ROCK ROLLS IN
CHAPTER 13
Kenrick, Musical Theatre: A History
“Soon It’s Gonna Rain”
(1960-70)
Intimate musicals re-emerged
THE FANTASTICKS began life as a one-act college project for Tom Jones
and Harvey Schmidt. Expanded to two-acts, it moved into the Sullivan
Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village in 1960 where it began a run of
17,162 performances, becoming the world’s longest-running musical.
You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown
Opening in 1967, it ran for
1,597 peformances.
Dames at Sea (1968)
The campy, nostalgic "Dames at
Sea" ran for 575 performances.
It was an early success for
Bernadette Peters who played
Ruby, the girl from Utah who
saves a sagging Broadway
musical aboard a battleship. The
musical is a small cast tonguein-cheek tribute to the large cast
Busby Berkeley film musicals.
Pithy lyrics, music you can hum
to and production numbers with
tap shoes complete the picture.
Oscar Hammerstein died in 1960
Oscar Glendenning
Hammerstein II died in his
home in Doylestown,
Pennsylvania, on August
23, 1960, a victim of
stomach cancer. He left
behind three children,
William and Alice by Myra
Finn, and James by
Dorothy Blanchard
Jacobson. On September
1, 1960, at 9 P.M. , the
lights were extinguished on
Broadway in memory of
Oscar Hammerstein II, the
"man who owned
Broadway."
No Strings (1962)
Composer Richard Rodgers provided
words and music for the score of No
Strings (1962 - 580). As in the best of
his work with the late Oscar
Hammerstein II, Rodgers took an
innovative approach (a string-less
orchestra, musicians on stage) to a
controversial topic. While in Paris, white
writer Richard Kiley falls in love with
black fashion model Diane Carroll, but
they are ultimately torn apart because
their interracial romance. The lilting
ballad "The Sweetest Sounds" was the
highlight of the score, but Rodgers won a
Tony for Best Composer. His only other
new stage musical in the 1960s was Do I
Hear a Waltz? (1965 - 220) -- a
collaboration with lyricist Stephen
Sondheim which became so acrimonious
that both men stayed away from
Broadway until the next decade.
Gower Champion
Dancer Gower Champion won an early Tony as directorchoreographer of the successful revue Lend An Ear
(1947). Not coming from the usual show biz dance tradition
(no tap, no kick lines, etc.), Champion used his background
in ballroom-style dancing to give his musical sequences a
fluidic, seamless look.
After spending the 1950s primarily working in film with his
wife Marge, Champion returned to Broadway as directorchoreographer of the breakthrough stage hit Bye Bye
Birdie (1960).
Bye, Bye Birdie
BYE BYE BIRDIE is a satire
telling the story of a rock and roll
singer who is about to be
inducted into the army.
4 Tony Awards for Musical,
Director, Choreography and
Featured Actor
BYE BYE BIRDIE played on
Broadway for 607 performances
at the Martin Beck Theatre and
268 performances in London at
Her Majesty's Theatre.
Carnival (1961)
Based on the MGM movie Lili (1953 MGM), it told the story of a naive French
orphan who learns about love and life
when she becomes human co-star of a
circus puppet show. Champion sent
roustabouts and circus acts through the
audience, using the entire auditorium as a
performance space, but he recognized that
the true power of the show lay in the title
character's enchanting scenes with the
hand puppets. Anna Maria Alberghetti
performed "Love Makes the World Go
Round" and won a Tony. Bob Merrill's
score included the ballad "Her Face,"
sung by Jerry Orbach as the tormented
puppeteer.
Hello, Dolly! (1964)
Champion's definitive 1960s triumph
was Hello Dolly (1964 - 2,844) a
musical version of Thornton Wilder's
comedy The Matchmaker. With a
score by composer-lyricist Jerry
Herman and a libretto by Michael
Stewart, it told the story of a shrewd
widow who brings young lovers
together and finds a husband for
herself (irascible Yonkers store owner,
Horace Vanderguilder) in 1890s New
York. The role of Dolly was first offered
to Ethel Merman, but she was still
recovering from her long run in Gypsy,
and declined. Nanette Fabray also
passed, opening the way for Carol
Channing.
Producer David Merrick
The Abominable Showman
Throughout his professional career,
Merrick waged a war on critics. At his
memorial service in 2000, the critic
Clive Barnes said Mr. Merrick once
told him of a wonderful dream he'd
had: ''That Walter Kerr died of a heart
attack on his way to Brooks Atkinson's
funeral.''
On the cover of TIME in 1966.
Champion directed I
Do, I Do which
opened in 1966.
Running for almost two years,
Mary Martin and Robert Preston
played a couple surviving fifty years
of marriage. Written by Jones and
Schmidt, the score produced the hit
song “My Cup Runneth Over” made
popular by Ed Ames.
“Also rans in the 1960s…”
110 in the Shade ( 1963) by Jones and Schmidt was a musical
adaptation of The Rainmaker (331 performances)
Do Re Mi (1960) by Comden and Green featured Phil Silvers
and Nancy Walker and introduced “Make Someone Happy” (400)
She Loves Me (1963) produced by Harold Prince was based on
the 1947 film The Shop Around the Corner (302)
Sail Away (1961) by Noel Coward, starring Elaine Stritch (167)
High Spirits (1964) based on Coward’s Blithe Spirit (376)
Golden Boy (1964) was adapted from a Clifford Odets play as a
vehicle for Sammy Davis, Jr. (569)
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965) by Alan Jay
Lerner and Burton Lane worked better as a film vehicle for
Barbra Streisand in 1970 (273)
From 1964-66, six blockbusters arrived…
With a brutal winter just ahead, the traditional Broadway musical had a
bounteous autumn that stretched from 1964 through 1966. Six musicals
that opened in this three year period ran for over a thousand
performances – an unprecedented crop of long-running hits. With solid
scripts and superb integrated productions, they were the ultimate
fulfillments of the post-Oklahoma tradition –
1. Hello Dolly! (1964 - 2, 844)
2. Funny Girl (1964 - 1,348)
3. Fiddler on the Roof (1964 - 3,242)
4. Man of La Mancha (1965 - 2,328)
5. Mame (1966 - 1,508)
6. Cabaret (1966 - 1,165)
Funny Girl (1964)
After torturous previews, multiple
directors and extensive rewrites, this
fictionalized biography of comedienne
Fanny Brice made a star of Barbra
Streisand, who wisely avoided imitating
Brice, building her own characterization.
Composer Jule Styne and lyricist Bob
Merrill's brassy score included the hit
songs "People," "My Man," and
"Don't Rain on My Parade.” Streisand
went off to Hollywood for the screen
version, winning an Academy Award for
Best Actress and becoming a super star.
She never appeared in another stage
musical.
Fiddler on the Roof (1964)
Composer Jerry Bock and lyricist Sheldon
Harnick teamed with librettist Joseph Stein
for this adaptation of Sholom Aleichem's
stories about Tevya, a philosophical dairy
farmer who tries to uphold Jewish
Orthodox traditions against overwhelming
odds in Tsarist Russia. Zero Mostel's
powerful performance in the lead helped
establish the show. It then went on to a
record-setting run. The much loved score
includes "Matchmaker, Matchmaker," "If I
Were a Rich Man," and "Do You Love
Me?," and "Sunrise, Sunset." The final and
arguably the most memorable Broadway
staging by Jerome Robbins, it included a
dancing circle of townspeople that
embodied the idea of a community coming
together and coming apart.
Man of La Mancha (1965)
Librettist Dale Wasserman, composer
Mitch Leigh and lyricist Joe Darion built a
musical around the story of Spanish
novelist Cervantes. He is thrown into
prison by the Inquisition and tries to save
the manuscript for his masterful Don
Quixote from destruction by his fellow
prisoners -- by enacting it with their
assistance. Richard Kiley scored the
greatest triumph of his career in the title
role, as did co-star Joan Diener playing the
tattered kitchen girl Aldonza. Despite mixed
reviews, the show enjoyed long runs
everywhere from London to Tokyo, and
"Impossible Dream (The Quest)" became
an international standard.
Mame (1966)
Jerry Herman followed up his smash
Hello Dolly by teaming with playwrights
Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee for
an adaptation of their long-running
comedy Auntie Mame. Angela Lansbury
wowed audiences in the title role, winning
her first Tony for Best Actress playing the
eccentric heiress who liberates her
orphaned nephew from a stodgy
upbringing. Beatrice Arthur's hilarious
performance as the bitchy actress Vera
Charles brought her a Tony for Best
Featured Actress. The score included the
catchy title tune, the moving "If He Walked
Into My Life," and the show-stopping
Lansbury-Arthur duet "Bosom Buddies."
Mame proved a worldwide favorite,
enjoying successful productions into the
next century.
Cabaret (1966)
Composer John Kander and lyricist Fred
Ebb worked with librettist Joe Masteroff on
this searing adaptation of Christopher
Isherwood's play I Am a Camera. As a
young American writer falls in love with a
cabaret singer, we meet seedy chorus
girls, Nazi storm troopers, and other
denizens of the demi-monde in early 1930s
Berlin. Joel Grey gave an electrifying
performance as the leering Master of
Ceremonies, a role he repeated in the
acclaimed 1972 film version – becoming
one of the very few actors to win the Tony
and Academy Awards for the same role.
The score included "Wilkommen" and the
hit title song. In 1998, an innovative
Broadway revival would rack up an even
longer run (2,398).
Sweet Charity (1966)
Although it only ran 608
performances, Sweet Charity
featured the music of Cy Coleman,
lyrics by Dorothy Fields and book by
Neil Simon. It is based on Federico
Fellini's screenplay for Nights of
Cabiria. However, where Fellini's
black-and-white Italian film concerns
the romantic ups-and-downs of an
ever-hopeful prostitute, in the musical
the central character is a dancer-forhire at a Times Square dance hall. It
was nominated for 12 Tony Awards
and later adapted for the screen in
with Shirley MacLaine as Charity and
John McMartin recreating his
Broadway role. Bob Fosse directed
and choreographed this film.
Featured song:
Hey, Big Spender
The world turned upside down
Showtunes were no longer found
on rock-dominated air waves and
pop charts. Without the oncelucrative income from sheet music
and cast recordings, composers
and lyricists had to settle for the
two percent of a musical's gross
allotted to them in a standard
contract. New talent went into the
more profitable fields of pop
music, television and film. Some
veterans like Irving Berlin retired
in disgust, while those who
labored on found that styles and
formulas that had worked for
decades were suddenly
unacceptable.
Old formulas no longer worked…
Jerry Herman re-teamed with Mame's
writers and star for an adaptation of
Giradoux's dark comedy The Madwoman
of Chaillot. Despite a gorgeous score
and a Tony-winning performance by
Angela Lansbury, Dear World (1969 132) never jelled. The whimsical story of
an aging eccentric thwarting corporate
plans to turn Paris into an oil field did not
cry out for song and dance, but the real
tragedy was that the show came and
went with few people caring. A decade
earlier, such a stellar failure would have
received international press attention. By
1969, news of Broadway didn't matter
much anywhere outside of New York
City.
Kander and Ebb’s The Happy Time
(1968 - 286) found that a charming
score, acclaimed performances by
Robert Goulet and David Wayne,
and several Tonys were not enough
to keep ticket sales going for more
than nine unprofitable months.
Director Gower Champion's stylish
staging brought him two Tonys, but
a weak libretto proved fatal. Happy
Time's cast album ad was seen only
in Playbill, not national magazines.
It no longer made sense to spend
money pushing Broadway musicals
to the general public.
Even legendary stars could not
guarantee ticket sales. The Andre
Previn - Alan Jay Lerner musical
Coco (1969 - 332) was inspired by
Parisian fashion designer Coco
Chanel's comeback career.
Thanks to the presence of
Katharine Hepburn in her only
musical role, this show ran almost
a year. The score was polished but
unexciting, and a garish physical
production did little to distract
audiences from the weak story
line. Coco never turned a profit,
and was forced to close soon after
Hepburn left the cast.
“The Age of Aquarius”
Off-Broadway would
introduce rock and roll
score to the musical. Your
Own Thing (1968 - 933)
took the gender-switching
plot of Shakespeare's
Twelfth Night and
reworked it around the
management of a rock
band called "The
Apocalypse." Your Own
Thing ran for three years,
then toured. Almost
forgotten now, this offBroadway favorite rates as
New York's first rock
musical hit.
Hair (1968 - 1,742) had only a shadow of a
plot, involving a young rock man who
revels in rock and rebellion until he is
drafted into the army. He falls in with a
tribe-like group of hippies who sing about
such pointed social issues as poverty, race
relations, the Vietnam war and more. A
show of revolutionary proclamations,
profanity and hard rock shook the musical
theatre to its roots. After brief runs offBroadway (first at Joseph Papp's Public
Theatre and then a dance club) composer
Galt MacDermot and librettists Gerome
Ragni and James Rado revised their
"happening" before moving to Broadway.
"Aquarius" and "Let the Sunshine In"
became chart-topping hits, and Hair's
counter culture sensibility (including a draft
card burning, simulated sex, and a brief
ensemble nude scene) packed the
Biltmore Theatre for almost five years.
Impact of Rock
Most people in the theatre business were unwilling to look
on Hair as anything more than a noisy accident. Tony
voters tried to ignore Hair's importance, shutting it out from
any honors. However, some influential individuals insisted it
was time for a change. In particular, New York Times critic
Clive Barnes gushed that Hair was "the first Broadway
musical in some time to have the authentic voice of today
rather than the day before yesterday." Over the next few
seasons, Barnes used his powerful pen to attack musicals
that did not fit this new criteria. But Hair defied imitation,
and other projects with "mod" titles like Celebration (1969),
Salvation (1969) and Joy (1970) soon disappeared. Paying
audiences had little patience for mediocre theatre, even
when it appeared under the cover of rock.
1776 (1969)
The show that beat out HAIR for
the best-musical Tony was based
on the drama surrounding the
drafting of America's Declaration of
Independence. The unlikely subject
matter worked well, turning a
mummified historical event into an
exciting battle between believable
human beings. The vibrant score by
onetime schoolteacher Sherman
Edwards had no hit songs, but it
was flawlessly woven into Peter
Stone's powerful book. There were
liberties taken with historic fact, but
few dramas have ever brought the
past to life with such success.
Broadway cheered, and 1776
became a Tony and Pulitzer Prize
winner. (A London production
closed in weeks – surprise,
surprise.)
David Merrick offered Promises, Promises
Promises, Promises
(1968 - 1,281) teamed
Hollywood composer
Burt Bacharach and
lyricist Hal David with
playwright Neil Simon.
Based on the film The
Apartment, its pop-style
score had a major hit in
"I'll Never Fall In Love
Again." Broadway favorite
Jerry Orbach headed
the cast.
Neither Promises nor 1776 ran nearly
as long as Oh, Calcutta! (1969 1,922), a small off-Broadway revue that
enticed audiences with little substance
but lots of full nudity. The skits were
written by an all-star line up that
included John Lennon and Sam
Shepard, with forgettable rock songs
provided by a group called "The Open
Window." It was devised by the
respected British theatre critic Kenneth
Tynan. At one point, one bare cast
member announced, "Gee, this makes
Hair look like The Sound of Music." (As
if to prove the profitability of bad taste, a
1976 Broadway revival of Oh, Calcutta!
ran for an even more amazing 5,959
performances.)
Was the musical theatre dead?
Sources
Kenrick, John. MUSICAL THEATRE, A History.
Contiuum Press, New York, 2008.
Kenrick, John. Musicals 101.
<http://www.musicals101.com/index.html>