THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN MUSICAL THEATER

Overview
In this unit, we will look at the American musical.  We will compare and contrast it to other styles of musical presentation.  We will also look at some of the most famous composers and how they developed the musical which contributed to twentieth-century popular culture.   

Musical Theater
Along with jazz and rock, the musical is one of the most important American contributions to twentieth-century popular culture.  A musical, or musical comedy, is a type of theater that fuses script, acting, and spoken dialogue with music, singing, and dancing and with scenery and costumes.  Most musicals are comedies or love stories, though some are serious.  Many have been produced in theaters around Broadway in New York which is why they are often referred to as Broadway Musicals.  Many successful musicals have been performed worldwide and have been made into films.

A musical is usually performed in two acts, the second being shorter than the first.  Melodies from the first half are often brought back during the second act in short, small segments.  Traditionally the songs contained an introductory section (the verse) and a main section (the chorus) in A A B A form, which usually consists of 32 bars. 

Many styles make up American musicals and separate it from opera.  In contrast to opera, musicals use simpler harmonies, melodies, and structures.  It also has more spoken dialogue than opera.  The pitch range required of musical performers is narrower than that of opera performers.  Also of great difference is that musicals are often written as a collaborative effort:  one composer writes the songs, other musicians are responsible for writing the orchestrations, the overture, and other connective musical passages, and the lyric books are often written by yet another person or group of people.  Two famous teams of composers and lyricists include Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein and W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. 

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II Richard Rodgers (left), born in 1902, was a well-known composer.  In the early 1920s, he worked with Lorenz Hart, a famous lyricist.  At the same time, Oscar Hammerstein II, born in 1895, was completing popular works in operetta form.  After long and highly distinguished careers with other collaborators, Rodgers a composer, and Hammerstein a librettist/lyricist, combined their talents to make the most successful writing partnership in American musical theater.  Development of the Musical The American musical stems from many different musical and dramatic forms including operetta, vaudeville, and the revue.  Operetta, or comic opera, combines song, spoken dialogue, and dance with sophisticated musical techniques.  More recent than operettas, was vaudeville, a variety show with songs, comedy, juggling, acrobats, and animal acts, but no plots.  The revue was a variety show without a plot but with a unifying idea and featured chorus girls and comedians.
George M. Cohan (1878-1942) George M. Cohan was a popular American actor, songwriter, and playwright.  He wrote many musical comedies including his most famous Yankee Doodle Dandy.  Among his other works were The Governor's Son (1901), Forty-five Minutes from Broadway (1906), The Talk of New York (1907), Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford (1910), Broadway Jones (1912), Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913), The Tavern (1921), The Song and Dance Man (1923), and American Born (1925).
Irving Berlin (1888-1989) Irving Berlin was an American composer who played a leading role in the evolution of the popular song from the early ragtime and jazz eras through the golden age of musicals. His easy mastery of a wide range of song styles, for both stage and motion pictures, made him perhaps the greatest and most enduring of American songwriters.  He wrote more than 800 songs, many of which became classics, including Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning, A Pretty Girl Is like a Melody, Always (written in 1925 as a wedding present for his second wife), Remember, Cheek to Cheek, How Deep Is the Ocean, Blue Skies, Puttin' on the Ritz, the patriotic standard God Bless America, Heat Wave, There's No Business like Show Business, and the famous Christmas song White Christmas.  Combined, Berlin wrote the scores for 19 Broadway shows and 18 motion pictures.

Broadway

1900-1918

From 1900-1918, Broadway was starting to develop as a cultural center in New York City.  It was characterized by simplicity and attracted large audiences of middle class people looking for music, excitement, and romance.  For the most part, the relationship between the audience and the actors was friendly and unsophisticated, but lively and energetic.  Audiences became involved in the plays by talking and clapping.  Theaters also consisted of a pit orchestra that played before the show, during intermission, and after the show to entertain the audience. 

1920s

There were seventy to eighty theaters during this time and Broadway was booming.  Productions increased from 126 in 1917 to 264 in 1928 which is still the peak of Broadway production.  Broadway was bursting with energy and enterprise.  The theater was full of hope, new ideas, and new styles of craftsmanship.  The Theater Guild was organized during time and influenced theater throughout the world. 

1930s

The depression had a great impact on Broadway Theater and caused the number of productions to decline in dramatic fashion. This decline also resulted in job loss for many employees of the theater, not just the performers.  However, this was actually a very creative time due to the dramatic emotions caused by the depression and inspired in many creative works.  Broadway also started to take on the political influences of the time.

1940s

During the 1940s, Broadway lost some of its originality and drive.  New writers were hard to find, and Broadway Theater began to face competition from television and movies.  Some theaters were forced to close causing Broadway to no longer be dominated by theater.  Many theaters became film houses and as a result theater became less of an industry.  It did still retain its liveliness and happiness just not on such a grand scale. 

1950-present

After 1950, the theater business continued to decline.  In 1969-70 there were only 62 productions and there were only 36 playhouses left.  However, Broadway was still attracting audiences from all over the world.  Politics of the time still were affecting Broadway and American people were becoming less optimistic about life in general.  The assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the Vietnam and Korean Wars, the Bay of Pigs incident, and the cold war had very negative influences on society as a whole.  This negativism did not match the vibrant shows and theater productions of Broadway but there were some very successful productions including West Side Story, The Music Man, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, and Hair.  However, theater has survived and there have been many successful shows produced more recently such as Grease, Tommy, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and Wicked.

Pictured above:  Billboards of Broadway musicals from Times Square in New York City

Pictured above:  Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta in Grease (1978), directed by Randal Kleiser

Below are additional educational resources and activities for this unit.

Unit 13 The History of American Musical Worksheet

Unit 13 Cornell Notes Worksheet