Rock and theatre

The world of musical theatre responded much more slowly to the rock-and-roll revolution than did Hollywood, which in 1956 alone produced such films as Rock Around the Clock, Don’t Knock the Rock, and Rock, Rock, Rock. The first Broadway musical to deal with rock music, Bye Bye Birdie (1960), was actually a spoof of Elvis Presley and rock and roll’s effect on small-town America, and its songs were more in the tradition of show music...