Many types of musical entertainments were produced in the United States from its beginning. English ballad operas were popular here in the colonial period. In the later nineteenth century, vaudeville shows were quite popular, too. Then the musical emerged. The strongest influence on the development of the American musical was the English operetta. Gilbert and Sullivan produced a number of operettas during the late nineteenth century. New York became the center for this genre, and because most of the theaters were on or near Broadway, they began to be called Broadway musicals.
American musicals differed in a number of ways from their European predecessors. The plots were usually simpler, based on everyday stories. The dialogue was in simple, everyday language, and the songs generally took on an importance of their own. During the first decade of the twentieth century, George M. Cohan became one of the most successful stars, composers, and producers.
Beginning in the 1920s, Broadway musicals frequently based their stories on a boy- meets-girl plot. A notable exception was Show Boat, from 1927. This was based on Edna Ferber’s novel about the life of a family who ran a showboat on the Mississippi river. It had a more serious tone. This musical sent a message to other composers that audiences were ready for more serious dramas.
One of the most successful musical composers was actually a team, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Throughout the 1940s and well into the 1950s they collaborated on a number of musicals that were innovative and influential. Three of their best known works were Oklahoma, South Pacific, and The Sound of Music.
Leonard Bernstein, the Harvard-educated conductor, composer, and teacher, also composed musicals. His best-known work and most successful musical, West Side Story, was an updated retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. His lyricist was Stpehen Sondheim.
Sondheim has continued to produce successful musicals, writing both the lyrics and music. From A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum to A Little Night Music, Sondheim has used a varied range of plots and musical approaches. His musicals have not always been commercially successful, but one song from A Little Night Music, “Send In the Clowns,” has been covered by numerous artists.
Other contemporary composers of musical include the talented Englishman Andrew Lloyd Webber, the Frenchman Claude-Michel Schonberg, and the late Jonathan Larson, composer of the musical Rent, which is based on Puccini’s La Bohème.
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS
1. The Broadway musical can be dated to a musical drama, The Black Crook, performed on Broadway in 1866. It was based on the Faust story, but was apparently a very clumsy work. It benefited, however, from the presence of a Parisian ballet troupe whose New York booking had fallen through. The addition of the large group of dancers to what was a collection of popular songs stitched together with a crude plot was a hit with the public and set the standard for future musicals.
2. At different times throughout the twentieth century, Broadway fell on hard times. With the advent of the talking motion picture, many Broadway composers were lured to Hollywood to write movie musicals and soundtracks. Audiences were attracted to the larger theaters and smaller ticket prices. During the 1970s the economic recession put a strain on audiences and backers as well. Many theaters closed or were adapted to other uses. Another impact of the economy was on the scale of the Broadway show. In hard times, shows were scaled back to smaller casts, fewer dancers and chorus members, minimal sets, and so forth.
3. Because musicals had to return a profit for their financial backers (the profit motive), money became as important as art. The out-of-town trial became a necessity, especially for lesser-known composers and lyricists. Likewise the Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway theaters provided less costly spaces where new talent could be tried without so much financial risk.
FURTHER TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Is it necessary to know Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to appreciate West Side Story?
2. How does the Broadway musical compare with opera?
3. How are movie musicals different from Broadway musicals?
4. Is a musical easier to listen to than an opera? Why or why not?