Has the Golden Age of Musicals past?

Dramatic forms, by their very nature, come and go. The Greek drama lasted 70 years, and the differences between Aeschylus and Euripides are, basically, the entire world. The Elizabethan theatre that gave us Marlowe and Shakespeare was only around a few decades; so was the French era that gave us Molière.

The American musical comedy was, I would say, dead by 1970. The '70s, you will notice, included a clash of styles of rather large proportions, as "plotless" concept musicals did battle with scores that derived their sound from the popular music of the era. The '80s were the decade of the megamusical, whose first volley was Evita (which, in something of a weird Hegelian synthesis, is a concept musical with a pop score) and whose last was Miss Saigon; Phantom is the only remnant of that turbulent period, which managed to drive production values through the roof, along with ticket sales, and unparalleled longevity (Cats - 18 years, Les Misérables - 16 years, The Phantom of the Opera - 15 years so far, Miss Saigon - 10 years).

I would argue that we're still waiting for a new theatrical form to become dominant. With the megamusical no longer feasible, we now see the film-becoming-musical as the hot trend of right now, but I think that one will hit diminishing returns, and quickly. The crop of recent American voices is still without a dominant central form, or a commercial success to really cement any of them in the spotlight. Likewise, the "straight" play flounders about without a solid central model of any sort, imitating plays from all sorts of sources in the 19th and 20th centuries, but not having a binding thread or a clear brilliant voice in the mix.

I think the principal problem with musicals is that writing libretti is, by and large, a lost art; that's going to block any real innovation from the scene for a long time. I'm not a psychic, and I can't tell you what's coming next, but I think it'll have a hard time becoming popular enough to really be significant.

-Wayne

Think of when the last time a Broadway song made the pop charts - and was a HIT. "Aquarius"? "Send in the Clowns"? That should tell you when the 'Golden Age of Musicals' passed.

In other words, the 'Golden Age' ended when Broadway musicals stopped influencing the sound of popular culture (and not the other way around).

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It ended for me when one left the theatre humming the sets, costumes, and special effects instead of some memorable TUNES which taken out of context are nothing but junk. Even in context........

can i just say "passed" please...surprised Dollypop wasn't all over that. But great points in here by any account.

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Agreed...which is why I want to decamp for LA. I might as well make some money, right?

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In his book One More Kiss, Ethan Mordden writes that the Golden Age officialy ended when David Merrick appeared at the opening night curtain of 42nd Street to tell the cast, the audience and the world that Gower Champion had died that day.

Once you think about it, that second is when our innocence really ended with a bucket of ice water. After that came heartless English mega-musicals, corporate Broadway and over-intellectualizing of an emotional art form.

The ship called The Golden Age had been sinking little by little before that, but it sank under the waves then.

Quick, name five "great" musicals that have opened since Sweeney Todd. Not 'good', 'very good' or 'near-great' musicals; name five GREAT musicals. There aren't five. Sure, there are five you like, even love. But they're not great musicals.

And I'm an optimist.

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Golden Ages are nothing but romps of nostalgia. An art form bound to the past will quickly become part of it.

seems like most of the texts i've read start the "true Golden Age" with OKLAHOMA in 1943 and end it with SOUND OF MUSIC in 1963. Of course, that is putting a lot of trust in R&H. It's all relative.

As far as "Bangkok" and the Top Ten, an exception might be made for "I Will Always Love You." While Parton wrote it (i think) long before her movie version of WHOREHOUSE, it was included in that film (possibly to Carol Hall's chagrin), then of course in BODYGUARD. It hit Top Ten, if not #1, both times. Not sure if that makes it a "show tune" or not. Then there is the sampling of "Hard Knock Life" for the rap version. And "I Am What I Am" for the retro-disco version. It's perfectly valid that Broadway used to strongly influence popular music (but then again Tin Pan Alley and the Great White Way shared many composers, not all of whom worked exclusively in musicals), but to date an era using that guide seems a little arbitrary.

P.S. i don't really track these things, but my bet is that the CHICAGO THE MOVIE recording has sold fairly well---either before and/or after the DVD release.

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Updated On: 10/27/03 at 03:39 PM

A show is great in the writing. A great production can cover a host of shortcomings (Phantom comes to mind), but a great musical can be done on a virtually bare stage with few costumes and few props. If a huge physical production with big effects is really necessary to the show, perhaps there is less there than meets the eye.

The play's the thing.

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Exactly! And that's what today's "golden age" requires. Today's audiences want more than a play.

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Then there is the rise of the score of diminished expectations.

Scores that are "serviceable", "Okay" or "interesting" are not the stuff of great musicals.

(Does Mordden consider the Merrick incident the 'end' because of Champions' death...or because it signals the rise of the movie-into-stage-show complete with pasted-in score?)

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wasn't Gingold MAUDE's English maid? (insert Namo-like irony here)

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