Chapter 14 – The American Musical

When Broadway history is being made, you can feel it. What you feel is a seismic emotional jolt that sends the audience, as one, right out of its wits.

—Frank Rich

Chapter Summary

• The forty-two block neighborhood around Times Square, identified as New York’s central theatre district, has been home to great plays and musicals since the turn of the century.

Musical Theatre: Precedents

• Dates from colonial period: – Ballad operas • After American Revolution: – Comic operas • By 1840s: – Melodrama – Burlesques – Musical spectacles – Minstrel shows: • Perpetuated stereotypes

Musical Theatre: Precedents

• After Civil War: – Burlesque and minstrelsy still popular –

The Black Crook

(1866): • Cited as starting point for American musical theatre – U.S. premiere of Gilbert and Sullivan’s

HMS Pinafore

in 1879: – Made British operetta dominant musical form until turn of century

An American Musical Idiom

• Librettos (story line or “book”): – Originally allowed for songs, dances, specialty acts unrelated to plot • This loose format led to development of revue: – Musical form featuring songs, dances, skits –

The Passing Show

(1894) – Ziegfeld’s

Follies

(1907)

An American Musical Idiom: Early 20 th Century

• Revues, comic operettas, musical comedies dominant • Ragtime: – Introduced by black musicians – Irving Berlin’s

Watch Your Step

(1914) • Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake’s

Shuffle Along

(1921): – First black musical to play a major Broadway theatre

An American Musical Idiom: Early 20 th Century

• “Princess musicals”: – Created by Jerome Kern (composer) Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse (librettists) – Intimate musicals for small casts, small orchestra • Kern’s

Show Boat

(1927): – Incorporated serious themes (miscegenation, “passing,” addiction) – Paved way for serious musical plays of 1940s and ’50s

An American Musical Idiom: George and Ira Gershwin

• • • Developed jazz-influenced musical theatre

Of Thee I Sing

: – First musical to win Pulitzer Prize for Drama • Well-known songs: – “I Got Rhythm” – “Embraceable You”

Porgy and Bess

(1935): – Based on

Porgy

by Dorothy and DuBose Heywood – Gershwin’s most enduring work

An American Musical Idiom: The 1927 –1928 Season

• High point in history of Broadway stage • 250 shows produced • Also point of decline: – Stock market crash, Depression, advent of sound films led to decline in theatre attendance

Post-WW II Musical Theatre: Rogers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! (1943)

• Broadway firsts: – Murder onstage – “Dream ballet” – No opening chorus number • Set new standard for integration of story and song • Introduced dramatic ballet that advanced story • Longest-running musical on Broadway up to that time

Musical Theatre at Midcentury

• Operetta and musical theatre flourished: – Musicals and their stars became household names: • •

My Fair Lady

, Julie Andrews

Fiddler on the Roof

, Zero Mostel • •

Gypsy

, Ethel Merman

Hello, Dolly!

, Carol Channing – New creative teams: • Lerner and Loewe • Adler and Ross • Burrows and Loesser • Bernstein and Sondheim

Musical Theatre at Midcentury

•

West Side Story

(1957): – Operetta score by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim – Book by Arthur Laurents – Energetic choreography by Jerome Robbins – Recreates

Romeo and Juliet

among NY street gangs – Addressed violence, urban decay head-on

Sixties Alternatives to Broadway Musicals

• • Vietnam era (1955–1975) brought new sounds and subjects onto musical stages: – Rock music – Antiwar protest

Hair

(1967): – Brought new elements to Broadway: • Cursing • Frontal nudity • References to taboo subjects (homosexuality, miscegenation, antipatriotism) – Helped show that spectacle wasn’t necessary

New Directions: The Concept Musical

• Composer, lyricist, director, and choreographer create show loosely tied around a theme • Lacks elements of traditional storytelling • Popularized by Stephen Sondheim

New Directions: The Concept Musical

• •

Company

(1970): – Series of vignettes arranged around bachelor’s birthday party – Essentially plotless – Addressed issues of contemporary urban life

Follies

(1971): – Built around reunion of former Follies performers (and the ghosts that haunt them) – Psychological examination of characters

New Directions: The Concept Musical

•

A Chorus Line

(1975): – Michael Bennett, choreographer and director – Series of vignettes in which dancers at an audition reveal personal information (“psychological striptease”) – Renowned for inspired choreography – “Intimate big musical”

New Directions: Rock Opera

•

Rent

(1996): – Jonathan Larson – Update of Puccini’s

La Boh

éme – Addresses issues related to AIDS, early death – Music played onstage by five-member band

British Megamusicals

• Sung-through musicals in which spectacle was as important as music • Big names: – Andrew Lloyd Webber (composer) – Sir Cameron Mackintosh (producer) • Dominated Broadway in 1980s: •

Cats

• • •

The Phantom of the Opera Les Misérables Miss Saigon

British Megamusicals: Miss Saigon (1989)

• Based on Puccini’s

Madama Butterfly

• Larger-than-life spectacle used to underscore sociopolitical message: – Images of children in wartime – Helicopter used onstage to recreate American evacuation of Saigon – Sounds of rotors beating accompanied by thundering orchestration

Broadway’s Audiences

• All ages, ethnicities, nationalities • Well-to-do: – Tickets $65 to more than $100 • Buying tickets: – Fewer patrons waiting in line at box office: • Ticketron • Telecharge • TKTS (day-of-performance ticket sales) – Theatre Development Fund: • Sells 25 million seats annually

Core Concepts

• American musical theatre dates from colonial times.

• The form evolved from burlesque and minstrel shows, through operetta and revues, incorporating music from ragtime and jazz.

• By midcentury, story and song are fully integrated into a dramatic whole.

• Broadway musical evolved into concept musical, rock opera.

• Brritish megamusicals dominated Broadway in the 1980s.