Chapter 14 – The American Musical

1. 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

2. 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.

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

4. 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

5. 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)

6. An American Musical Idiom:Early 20th 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

7. An American Musical Idiom:Early 20th 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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”

17. New Directions: Rock Opera • Rent (1996): • Jonathan Larson • Update of Puccini’s La Bohéme • Addresses issues related to AIDS, early death • Music played onstage by five-member band

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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.