Musical Theatre: A History

Photo by Florian Wehde on Unsplash

One of the essay topics for the RCM's ARCT History examination is the evolution of musical theatre. I checked out one of the suggested resources (listed on page 152 of Celebrate Theory: ARCT History), Musical Theatre: A History (second edition) by John Kenrick, and I recommend it highly. It's entertaining reading!

What is a musical? Here is Kenrick's definition: “A musical (noun) is a stage, screen or television production using popular style songs to either tell a story (book musicals) or showcase the talents of songwriters and performers (revues) – dialogue optional.”

What goes into creating a musical? You need music and lyrics (the songs), a book/libretto (the story expressed in script or dialogue), choreography (dance), staging (movement), and physical production (sets, costumes, and technical aspects). Ideally, the musical should also have brains, heart, and courage: intelligence on the part of the creators and performers, emotional content that reaches the audience, and the courage to do something new. Finally, a musical needs an audience. Ultimately, it's the audience who decides whether a musical will succeed and go on to influence the composers, lyricists, and librettists of the future. Nowadays, most musicals are extremely expensive to produce; if tickets don't sell, the musical dies a quick death.

This book talks about all aspects of creating musicals, including the composers, librettists, lyricists, choreographers, directors, producers, performers, and theatre owners. I learned about some different types of musicals:

Book musical: aims to tell a coherent story through a mixture of songs and spoken scenes (e.g. Show Boat, 1927)

Revue: tells a number of brief stories through songs and skits (e.g. The Ziegfeld Follies, 1907-1931)

Concept musical: a book musical built around a central concept – an event, place, problem, etc. – allowing the audience to focus simultaneously on multiple characters and related plots (e.g. A Chorus Line, 1975)

Rock musical: a musical featuring rock music (e.g. Grease, 1972)

Mega-musical: sung through, with little dialogue; big, loud, bombastic songs and emotions; substance takes a backseat to spectacle; all major professional productions are carbon copies (e.g. Cats, 1981)

Corporate musical: a genre of shows conceived, produced, and managed by multifunctional entertainment corporations; they look impressive, provide a steady supply of pop ballads, and are efficiently reproduced for foreign or touring productions (e.g. The Lion King, 1997)

Jukebox musical: a musical built around existing pop songs (could be a revue, but most are book musicals) (e.g. Mamma Mia, 1999) (the author nicknames these “pop-sicals”!)

Rap musical: a musical featuring rap music (e.g. Hamilton, 2015)

It was fascinating to read about the changes in musical theatre over the years, from its roots in operetta, music halls, and vaudeville to the musicals of today, along the way incorporating popular styles of music such as jazz, rock, and rap. It's also interesting (and a little sad) to consider the change in musicals' place in popular culture. It used to be that you would hear songs from musicals on popular radio stations, and revue-type TV shows in the 1950s and 1960s would feature Broadway songs and stars. Now musicals are no longer the main stem of popular entertainment.

I've always loved the musical Oklahoma (Rodgers & Hammerstein, 1943), but I never realized how groundbreaking it actually was. What made Oklahoma so special? Kenrick writes that it was the first organic musical play, in which every element (words, music, dancing, etc.) served as an integral part of the storytelling process. After Oklahoma, composers and lyricists were more than songwriters: they were dramatists, using every word and note to develop character and advance the action.

It's interesting to read about the innovations that we now take for granted. It was the Savoy Theatre in London that started the tradition of lowering the gaslights at the beginning of performances, as well as selling tickets for specific numbered seats, for performances of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas in the 1880s. It was for performances of the musical Three's a Crowd in 1930 that traditional footlights were first replaced by floodlights suspended from the mezzanine. The first original cast recording, recording all the songs exactly as heard in the theatrical performance, was for Oklahoma in 1943. Anna Maria Alberghetti was the first Broadway star to require electronic amplification (for Carnival in 1961).

I learned some interesting trivia. For example, in plays performed during the Roman Empire, actors attached metal clips (sabilla) to their sandals to make dance steps more audible: an early form of tap shoes! For commedia dell'arte performances in Italy in the 1400s, comic stage battles were accompanied by a slapstick, two flexible pieces of wood that simulated a loud “smack”; the word “slapstick” is still used to describe exaggerated physical comedy. Tin Pan Alley, West 28th Street in Manhattan (the home of a number of small publishing firms in the 1890s), got its nickname from a journalist who compared the din of song demonstrators pounding away on pianos to the sound of housewives banging tin pans on their window sills.

Kenrick is enthusiastic about the musicals he describes, but there are a couple of musicals he really doesn't like. He admits that Cats was a tremendous success, but he hates this musical, and he makes a number of 'catty' comments about it, including this one: “Cats was also a new musical one could take children to. The tykes might die from vapidity poisoning, but there was no danger of them being exposed to anything dangerous, like an idea.” Meow! In 2010, a rock musical was created using songs by the group Green Day; Kenrick writes, “American Idiot...was so ugly and muddled that it may rank as the only Broadway production ever named after its target audience.” Ouch!

John Kenrick has a website, Musicals101.com, which contains a wealth of information. Check it out!

My Fair Lady (Lerner & Loewe, 1956) is considered to be the greatest musical of Broadway's golden age. Here's a beautiful song which was almost cut from the show (saved at the last minute by some restaging): “On the Street Where You Live”

And, to finish, here's the song that became an unofficial anthem for American entertainment: “There's No Business Like Show Business” (performed by Ethel Merman; originally from Annie Get Your Gun, 1946)