NEW
DIRECTIONS
(1970-1979)
KENRICK, CHAPTER 14
“VARY MY DAY”
THE ROCK MUSICAL
HAIR inspired several new rock musicals.
TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA (1971) was
a rock, multiracial adaptation of Shakespeare’s
comedy that first played in Central Park and
then ran for almost 2 years on Broadway.
DUDE (1972) reunited Rado and Ragni
from HAIR (16 performances)
VIA GALACTICA (1972) lasted only 7
performances and replaced the stage of
the Broadway Theatre with a giant trampoline
Between them, DUDE and VIA GALACTICA
lost $1.8 million.
Thurio’s Samba from the London Production (1973)
THE ME NOBODY
KNOWS (1970)
A revue-like collage of songs based on
poems by inner city children. Performed by a
youthful cast of unknowns, it became a
celebration of the human spirit triumphing
over misfortune. A rave review in the Times
sparked audience interest, and word of
mouth did the rest. After seven months OffBroadway, the production moved to the
Helen Hayes and ran profitably for 20 more.
GODSPELL
(1971)
Greg Evigan, Don Scardino &
Paul Shaffer from original Toronto
production in 1972.
American critics were kind to composerlyricist Stephen Schwartz's take on the new
testament (2,651), which started offBroadway on a meager budget and
became a phenomenal success. The
upbeat score included "Day By Day," "Turn
Back, O Man" and "Prepare Ye the Way of
the Lord.” Multiple casts played throughout
North America. Link to 2012 revival.
ORIGINAL TORONTO CAST (1971)
Victor Garber
 Eugene Levy
Martin Short 
 Gilda Radner
 Andrea Martin
The music director was Paul Shaffer
DAVE THOMAS WITH
EUGENE LEVY AS JESUS
ORIGINAL CHICAGO CAST WITH
JOE MANTEGNA
Joe Mantegna (with beard) and
Karla DeVito are in the second row
from the bottom.
JESUS CHRIST
SUPERSTAR (1971)
Broadway's first full-fledged rock opera
came from two British newcomers,
composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and
librettist Tim Rice. Jesus Christ Superstar
(720) began life as a best-selling studio
recording. The intriguing premise was to
examine the role popular fame played in
Christ's fate. JCS was a world away from
the rock musicals of the late 1960s. With
all dialogue set to music, this work qualified
as the first rock opera. Broadway
audiences didn't much mind the highpowered staging by Hair alumni Tom
O'Horgan, but a more effective London
production ran for a record-setting 3,358
performances. With this hit, Webber and
Rice initiated a new creative era for the
British musical theatre.
GREASE (1972)
Grease (3,388) won America's heart with a
1950s rock n' roll score and a hokey story
about white trash high school kids finding
friendship and romance during their senior
year. It had enough low comedy, coarse
language and general goodwill to entertain
millions. After opening on the Lower East
Side, the show soon moved to Broadway
and became the most commercially
successful 1970s rock musical. Grease set
a new record as Broadway's longest
running musical – a distinction it would
hold until A Chorus Line surpassed it in
the 1980s. The 1978 big screen version
became the highest-grossing screen
musical up to that time, and a 1994
Broadway revival supervised by Tommy
Tune ran for 1,503 performances.
BLACK MUSICALS
WITH ROCK SCORES
Purlie (1970)
Raisin (1973)
The Wiz (1975)
ROCK OPERA
FAILURES
THE LIEUTENANT (1975) was a rock
opera about the My Lai massacre.
ROCKABYE HAMLET (1976) was
based on Shakespeare's classic drama.
Gower Champion staged the show like
an all-out rock concert, and the result
was such an incoherent mess that many
found it hard to believe that Champion
could have been responsible for it. The
score included "He Got It in The Ear,"
and disgruntled audiences laughed when
the despairing Ophelia strangled herself
with a microphone cord. Bad rock and
bad theatre, it closed in just one week.
THE ROCKY HORROR
SHOW (1973, 1975)
THE ROCKY HORROR
SHOW was the creation of a
London musician, artist,
composer, actor named
Richard O’Brien. After a brief
run in a London night club, it
played at the Roxy in Los
Angeles, where they made
the cult film prior to its
Broadway debut in 1975 (45
performances). A 2000
Broadway revival played
437 performances.
THE CONCEPT MUSICAL
In One More Kiss: The Broadway Musical in the 1970s (New York: Palgrave, 2003), Ethan
Mordden defines a concept musical as "a presentational rather than strictly narrative work
that employs out-of-story elements to comment upon and at times take part in the action,
utilizing avant-garde techniques to defy unities of time, place and action." Once a subject
or situation is raised (marriage, love, finding a job, etc.) characters can comment on or
illustrate aspects of the subject. There is a solid storyline, but all the major elements of
these shows are linked in some way to the central concept.
Harold Prince was not thrilled that so many of his shows are referred to as concept
musicals –
"The whole label that was put on our shows, the whole notion of the 'concept' musical, was
one that I really resent. I never wished it on myself. It caused a backlash and animosity
towards the shows and us . . . It's called a 'unified' show, an 'integrated' show."
Craig Zadan's Sondheim & Co., Harper and Row, New York, 2nd edition, 1986, p. 362)
By any name, the musicals that Prince, Sondheim and their various collaborators offered
in the early 1970s re-energized the Broadway musical, setting the genre on a soulsearching course that redefined the genre. Historian Foster Hirsch explains how Prince
and Sondheim, though different, complemented each other –
Prince galloping ahead while Sondheim holds tightly onto the reins; Prince the affable public
relations man, glibly articulating concepts and trajectories, Sondheim leery of publicity; Prince
relishing the activity of the rehearsal process, Sondheim disliking it: out of the fusion of their
temperamental dissimilarities they have become modernism's answer to Rodgers and
Hammerstein – the makers of the self-reflexive musical.
Harold Prince and The American Musical Theater (New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1989, p. 71)
PRINCE AND
SONDHEIM
Five years after his bitter experience working
as lyricist on Do I Hear A Waltz (1965 - 220),
Stephen Sondheim returned to Broadway as
a fulltime composer/lyricist. He formed a
creative partnership with producer/director
Harold Prince, and the duo saw their
innovative concept musicals become the most
acclaimed hits of the early 1970s. They worked
with a series of librettists on shows built
around a "concept”. Through this central issue
or idea, each show examined numerous
characters and relationships. Sondheim and
Prince were assisted in their first two efforts by
choreographer Michael Bennett, who would
independently create the most successful
concept musical of all.
COMPANY (1970)
George Furth's libretto for Company
(706) used Bobby, a single 30something man seeking love in
contemporary Manhattan, to focus on
the problems and gentle insanities of
five couples – Bobby's "good and
crazy" married friends – as well as the
various single women vying for
Bobby's hand. As Bobby confronts the
emotional confusion brought on by his
thirty-fifth birthday, he realizes that a
myriad of friends are no replacement
for sharing intimate love with one
person. Bennett's choreography
embodied everything from a surprise
party to coitus, and Prince's direction
kept this bountiful mix in sharp focus.
Dean Jones headed Company's
original cast but left early in the run.
He was replaced by Larry Kert.
Sondheim's score was pure
Broadway with a contemporary
edge. Much of that edge came from
inventive, literate, dramatically
potent lyrics. For example, the
often-married character Joanne
(played by Elaine Stritch) observed
that perfect marital relationships are
made by the "tactics you employ,
neighbors you annoy" and "children
you destroy . . . together."
Sondheim's marriage of wit and
heart was a vibrant continuation
of what Berlin, Porter, Ira
Gershwin and Oscar
Hammerstein II (Sondheim's
mentor) had done in earlier
eras. But Sondheim's lyrics
spoke for a generation in the
midst of a cultural and sexual
revolution. As no one else
before or since, he gave
uncertainty and self-exploration
an eloquent, intriguing voice.
Neil Patrick Harris – Being Alive
Raul Esparza – Being Alive
2011 revival “Side by Side by Side”
Dean Jones – Being Alive
1996 London – Not Getting Married
Glee 2013 – Not Getting Married
Lea Salogna – Another Hundred People
FOLLIES
(1971)
In Follies (522), the libretto by playwright
James Goldman centered on two former
showgirls and their spouses assessing
embittered marriages while attending a reunion
of performers from a Ziegfeld era Broadway
revue. Sondheim's wide-ranging score evoked
various musical styles of the past. While the
melodies had a traditional sound, the lyrics
often went for the jugular, ("Could I leave you?
Yes! Will I leave you? Guess!"). No musical had
ever taken such a frank look at the painful
realities of growing older and abandoning one's
dreams. Bennett's innovative choreography
was a crucial element, showing characters in a
parallel past and present. Follies was not a
commercial success, but its magnificent score
made it a favorite with theatre buffs.
Bernadette Peters sings “Losing my Mind in the 2011 revival.
A LITTLE NIGHT
A Little Night Music (600), Sondheim
MUSIC (1973) For
and librettist Hugh Wheeler had a central
love story, but like its inspirational source
(Ingmar Bergman's film Smiles of A
Summer Night) that romance became an
excuse to focus on numerous characters
and relationships. As an aging actress
(Glynis Johns) tried to re-ignite a past
amour with a married attorney (Len
Cariou), love was examined from the
perspectives of youth, middle age and
seniority, creating a haunting, bittersweet
collage. Sondheim composed the entire
score in variations of waltz time, so even
the music was built around a concept. The
show's most popular number, "Send In The
Clowns," would be the only time a song
with words and music by Sondheim
became a best-selling pop chart hit.
PACIFIC OVERTURES (1976)
In Pacific Overtures (193) the book by John Weidman
examined how Japan's ancient culture was wrenched
when the American Navy forced the isolated island nation
to open to international trade in 1853. The story is told
from a Japanese point of view as broad array of
characters take the story through the decades, with a
finale set in contemporary times (skipping any mention of
World War II). The score was one of Sondheim's most
intriguing, including musical haiku and pastiches of
Sullivan and Offenbach. Highlights included the extended
musical scenes "Chrysanthemum Tea," "Please Hello" and
"Someone In A Tree" – each a well crafted mini-musical
that brought a separate set of characters to life.
Prince adapted ancient kabuki techniques for the staging,
using a mostly male Asian cast. Pacific Overtures was
so innovative that American audiences did not know what
to make of it. An exquisite Off-Broadway revival won
critical acclaim in 1984, but did not see a much longer run
than the original -- and subsequent revivals have reached
a small but dedicated audience. Perhaps this unique
musical is too challenging to win mass approval.
PIPPIN (1972)
Bob Fosse reached his creative peak in the
1970s. While turning out acclaimed films
and TV specials, he offered Broadway
three dance-centered concept musicals,
where a central concept drove the show,
rather than a traditional plot. Fosse's
directorial vision took total precedence
over the book or score – Pippin (1,944)
used the story of Charlemagne's forgotten
son as a flimsy excuse to examine
jealousy, sex, war, sex, love, sex, life, sex .
. . and sex. When composer Stephen
Schwartz disagreed with changes made to
his score, Fosse barred him from
rehearsals. Thanks to Fosse's erotically
charged choreography and teasing TV ad,
Pippin ran long and toured far. John
Rubenstein charmed audiences in the title
role.
BOB FOSSE HAD A
CAREER YEAR IN 1973
His film of CABARET earned
him an Academy Award.
His TV special LIZA WITH A Z
earned him an Emmy Award.
His direction of PIPPIN earned
him a Tony Award.
CHICAGO
(1975)
Fosse's stylish and sexy
choreography was also
evident in Chicago
(898), the saga of two
1920s flappers seeking
fame through marital
homicide.
This concept musical
cast a cynical, merciless
spotlight on social
hypocrisy and mediabased celebrity.
Fosse helped shape the libretto, staged
the scenes as a series of vaudeville-style
acts. Gwen Verdon (in her final musical
role) and Chita Rivera were the stellar
killers, and Jerry Orbach played their
"razzle dazzle" attorney. The John
Kander and Fred Ebb score offered a
parade of showstoppers, including "All
That Jazz." One of the most brilliant and
biting musicals Broadway would ever
produce, Chicago was overshadowed by
the success of A Chorus Line and did
not win a single Tony. It took a 1996
Broadway revival and a 2002 film version
to bring it the popularity it deserved.
DANCIN’
(1978)
With Dancin' (1,744), Fosse took concept shows
a step further and dispensed with a script and
original score, building an entire evening of
unrelated dance sequences around nothing more
than a gifted cast, a title and pre-existing, nontheatrical musical sources like Benny Goodman's
jazz classic "Sing, Sing, Sing." Alan Jay Lerner
wired Fosse, "Congratulations. You finally did it.
You got rid of the author, " but the public and
critics adored the results, making this one of
Fosse's most profitable productionsAlthough
Fosse never had another original stage hit after
Dancin', his legacy as a choreographer and
director would outlive him. In 1999, more than a
decade after his death, the Broadway dance
revue Fosse (supervised by Gwen Verdon)
introduced a new generation to this showman's
genius.
MICHAEL BENNETT
Director, choreographer, dancer
(Michael DeFiglia)
b. April 8, 1943 (Buffalo, NY)
d. July 2, 1987 (Tuscon, Arizona)
After dancing in the choruses of several Broadway shows, Bennett made his
choreographic debut with A Joyful Noise (1966). He staged dances for Promises,
Promises (1968) and director Hal Prince's productions of Stephen Sondheim's
innovative hits Company (1970) and Follies (1971). At a series of private sessions
in the early 1970s, Bennett tape recorded the memories and musings of veteran
Broadway dancers. This material formed the basis for A Chorus Line (1975),
which Bennett directed and choreographed. The show became a sensation,
receiving several Tonys and the Pulitzer Prize, and going on to a record-setting
Broadway run. Bennett's innovative Ballroom (1978) displeased critics and closed
in a matter of weeks, but his stylish Dreamgirls (1981) became a long-running hit.
After his marriage to Donna McKechnie ended in divorce, he abandoned the
musical Scandal in mid-workshop, and was forced to give up directing the longawaited Chess when he was diagnosed with AIDS.
SEESAW
(1973)
Seesaw is a musical with a book by
Michael Bennett, music by Cy Coleman,
and lyrics by Dorothy Fields. directed and
choreographed by Bennett, opened on
March 18, 1973 at the Uris Theatre. It later
transferred to the Mark Hellinger; between
the two venues, it ran a total of 296
performances. The opening night cast
included Ken Howard, Michele Lee,
Tommy Tune, Giancarlo Esposito,
Thommie Walsh, Amanda McBroom and
Baayork Lee.
Reviews were universally good, but there
was no money for newspaper ads to quote
them or thirty-second television spots to
promote the show. As a publicity stunt,
New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay was
persuaded to appear on stage during a
production number set in Times Square,
and the ensuing media coverage resulted
in a boost at the box office. Tommie Tune
was featured in the touring production.
A CHORUS LINE
(1975)
The concept musical reached its peak with
A Chorus Line (6,137), the brainchild of
Michael Bennett. He had Broadway chorus
dancers (known in the business as
"gypsies" because they go from show to
show) share memories while a tape
recorder ran. Working with these tapes,
Bennett built a libretto with writers Nicholas
Dante and James Kirkwood. Concurrently,
composer Marvin Hamlisch and lyricist
Edward Kleban developed a vibrant score.
The concept was a Broadway chorus
audition where a director demands that his
dancers share their most private memories
and inner demons. Some dismissed this as
staged group therapy, but most found that
the result was riveting theatre.
A Chorus Line glorified the
individual fulfillment that can be
found in ensemble efforts. When
the entire cast sang of being "One"
while dancing and singing in rigid
roup formation, the effect was
dazzling. Veteran chorus dancers
Donna McKechnie, Kelly Bishop
and Sammy Williams won Tonys,
as did the entire creative team. A
Chorus Line's popularity crossed all
lines of age and musical taste,
smashing every other long-run
record in Broadway history. Many
who came of age during its run
dubbed it the best musical ever.
REVIVALS
NO, NO NANETTE (1971) ran
861 performances
LORELEI (1974) was a revised Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes with Carol Channing
GYPSY (1974) with Angela Lansbury
as Mama Rose
MY FAIR LADY (1976) ran for a year
with George Rose as Alfred Doolittle
AN ALL-BLACK GUYS
AND DOLLS (1976)
REVIVALS
HELLO, DOLLY! (1975) with Pearl Bailey
(1978) with Carol Channing
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (1976)
with Zero Mostel
MAN OF LA MANCHA (1970, 1977)
Sandy Duncan in PETER PAN (1979)
REVIVALS
OKLAHOMA! (1979)
VERY GOOD EDDIE (1975)
THE KING AND I (1977) ran in the
Uris with Yul Brynner for 2 years.
He died a few months after his final
performance.
CANDIDE (1974)
Hal Prince restaged Leonard
Bernstein's unsuccessful 1956
operetta Candide (740) as a
wacky Off-Broadway farce,
underplaying the grander
aspects of the score and
stressing physical comedy. This
rollicking production delighted
the critics, moved to the
Broadway Theater and ran for
two profitable years.
RICHARD RODGERS
TWO BY TWO (with Martin Charnin)
starring Danny Kaye (1970)
REX (1976) with Sheldon Harnick
starring Nicol Williamson
I REMEMBER MAMA (1979)
with Liv Ullman
He died December 30, 1979
LERNER AND LOEWE
GIGI (1973)
Alan Jay Lerner and
Frederick Loewe adapted
their 1958 screen classic
Gigi (110) for Broadway.
Despite the stellar
presence of Alfred Drake,
Maria Karnilova and Agnes
Moorhead, the production
lost a fortune.
JERRY HERMAN
MACK AND MABEL (1974) ran
for only 69 performances. The
show featured one of Jerry
Herman's finest scores and a
cast headed by Robert Preston
and Bernadette Peters.
But the tragic true life love story
of silent screen director Mack
Sennett and actress Mabel
Normand made the libretto
unworkable.
APPLAUSE (1970)
The book musical had been a Broadway's
staple since Oklahoma, and the format
managed an impressive comeback in the
1970s. Several writers took the common
sense approach of adding contemporary
musical flavoring to otherwise conventional
musicals. Charles Strouse and Lee Adams,
who used early rock and roll effectively in
Bye Bye Birdie, had similar success with
Applause (900), which re-set the backstabbing plot of the film All About Eve in
the theatrical world of 1970. This time, rock
rhythms and orchestrations gave a "mod"
sound to traditional showtunes, and the
presence of 1940s movie star Lauren
Bacall cemented the show's success with
mainstream theatregoers. She couldn't
sing worth a damn, but her star power sold
plenty of tickets.
ANNIE (1976)
Some suggested that the standard book
musical was an endangered Broadway
species. Then an orphan girl and a scruffy
dog re-energized the genre. Both critics
and audiences melted for Annie (2,377), a
shamelessly old-fashioned musical
inspired by the comic strip Little Orphan
Annie. It told how a penniless tyke met and
captured the heart of billionaire Daddy
Warbucks, finding love, adventure and a
loveable mutt named Sandy along the way.
Newcomer Andrea McArdle gave a
disarming performance in the title role, and
Dorothy Loudon copped the Tony with a
hilarious performance as Miss Hannigan,
the harried orphanage director who has
come to loathe "Little Girls."
The 2012 revival official site.
OTHER SUCCESSES
SHENANDOAH (1975) Based upon a
civil war era play, it featured John
Cullum as the play’s patriarch.
THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN
TEXAS (1978) A musical about Texas,
politics, football and sex. Directed by
Tommy Tune.
Despite decent runs, both Purlie and
Raisin wound up losing money. At the
other extreme, AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ (1978
- 1,604) revitalized the revue format with
an all-black cast in beguiling vignettes
built around the songs of Fats Waller.
OTHER SUCCESSES
THEY’RE PLAYING OUR
SONG (1979) featured
music by Marvin Hamlisch
and a book by Neil Simon
SUGAR BABIES (1979) with
Mickey Rooney and Ann
Miller in a revue-style
Burlesque show
A CHANGING CLIMATE
It's not so much that the public disapproved of these well-written but
imperfect shows. Most Americans were not paying attention to the musical
theatre anymore, and consequently musicals had become a sort of
subculture. Rock and disco were the predominant sounds in popular music,
and neither genre had more than a token presence in most Broadway scores.
The potential sales for cast albums had fallen so low that major labels
stopped recording them altogether.
To make matters worse, by 1979, most Broadway musicals cost $1,000,000
or more to produce, and weekly operating expenses were so high that even a
two year run could not guarantee a profit. Some blamed the volatile economy,
but Broadway was the only place where inflation (a widespread problem in
the 1970s economy) had run at a rate of 400 percent. In this unsettled
environment, two important musicals came to represent the forces that would
compete for the soul of musical theatre in the decade to come.
SONDHEIM VS. LLOYD
WEBBER
SWEENEY TODD (1979)
While Stephen Sondheim's
Sweeney Todd (557) used a
conventional plot structure, its
operatic score was Sondheim's
most ambitious effort to date.
Going further, this blood-soaked
tale of an unjustly persecuted
man's all-consuming quest for
revenge in Victorian London
explored emotional territory no
musical had ever touched before.
SONDHEIM VS. LLOYD
WEBBER
Not since Shakespeare had a poet of the theatre taken such an
unflinching look into the darkest corners of the human soul. When
Sweeney's cast pointed at audience members and insisted that they had
a murderous hate like Sweeney's hiding inside them, it was bound to
leave many theatergoers uneasy. Tony-winning performances by Angela
Lansbury and Len Cariou added to the impact, as did a massive
production helmed by Hal Prince. (Prince framed the action in the actual
ruins of an old factory, trucked in from Rhode Island.) But this lofty
accomplishment came at a crippling price. Despite a healthy run and
numerous awards, the show was unable to turn a profit.
A far different musical came from England with advance hoopla that
Gilbert and Sullivan might have envied. Following the pattern they had
initiated with Jesus Christ Superstar, Andrew Lloyd Webber and librettist
Tim Rice launched their stage biography of Argentina's Eva Peron as a
recording. Working with director Hal Prince, they refined it on stage in
London, sharpening the book's focus, toning down the rock elements and
adding a touch of disco to expand the score's commercial possibilities.
SONDHEIM VS. LLOYD
WEBBER
By the time it reached Broadway, Evita (1979 1,567) was a slick and stylish smash hit, with
breakthrough performances by Patti Lupone as
Evita and Mandy Patinkin as Che. A disco version
of "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" became a hit. Evita
was a calculated triumph of stagecraft and
technology, undeniably entertaining but in some
ways as vapid as any of Ziegfeld's Follies. Webber
and Rice depicted Eva as a whore with flair and
ruthless ambition, but gave no clue as to what made
her complex character tick. Meaningful or not,
people liked it. Running three times longer than
Sweeney Todd, it made a massive profit from
productions all over the world. With this flashy
victory of matter over mind, the Mega-musical was
born.
Link to montage from 2012 revival.
Samantha Barks sings “Another Suitcase in Another Hall (2013)
THE MEGAMUSICAL
Both Sweeney and Evita were expensive
productions with stunning stage direction
by Hal Prince, and both won seven Tony
Awards (including Best Musical) in
adjoining seasons. The key difference:
Sweeney Todd lost money, Evita made
money. This was not lost on producers and
investors. It is easy for armchair critics to
advocate artistic merit over financial
concerns, but answer this: If you were
investing $100,000 or more of your own
money, would you prefer to lose it or make
a profit? The inevitable answer to that
question set the uneasy course of the
Broadway musical for the remainder of the
20th Century.
SOURCES
Kenrick, John
MUSICAL THEATRE A HISTORY (New York: Continuum, 2008)
Kenrick, John
Musicals 101 <http://www.musicals101.com/>