Tommy'', achieved a healthy run of 899 performances but was criticized for sanitizing the story and "musical theatre-izing" the rock music.
Despite the growing number of large-scale musicals in the 1980s and 1990s, a number of lower-budget, smaller-scale musicals managed to find critical and financial success, such as ''Falsettoland'' and ''Little Shop of Horrors (musical), Little Shop of Horrors'', ''Bat Boy: The Musical'' and ''Blood Brothers (musical), Blood Brothers''. The topics of these pieces vary widely, and the music ranges from rock to pop, but they often are produced off-Broadway, or for smaller London theatres, and some of these stagings have been regarded as imaginative and innovative.
2000s–present
= Trends
=
In the new century, familiarity has been embraced by producers and investors anxious to guarantee that they recoup their considerable investments. Some took (usually modest-budget) chances on new and creative material, such as ''Urinetown'' (2001), ''Avenue Q'' (2003), ''The Light in the Piazza (musical), The Light in the Piazza'' (2005), ''Spring Awakening (musical), Spring Awakening'' (2006), ''In the Heights'' (2008), ''Next to Normal'' (2009), ''American Idiot (musical), American Idiot'' (2010) and ''The Book of Mormon (musical), The Book of Mormon'' (2011). ''Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
'' (2015), transformed "under-dramatized American history" into an unusual hip-hop inflected hit. In 2011, Sondheim argued that of all forms of "contemporary pop music", rapping, rap was "the closest to traditional musical theatre" and was "one pathway to the future."
However, most major-market 21st-century productions have taken a safe route, with revivals of familiar fare, such as ''Fiddler on the Roof'', '' A Chorus Line'', ''South Pacific (musical), South Pacific'', ''Gypsy'', ''Hair'', ''West Side Story'' and ''Grease (musical), Grease'', or with adaptations of other proven material, such as literature (''The Scarlet Pimpernel'', ''Wicked
Wicked may refer to:
Books
* Wicked, a minor character in the ''X-Men'' universe
* ''Wicked'', a 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire that inspired the musical of the same name
* ''Wicked'', the fifth novel in Sara Shepard's ''Pretty Little Liars'' ser ...
'' and ''Fun Home (musical), Fun Home''), hoping that the shows would have a built-in audience as a result. This trend is especially persistent with film adaptations, including ('' The Producers'', ''Spamalot'', ''Hairspray (musical), Hairspray'', ''Legally Blonde (musical), Legally Blonde'', ''The Color Purple (musical), The Color Purple'', ''Xanadu (musical), Xanadu'', '' Billy Elliot'', ''Shrek (musical), Shrek'', ''Waitress (musical), Waitress'' and ''Groundhog Day (musical), Groundhog Day''). Some critics have argued that the reuse of film plots, especially those from Disney (such as ''Mary Poppins (musical), Mary Poppins'' and ''The Little Mermaid (musical), The Little Mermaid''), equate the Broadway and West End musical to a tourist attraction, rather than a creative outlet.[
]
Today, it is less likely that a sole producer, such as David Merrick or Cameron Mackintosh, backs a production. Corporate sponsors dominate Broadway, and often alliances are formed to stage musicals, which require an investment of $10 million or more. In 2002, the credits for ''Thoroughly Modern Millie'' listed ten producers, and among those names were entities composed of several individuals. Typically, off-Broadway and regional theatres tend to produce smaller and therefore less expensive musicals, and development of new musicals has increasingly taken place outside of New York and London or in smaller venues. For example, ''Spring Awakening'', ''Fun Home'' and ''Hamilton'' were developed off-Broadway before being launched on Broadway.
Several musicals returned to the spectacle format that was so successful in the 1980s, recalling extravaganzas that have been presented at times, throughout theatre history, since the ancient Romans staged mock sea battles. Examples include the musical adaptations of ''Lord of the Rings (musical), Lord of the Rings'' (2007), ''Gone with the Wind (musical), Gone with the Wind'' (2008) and ''Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark'' (2011). These musicals involved songwriters with little theatrical experience, and the expensive productions generally lost money. Conversely, ''The Drowsy Chaperone'', ''Avenue Q'', ''The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee'', ''Xanadu'' and ''Fun Home'', among others, have been presented in smaller-scale productions, mostly uninterrupted by an intermission, with short running times, and enjoyed financial success. In 2013, ''Time'' magazine reported that a trend off-Broadway has been "immersive" theatre, citing shows such as ''Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812'' (2012) and ''Here Lies Love'' (2013) in which the staging takes place around and within the audience. The shows set a joint record, each receiving 11 nominations for Lucille Lortel Awards, and feature contemporary scores.
In 2013, Cyndi Lauper was the "first female composer to win the [Tony for] Best Score without a male collaborator" for writing the music and lyrics for ''Kinky Boots (musical), Kinky Boots''. In 2015, for the first time, an Women in music, all-female writing team, Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori, won the Tony Award for Best Original Score (and Tony Award for Best Book, Best Book for Kron) for ''Fun Home'', although work by male songwriters continues to be produced more often.
= Jukebox musicals
=
Another trend has been to create a minimal plot to fit a collection of songs that have already been hits. Following the earlier success of ''Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story'', these have included ''Movin' Out (musical), Movin' Out'' (2002, based on the tunes of Billy Joel), ''Jersey Boys'' (2006, The Four Seasons (band), The Four Seasons), ''Rock of Ages (musical), Rock of Ages'' (2009, featuring classic rock of the 1980s) and many others. This style is often referred to as the "jukebox musical".[Kaye, Kimberly]
"Broadway.com at 10: The 10 Biggest Broadway Trends of the Decade"
Broadway.com, May 10, 2010, accessed August 14, 2012 Similar but more plot-driven musicals have been built around the canon of a particular pop group including ''Mamma Mia! (musical), Mamma Mia!'' (1999, based on the songs of ABBA), ''Our House (musical), Our House'' (2002, based on the songs of Madness (band), Madness) and ''We Will Rock You (musical), We Will Rock You'' (2002, based on the songs of Queen (band), Queen).
= Film and TV musicals
=
Live-action film musicals were nearly dead in the 1980s and early 1990s, with exceptions of ''Victor/Victoria'', ''Little Shop of Horrors (film), Little Shop of Horrors'' and Evita (1996 film), the 1996 film of ''Evita''.[Kenrick, John]
"The 1980s"
History of Musical Film, musicals101.com, accessed July 11, 2014; and Kenrick, John
History of Musical Film, musicals101.com, accessed July 11, 2014 In the new century, Baz Luhrmann began a revival of the film musical with ''Moulin Rouge!'' (2001). This was followed by ''Chicago
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'' (2002); ''The Phantom of the Opera (2004 film), Phantom of the Opera'' (2004); ''Rent (film), Rent'' (2005); ''Dreamgirls (film), Dreamgirls'' (2006); ''Hairspray (2007 film), Hairspray'', ''Enchanted (film), Enchanted'' and ''Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007 film), Sweeney Todd'' (all in 2007); ''Mamma Mia! (film), Mamma Mia!'' (2008); ''Nine (2009 live-action film), Nine'' (2009); ''Les Misérables (2012 film), Les Misérables'' and ''Pitch Perfect'' (both in 2012), ''Into the Woods (film), Into The Woods'', ''The Last Five Years (film), The Last Five Years'' (2014), ''La La Land'' (2016), ''The Greatest Showman'' (2017), ''A Star Is Born (2018 film), A Star Is Born'' and ''Mary Poppins Returns'' (both 2018), ''Rocketman (film), Rocketman'' (2019) and ''In the Heights (film), In the Heights'' and Steven Spielberg's version of ''West Side Story (2021 film), West Side Story'' (both in 2021), among others. Dr. Seuss's ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (film), How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'' (2000) and ''The Cat in the Hat (film), The Cat in the Hat'' (2003), turned children's books into live-action film musicals. After the immense success of Disney and other houses with animated film musicals beginning with ''The Little Mermaid (1989 film), The Little Mermaid'' in 1989 and running throughout the 1990s (including some more adult-themed films, like ''South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut'' (1999)), fewer animated film musicals were released in the first decade of the 21st century.[ The genre made a comeback beginning in 2010 with ''Tangled'' (2010), ''Rio (2011 film), Rio'' (2011) and ''Frozen (2013 film), Frozen'' (2013). In Asia, India continues to produce numerous "Bollywood" film musicals, and Japan produces "Anime" and "Manga" film musicals.
Made for Television film, TV musical films were popular in the 1990s, such as ''Gypsy (1993 film), Gypsy'' (1993), ''Cinderella (1997 film), Cinderella'' (1997) and ''Annie (1999 film), Annie'' (1999). Several made for TV musicals in the first decade of the 21st century were adaptations of the stage version, such as ''South Pacific (2001 film), South Pacific'' (2001), ''The Music Man (2003 film), The Music Man'' (2003) and ''Once Upon a Mattress'' (2005), and a televised version of the stage musical ''Legally Blonde (musical), Legally Blonde'' in 2007. Additionally, several musicals were filmed on stage and broadcast on Public Television, for example ''Contact (musical), Contact'' in 2002 and ''Kiss Me, Kate'' and ''Oklahoma!'' in 2003. The made-for-TV musical ''High School Musical'' (2006), and its several sequels, enjoyed particular success and were adapted for stage musicals and other media.
]
In 2013, NBC began a series of live television broadcasts of musicals with ''The Sound of Music Live!'' Although the production received mixed reviews, it was a ratings success. Further broadcasts have included ''Peter Pan Live!'' (NBC 2014), ''The Wiz Live!'' (NBC 2015), a UK broadcast, ''The Sound of Music Live (2015), The Sound of Music Live'' (ITV (TV network), ITV 2015) ''Grease: Live'' (Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox 2016), ''Hairspray Live!'' (NBC, 2016), ''A Christmas Story Live!'' (Fox, 2017), and ''Rent: Live'' (Fox 2019).
Some television shows have set episodes as a musical. Examples include episodes of ''Ally McBeal'', ''Xena: Warrior Princess'' ("The Bitter Suite" and "Lyre, Lyre, Heart's On Fire"), ''Psych'' ("Psych: The Musical"), ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' ("Once More, with Feeling (Buffy episode), Once More, with Feeling"), ''That's So Raven'', ''Daria'', ''Dexter's Laboratory'', ''The Powerpuff Girls'', ''The Flash (2014 TV series), The Flash'', ''Once Upon a Time (TV series), Once Upon a Time'', ''Oz (TV series), Oz'', ''Scrubs (TV series), Scrubs'' (one episode was written by the creators of ''Avenue Q''), ''Batman: The Brave and the Bold'' (List of Batman: The Brave and the Bold episodes, "Mayhem of the Music Meister") and ''That '70s Show'' (the 100th episode, "That '70s Musical"). Others have included scenes where characters suddenly begin singing and dancing in a musical-theatre style during an episode, such as in several episodes of ''The Simpsons'', ''30 Rock'', ''Hannah Montana'', ''South Park'', ''Bob's Burgers'' and ''Family Guy''. Television series that have extensively used the musical format have included ''Cop Rock'', ''Flight of the Conchords (TV series), Flight of the Conchords'', ''Glee (TV series), Glee'', ''Smash (TV series), Smash'' and ''Crazy Ex-Girlfriend''.
There have also been musicals made for the internet, including ''Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog,'' about a low-rent super-villain played by Neil Patrick Harris. It was written during the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, WGA writer's strike. Since 2006, reality TV shows have been used to help market musical revivals by holding a talent competition to cast (usually female) leads. Examples of these are ''How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria?'', ''Grease: You're the One That I Want!,'' ''Any Dream Will Do (TV series), Any Dream Will Do,'' ''Legally Blonde: The Musical – The Search for Elle Woods,'' ''I'd Do Anything (2008 TV series), I'd Do Anything'' and ''Over the Rainbow (2010 TV series), Over the Rainbow.'' In 2021, ''Schmigadoon!'' was a parody of, and homage to, Golden Age musicals of the 1940s and 1950s.
=2020–2021 theatre shutdown
=
The COVID-19 pandemic caused the Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the performing arts, closure of theatres and theatre festivals around the world in early 2020, including all Broadway and West End theatres. Many performing arts institutions attempted to adapt, or reduce their losses, by offering new (or expanded) digital services. In particular this resulted in the online streaming of previously recorded performances of many companies, as well as bespoke crowdsourcing projects. For example, The Sydney Theatre Company commissioned actors to film themselves at home discussing, then performing, a monologue from one of the characters they had previously played on stage. The casts of musicals, such as ''Hamilton'' and ''Mamma Mia!'' united on Zoom calls to entertain individuals and the public. Some performances were streamed live, or presented outdoors or in other "socially distanced" ways, sometimes allowing audience members to interact with the cast. Radio theatre festivals were broadcast. Virtual, and even crowd-sourced musicals were created, such as ''Ratatouille the Musical''. Filmed versions of major musicals, like ''Hamilton (2020 film), Hamilton'', were released on streaming platforms. Andrew Lloyd Webber released recordings of his musicals on YouTube.
Due to the closures and loss of ticket sales, many theatre companies were placed in financial peril. Some governments offered emergency aid to the arts. Some musical theatre markets began to reopen in fits and starts by early 2021, with West End theatres postponing their reopening from June to July, and Broadway starting in September. Throughout 2021, however, spikes in the pandemic have caused some closures even after markets reopened.
International musicals
The U.S. and Britain were the most active sources of book musicals from the 19th century through much of the 20th century (although Europe produced various forms of popular light opera and operetta, for example Spanish Zarzuela, during that period and even earlier). However, the light musical stage in other countries has become more active in recent decades.
Musicals from other English-speaking countries (notably Australia and Canada) often do well locally and occasionally even reach Broadway or the West End (e.g., ''The Boy from Oz'' and ''The Drowsy Chaperone''). South Africa has an active musical theatre scene, with revues like ''African Footprint'' and ''Umoja'' and book musicals, such as ''Kat and the Kings'' and ''Sarafina! (musical), Sarafina!'' touring internationally. Locally, musicals like ''Vere'', ''Love and Green Onions'', ''Over the Rainbow: the all-new all-gay... extravaganza'' and ''Bangbroek Mountain'' and ''In Briefs – a queer little Musical'' have been produced successfully.
Successful musicals from continental Europe include shows from (among other countries) Germany (''Elixier'' and ''Ludwig II (musical), Ludwig II''), Austria (''Tanz der Vampire'', ''Elisabeth (musical), Elisabeth'', ''Mozart!'' and ''Rebecca (musical), Rebecca''), Czech Republic (''Dracula (Czech musical), Dracula''), France (''Starmania (musical), Starmania'', ''Notre-Dame de Paris (musical), Notre-Dame de Paris'', ''Les Misérables'', ''Roméo et Juliette (musical), Roméo et Juliette'' and ''Mozart, l'opéra rock'') and Spain (''Hoy no me puedo levantar'' and ''The Musical Sancho Panza'').
Japan has recently seen the growth of an indigenous form of musical theatre, both animated and live action, mostly based on Anime and Manga, such as ''Kiki's Delivery Service'' and ''Tenimyu''. The popular ''Sailor Moon'' metaseries has had twenty-nine Sailor Moon musicals, spanning thirteen years. Beginning in 1914, a series of popular revues have been performed by the all-female Takarazuka Revue, which currently fields five performing troupes. Elsewhere in Asia, the Indian Bollywood
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
musical, mostly in the form of motion pictures, is tremendously successful.
Beginning with a 2002 tour of ''Les Misérables'', various Western musicals have been imported to mainland China and staged in English.[Zhou, Xiaoyan. ''Taking the Stage'', ''Beijing Review'', 2011, p. 42] Attempts at localizing Western productions in China began in 2008 when ''Fame (musical), Fame'' was produced in Mandarin with a full Chinese cast at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing. Since then, other western productions have been staged in China in Mandarin with a Chinese cast. The first Chinese production in the style of Western musical theatre was ''The Gold Sand'' in 2005.[ In addition, Li Dun, a well-known Chinese producer, produced ''Butterflies'', based on a classic Chinese love tragedy, in 2007 as well as ''Love U Teresa'' in 2011.][
]
Amateur and school productions
Musicals are often presented by amateur theatre, amateur and school groups in churches, schools and other performance spaces. Although amateur theatre has existed for centuries, even in the New World,[Lynch, Twink]
"Community Theatre History"
American Association of Community Theatre, accessed March 14, 2016 François Cellier and Cunningham Bridgeman wrote, in 1914, that prior to the late 19th century, amateur actors were treated with contempt by professionals. After the formation of amateur Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...
companies licensed to perform the Savoy operas, professionals recognized that the amateur societies "support the culture of music and the drama. They are now accepted as useful training schools for the legitimate stage, and from the volunteer ranks have sprung many present-day favourites." The National Operatic and Dramatic Association was founded in the UK in 1899. It reported, in 1914, that nearly 200 amateur dramatic societies were producing Gilbert and Sullivan works in Britain that year. Similarly, more than 100 community theatres were founded in the US in the early 20th century. This number has grown to an estimated 18,000 in the US.[ The Educational Theater Association in the US has nearly 5,000 member schools.
]
Relevance
The Broadway League announced that in the 2007–08 season, 12.27 million tickets were purchased for Broadway shows for a gross sale amount of almost a billion dollars. The League further reported that during the 2006–07 season, approximately 65% of Broadway tickets were purchased by tourists, and that foreign tourists were 16% of attendees. The Society of London Theatre reported that 2007 set a record for attendance in London. Total attendees in the major commercial and grant-aided theatres in Central London were 13.6 million, and total ticket revenues were £469.7 million. The international musicals scene has been increasingly active in recent decades. Nevertheless, Stephen Sondheim commented in the year 2000:
However, noting the success in recent decades of original material, and creative re-imaginings of film, plays and literature, theatre historian John Kenrick (theatre writer), John Kenrick countered:
Is the Musical dead? ... Absolutely not! Changing? Always! The musical has been changing ever since Jacques Offenbach, Offenbach did his first rewrite in the 1850s. And change is the clearest sign that the musical is still a living, growing genre. Will we ever return to the so-called 'golden age', with musicals at the center of popular culture? Probably not. Public taste has undergone fundamental changes, and the commercial arts can only flow where the paying public allows.
See also
* Cast recording
* Lists of musicals
* Long-running musical theatre productions
* Music theatre
* Parsi theatre
* 2.5D musical
A , also known as an anime musical, is a type of modern Japanese musical theatre production based exclusively on popular Japanese anime, manga, or video games. The term "2.5D musical" was coined to describe stories presented in a two-dimensional m ...
Notes and references
Cited books
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Further reading
* Bauch, Marc.
The American Musical
'. Marburg, Germany: Tectum Verlag, 2003.
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* Gerald Bordman, Bordman, Gerald (1978). ''American Musical Theatre: a Chronicle''. New York: Oxford University Press. viii, 749 p.
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* Stephen Citron, Citron, Stephen (1991). ''The Musical, from the Inside Out''. Chicago, Illinois: I.R. Dee. 336 p.
* Ewen, David (1961). ''The Story of American Musical Theater''. First ed. Philadelphia: Chilton. v, 208 p.
* Kurt Gänzl, Gänzl, Kurt. ''The Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre'' (3 Volumes). New York: Schirmer Books, 2001.
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* Stempel, Larry. ''Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theater'' (W. W. Norton, 2010) 826 pages; comprehensive history since the mid-19th century.
* Richard Traubner, Traubner, Richard. ''Operetta: A Theatrical History''. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1983
External links
Internet Broadway Database – Cast and production lists, song lists and award lists
Guidetomusicaltheatre.com – synopses, cast lists, song lists, etc.
The Broadway Musical Home
Castalbumdb – Musical Cast Album Database
Synopses and character descriptions of most major musicals (StageAgent.com)
{{Authority control
Musical theatre,
History of theatre
Theatrical genres
Music history by genre, Theatre
Vocal music, Theatre
Singing