Groundbreaking Musicals (Pre-Oklahoma!)?

Of the Gershwin shows, Girl Crazy (1930), Of Thee I Sing (1931) and of course Porgy and Bess (1935) are classics.

Cole Porter's Anything Goes (1934) is proving all over again how enduring that score is.

Rogers and Hart's On Your Toes (1936), Babes in Arms (1937) and The Boys from Syracuse (193 are each imperfect shows chock full of treasures.

Mark Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock (193 is dazzling.

And best of all is Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin's Lady in the Dark (1940), a true masterpiece that deserves a Broadway revival to match the brilliant National Theater production back in 1997.

As a non- American example, one could possibly add The Threepenny Opera. I suppose Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is still classed an opera, rather than a musical play?

Definitely Lady in the Dark. I think the reason that it hasn't been done all that often is because of lingering memories of Gertrude Lawrence who apparently gave one of the performances of a life in that one. I know, that shouldn't deter someone in 2011 from taking a stab at it. Maybe Sutton Foster?

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I'll vote for Lady In The Dark as well - it could be a good vehicle for several gals - Donna Murphy, Ann Hathaway (perhaps a few years too young), Foster (although she's not the most nuanced actor).

Citing Anything Goes, although it was a huge hit, is a bit deceptive, because none of us has probably ever seen it with its original book, score, or orchestrations.

Anything Goes was anything but groundbreaking. It was pure formula - a negligible book designed to showcase the songs and the stars. William Gaxton (Billy) and Victor Moore (Moonface) were already a well-known team from OF THEE I SING, and Merman had just beome a star in GIRL CRAZY.

In fact, the show originally had a totally diferent plot, involving a shipwreck, which had to be scrapped mid-rehearsal period when a real shipwreck occurred. They hastily came up with the new plot.

Fair enough. "Groundbreaking" sets the bar higher than a Babes in Arms or even an Anything Goes qualifies far.

Of Thee I Sing was the first full on political satire on the musical stage. It's also the first to win a Pulitzer for best play (though the award interestingly neglects to credit composer George Gershwin along with Ira and the book writers).

I would say that The Cradle Will Rock can still be considered groundbreaking for Blitzstein's reliance on art-songs and non-commercial song structures throughout its score, despite the creaky pseudo-Brechtian dramaturgy of its libretto.

On Your Toes is generally credited as the first musical to feature a ballet as absolutely integral to the plot. Ballanchine's "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" ballet is in fact a key plot point although in no way a psychological study of the play's characters like the dream ballets of Agnes de Mille that came along in the 40's.

Lady in the Dark made psychological study of the main character it's entire raison d'etre, turning Liza Elliott's dreams each into a mini-opera. It also broke new ground in creating fantastically unpredictable scene-songs that morphed from song to song, rather than the hit-parade presentations of Porter or Rogers and Hart.

And of course Pal Joey is credited as the first musical to make an unlikeable anti-hero the male lead, not to mention the depiction of one of the first truly adult relationships on the musical stage between Joey and Vera. For a show to be so loved and loathed in equal measure when it first premiered is maybe the true marker of "groundbreaking".

"But the biggest ground-breaking musical, pre-Oklahoma!, was on film. It's "The Wizard of Oz," which does everything that Oklahoma! is given credit for doing on the stage.

All the songs, dances, and musical sequences either advance plot or develop characters or both."

Great point, and you know what film did it even before (though arguably less well)? The movie that inspired MGM to make Oz, Disney's Snow White. It used to, as an obnoxious kid, drive me crazy that musical theatre books never pointed out that that was a film where the songs were largely built around story and character.

Where does Love life fit in this list? Was it groundbreaking? I just want to hear a recording of it....

Updated On: 6/16/11 at 05:11 PM

Do the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas count? Their work had a huge impact on the evolution of musical theatre.

Eric, Yeah, but concept musicals can also be traced back at least as far as the 30's when reviews like As Thousands Cheer presented plotless evenings of scenes and songs wrapped around one theme (like the daily newspaper headlines). Some amazing Berlin songs came out of that one show. And the long tradition of Minstrelshow to Vaudeville to Burlesque to Topical Review are all antecedents to the concept musical we have today.

Some would refer to the Brecht/Weill collaborations from Threepenny Opera (192 on as concept musicals that relied on character and theme to drive the show beyond anything we today would call a recognizable plot. There's a long and glorious tradition for this kind of show that completely sidesteps the Operetta/ Melodrama side of the Musical Theater Family Tree.

Look no further than Porgy and Bess. Richard Rodgers was so enamored of Porgy and Bess, and so jealous of it, that musical theater was changed forever, not overnight, but forever nonetheless.