Did "Company" revolutionize theater?- Page 2

[bob8rich]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 8:26am

COMPANY is a work of genius certainly - witty, abrasive, thought provoking, structurally innovative and musically it is both challenging and beautiful. But I'm not sure it was revolutionary - "traditional" musicals continued to be written and performed and are still being produced. I'm not sure that any musical has ever truly revolutionized musical theatre. SHOWBOAT is considered to represent the birth of modern musical theatre but, though it was groundbreaking, it did not have an immediate impact upon the way people wrote musicals for many years afterwards - the shows of the 1930s continued in the same frivolous vein as before.

Musical theatre has never been revolutionized - it is an evolutionary process and is constantly developing and growing (apart from the "throwback" shows like Phantom, etc.). But within this evolutionary process, COMPANY is certainly a landmark show as were SHOWBOAT, OKLAHOMA, CAROUSEL, WEST SIDE STORY, CABARET, etc. before it. There have been others since and there will be more to come as the great art form we call musical theatre continues to evolve and improve.

That said - I love COMPANY: like all great musicals, it has a certain uniqueness that takes it into the realms of brilliance.