musical

musical, theatrical production that is characteristically sentimental and amusing in nature, with a simple but distinctive plot, and offering music, dancing, and dialogue.

Origin

The antecedents of the musical can be traced to a number of 19th-century forms of entertainment including the music hall, comic opera, burlesque, vaudeville, variety shows, pantomime, and the minstrel show. These early entertainments blended the traditions of French ballet, acrobatics, and dramatic interludes. In September 1866 the first musical comedy, The Black Crook, opened in New York City. It was later described as a combination of French Romantic ballet and German melodrama, and it attracted patrons of opera and serious drama, as well as those of burlesque shows. In the late 1890s the British showman and entrepreneur George Edwardes brought his London Gaiety Girls to New York City, calling his production musical comedy to distinguish it from his previous burlesques.

Much of American popular music of the first decades of the 20th century was written by European immigrants, such as Victor Herbert, Rudolf Friml, and Sigmund Romberg. They brought a form of operetta to the United States that was, in every sense, the generic source for musical comedy; it was sentimental and melodious and established a tradition of the play based on musical numbers and songs. Romberg’s works, such as The Student Prince (1924) and The Desert Song (1926), were also made into successful motion pictures. George M. Cohan ushered in the heyday of musical comedy with his productions; they introduced such memorable songs as “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” “Give My Regards to Broadway,” and “I’m A Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

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Show Boat and the golden age of musicals

During the 1920s and ’30s musical comedy entered one of its richest periods. Jerome Kern, working with Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, wrote a number of outstanding comedies such as Leave It to Jane (1917) and Oh, Lady! Lady!! (1918). George and Ira Gershwin teamed up to write Oh, Kay! (1926), Funny Face (1927), Strike Up the Band (1930), and others. Cole Porter wrote timeless and sophisticated compositions for such musicals as Anything Goes (1934) and Dubarry Was a Lady (1939). Other notable composers and lyricists of this period were Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Harold Arlen, Jule Styne, and Vincent Youmans.

The genre took a new turn with the 1927 production of Show Boat (music by Kern, book and lyrics by Hammerstein); it was the first musical to provide a cohesive plot and initiate the use of music that was integral to the narrative, a practice that did not fully take hold until the 1940s. Based on the novel of the same name by Edna Ferber, the musical presents a serious drama based on American themes, such as racial prejudice, incorporating music that is derived from American folk melodies and spirituals. Among its notable songs is the classic “Ol’ Man River,” the best-known rendition of which is by actor and singer Paul Robeson.

Later musicals that were as tightly constructed as Show Boat include Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! (1943), Carousel (1945), and South Pacific (1949). Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe also wrote a number of highly successful musicals, notably Brigadoon (1947) and My Fair Lady (1956). They also collaborated on the motion-picture musical Gigi (1958), and four of their theatrical works were later made into motion pictures. Leonard Bernstein wrote West Side Story (1957, with Stephen Sondheim), a conversion of the setting and elements of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to mid-20th-century New York City.

Many popular stage musicals were successfully transferred to the silver screen. South Pacific (1958) was nominated for three Academy Awards, winning the Oscar for best sound. West Side Story (1961) won 10 Academy Awards out of 11 nominations, making it the most-awarded musical in Oscar history. My Fair Lady (1964), starring Audrey Hepburn, won 8 Oscars out of 12 nominations.

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1960s to ’90s

Musicals as they were known from the 1930s to the 1950s began to expand in concept and scope in the late 1960s. By then, musicals had begun to diverge in many different directions: rock and roll, operatic styling, extravagant lighting and staging, social comment, nostalgia, and pure spectacle. Set in a seedy nightclub, Kander and Ebb’s innovative Cabaret (1966) tells the story of two doomed romances set against the emergence of anti-Semitism and fascism in Germany. A film version of Cabaret (1972) was directed by Bob Fosse, who had choreographed the original Broadway productions of The Pajama Game (1954), Damn Yankees (1955), and Sweet Charity (1966). Fosse also choreographed Kander and Ebb’s other great success, Chicago (1975).

The first notable example of the rock musical is Hair (1967), which finds its social dissent in a combination of loud music, stroboscopic lighting, youthful irreverence, and nudity. In a few cases, rock music has been combined with biblical stories, as in Godspell (1971) by Stephen Schwartz and Jesus Christ Superstar (1971) by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Other notable later musicals include Stephen Sondheim’s Company (1970) and Sweeney Todd (1979), Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban’s A Chorus Line (1975), and Lloyd Webber and Rice’s Evita (1978).

The 1980s featured spectacular musicals with grand sets, elaborate costumes, and impressive special effects. Cats (1981) starred a cast dressed in innovative feline costumes, The Phantom of the Opera (1986) featured a falling chandelier, and a helicopter landed on stage in Miss Saigon (1989). Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and Les Misérables (1980) are among the longest-running musicals ever. Noteworthy works from the 1990s include Jonathan Larson’s Rent (1996) and an adaptation of Disney’s animated film The Lion King (1997), with music by Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice.

During the period from the 1960s through the ’90s, musicals were written about a wide range of themes: Jewish history (Fiddler on the Roof [1964]), homosexuality (La Cage aux Folles [1983]), the AIDS epidemic (Rent), gender identity (Hedwig and the Angry Inch [1998]), the lives of working-class teenagers (Grease [1971]), the experiences of immigrants and minorities in the United States (Ragtime [1996]), and fairy tales (Into the Woods [1986]).

21st century

Popular musicals composed in the 21st century include Stephen Schwartz’s Wicked (2003), which features characters from the classic book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900; written by L. Frank Baum), and The Book of Mormon (2011), with music, lyrics, and book by Matt Stone, Trey Parker, and Robert Lopez. Two works by Lin-Manuel Miranda are prominent by their theme, innovation, and success: In the Heights (2008) is set among the minority community of the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, and Hamilton (2015) offers a hip-hop rendition of the story of Alexander Hamilton and other founding fathers of the United States. Other acclaimed musicals from this period include Spring Awakening (2006), Dear Evan Hansen (2016), and Hadestown (2016).

In addition after a major decline in the number of movie musicals in the late 20th century, the genre made a comeback in the 21st century. This was evident in the number of film adaptations of several stage musicals that were produced in the 2000s and onward. Among these are:

• Chicago (2002)
• The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
• Dreamgirls (2006)
• Les Misérables (2012)
• Into the Woods (2014)
• Dear Evan Hansen (2021)
• Cats (2019)
• In the Heights (2021)
• West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg (2021)