musicals, earlier known as
musical comedy, plays that incorporate music, song, and dance. These elements move with the plot, heightening and commenting on the action.
Mixing the sprightly songs and sketchy plots of operetta operetta , type of light opera with a frivolous, sentimental story, often employing parody and satire and containing both spoken dialogue and much light, pleasant music.
..... Click the link for more information. with the topical numbers of the revue revue, a stage presentation that originated in the early 19th cent. as a light, satirical commentary on current events. It was rapidly developed, particularly in England and the United States, into an amorphous musical entertainment, retaining a small amount of
..... Click the link for more information. , musical comedy began in England at the end of the 19th cent. In the United States during World War I the colorful extravaganzas of George M. Cohan Cohan, George Michael , 1878–1942, American showman, b. Providence, R.I. As a child he appeared in vaudeville as one of "The Four Cohans" with his father, mother, and sister, Josephine. He eventually wrote the act and was the business manager.
..... Click the link for more information. ushered in an era of patriotic and spectacular productions. Thereafter musical comedy flourished primarily in the United States. The songs were light and popular, and emphasis was placed on chorus dancing rather than on singing. Such stars as Lillian Russell Russell, Lillian, 1861–1922, American singer and actress, b. Clinton, Iowa. Her original name was Helen Louise Leonard. She first appeared in light opera in 1879.
..... Click the link for more information. and DeWolf Hopper Hopper, Edward, 1882–1967, American painter and engraver, b. Nyack, N.Y., studied in New York City with Robert Henri. Hopper lived in France for a year but was little influenced by the artistic currents there.
..... Click the link for more information. were followed by Anna Held Held, Anna, 1873?–1918, American musical comedy actress, b. Paris. She is remembered for her beauty and charm and for her tempestuous off-stage life. After she had small singing and dancing parts in Paris, success came to her when Florenz Ziegfeld (whom she
..... Click the link for more information. , Marilyn Miller, Jack Donahue, Ray Bolger, Fred and Adele Astaire Astaire, Fred , 1899–1987, American dancer, actor, and singer, b. Omaha, Nebr., as Frederick Austerlitz. After 1911 he and his sister Adele formed a successful Broadway vaudeville team. After his sister retired, Astaire became a film actor (1933).
..... Click the link for more information. , Gertrude Lawrence Lawrence, Gertrude, 1902?–1952, English actress and singer. Her original name was Gertrud Alexandra Dagmar Lawrence-Klasen. Performing on the musical stage from childhood, Lawrence made her New York debut (1924) in Charlot's Revue,
..... Click the link for more information. , Ethel Merman Merman, Ethel, 1909–84, American musical comedy star, b. Astoria, N.Y., originally named Ethel Zimmerman. Merman's theater debut was in Girl Crazy (1930).
..... Click the link for more information. , Mary Martin Martin, Mary, 1913–90, American musical comedy star, b. Weatherford, Tex. From Martin's first stage appearance in Leave It to Me (1938), she starred in several enormously successful musicals, including One Touch of Venus (1943),
..... Click the link for more information. , and Alfred Drake Drake, Alfred, 1914–92, American singer, actor, and director, b. New York City, originally named Alfred Capurro. Drake first appeared on stage in 1935 in The Mikado.
..... Click the link for more information. . Many of these graced the works of Irving Berlin Berlin, Irving , 1888–1989, American songwriter, b. Russia. Berlin's surname was originally Baline. Of his nearly 1,000 songs, Alexander's Ragtime Band (1911) was his first outstanding hit.
..... Click the link for more information. , Jerome Kern Kern, Jerome , 1885–1945, American composer of musicals, b. New York City. After studying in New Jersey and New York he studied composition in Germany and England. His first success was the operetta The Red Petticoat (1912).
..... Click the link for more information. , Cole Porter Porter, Cole, 1891–1964, American composer and lyricist, b. Peru, Ind., grad. Yale, 1913. Porter's witty, sophisticated lyrics and his affecting melodies place him high in the ranks of American composers of popular music.
..... Click the link for more information. , Noel Coward Coward, Sir Noël (Sir Noël Pierce Coward) , 1899–1973, English playwright, actor, composer, and director, b. Teddington, England. Coward gained prominence in 1924 acting in his The Vortex.
..... Click the link for more information. , George Gershwin Gershwin, George , 1898–1937, American composer, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Jacob Gershwin. Gershwin wrote some of the most original and popular musical works produced in the United States.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Richard Rodgers Rodgers, Richard Charles, 1902–79, American composer, b. New York City. Rodgers studied at Columbia and the Institute of Musical Art, New York City. He met both of his future collaborators, Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein 2d, while at Columbia.
..... Click the link for more information. and Lorenz Hart Hart, Lorenz Milton, 1895–1943, American lyricist, b. New York City, studied at Columbia. Hart began collaborating with Richard Rodgers in 1919; their initial success was The Garrick Gaieties (1925).
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With the 1943 production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, musical comedy integrated music, song, and dance with a detailed plot. The later introduction of social problems and plots based on established literary works, as in West Side Story (1957) by Leonard Bernstein Bernstein, Leonard , 1918–90, American composer, conductor, and pianist, b. Lawrence, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1939, and Curtis Institute of Music, 1941. A highly versatile musician, he was the composer of symphonic works (the Jeremiah Symphony, 1944;
..... Click the link for more information. (based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet) and My Fair Lady (1956) by Alan Jay Lerner Lerner, Alan Jay, 1918–86, American lyricist and librettist, b. New York City. After two years as a radio scriptwriter, Lerner began an association with the composer Frederick Loewe that resulted in several popular musicals, including Brigadoon
..... Click the link for more information. and Frederick Loewe (based on G. B. Shaw's Pygmalion), caused such productions to be termed simply musicals. In the late 1960s the "rock musical" came into prominence with the production of Hair (1967); variations of this style have included the religious Jesus Christ, Superstar (1971) and a version of Two Gentlemen of Verona (1971). The popularity of musicals has created a new form of summer stock theater, the "music tent."
The musical film has enjoyed popularity since the release of Al Jolson Jolson, Al , 1888–1950, American entertainer, whose original name was Asa Yoelson, b. Russia. He emigrated to the United States c.1895. The son of a rabbi, Jolson first planned to become a cantor but soon turned to the stage.
..... Click the link for more information. 's The Jazz Singer in 1927. It developed from the Busby Berkeley spectacles of the 1930s to the scintillating gaiety and virtuosity of the Fred Astaire–Ginger Rogers comedies, the operetta films of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, and filmed biographies of musical celebrities and film figures. Noted singers and dancers who have appeared in film musicals include Judy Garland Garland, Judy, 1922–69, American singer and film actress, b. Grand Rapids, Minn., originally named Frances Gumm. She sang in her father's theater from the age of four as one of The Gumm Sisters; she later toured in vaudeville.
..... Click the link for more information. , Frank Sinatra Sinatra, Frank (Francis Albert Sinatra), 1915–98, American singer and actor, b. Hoboken, N.J. During the late 1930s and early 40s he sang with the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey bands, causing teenage girls to shriek and swoon over his romantic, seemingly casual
..... Click the link for more information. , Gene Kelly Kelly, Gene, 1912–96, American dancer, choreographer, movie actor, and director, b. Pittsburgh. Kelly started dancing on Broadway in 1938 and first gained fame in the title role of the Broadway musical Pal Joey (1940).
..... Click the link for more information. , Mario Lanza, Howard Keel, Kathryn Grayson, Shirley Jones, Julie Andrews, and Barbra Streisand Streisand, Barbra, 1942–, American singer and actress, b. New York City. Streisand first gained critical and public acclaim for her supporting role in the Broadway musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1962).
..... Click the link for more information. . In the 1940s numerous romantic and patriotic musicals were produced. By the next decade musicals had come to depend heavily upon Broadway hits and previous film successes for subject matter. Outstanding among original motion-picture musicals have been Top Hat (1935), An American in Paris (1951), and Singin' in the Rain (1952).
In the second half of the 20th cent. many stage musicals, on and off Broadway, became more complicated and sometimes more spectacular. They have often featured diverse and controversial themes or flashy and technically complex productions. Notable later musicals include Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban's A Chorus Line (1975); Stephen Sondheim Sondheim, Stephen Joshua, 1930–, American composer and lyricist, b. New York City. As a young man, he studied lyric writing with Oscar Hammerstein 2d, and early in his career he wrote lyrics for Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story
..... Click the link for more information. 's Sweeney Todd (1979), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Into the Woods (1987), and Passion (1994); and Andrew Lloyd Webber Lloyd Webber, Andrew, 1948–, British theatrical composer. A member of a successful musical family, he began composing musicals as a teenager; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
..... Click the link for more information. 's Evita (1978), Cats (1981), The Phantom of the Opera (1986), and Sunset Boulevard (1993).
Bibliography
See studies by L. Engel (1967), D. Ewen (rev. ed. 1970), A. Wilder (1972), and S. Green (1971, repr. 1982); B. Rosenberg and E. Harburg, The Broadway Musical (1992); R. Barrios, A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film (1995); E. Mordden, Coming Up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s (1998); M. Steyn, Broadway Babies Say Goodnight (1999).