Constant Parade Of New Broadway Musicals example essay topic

From the late 1800's up through the present date, musical theater has changed. Though customs and love for the theater will always be carried on, origins, trends, and styles will change throughout time". The American musical was born long before European operetta crossed the Atlantic. In The American Musical Stage Before 1800. Julian Mates tells us that "America's early theatres were essentially lyric theatres... In America, no earlier dramatic forms existed, and the musical stage became our only tradition (musicals 101. com) ".

During America's first hundred years, the favorite musical entertainments during the time were variety musical shows. In the 1860's and 70's, Pantomime was a the main Broadway staple. In these types of shows, clown characters were taken and placed in plots based on Mother Goose stories. Also seen was the insertion of popular songs whenever the audience needed a breather. The Pantomime form disappeared completely from American stages by 1880. From 1879 until 1884 the variety team of Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and performed in musical farces set on the streets of New York.

The main focus of the shows was on lower class immigrant life, depicting real-life problems as interracial tensions, political corruption and gang violence. Harrigan and Hart are best known as the creators of musical comedy. They made these problems into harmless humor. "Harrigan and Hart's shows had scores in the style of contemporary popular music with simple melodies and lyrics, lots of sentiment and a wry sense of street-smart humor (musicals 101. com). In 1878, Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore premiered in the United States. Their arrival sparked an overwhelming response from the people, the craze that was, was known as "Pinafore-Mania".

The songs that were sung in the show became the language of the people, and became part of everyday conversation. Even though it seemed all was good, some were not pleased and happy with the two "invaders."In the century since Gilbert and Sullivan, people on both sides of the Atlantic have bitched about "invasions" coming from the other side. America and Britain have continually sent each other their best shows for over a hundred years. If the balance tilts a bit every now and then, no matter: it will shift again (musical 101. com) ". With the growth of the American cities and with the Industrial Revolution going on, the theater-fans were becoming more sophisticated. With this, the homegrown musical entertainment, due to the success of Gilbert and Sullivan, looked second rate.

The standards of the American Theater began to change. Variety, musical shows, did not disappear immediately, but an ambitious new breed of musicals developed. One of the crucial factors in the development of musical theater in America was the formation of several repertory theater companies based on the D'Oyle Carte model. "The Boston Ideal Opera Company, later known as The Bostonians, toured the country for over a quarter of a century giving top-quality professional performances. Most troupes were centered around a particular star, but The Bostonians made their mark as an ensemble. Their repertory included Gilbert & Sullivan as well as American musicals (Musicals 101. com).

Now that it had learned to have a good laugh and sing a catchy, the American was ready for what the 1900's would bring. By 1904, the American musical became far more profitable in the early twentieth century. Before 1880, American Theater companies could only travel to a few large cities. Expanding railroads made touring smaller towns easier and less expensive. Nearly 20 years later, there were over 400 troupes bringing plays and musicals to every corner of the nation.

Despite a continuing European influence, several outstanding American composers (George M. Cohan, Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern) saw to it that the Broadway musical began to develop a voice of its own. Since most theater-goers came from the growing middle and working classes, shows had to appeal to the "common man". The resulting musical comedies were glamorous, funny and decidedly in toe-as were the songs. When World War I ended in 1918, the boys came home in the mood to party. That attitude and the tremendous prosperity of the 1920's created a cultural environment in which the musical could enter its golden age. "This is the Broadway musical of the 1920's as we recall it: recklessly built upon the despotism of performing talent, dotty with corny humor of a bygone era, riddled with clich'e and convention, it's storyline ceaselessly humiliated by irrelevant songs and specialty acts...

Yet the 1920's as a whole saw the form so refine and transform itself that, by the decade's finish, the "Tee-Oodle-Um-Bum-Bo" chorus line, the Bubble Dances, the nineteenth-century comedy, and the unmotivated star shot would be virtually extinct, unknown to the better writers and the unpopular even with second raters (Ethan Morden) ". A major period for the theater was when the Shubert Brothers took control. They took control of 75% of the theaters in America, demanding outrageous fees and punishing those who did not obey their ever-changing whims. They became famous for suing actors, writers, producers, and even each other. For better and for worse, their family's business sense and artistic instincts shaped the commercial American Theater for the next half-century. Considering the dramatic changes the musical would undergo in the 1940's, audiences might have done better to catch their breath.

In the 1950's, Broadway musicals were not just big news in New York-they were big news all across America. The show tune was America's popular music. Public demand, a booming economy and an abundance of creative talent made a constant parade of new Broadway musicals possible. "What sets the best of these musicals apart from all that came before? Simple: great storytelling and great songs. Recognizable characters sang in fresh stories told with wit and genuine sentiment-in short, the Rodgers & Hammerstein formula (musicals 101. com) ".

Famous shows from the 50's include The King and I, The Sound of Music, Paint Your Wagon, and My Fair Lady. A major influence for this era was Oscar Hammerstein II. His career spanned the history of the musical theater; he worked with Romberg and Rodgers, and eventually coached young Stephen Sondheim. Hammerstein perfected the Broadway lyric as a dramatic tool, enriching and enhancing his characters.

As a result, his work is very mush alive decades after his death. Note-4 Hammerstein musicals appeared on Broadway during the 1995-1996 season: State Fair, The King and I, Showboat, and A Grand Night for Singing. By the 1960's, the Broadway musicals started this decade off with a roar and ended them with something akin to a nervous breakdown. The decades most enduring hit was born Off-Broadway. The Fantastic ks told the story of two fathers who bring their idealistic children together with the help of the dashing El Gallo, only to learn that "happily ever after" has it's darker side. Actors, stagehands and production staff could count on an annual cycle of shows to bring them regular employment.

All one needed to take advantage of this was good health, a dependable professional reputation and enough talent to dazzle through 8 performances a week. New shows still appeared after 1966, but the number of new musicals dwindled and actors who occasionally worked as waiters gradually turned into waiters who occasionally took time off to do a show. It was not long before people in show business-or what was let of it-started wondering what had happened. The answer was simple: the world had turned upside down. "In the 1970's, a three-sided battle took place between conventional post-Oklahoma musicals, rock musicals, and "concept" shows. Each genre had its virtues and flaws, and each had its hits and misses.

Just when it seemed that the conflict was resolved, another type of musical came from across the Across to dominate the final years of the century (musicals 101. com) ". Rock musicals with good scripts and solid production did well. Jesus Christ Superstar, in 1971, was Broadway's first full-fledged rock opera. The show was very entertaining for the people but criticized for being overly produced.

America was much kinder to Stephen Schwartz's take on the same subject, Gosdpell. This production started off-Broadway on a meager budget and became a great success, to this day, remaining a staple in schools and community theaters. The most commercially recognized musical of the 70's was Grease. Grease won America's heart with a pleasant 50's pastiche rock n' roll score and a hokey story about white trash high school kids finding friendships and romance. The show had low comedy and general good will to entertain everyone, and as the years went by, the producers integrated obscenity-laden dialogue to appeal to the younger viewers. During the 70's, the rock opera took a hard hit in the latter part of the decade.

Producers eventually turned against the rock opera's, partly because of their personal musical tastes, but mostly because of the indifference shown by theatergoers. So after Grease and a few other "rock operas", the newer shows used little if any rock in their scores. While the theater community may have found a return to more traditional scores reassuring, popular music traveled on. The firs super-hit of the 80's was a 42nd Street. The backstage plot was about a chorus girl that takes over for the lead actress on opening night. Another big hit of the 80's was Cats.

Cats was staged as a gathering of felines in a garbage-strewn alley where one cat is finally allowed to ascend to kitty heaven. "The revolutionary thing about Cats was not the show on stage-it was the marketing. Before this, most musicals limited their souvenirs to photo programs, songbooks, and T-shirts. Cats splashed its distinctive logo on coffee mugs, music boxes, figurines, books on "the making of", greeting cards, baseball caps, satin jackets, etc. The overwrought ballad "Memory" and those feline eyes were damn near everywhere (musicals 101. com) ".

The American musicals responded to the support for the response that the production of Cats received and revived their own standard. The 1983-84 season brought a clash of American titans with Jerry Herman's La Cage Aux Follies, Maltby &Shire's Baby, and Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George. All of these shows were solid artistic accomplishments. After this big outburst of show, just as suddenly as they came, just as suddenly came the silence. As seen earlier in the late 60's, musicals took another big hit. For the first time since Oklahoma, more than a decade would pass before a new American musical topped 1,000 performances.

When 1990 passed without any memorable musicals appearing on Broadway, people in the theater started to think that they have lost their audiences completely. Less than 5% of the American public attended the theater regularly, and most people went for years without seeing a show. Miss Saigon was the first show that had actually appealed to the public. It was a show the middle-aged tourist crowd lapped up, with lavish effects and tearjerker love story line. The most successful Broadway hits of the early 90's were aimed at one or more element of its core audience. Revivals of shows like Guys and Dolls, Carousel, and Showboat, helped fulfill the theatergoers seeking familiar products.

The gays and students kept more adventurous shows like Secret Garden, Falsettos, and Jelly's Last Jam. Beauty and the Beast was a show that brought a real unsettling change to Broadway. People who rarely if ever went to the theater were happy to pay top dollar to bring their families to see Beauty and the Beast. The production eas replicated with clinical precision in cities all over the world parents were relieved to find a clean show and the billions started rolling in.

Souvenirs became a bigger moneymaker than ever. Another hit was and still is, is the Lion King. The "$12 million puppet show", for what Lion King was referred to as, also did extremely well. The new "American Corporate" musicals are the "new kids on the block" and there is nothing that the British Broadway's could do nothing about it.

The Corporate Musical is built, produced and managed by multi-functional entertainment corporation like Disney or Liven t. By the late 90's, almost every show that had made it to Broadway was a corporate product. The best shows of the late 1990's came from corporations that aimed for artistic integrity as well as corporate profit. Titanic was the best new musical in over a decade. Although it had some of the marks of a corporate musical, it was a show that put the creative aspects ahead of the marketing concerns, and keeping the artistic soul. The 1998-99 season was one of mostly disappointments.

Show like Footloose, Parade, and The Civil War all had enthusiasm but reeked of professional ineptitude. "The Broadway musical, an art form that had flourished throughout most of the Twentieth Century, was in something like critical condition as the century comes toward its end (musicals 101. com) ". In closing, many feel that the outlook of Broadway and the musical is very dim, with the constantly changing society and culture, and things coming and going as far as likes / dislikes go, Broadway today, seems to be on the way out. History will dictate that since the Introduction of Broadway to the people it had slowly but surely, lost its mystique with the public. I will close my paper with an excerpt from New York Literary Light by William Corbett: "Musicals flourished into the early sixties, but there were few new playwrights... and there seemed room for only one new writer of musicals, Stephen Sondheim. By the early eighties Broadway became a tourist attraction mounting fewer shows each year, some years not even ten, and these ten were often star vehicles or extravaganzas that depended on sensational stage effects.

The same holds true today. It is difficult to imagine when Broadway will again play a significant role in New York's literary life."