Broadway Songs with "Historical Significance"

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Broadway Songs with "Historical Significance"

Posted: 12/14/05 at 4:40pm

I had an assignment from a history class the other day to find a song that accurately reflects a major event from twentieth century history. I decided on a song from Miss Saigon (Why God Why?), but this topic really sparked my interest. Many musicals really reflect the time in which they were written. A few stand out in my mind when it comes to addressing specific events, Cabaret for WW2, RENT and the AIDS epidemic, The Wild Party and prohibition. What other ones stick out to you guys?

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re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/14/05 at 4:50pm

South Pacific is another musical that represents WW2

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re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/14/05 at 4:54pm

Les Miserables, french revolution.

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/14/05 at 4:58pm

Ragtime has a few... labor reform, social injustice, even racism in music.

Henry Ford... The Night That Goldman Spoke at Union Square... The Crime of the Century...

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Updated On: 12/14/05 at 04:58 PM

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/14/05 at 5:04pm

Hair, perhaps?

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/14/05 at 5:04pm

Would "The Sound of Music" count here, too? I'm only "sort of" familiar with the show, but I do recall it was set just before WWII.

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re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/14/05 at 5:06pm

Les Mis has nothing to do with the French Revolution and actually takes place 32 years after the end of the French Revolution (ended in 1799).

edit: les mis uprising takes place in 1832.

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"when dangers near, exploit their fear" ~ Reefer Madness the Musical

Updated On: 12/14/05 at 05:06 PM

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/14/05 at 5:10pm

Annie - the Great Depression "A New Deal for Christmas" and "We'd Like to Thank You Herbert Hoover"

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Updated On: 12/14/05 at 05:10 PM

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/14/05 at 5:10pm

Little Women the musical maybe? That has some Massachusetts history related things in it I think.

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#10

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/14/05 at 5:15pm

Almost every song in "Assassins".

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#11

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/14/05 at 5:17pm

This list is more of historic shows then specific songs:

The Civil War (most of the show)
1776 (most of the show)
Titanic
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Flower Drum Song (more for culture)
Oklahoma
Thoroughly Modern Millie (1920's)
Taboo (British Pop Club Cuture in the 1980's)
Waiting for the Moon (1920's right after WW1-beginning of WW2)

#12

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/14/05 at 5:21pm

Evita

#13

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/14/05 at 5:34pm

I don't know if this works, but the musical Little Women kind of sparks my interest. yo me, it tells the story of girls who are dealing with poverty and deal with it in their very own way. "Five Forever" is sung by the girls and the neighbor Laurie, saying they will stick together no matter what!

#14

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/14/05 at 9:59pm

SHOWBOAT! Although it takes place after the Civil War, it addresses the still slave-like existence of African Americans in the late 19th Century South, especially through "Ol' Man River." And it's certainly the only musical I know of to address the period's laws against interracial marriage ("miscegenation").

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#15

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/14/05 at 10:04pm

Wow I'm surprised no one mentioned BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?

The Great Depression was near its height In 1932 when E. Y. (Yip) Harburg and Jay Gorney wrote "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime" for the musical revue Americana which opened in New York City a month before the presidential election between challenger Franklin Delano Roosevelt and incumbant President Herbert Hoover. The song, filled with references to contemporary American experiences, became something of an unofficial anthem for the unemployed, the homeless the hungry and the confused who wondered what had happened to the hope and promise of America for those willing to follow the rules and work hard to build a dream.

#16

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/14/05 at 10:05pm

Another vote for Assassins, probably "Ballad of Booth", if I had to choose one song.

#17

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/14/05 at 10:13pm

Little Women the musical maybe? That has some Massachusetts history related things in it I think.

AND

I don't know if this works, but the musical Little Women kind of sparks my interest. yo me, it tells the story of girls who are dealing with poverty and deal with it in their very own way. "Five Forever" is sung by the girls and the neighbor Laurie, saying they will stick together no matter what!

Ummm... like the Civil War, maybe?

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#18

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/14/05 at 10:14pm

I'd like to add PARADE to the list. It deals with 1913 Georgia, the feelings that people had post Civil War, and how those feelings affected the social climate. I would say that the whole score really reflects the time in its lyrics and some of the musical styles as well.

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#19

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/14/05 at 11:22pm

Enjolras77 mentioned South Pacific. I would specifically add "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught" from that show, a moving song on the origins of racism.

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#20

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/15/05 at 12:15am

*Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat - with Biblical references

*Jesus Christ Superstar - also with Biblical references

*Camelot - maybe more of stuff of legend than historical fact, but the idylls of King Arthur are supposed to have taken place in a place in England called Tintagel?

*Man of La Mancha - a play within a play; written by and actually part of the story by Cervantes at the time of the Spanish inquisition

*Sunset Boulevard - references to the change in the era of cinema ( from silent to talking movies)

*The Beautiful Game - more contemporary, time of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland

*Chess - written about the era of the Cold War and against the backdrop of the famous Bobby Fischer and Russian grandmasters confrontations.

Updated On: 12/15/05 at 12:15 AM

#21

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/15/05 at 1:32am

"The Will Rogers Follies"
"Mack & Mabel"
"Mame"

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Updated On: 12/15/05 at 01:32 AM

#22

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/15/05 at 2:12am

I'm trying not to repeat anyhting here.

"Oklahoma" for the Manifest Destiny

"Kansas City", from Oklahoma for the Industrial Revolution

"Sword Dance" from Brigadoon for Scottish culture

Almost anything in Gypsy for vaudeville and burlesgue

Much in Hairspray for the Civil Rights movement

Songs from How to Succeed, particularly "Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm" and "Cinderella, Darling", can lead for an interesting study in women's rights.

Pirates of Penzance is so old, it's a history lesson in itself.

Umm that's all i got for now. lol

Updated On: 12/15/05 at 02:12 AM

#23

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/15/05 at 3:14am

Don't sweat the Les Mis mistake...I thought it was supposed to be the French Revolution until I read the book. To be honest I was a little disappointed--the musical is about as BIG and dramatic as a Broadway musical can get, but the battle is actually pretty unimportant and small in history.

#24

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/15/05 at 9:30am

CHESS - the Cold War.
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF - the persecution of Jews in Czarist Russia.
RAGS - the immigrant experience in America.
FIORELLO - story of NY mayor Fiorello LaGuardia

#25

re: Broadway Songs with 'Historical Significance'

Posted: 12/15/05 at 11:38am

Caroline, or Change and the civil rights movement, both literally and allegorically.

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