MUSICAL THEATRE
A History
Forward by John Kenrick
“Let’s start at the very beginning…”
Did Broadway’s GOLDEN AGE end in the 1950s? 60s?
OR
Is the theatre itself “an art form of the now.”
January 12, 2011
Glenn Beck Weighs
In on ‘Spider-Man’
Another Pint of Melancholy
‘Once,’ With Steve Kazee and
Cristin Milioti, at Jacobs
Theater
Spider-Man Musical Postponed To March…Finally
International Business Times, January 14
This textbook sidesteps the trend…
• Musical Theatre has enjoyed several golden ages
• Elements of musical theatre have been around more than
two thousand years before the time of Christ
• History shows that musicals thrive in “trendy” cities that
meet FOUR essential criteria
1.
2.
3.
4.
A large and prosperous population
A thriving artistic community
A shared sense of optimism
Freedom from extensive government censorship
Offenbach’s LES BRIGANDS
Gilbert and Sullivan
My Fair Lady!
As an art form of the now…
Theatre defies second-hand appreciation…books, essays,
recordings or videos cannot capture the visceral impact of
live theatre
As an art form of the now…
Theatrical history can be examined, however by examining
the people and environments that gave birth to great
musicals in the past
As an art form of the now…
From Ziegfeld to David Merrick and beyond, denizens of
the musical theatre have have done much to revise and
reshape reality
Songwriter Jerry Herman
In a lyric from DEAR WORLD (1969)
he wrote the lyric…
Little by little the pearls become real…
And isn’t it the same with memories?
What to expect in our study…
• A brief look at the ancients and Middle Ages
• Comic opera and grand opera
• Paris in the 1840s and Jacques Offenback
• Gilbert and Sullivan in London and New York
• The rise of British Music Hall
• Extravaganza on the American Stage
• Contributions of vaudeville, burlesque and minstrelsy
• Cohan, Herbert and Kern
• Porter, Gershwin, Rodgers and Hammerstein
• The Golden Age
• The lean years and the rise of the “Pop-sical”
What is a musical?
According to the dictionary…
MUSICAL (noun) a stage, television
or film production utilizing popular
style songs to either tell a story or to
showcase the talents of writers
and/or performers, with dialogue
optional.
Primary role of a musical is
…TO TELL A STORY (or in the case of revue to tell a
number of brief stories)
When all goes well, the musical’s blend of song, dance and
art entertains evoking an intellectual as well as an
emotional response
An art form requires…
AN ARTIST
A MEDIUM
AN AUDIENCE
A commercial art form requires
An artist, a medium and an audience
AND
A commercial art form requires
The paying audience makes the expression
profitable
AND
A commercial art form requires
As in any commercial endeavor, the taste and
attitude of the audience determine the
development of the product…the demand shapes
the supply
The Producer’s Perspective
One of the greatest lessons I’ve
learned is that it’s essential that
any and every business out there,
Broadway Show or Law Firm or
Hot Dog Cart, check in with their
customers, find out who they are,
and see how they’re doing from
time to time. And blogs are no
different. (BTW, this lesson
applies to personal relationships
too . . . asking your spouse or your
friends what they think of your
behavior is a hard but awesome
way to improve connections).
Producer Ken Davenport
Sure, you’ve got sales, number of
clients, and web stats to measure your
success of your business to some
effect. But if you really want to do
better at whatever it is you’re doing,
you gotta dig deeper.
And so, with that, it’s about that time
for me to stick that thermometer you
know where and see just who all of
you are out there and what you think
of the blog . . . and what you like
and/or don’t and most importantly,
what you want to see more of/less of.
Broadway Grosses
Forthe week ending January 13, 2013:
Show Name
GrossGross
AvgPaidAdm
ANNIE
$822,129
$95.79
CHICAGO
$433,628
$75.89
EVITA
$834,914
$93.48
JERSEY BOYS
$892,531
$109.47
MAMMA MIA!
$601,136
$72.97
MARY POPPINS $546,571
$66.74
NEWSIES
$822,822
$92.34
NICE WORK IF
YOU CAN GET IT $679,850
$88.99
ONCE
$976,903
$119.63
ROCK OF AGES $419,474
$99.42
SPIDER-MAN
$1,129,755
$92.06
THE BOOK OF
MORMON
$1,630,961
$186.31
THE LION KING
$1,620,752
$122.98
THE MYSTERY OF
EDWIN DROOD
$359,201
$62.45
THE PHANTOM
OF THE OPERA
$762,638
$75.10
WICKED
$1,519,043
$111.81
TotalAttn
%Cap
8,583
62.81%
5,714
66.13%
8,931
69.25%
8,153
82.99%
8,238
68.74%
8,190
56.97%
8,911
93.21%
7,640
66.37%
8,166
96.48%
4,219
90.46%
12,272
79.48%
8,754
102.65%
13,179
98.23%
5,752
71.61%
10,155
79.09%
13,586
93.88%
Take The Producer’s Perspective survey!
I hope you’ll take a minute or two (it’s short, promise) to click the link
below and fill out the brief survey. I’ve learned amazing things from you
in the past, and I am looking forward to seeing the results again.
If you take the survey, I promise you two things:
1. I’ll publish the data here.
2. The blog will get better.
So take The Producer’s Perspective Survey! Click here!
And when you’re done, ask yourself what you can ask of your
customers/audiences/friends to improve what you do everyday.
Musical theatre continues to reshape itself
Elements of a musical
MUSIC AND LYRICS
BOOK/LIBRETTO
CHOREOGRAPHY
STAGING
SPECTACLE
Types of musicals
THROUGH-SUNG (Les Miserables)
DANCE-BASED (Contact, Movin’ Out)
The best musicals possess
Intelligence
Emotional appeal
Courage to do something new
What makes a musical great?