EDIT: I've adjusted the list to fit what I've gathered to be the popular opinion.
I'm trying to list a definitive musical for each decade of the 20th century (musical that sums up that decade, doesn't have to be written in that decade). Any suggestions? Here's my initial thoughts:
1900s - Ragtime 1910s - Titanic or Mary Poppins 1920s - Chicago or Thoroughly Modern Millie 1930s - Cabaret 1940s - On the Town 1950s - West Side Story 1960s - Hair 1970s – A Chorus Line 1980s - The Wedding Singer (I'm gonna leave it at this, only because I'm unfamiliar with Falsettos, though many agree that it is a better choice) 1990s - Rent
"Titanic" is a possibility for the 1910s...it does deal quite a bit with the hubris of the beginning of that decade.
I might also suggest "The Sound of Music" for the 1930s (although I think "Cabaret" is better for that slot) and "West Side Story" for the 1950s (although "Grease" is probably more evocative of the stereotypical 1950s-land we all imagine).
And a question--are you looking for musicals that defined the decade in general, or that defined what theatre was like from that decade?
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since before columbus/chbosky made a film of it. although there wasn't a real date, i think the majority of the opinion was it was 90s. (Just lyrically, there are references to Oklahoma City and Thelma and Louise...or am I completely off-base.)
I would say Saturday Night Fever for the 70's. Maybe Swing! for the 40's. Gee, maybe we should compile a list of Jukebox musicals for each decade.
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This thread is for musicals that sum up a decade, not musicals that were popular in that decade (and in many cases, still are popular today.) I think The Wedding Singer does sum up the 80s and there are a lot of shows that sum up the 20s.
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"This thread is for musicals that sum up a decade, not musicals that were popular in that decade..."
Exactly. Which is why I find it kinda strange.
RENT didn't sum up the '90s for me at all. It was more about the '80s with Jon Larson, and that brief time I spent hanging out with him and others in that group while we were all struggling in NYC in the mid-'80s. Still, I think of that as such a SPECIFIC experience for a relatively small group of "bohemians" living as artists in Manhattan. And I had just come from a college town in Kansas, where the world of "Rent" was as alien as that of "The Jetsons." Not exactly a global experience that would speak to all.
But I would be more inclined to pick musicals that were a product of their time, at the moment they made their big splash on Broadway. For that, I would say Rent was "the musical of the '90s" even if it didn't really summarize the '90s at all.
I would also say "A Chorus Line" was THE '70s musical (on those terms).
Hair was THE '60s musical.
Not sure if there was a '50s musical IN the '50s that summarized the '50s.
I'm gonna stop now because, for me, there are too many caveats in this thread.
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The musical of Mary Poppins doesn't deal with the Suffragettes. Well as it stands in London it doesn't anyway. Mrs Banks is a "retired" actress I think. I may have misremembered - Mary Poppins wasn't a musical that stuck in my mind.
I've a feeling that they may have time shifted it slightly as well...