Professional Documents
Culture Documents
What Is A Musical?
by John Kenrick
Copyright 1996-2003
(The images below are thumbnails click on them to see larger versions.)
The musical, in all its various forms, is very much a living art form. Our goal in these
history essays is to see how the musical has developed over the last few centuries on
stage and screen, to asses where it currently stands, and to then make some educated
guesses as to where it is headed in years to come. Let's start with a basic definition
musical (noun) a stage, television or film production utilizing popular-style songs
and dialogue to either tell a story (book musicals) and/or showcase the talents of
varied performers (revues).
Book musicals have gone by many names: comic operas, operettas, opera bouffe,
burlesque, burletta, extravaganza, musical comedy, etc. Revues have their roots in
variety, vaudeville, music halls and minstrel shows. In the spirit of Shakespeare's "a
rose by any other name would smell as sweet," this site discusses all these forms. The
best musicals have three essential qualities
(And you thought The Wizard of Oz was just a children's flick?) Of course, quality is no
guarantee of commercial success. However, musicals with these qualities are more
likely to stand the test of time.
I believe that a great musical is a great musical, no matter what its point of origin. Those
created for the large or small screen are no less interesting than those written for the
stage. As one character in Boys In The Band (Crowley 1968) puts it, "Pardon me if your
sense of art is offended, but odd as it may seem there wasnt a Shubert Theatre in Hot
Coffee, Mississippi!" So whether we are discussing Astaire & Rogers or Rodgers &
Hammerstein, we are still considering the musical at its best.
The art of telling stories either through or with songs dates back to time
immemorial. We know that the ancient Greeks included music and
dance in many of their stage comedies and tragedies as early as the 5th Century B.C.
While some Athenian playwrights simply interpolated existing songs, we know that
Aeschylus and Sophocles composed their own. Staged in open air amphitheatres, these
plays featured sexual humor, political and social satire, jugglers, and anything else that
might entertain the masses. The songs were often a means for the chorus to comment on
the action, but solos were not unheard of. The scripts and lyrics for a few of these plays
survive, but no evidence of ancient musical notation has been preserved, so the
melodies are long lost. While these plays had no direct effect on the development of
musical theater as we know it, they prove that showtunes have been around for twenty
five hundred years.
The Romans copied and expanded the forms and traditions of Greek theatre. The Third
Century B.C. comedies of Plautus included song and dance routines performed with
full orchestrations. To make the dance steps more audible in large open air theatres,
Roman actors attached metal chips called "sabilla" to their stage footwear the first tap
shoes. Because Roman theatres sat thousands, there was a stress on spectacle and
special effects. This too echoes into our own time.
If the Roman theatre contributed little to the Greek literature that today's dramatic
theatre rests on, musical comedy inherited spectacle and numerous technical
achievements from this austere, mechanical, and jaded society.
- Denny Martin Flynn, Musical: A Grand Tour (New York: Schirmer Books, 1997), p. 22.
In the Middle Ages, Europe's cultural mainstays included traveling minstrels and roving
troupes of performers that offered popular songs and slapstick comedy. In the 12th and
13th centuries, there was also a tradition of religious dramas. Some of these works have
survived, such as The Play of Herod and The Play of Daniel. Intended as liturgical
teaching tools set to church chants, these plays developed into an autonomous form of
musical theatre.
In some of the musically most interesting, poetic forms often as a sort of set piece
alternate with the prose dialogues and liturgical chants. In others, older prose texts were
remodeled into poetry and provided with modified or completely new melodies. The
process was occasionally carried to such extremes that almost the entire text was cast in
poetic forms, with little or no dependence on liturgical texts and melodies. The result of
this process is nowhere more evident than in The Play of Daniel, perhaps the best
known because the most widely performed of medieval dramas. Except for two
concluding items one stanza of a hymn and the Te Deum the texts and melodies of
this play are entirely nonliturgical.
- Rochard H. Hoppin, Medieval Music (New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1978), pp. 180-181.
This reached its apex during the Renaissance in the commedia dell'arte, an Italian
tradition where raucous clowns improvised their way through familiar stories. These
clown characters included Harlequin, Pulcinella and Scaramouche personas that set
the course for Western stage comedy for centuries to come. Formal musical theatre was
rare in the Renaissance, but Moliere turned several of his plays into comedies with
songs (music provided by Jean Baptiste Lully) when the court of Louis XIV demanded
song and dance entertainments in the late 1600s
By the 1700s, two forms of musical theater were common in Britain, France and
Germany ballad operas like John Gay's The Beggars Opera (1728) that borrowed
popular songs of the day and rewrote the lyrics, and comic operas, with original scores
and mostly romantic plot lines, like Michael Balfe's The Bohemian Girl (1845). Which
brings us to a key question . . .
1927-30:
Hollywood Learns To
Sing
Vitaphone
The Jazz Singer
by John Kenrick
(Copyright 1996 & 2004)
(The images below are thumbnails click on them to see larger versions.)
Vitaphone
Souvenir program cover for The Jazz Singer, starring Al
Jolson.
were to film it with vaudeville comic George Jessel, who had starred
in the 1925 Broadway production. When Jessel increased his salary
demands, the studio heads realized that they would be better off
investing in a major star -- Al Jolson. With "the world's greatest
entertainer" heading the cast, they also decided to insert a few songs.
Viewers today are often surprised to find this landmark sound film is
mostly silent -- and mostly awful. Only Jolson's sound sequences
vibrate with life. Although no dialogue had been planned, Jolson began
ad-libbing around his songs. At one point, he shouted his familiar stage
motto, "You ain't heard nothin' yet!" This impromptu moment was so
vivid that more dialogue was added. Because of the scarcity of
equipment and technicians, all of the sound scenes had to be filmed
during the last nine days of a month long shooting schedule.
Sarah Rabinowitz (Eugenie Besserer) kvells as her beloved son
(Al Jolson) serenades her with Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" in
The Jazz Singer.
The Jazz Singer involves an Orthodox Jewish cantor's son who must
choose between following his father's tradition or pursuing success on
Broadway. In a climactic scene, Jolson chats with his doting mother
before treating her to a jazzy rendition of "Blue Skies," igniting his
father's outrage. Accounts differ on whether Jolson's banter was
scripted. Although the piano accompaniment (a studio musician played
while Jolson fingered a silent keyboard) was well rehearsed, co-star
Eugenie Besserer is so visibly uncertain in her responses that it is
reasonable to assume that Jolson was not slavishly following a script.
Most likely he was engaging in the same kind of improvisation that
marked his stage performances.
ten uses, and it was easy for the picture and discs to fall out of synch.
But The Jazz Singer played to packed houses in city after city, and
professionals who attended the Hollywood premiere in December 1927
were shaken -As the film ended and applause grew with the houselights, Sam
Goldwyn's wife Frances looked around at the celebrities in the crowd.
She saw "terror in all their faces," she said, as if they knew that "the
game they had been playing for years was finally over."
- Scott Eyman, The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution (NY:
Simon & Schuster, 1997, p. 160).
1927-30: Part II
by John Kenrick
Forgotten Gem
- as quoted in Bob Thomas, Thalberg: Life and Legend (New York: Doubleday,
1969), p. 146.
Oscar-Winning Clunker
Charles King and his clod-hopping chorines appear on this
page from the souvenir program for Broadway Melody (1929).
Forgotten Gem
The souvenir book for Love Parade includes this photo of
Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier performing
"Anything to Please the Queen."
A Glut of Trash
The original sheet music cover for "Singin' in the Rain,"
which was introduced in MGM's all-star Hollywood Revue of
1929. This popular song by lyricist Arthur Freed and composer Nacio Herb
Brown would be used in many future MGM films.
Forty-Second Street
Warner Brothers' stellar cast is featured on the original sheet
music cover for "You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me" from
42nd Street (1933). This backstage saga rekindled America's
interest in musical films.
The chorus girl who takes over the star's role on opening night
and (what else?) triumphs.
The score had no more than four songs by composer Harry Warren
and lyricist Al Dubin, but they did the trick. Delighted audiences
packed theatres nationwide. A $400,000 gamble, 42nd Street earned
millions in its initial release.
Warner Brothers put Berkeley to work on a series of lavish
musicals. He perfected the still-embryonic technique of synchronizing
the filmed image to a pre-recorded musical soundtrack. As a result,
microphones were not needed during the filming of musical sequences,
and cameras no longer needed to be imprisoned in sound-proof
casings. For the first time since the silent era, fluid camera motion and
intricate editing were possible.
For several years, most film makers ignored or resisted the code. Then
the Catholic Church formed a nationwide Legion of Decency to force
studio compliance. Spurred on by this, Hays appointed Joseph I.
Breen to stringently administer the production code. A devout
Catholic, blatant anti-Semite (he referred to Jews as "the scum of the
earth") and homophobe, Breen set out to reform the content of
Hollywood films with unflinching zeal. By 1934, all American films
conformed to the code.
The Production Code Administration took part in the writing, filming
and post editing of every Hollywood project from 1934 though the
mid-1960s, so the code had a major impact on screen musicals. Sex
and adultery were not acceptable as comic subjects. Aside from flesh
becoming less visible, the sort of witty naughtiness championed by
director Ernst Lubitsch was banished. The post-code films of bold
performers like Mae West were simply were not the same.
The studios had to find new, creative ways to bring sex to the screen in
covert, code-friendly forms. For example, RKO discovered a duo that
made the whole world want to dance "cheek to cheek."
RKO: Fred & Ginger
History of Musical Film
The Astaire-Rogers
Formula
1930s Part III
by John Kenrick
(Copyright 1996 & 2003)
Later Years
(The images below are thumbnails click on them to see larger versions.)
A popular clich suggests that "Fred gave Ginger class, while she gave
him sex appeal." While there may be some truth in this, the fact is that
both Astaire and Rogers already had each of those qualities. It was the
indefinable connection between their screen personas that made their
class and sex appeal so apparent and so irresistible.
Later Years
In the years following their RKO series, Astaire concentrated on
musicals while Rogers sought to prove herself as a dramatic actress.
She even won an Academy Award as Best Actress for Kitty Foyle
(1940). (Author's note: Garland, Kelly and Astaire never received
acting Oscars, but Rogers got one? Talk about the importance of
timing.)
Astaire and Rogers were re-united in MGM's The Barkleys of
Broadway (1949), and their chemistry remained delightful. Astaire
later appeared in the hit screen musicals Royal Wedding (1951), The
Band Wagon (1953), Funny Face (1957) and Finians Rainbow (1968),
and starred in a series of acclaimed dance specials for television. He
was nominated for an Academy Award for a dramatic role in The
Towering Inferno (1974), and made his final musical screen appearance
dancing with Gene Kelly in That's Entertainment II (1976). To the end
of his life, Astaire was a class act.
Rogers filmed forgettable dramas, limiting her musical efforts to
occasional stage projects. In interviews, she often downplayed the
importance of Astaire in her career. When Rogers died, every
newspaper and television newscast in the world carried pictures of her
dancing with Astaire. But what else could anyone have expected?
The image of Astaire and Rogers dancing their hearts out is one of the
definitive cultural icons of the 20th Century, a reminder that a violent
age also had a sense of music, fun, and sheer style that no calamity
could snuff out.
In dance by the couple, we see our world and what it is possible to
make of its spaces in the light of such movements we can find that
our earthbound nature is made acceptable, even delicious.
- Edward Gallafent, Astaire and Rogers (New York: Columbia University Press,
2000), p. 224.
Paramount
Bing Crosby's film career began with featured roles in a
series of Mack Sennett comedies. His pop recordings and
radio series took off in the early 1930s, and Crosby soon
became the most popular entertainer of the mid-20th Century.
Paramount Studios featured Bing in The Big Broadcast
(1932). After his winning performance in MGM's Going
Hollywood (1933), Paramount never loaned him out again -Bing was too valuable.
Crosby's starring vehicles included Mississippi (1935),
Pennies From Heaven (1936) and Sing You Sinners (1938).
Often mediocre, these films were popular thanks to Crosby's
folksy, laid back screen persona. His warm baritone crooning
popularized many hit songs, including "Temptation,"
"Pennies From Heaven" and "Blue Hawaii." Crosby's best
screen work lay ahead -- you'll find more on him in our
coverage of the 1940s.
Universal
When MGM dropped teenage soprano Deanna Durbin,
Universal Studios had the good sense to put her under
contact. They showcased this attractive, upbeat girl in
musical comedies that blended operatic selections with
popular songs. Durbin's biggest 30s hits included Three
Smart Girls (1936), 100 Men and a Girl (1937), and Mad
About Music (1938). Her films were such major money
makers that they saved Universal from financial ruin during
the worst of the Depression.
Disney
Walt Disney had been turning out animated short subjects
for years, but industry experts scoffed at his plans for a fulllength animated musical. Many believed there was little of
any audience for such a project. Thanks to Disney's
insistence on quality, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
(1937) was as expensive to produce as most live-action films.
However, Snow White's visual beauty and genuine sense of
wonder made it a sensation with all age groups. Every
number in its tuneful score ("Heigh-Ho," "Some Day My
Prince Will Come") was used to develop plot and/or
characterization, and there was a refreshing balance of
humor, color and sentiment. Other studios would dabble in
feature-length animation, but none matched the Disney
team's accomplishment.
Disney seemed to overplay his hand with Fantasia (1940),
an animated revue blending classical music and stunning
cartoon imagery that was initially rejected by the movie
going public. Over the years, Fantasia developed a cult
following and is now recognized as a unique achievement.
But the film's failure effected the future course of Disney's
output. As much a businessman as he was an artist, he
thereafter stuck to straightforward animated book musicals.
Almost all of these films became classics, and they
introduced such Academy Award-winning songs as "When
You Wish Upon a Star" (Pinocchio - 1940) and "Zip-a-DeeDoo-Dah" (Song of the South - 1946). Disney remained the
pre-eminent creator of animated features until his death in
1966.
One more studio spent the 1930s building a peerless dynasty
of musical talent, so much so that they were considered the
premier musical film factory. For more on these legendary
years at MGM . . .
decades.
More was going on at MGM -- enough to take the world all
the way from a barnyard to somewhere over the rainbow . . .
World War II
History of Musical Film
Warner Brothers
Goldwyn: Danny Kaye
Screen 1940's: Part I
by John Kenrick
Warner Brothers
Warner's produced several musical biographies. The best -arguably the most entertaining film bio of all time -- was
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), which soared thanks to James
Cagney's Oscar-winning performance as Broadway legend
George M. Cohan. This flag-waving film sanitized any
controversial aspects of Cohan's life, providing a first rate
morale booster for a nation at war. Thanks to frequent
broadcasts on television, this film has reintroduced several
generations to Cohan's most memorable songs, and kept alive a
great name that might have otherwise faded into obscurity.
There were many patriotic screen musicals during World War
II, but none matched this one's lasting appeal.
After the war, Warners began a profitable series of musicals
starring Doris Day, a band singer who proved to be a fine
actress with an appealing screen presence. Her most
memorable musicals would come in the next decade.
on the original sheet music cover for "It's a Grand Night for Singing,"
the hit waltz from State Fair.
1940s III:
by John Kenrick
Gene Kelly
musicals included
Screen 1950s
by John Kenrick
(Copyright 1996-2003)
(The images below are thumbnails click on them to see larger versions.)
End of an Era
The 1950s were both the brightest and the saddest years for the
Hollywood musical. The form reached its zenith, with two
musicals winning the Academy Award for Best Picture. At the same
Better Efforts
Even though the studio system was fading, Hollywood managed to
turn out a number of solid musical films -- and a few worthwhile
originals were scattered among the adapted stage shows. Here's a
studio breakdown covering some of the most notable efforts:
20th Century Fox filmed all of Richard Rodgers & Oscar
Hammerstein II's stage hits. Oklahoma (1955) and Carousel
(1956) turned out well and King and I (1956) turned out even
better, but South Pacific (1958) was marred by the use of annoying
colored filters and the vocal dubbing of most of the leads. Fox's
most successful R&H adaptation would come in the 1960s more
on that later.
Warner Brothers created a series of vehicles for Doris Day, a
former big-band singer who proved to be a solid screen actress. She
followed up her success in such films as Tea For Two (1950) and
On Moonlight Bay (1951) with a standout performance as singing
cowgirl Calamity Jane (1953). Those who underestimated Day's
acting ability were wowed when she played Ruth Etting in MGM's
powerful musical bio Love Me or Leave Me (1955). Day joined
members of Broadway's original cast for Warner's energetic screen
version of The Pajama Game (1957), and made her final musical
screen appearance in the underrated Jumbo (1962) the last film
with musicals sequences staged by Busby Berkeley.
Songwriter Irving Berlin old and new songs in the score of
White Christmas (1954). Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen
shared "Sisters" then co-stars Bing Crosby and Danny
Kaye lip synched to the ladies' soundtrack, creating a a
hilarious moment.
MGM's Best?
(The images below are thumbnails click on them to see larger versions.)
the film winds up with seven happily married couples. Even a fine
Johnny Mercer-Gene dePaul score ("Wonderful Day," "Sobbin'
Women") has trouble outshining Kidd's rousing barn-raising
challenge dance and the ax-wielding machismo fest "Lonesome
Polecat." Overlooked by studio executives, Seven Brides became a
major hit and received a well-deserved Academy Award for Best
Score.
"MGM's Best?"
Each of these films has been called "the best movie musical ever
made" by different critics and fans. And why not? They are
everything great entertainment should be, with fresh, witty
storytelling, wonderful casts and handsome productions. They also
feature superb scores and some of the finest choreography ever
devised for film. Its interesting to note that only Seven Brides has a
100% original score. The others use recycled songs from previous
stage or screen projects, depending on a stylish blend of story and
dance to make them new and exciting.
Hollywood has always viewed musicals with something less than
total respect. How else can one explain that the cornball drama The
Greatest Show on Earth won Best Picture in 1952, while Singin' in
the Rain was not even nominated? When MGM celebrated its 50th
anniversary by releasing That's Entertainment (1974), a dazzling
collection of scenes from over 100 of their musicals, these films
began to get serious attention as cultural treasures. Scholars, critics
and the general movie-going public finally recognized that the
1950s at MGM were truly a golden age.
In their own time, the titles discussed above were not the only
claimants to the title of "best screen musical." In fact, several other
masterworks may very well top the list of all-time greats. While
most of these films came from other studios, all were made by MGM alumni.
Screen 1950s
Three Classics
by John Kenrick
(Copyright 1996-2003)
Funny Face
A Star is Born
Gigi
The Best?
(The images below are thumbnails click on them to see larger versions.)
Three more magnificent musical films belong on the list of alltime greats. Although filmed by three different studios, all were
created by alumni of Arthur Freed's legendary production unit at
MGM.
Funny Face
Funny Face (1957) was conceived at MGM, but when
Paramount refused to loan out Audrey Hepburn, members of the
Freed unit (which was being disbanded) went to Paramount.
Arthur Freed's longtime associate Roger Edens produced,
Stanley Donen directed, and singer-composer Kay Thompson
(Edens' longtime MGM colleague) gave a film-stealing
performance as a ruthless fashion magnate. Fred Astaire made
everything from a raincoat to an umbrella come alive as dance
partners in "Let's Kiss and Make Up." The score consisted of four
classic George and Ira Gershwin songs, with several new
numbers by Edens and Leonard Gershe. Hepburn gave a
disarming performance as an intellectual beauty wooed by
photographer Astaire when they work on one of Thompson's Paris
fashion shows.
Impressive as the cast and score are, it is Donen's unique sense of
cinematic flow that makes film a masterpiece. Every song flows
out of the action surrounding it, and unforgettable images abound.
Cineast's have long treasured Hepburn's exuberant descent down
a staircase in the Louvre, waving a red tulle wrap in imitation of
the massive sculpture "Winged Victory." Although visually
stunning and thoroughly entertaining, Funny Face was such a box
office disappointment that Paramount stopped making musicals
altogether, and MGM allowed the Freed unit to melt away .
However, the film developed a dedicated following over time and
remains a great favorite with film buffs.
A Star is Born
Warner Brothers' most masterful 1950s musical was built by
another stellar team of MGM alumni: director George Cukor,
screenwriter Moss Hart, composer Harold Arlen, lyricist Ira
Gershwin and performer Judy Garland. The magnificent A Star
is Born (1954) was based on a classic 1937 tearjerker about an
unknown actress surviving Hollywood stardom and personal
heartbreak. After months of long and tortured filming, Garland
gave the most spontaneous and powerful screen performance of
her career, while Cukor and company made "The Man That Got
The next decade would bring the most profitable musical films of
all time. Almost all would be adaptations of Broadway shows, but
there was an occasional "spoonful of sugar" to help the medicine
go down
Julie Andrews
History of Musical Film
The Sound of Music
The 1960s:
Mary Poppins won five Academy Awards the most ever for a
Disney production. "Chim, Chim Chiree" won for best song.
Andrews won for Best Actress, and had much to celebrate as her
Elvis
One other name merits special mention here. Elvis Presley, the
hip-gyrating King of Rock 'n' Roll, starred in thirty musical
movies between 1956 and 1970. The most memorable titles on
the list include Jailhouse Rock (1956), Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962)
and Viva Las Vegas (1964). By grafting Presley songs onto
routine plots, these low budget quickies made tons of money.
Presley's original film songs include the charming ballads "Love
Me Tender" and "Can't Help Falling in Love." While they may
not be artistic landmarks, these films appealed to millions of
movie goers no small accomplishment at a time when musicals
were fading from the scene!
Aside from Elvis projects, most of the Hollywood musicals of the
1960s were Broadway retreads. Why? And were they worth the
effort and expense?
Broadway's Leftovers
History of Musical Film
Big Winners
1960s Part II
by John Kenrick
Big Losers
(Copyright 1996-2003)
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Broadway's Leftovers
The souvenir book for the film version of My Fair Lady (1964)
an outstanding example of the multi-image logos that were
very popular with 60s screen musicals.
Bells Are Ringing (1960) was the last screen musical produced
by MGM veteran Arthur Freed. With his production unit
disbanded, Freed found it challenging to adapt this Broadway
hit. Although the film was less than satisfying, it preserved
Judy Holliday's inspired performance as an answering service
operator who finds love and adventure in Manhattan.
The Music Man (1962) was over twenty minutes longer on
screen than on stage, but stellar performances by Robert
Preston and Shirley Jones and a picture-perfect physical
production made it all irresistible.
My Fair Lady (1964) also ran on the long side, but Rex
Harrison recreated his definitive stage performance as Henry
Higgins, and Cecil Beaton's costumes were even more
breathtaking than they had been on Broadway. And although
Audrey Hepburn's singing was dubbed, her luminous
performance has proved a timeless delight. Few were surprised
when My Fair Lady received the Academy Award for Best
Picture, and Harrison was named Best Actor.
Big Winners
An ad for the soundtrack recording of Oliver! (1969). It was
the last musical film of the 20th Century to win the Academy
Award for Best Picture. In fact, no other musical took the
coveted prize until Chicago won in 2003.
Oliver was the fourth musical in ten years to win Best Picture no
previous decade had seen more than two musicals cop the top prize. It
would be thirty four years before the Academy Award went to another
musical.
Big Losers
The smashing success of these films led others to attempt big musical
films, but the trend soon petered out. Why? For one thing, rock had
become the predominant sound in popular music, but the key issue was
the poor quality of the musicals in question. Again, money was poured
into the creative breach, resulting in bloated, boring musical films
Half a Sixpence (1967) still had the energetic British stage star
Tommy Steele in the lead, but even he could not kick his way
through an overblown physical production.
Camelot (1967) had possibilities, but director Joshua Logan
squelched them all. Despite having a score by Alan Jay
Lerner and Frederick Loewe He cast leads who could not
sing, and took such a muddled approach that he was relieved of
his duties before the film could be completed. No wonder the
final product wanders into incoherency.
Paint Your Wagon (1969) saw Logan directing yet another
Lerner & Loewe project, with even more ghastly results. The
leads can't sing and the film descends into chaos. Harve
Presnell's thrilling rendition of "Mariah" seems like it wandered
in from another movie.
Believe it or not, the worst was yet to come. The decade ahead would
bring some of the most appalling screen musicals ever seen and a
new record-setting hit.
Goin' Like Elsie
History of Musical Film
Costly Bombs
Rocking the Big Screen
The 1970s
by John Kenrick
(Copyright 1996-2004)
Big Names, Mixed Results
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Costly Bombs
However, most of this decade's Hollywood musicals originals as well
as adapted stage works were mishandled. With millions of dollars
spent to make bad ideas even worse, the early 1970s became the
golden age of bad big-budget movie musicals. Some of the most
memorable clunkers
By 1980, the consensus in the business was that film musicals were
dead and buried . . . the same way they were back in 1933. This time it
would take puppets and dancing teapots to prove the experts wrong. In
Hollywood, it takes all kinds . . .
Crazy World
History of Musical Film
The Muppets
Victor/Victoria
The 1980s
by John Kenrick
(Copyright 1996-2003)
Ashman & Menken
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"Crazy World"
Several big-budget screen musicals lost millions in the early 1980s,
leaving behind a litany of titles that still cause heads to shake in
Hollywood. Some were just hopeless ideas, but two were stage hits
demolished by acclaimed directors who had no idea how to film a
musical.
- Can't Stop the Music (1980) featured the Village People, a posse
of non-singing celebrities, a disco score and a production that
overstepped the line between camp and idiocy.
- The charmless Grease 2 (1982) became the latest in an unbroken
line of disastrous musical sequels. (Would Hollywood never learn?)
- Legendary director John Huston decided to try his hand at
musicals, turning the international stage smash Annie (1982) into a
clumsy spectacle
- Sir Richard Attenborough's adaptation of A Chorus Line (1985)
drained every ounce of inspiration from one of the most dynamic
Broadway musicals of its time.
Pink Floyd - The Wall (1982) was a hit with a limited audience, but
this series of rock songs was more a precursor of music videos than
a musical. In an eerie re-enactment of the early 1930s, the film
musical was proclaimed dead by most industry executives -- just as
musicals started kicking their way out of the grave to become a top-
Beyond Disney
Other studios tried to get on the animated musical bandwagon, but
most one-shot projects could not compete with Disney's wellestablished animation division. Few efforts were as misguided as the
animated remake of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I (1999),
which dumped more than half of the score and "dumbed-down" the
story -- turning the Kralahome into an evil sorcerer and the King into
an action hero. Soupy orchestrations drowned the remnants of the stillglorious score, making this project altogether pointless.
The last big-screen musical of the 20th century was South Park:
Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999) an independent animated feature
that would have left Walt Disney's ghost quivering in disbelief. Based
on a popular cable television series, this foul-mouthed, artistically
primitive and altogether brilliant satire spoofed obscene pop lyrics,
overprotective parents, and the contemporary obsession with blaming
others for one's problems. The score (with song titles so explicit that
several cannot be mentioned on this family-friendly site) was one of
the funniest ever used in a feature film. Some found the film offensive,
but it proved that screen musicals could still entertain. It also proved
that animated musicals are not just for tots.
Film's Second Century
History of Musical Film
Chicago
2000 to Today
by John Kenrick
(Copyright 2000-2004)
The Future?
by John Kenrick
(Copyright 1996 - Updated 2005)
The images below are thumbnails click on them to see larger versions.)
Once-squalid Times Square now greets theatergoers with bright lights and
familiar chain restaurants.
Some respected sources insist that the outlook for the Broadway musical is dim.
"Musicals flourished into the early sixties, but there were few new playwrights . . . and
there seemed room for only one new writer of musicals, Stephen Sondheim. By the
early eighties Broadway became a tourist attraction mounting fewer shows each year,
some years not even ten, and these ten were often star vehicles or extravaganzas that
depended on sensational stage effects. The same holds true today. It is difficult to
imagine when Broadway will again play a significant role in New York's literary life."
- William Corbett, New York Literary Lights (St. Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 1998), p. 37.
Theatrical professionals have fretted over this question for decades. Selfappointed experts offer all kinds of ideas. However, among those who
have lived and thrived in the world of the American musical, one finds a
remarkable similarity of opinion. Try three of the genre's greatest
songwriters --
The musical theatre will go on, and the showtune will never die. But I don't think we
will ever have that special kind of American entertainment in quite the same way.
- Jerry Herman, Showtune (New York: Donald I. Fine Books, 1996)
History is replete with dire predictions about the future of the New York theatre . . . This
time the malaise may indeed be terminal . . . Broadway cannot live without the musical
theatre, but the musical theatre can live without Broadway. After all, its first home was
Paris and then Vienna and then London and then New York. So changes of address are
not uncommon.
- Alan Jay Lerner, The Musical Theatre: An Appreciation (New York: McGraw Hill, 1986)
It is clear that the musical theatre is changing. No one knows where it is going. Perhaps
it is going not to one place but to many. That would be healthy, I think, just as the search
in itself can be healthy. . . Thus it was for Shakespeare in Elizabethan times; thus it was
for writers of musicals after Rodgers and Hammerstein; and thus it will be again. In the
meantime, we have no choice but to be explorers as well as practitioners, to discover
and set the limitations which will provide us our own discovery and release.
- Tom Jones, Making Musicals: An Informal Introduction to the World of Musical Theatre (New
York: Limelight Editions, 1998), pp. 84-85.
British Mega-musicals dominated Broadway in the late 20th Century, but they are not
the art form's future. Right now, the corporate Disney musical reigns supreme on both
sides of the Atlantic. The Lion King boasts magnificent Disney marketing and
$12,000,000 worth of puppetry, but the Elton John-Tim Rice score has all the wit of a
State Department press release. Luckily for Disney, contemporary audiences have been
trained to prefer style over substance, and Lion King has style by the truckload.
Titanic and Ragtime proved that the Broadway musical was still capable of artistic
achievement in the 1990s. Frank Wildhorn's Jekyll and Hyde and The Scarlet Pimpernel
showed that new American musicals with a pop-music approach could find an audience
despite critical scorn. But none of these could touch the decade-plus runs of the British
mega-musicals.
Crowds line up to see the long-running Rent.
Since 2000, the all-American musical comedy has made a stunning comeback. With the
triumph of The Full Monty, The Producers, Urinetown, Thoroughly Modern Millie and
Hairspray, critics and audiences have re-embraced a genre many (this author included)
had supposed dead. With the exception of Urinetown, they are based on hit films.
Musicals have been inspired by movies for decades, but not with such concentrated
success. These musical comedies show tremendous promise, offering a happy blend of
nostalgic pastiche and original spoof. They have turned long-empty hopes into filled
theater seats the ultimate sign of a successful theatrical trend.
It is almost impossible to overestimate the role musical theatre plays in the economic
life of New York City. According to the League of Theatre Owners and Producers,
Broadway shows currently sell one and a half billion dollars worth of tickets annually
and the overwhelming majority of those tickets are for musicals. Figure in what
theatergoers spend at hotels, restaurants and stores, and it is estimated that Broadway
contributes four and a half billion dollars to New York's economy. Off Broadway
musicals add millions more to that figure.
But by the book's end, he borrows a bit of a Jerry Herman lyric to reassure us that
A light, however dim, shines at the end of the tunnel. . . After two decades of
domination by heavy-handed entertainment without substance, style or sense, perhaps
the American musical theater will still be here tomorrow alive and well and shining.
- Flinn, pp. 494-495
"It is nonsense to say what a musical should or should not be. It should be anything it
wants to be, and if you don't like it you don't have to go to it. There is only one
absolutely indispensable element that a musical must have. It must have music. And
there is only one thing that it has to be it has to be good."
- as quoted by Stanley Green in The World of Musical Comedy (New York: Ziff Davis Publishing,
1960), p. 7.
Barnum
P.T. Barnum was one of the most colorful characters in American history, and Barnum
sticks reasonably close to the facts. However, the affair with opera star Jenny Lind
depicted in the musical is librettist Michael Stewart's fabrication. All reliable sources
suggest that Barnum was devoted to his wife Charity.
Camelot
The real Arthur was a war lord who ruled part of Britain in the pre-Christian dark ages.
He bore no resemblance to the medieval Christian monarch seen in this musical, which
was based on T. H. White's delicious comic fantasy novel The Once and Future King.
Librettist Alan Jay Lerner based his script on only a portion of the novel -- rights to the
early chapters had already been purchased by Walt Disney, who turned out the animated
charmer The Sword in the Stone (1964). Lerner sticks to White's original
characterizations, but changes Lancelot into a handsome hunk the novel depicts the
French super-knight as powerful but remarkably ugly.
Chicago
In 1924, Chicago housewife Beulah Annan shot and killed her lover, Harry Kolstadt.
Beulah's husband Al lined up prominent defense attorney W.W. O'Brien to keep his wife
from hanging. After a highly publicized trial, and announcements to the press that
Beulah was pregnant, the all-male jury needed only two hours to reach a verdict of "not
guilty." After the pregnancy proved a hoax, the Annans divorced -- Beulah wound up
dying in an asylum in 1928. Inspired by this and other murder cases, reporter Maurine
Dallas Watkins took a playwrighting course at Yale and penned the hit stage drama
Chicago (1927). There was a silent screen version, and Twentieth Century Fox later
eventually filmed a sound version entitled Roxie Hart (1942). Watkins resisted all
attempts to turn her story into a musical, right up to the time of her death in 1969. The
Watkins estate finally sold the rights to producer Robert Fryer, and Bob Fosse, John
Kander and Fred Ebb took it from there. The corruption and media madness depicted in
both the stage and screen musical version of Chicago were very much a part of the
1920s -- just as they are all too much a part of our own time.
Evita
While the basic order of events in Evita is historically accurate, Webber
and Rice opted for the most unsavory version of every episode. Mind
you, that does not mean they got it wrong. Power has changed hands
often in Argentina over the last fifty years, and with each change the
"official" version of Eva Duarte's life story seems to mutate yet again.
Che Guevara's revolutionary ideals may have been a reaction to corrupt
movements like Peronism, but he never had any personal contact with
Eva. Eva's foundation provided the Peron's and their cohorts with
millions in graft, but it also built hospitals and schools and provided desperately needed
services for the poor. After cancer took Eva's life at an early age, her funeral was as
spectacular as the musical suggests, and the film version includes a fairly accurate reenactment of this ghoulish event. Peron quickly resumed his old fascination with
teenage girls, recruiting them from various government run schools. Within a few years
of Eva's death, the old reprobate was deposed and forced into exile in Spain. Peron
returned in triumph in the 1970s, with his new wife Isabel as vice president the job
once denied to Eva. Peron died soon afterward. In a desperate attempt to prop up her
sagging regime, Isabel located Eva's long-hidden mummified body and brought it back
to Argentina. Isabel Peron was deposed before plans for a new tomb could be executed.
Eva's corpse is currently locked away in the Duarte family's Buenos Aires vault
Peron's remains lie beside it.
Fiorello
This almost forgotten show proves that accurate history can be turned into excellent
entertainment. Except for a brief prelude, the action takes place long before LaGuardia's
turbulent years as mayor of New York. It concentrates on his years as a crusading
attorney for the downtrodden, depicting his earliest attempts to enter the corrupt world
of New York politics. While a few of the supporting characters are fictitious, many of
the people and incidents in Fiorello come directly from the "Little Flower's" life. His
first wife did die at an early age, after which he married his longtime secretary.
Floyd Collins
Floyd Collins in another cave, shortly before his fatal accident.
The true story of this cave explorer who became fatally trapped while
searching for a tourist-worthy cave caused nationwide headlines in
1925. The musical accurately captures the tragedy and the media-frenzy
that surrounded this tragedy. Collins, his family and the reporter who exploits really
existed. However, many of the lesser characters and discussions are fictional, based on
Billy Wilder's 1952 film version of the same incident, entitled Ace in the Hole (later
retitled The Big Carnival).
Funny Girl
We've had so many questions on this show (and film) that the answers rate a separate
page click here for the true dish on Fanny Brice
George M!
The Four Cohans: George M. is lower right.
The classic 1942 film bio Yankee Doodle Dandy had to clean-up certain
details to appease Cohan, but his daughter Mary was willing to be a bit
more honest in 1969 when she worked on George M! While the plot of this
highly entertaining stage bio is bare-boned, but fairly factual. It includes Cohan's
divorce, his real wives, his vicious feud with Actor's Equity and his all-consuming
egoism. It also celebrates Cohan's extraordinary creativity and multi-faceted talents
without which, his other qualities would hardly matter.
Goodtime Charley
The Joan of Arc story as a musical? Hey, there have been worse ideas. The brilliant
opening number has the statues of dead royals on a cathedral wall come to life,
explaining the convoluted "History" behind the show with wit and remarkable dramatic
economy. In the show that follows, the basic details of Joan of Arc's victories and her
betrayal by certain French leaders are relatively accurate. However, the chummy
relationship between Joan and Charles is fanciful nothing in the historical record
suggests that she ever read her prince's beads the way she does in this libretto. The
casting of Joel Grey forced them to make Charles the lead, throwing the focus off in
what is really Joan's story.
Gypsy
The real Baby June (Havoc) and her sister Louise (a.k.a. Gypsy Rose Lee) with
two of their vaudeville "newsboys."
herself "Gypsy Rose Lee" and became the toast of Minsky's Burlesque. After June's
marriage failed, she survived the 1930s as a marathon dancer, then emerged as a
successful stage and screen actress. Her mother and sister refused her any assistance. By
the way, the idea of a "Mr. Orpheum" is a great joke most audiences miss today. Mo
such person existed. The Orpheum vaudeville circuit was built by Martin Beck and
eventually taken over by E. F. Albee.
Legs Diamond
Legs Diamond in one of his court appearances.
The plot of Peter Allen's musical has practically nothing to do with the real
Jack Diamond, who was a ruthless mob gunman, not an entertainer. He
worked his way up to operating several speakeasies, including New York's
Hotsy Totsy Club. No one is quite sure how many deaths Legs was responsible for, but
it was not a small number. He developed a reputation for survival by escaping several
attempts on his life, but his luck ran out when the Dutch Schultz gang killed him in
Albany in 1931.
This show is closer to the facts than most of its critics might like to admit.
Mabel Normand was a waitress in Flatbush before her years in silent
film, and she did have a long-term affair with the tempestuous Mack
Sennett. Normand was one of several stars ruined by the mysterious
murder of director William Desmond Taylor. Normand's death in 1930
was probably drug related. Several librettists have tried to revise the book, either ending
the show before her death or ignoring it altogether which doesn't wash, since the plot
is seen as a flashback from 1938. Jerry Herman's beloved score may never overcome
these seemingly irreparable book issues.
Mame
Patrick Dennis (whose real name was Everett Tanner) had an aunt Marion Tanner
who claimed that she was the inspiration for Auntie Mame. She was an eccentric who
turned her Greenwich Village townhouse into a haven for actors and artists (including
young Billie Holliday), but her life bore minimal resemblance to the novel, the play or
the musical. Patrick was actually raised by his own parents. After the fictional Auntie
Mame became an institution, Patrick was plagued by Marion's often embarrassing
attempts to publicize herself at his expense. He tried paying for her silence, but it
proved useless. She outlived Patrick, and kept grabbing for tabloid publicity right
through her final impoverished years in a nursing home.
Oklahoma
The characters are fictional, but this musical does capture the excitement felt in the
Oklahoma territory as it prepared for full statehood in the eary 1900s. However, that
territory was home to many Native Americans something you would never guess from
seeing the all-Caucasian line-up in this Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. The play it
was based on (Lynn Riggs' drama Green Grow the Lilacs) depicts some characters as
being at least partly of Native American ancestry.
Pacific Overtures
The high-level history (Japan's feudal system, the West forcing its way into Japan) is
based on historical fact. Although most of the main characters are figments of librettist
John Weidman's imagination, the show brilliantly captures the culture clash that would
reshape the world in the 20th century.
Parade
Acclaimed playwright Alfred Uhry's libretto sticks closely to the known facts in the Leo
Frank case not surprising, since members of his family knew the Franks personally.
Some of the peripheral characters and discussions are fictional, but all serve to support
or illuminate the central story line. While most experts agree that Frank was an innocent
man, his lynching is still a sensitive issue in Atlanta
Ragtime
Evelyn Nesbit during her years on stage.
Coalhouse Walker, Sarah, Tateh and "The Family" are fictional, but the
period setting and many of the supporting characters are straight out of
the history books. The musical follows E.L. Doctorow's best-selling
novel closely in depicting them. For example:
1776
Author Peter Stone often boasted about the historical accuracy of his 1776 libretto, and
it is accurate up to a point. The scenes and songs shared by John and Abigail Adams are
taken almost verbatim from their private correspondence, and the sharp divisions in the
colonies over rebellion and slavery are honestly depicted. The personalities of Adams,
Franklin and Jefferson are brought to delightful life, and audiences get a convincing
taste of the emotions of a distant era. Because their deliberations were considered
treasonous, Congress kept no notes on its actual debates -- but the final debates over
independence as Stone conceives them are brilliant and riveting. No wonder this show
and its handsome screen version remain effective after more than three decades.
However, Stone did take a number of (you should pardon the expression) liberties. The
most notable include -
The real congressional chamber had no daily calendar that device was added to
make the passage of time clearer to the audience.
Those who signed the Declaration did so over a period of several weeks. To
provide a strong final image, 1776 depicts men from every colony signing at the
same time.
John Adams did write to Abigail that he was "obnoxious and disliked," but he
was actually one of the most respected figures in Congress. Happily, William
Daniels succeeded in capturing the man's singular devotion to "independency."
Martha Jefferson was seriously ill during the summer of 1776. She didn't have
the energy to write her husband letters, let alone the stamina required for the
then arduous journey to Philadelphia. So Thomas Jefferson wrote the
Declaration of Independence without the refreshment of a conjugal visit.
The surviving first draft shows that Jefferson had a relatively smooth time
writing the Declaration -- and by his own account, there were no mountains of
crumpled rejects scattered across his floor.
Richard Henry Lee was a somber Puritan noted for his oratorical skill. Other
than his height, he bore no resemblance to the effusive blowhard portrayed so
delectably by Ron Holgate.
Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island did enjoy a tot of rum, but never to excess and
only at night -- he drank nothing stronger than water during the day.
The early summer of 1776 saw Washington's army planning the defense of New
York City, so the General's dispatches during these weeks would have been filled
with optimism. It was not until August and the British victory at the Battle of
Long Island that Washington would have expressed a gloomier view.
James Wilson did not change his vote at the last moment to avoid the wrath of
posterity -- he openly switched over to the pro-independence side some time
before the final vote took place.
John Dickinson did not oppose the idea of American independence -- he just felt
it was too soon to take such a drastic step. In the end, Dickinson refused to stand
in the way of something the rest of the colonies wanted to do. He gracefully
chose not to show up for the final vote -- knowing this would guarantee
acceptance of the Declaration.
Titanic
Isidor and Ida Strauss shortly before The Titanic sailed.
sinking liner without her longtime husband. However, librettist Peter Stone changed
some life stories to enrich the atmosphere. For example, Charles Clark and Caroline
Neville (who are seen eloping in the show) were already married, and the little boy who
runs about with a model sailing ship during the opening number was actually a
strapping teenager. As far as I have been able to determine, Alice Beane's hilarious
social ambitions and Kate Murphy's unwed pregnancy are fictitious. However, all
technical information regarding the ship and it's tragic accident are depicted with
textbook accuracy, and the finale truthfully reflects who survived and who did not. It
is not surprising that this skillful use of truth as drama came from the same librettist
responsible for 1776.