Most Appropriate Musical Genre for a musical

[darquegk]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 10:57am

The correct answer- none of them, or all. A musical is a play with integrated music, not in one specific style.

Despite this, a lot of people have said that (blankety-blank) doesn't work in a musical, or that they want more musicals with (blankety-blank) scores. What are your opinions? What works, what doesn't, what should Broadway be hearing more of?

Examples:

Jazz (i.e. Chicago, Swing)
Neo-classical/Neo-operatic (i.e. The Light In The Piazza)
Hip-hop (i.e. In The Heights)
Classic showtune material (i.e. Shrek, Jerry Herman)
Modern rock (i.e. Spring Awakening, American Idiot)
Classic rock (i.e. Tommy)
Industrial/metal (i.e. Repo The Genetic Opera)
Atonal Experimentation (i.e. Sweeney Todd, The Adding Machine)

[dramamama611]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 11:01am

I could care less....as long as the whole thing fits together A good musical is to be more than the sum of its parts.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 11:16am

Bluegrass. Big River has one of my favorite scores ever.

[TimesSquareRegular]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 11:16am

The only kind of music that should NEVER be used in a musical is:

BAD music.

I think it was Leonard Bernstein who was quoted as saying "there are only two types of music - bad music and good music." Amen.

[Katurian2]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 11:23am

I second bluegrass-

also gospel- some of my favorite numbers have gospel influences-

ie: "I Know Where I've Been" from "Hairspray" and several numbers in "Ragtime" and "Parade."

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 12:46pm

The beauty of musicals is how diverse the music is. Musicals are stereotyped to have the 'Hello Dolly' sound, and by no means is there anything wrong with that style of music...but now, musical scores come in all different styles. There's Opera, Rock, Hip-Hop, Pop, Rap, Blues, Jazz and COUNTLESS other styles. I will never have a favorite genre of theatre music because all of them work in different ways (when done correctly).