Musical Theatre
A Brief History – Part 1
Early Influences
What is Musical Theatre?
 mu·si·cal the·a·ter noun: musical theatre is
a genre of drama in which singing and
dancing play an essential part
 It is an American creation
 Influenced by English ballad opera, ragtime,
jazz music, minstrelsy, vaudeville, burlesque,
follies and revues
Early Influences - English ballad opera
The Beggar’s Opera – 1728; Flora – 1735
 No historical scenery or costumes
 Spoken play with preexisting popular songs amid dialogue
Musical parody - Late 18th, early 19th century
 Satire of famous story or performer – burlesques
 Pantomime with songs and dances for entertainment and
variety
 1828 – Hamlet
The Beggar’s Opera – 1728
by John Gay & John Christopher Pepusch
Video Clip "Fill Every Glass"
Early Influences - Minstrel Show
 First major contribution to theatre by
blacks in America
 Product of black slave culture mingled with
white colonial potpourri
 Dan Emmet, composer “Old Dan Tucker”,
“Blue-Tail Fly”,1843, brought Virginia
Minstrels to NY – touring show
Three part show - performed in
“blackface
1- Fantasia - The Walkaround (Cakewalk) singing
& dancing
2 - Olio – snappy banter, jokes, solo musical
(banjo, fiddle, tambourine, singing, bone
castanets)
3 - Burlesque (parody) – one-act vignette; satire
of plays or carefree life on the plantation
Blackface performer
The Cakewalk
1929 audio recording that follows the classic format of a
minstrel show
Minstrel show clip
Early Influences - Minstrel Show
 Ed Christy Minstrel Show – featured
Stephen Foster, composer “My Old
Kentucky Home” – touring show
 Olio grew into variety or vaudeville
show
 Fantasia became Broadway Revue
 Satire became used as themes for
later musicals
Christy Minstrels - 1847
Part 2 – The Olio
Early Influences – New York City
 Shift from rural to city life created a demand
for permanent theatres and pleasure gardens
 1866 – The Black Crook – used theatrical effect
and sensual pleasures to become a theatre
extravaganza
 Showed producers and investors that frivolity
could substitute for dramatic and musical
substance (as in European opera)
Early Shows in NYC
 1874 – Evangeline was first to use an original
musical score – first musical comedy
 1879 – The Brook used a common locale or
event to interweave stories (like a
sitcom/serial) – first desire for meaningful
story
 Mulligan Shows – 1880’s was a burlesque on
the common people of NY – tales of the
ordinary became important
The Black Crook – 1866 Melodrama
First American Acting Troupe Using Women - 1893
Early Influences - Operetta
 1890’s – 1920,
European Operetta
was an instant success
as it toured U.S.
 Gilbert & Sullivan’s
satirical operetta was
especially popular
 Gave way to American
imitations (Sousa)
W.S. Gilbert &
Arthur Sullivan
Early Influences - Operetta
HMS Pinafore
“Captain of the Pinafore” 10:30
Musical Theatre
A Brief History – Part 2
American Influence
American Influences – 1918-1929
 U.S. was the economic world leader
 U.S. was victorious after WWI
 Optimistic society – an American not European culture
was developing
 Development of American Writers and Performers
 Women and Black performers allowed onstage
 Revues/Follies were dominant form of entertainment
American Songwriters
 Wrote for major music publishing houses in
New York City (“Tin Pan Alley”) – before the
phonograph, people used to purchase sheet
music to sing around the piano
 Wrote swinging optimistic melodies
 Songs were recycled and moved from one
revue to another
American Revues – the Follies
 Featured stars of the day and a chorus of beautiful
women in elaborate costumes and scenery such as
in the Ziegfeld Follies (1907-1931) and George
White’s Scandals (1919-1939)
American Musical Comedy
 Showed a picture of
contemporary America
 Had a shallow
insubstantial look
 Music and plot were not
integrated
 Had happy endings
Vincent Youmans
1898-1946
 Influenced by popular music; worked as a rehearsal
pianist for many songwriters
 Wrote the most produced musical in the 1920’s “Tea
for Two” and ” I Want to Be Happy” from
 No, No Nannette
Musical Theatre
A Brief History – Part 3
Age of Development
The Age of Development
1925-1945
 Factors that influenced the development of musical
theatre during this period were:
 Global economic crisis (depression)
 Global warfare (WWII)
 Since theatre often mirrors its environment,
operettas and large scale productions seemed out-of
place.
 A new kind of musical was developed using great
literature as the story base (like feature films)
Jerome Kern - Showboat - 1927
 Showboat with music by Jerome Kern, lyrics
by Oscar Hammerstein
 Based on the novel by Edna Ferber
 Music was integrated with the libretto
 Famous songs “Ol’ Man River,” “Can’t Help
Lovin’Dat Man”
Showboat – first “musical comedy”
 Showboat was the first “book
musical”
 Was a social documentary
based on serious and
profound themes
 Major conflict involves what
makes people “black” or
“white” in America
 Had first integrated cast
George Gershwin 18981937
 Influenced by jazz music
 Music was strongly syncopated, “swingy” using a
jazz offbeat (emphasis on the 2 and 4)
 1924 wrote “Rhapsody in Blue”
 1931 - Of Thee I Sing – serious satire on American
politics
 1935 – Porgy and Bess–wrote jazz opera that
examines racism in America ; “Summertime”
Cole Porter - 1927
 Cole Porter, composer,
introduced an era of social
grace and upper class charm
 1930 – Anything Goes
 Popular Songs: “Let’s Do It,”
“Love for Sale,” “Night and
Day”
Richard Rodgers 19021979
 Influenced by operetta tradition;
Worked with Lorenz Hart as his early
lyricist
 Rodgers & Hart continued to use
meaningful literature as the basis of
the story such as: A Connecticut Yankee
in King Arthur’s Court 1927 based on
novel by Mark Twain; Boys from
Syracuse 1938 based on The Comedy of
Errors by Shakespeare
Kurt Weill
1900-1950
 Refugee from fascist Europe
 His work reflected the awareness of
social and political issues
 Made serious avant-garde attempts
with setless, costumeless,
orchestraless, political satires
 Most famous was The ThreePenny
Opera made “Mack the Knife” a hit
Musical Theatre
A Brief History - Part 4
The Golden Age
Golden Age of Musicals
1945-1968
 Musicals lost their innocence by the end of
WWII
 Broadway activity was reduced to a trickle
 In 1943 Richard Rodgers and Oscar
Hammerstein formed a partnership to
produce a musical on the play Green Grow
the Lilacs
Reign of R & H
 Oklahoma! developed a new formula for a new
Era:
 Song and dialogue were interspersed
 Used Agnes de Mille ballet as dance form
 Had a sympathetic villain
 Threw out much of the rules of the previous era
(unrelated song, music and dance, happy
endings, small scale)
R & H Domination
 R & H continued to dominate the American
musical for the next 20 years
 Musicals were based on great literature
 Had profound, universal, humanistic theme:
 Carousel (domestic violence), South Pacific (racial
bias), The King & I (role of women), The Sound of
Music (anti-Semitism)
 Characters were rarely trite; plots rarely
predictable; endings not always happy