Musicals That Have Changed Broadway/Musical Theatre Forever

[~*Triple Star On Broadway*~]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 4:36am

Try to just name one and see what kind of list we come up with. Also try not to make this completely bias (I know Im just ASKING for a billion people to say Wicked and quite frankly, I would like this NOT to happen), but make your list on a show that has made the likes of broadway what it is today.
I'll start:
SWEET CHARITY - It launched the infamous Gwen Verdon into the spotlight along with her husband Bob Fosse. The songs in this show are still being hummed around nowadays, and may have some of the most sung musical theatre numbers around. (think The Rhythm Of Life and Hey Big Spender)

Next...

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 4:50am

Well, Gwen Verdon was launched into stardom a decade and a half before in Cole Porter's show CAN-CAN in 1953. Her "Apache Dance" number literally stopped the show cold opening night (the audience wouldn't allow the show to continue until she returned to the stage and took a bow). It won her the first of her 4 Tony Awards.

Her second Tony was for DAMN YANKEES two years later -- now THAT was the show that brought she and Fosse together (winning both of them their second Tonys -- he had actually won the year before for PAJAMA GAME), becoming a huge hit and made them both household names at the time. "Whatever Lola Wants" from the show was a defining career moment for both of them.

Verdon won her third and fourth Tonys for NEW GIRL IN TOWN and REDHEAD, both directed and choreographed by Fosse (who also won Tonys for those shows).

By the time of SWEET CHARITY, they were both already extremely well established stars of the Broadway stage (CHARITY, frankly was a sort of comeback for her -- a big hit to be sure, but the first time she was passed over for a Tony for a leading role).

CHARITY featured some of the most inspired choreography of Fosse's career (Big Spender, Rich Man's Frug, There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This, I'm A Brass Band). I don't think one could say that the overall show was really influential or "changed musical theatre" in any significant way (all-in-all it was a prime example of what they used to call a "Tired Businessman's Show"), but the score and choreography (and Verdon) were certainly exceptional.

Updated On: 8/12/04 at 04:50 AM

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 4:50am

Show Boat has to be my pick.

Akiva

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 5:19am

A Chorus Line. If I remember correctly from other threads, it was the first musical to be workshopped and it was the first show to use a computerised lighting board. Now, Margo may very well correct me as I may have gotten that slightly wrong, but there is still no denying that A Chorus Line changed Broadway forever.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 5:34am

A sort of basic list for "most influential" (pull out your textbooks, children):

-- Showboat
-- Porgy and Bess
-- Pal Joey (the first major anti-hero protagonist)
-- Oklahoma
-- Carousel
-- Guys and Dolls
-- South Pacific
-- Threepenny Opera (1955; the West Village; the real birth of Off-Broadway)
-- My Fair Lady
-- West Side Story
-- Gypsy
-- Bye Bye Birdie (Broadway's first acknowledgement that rock 'n roll even existed)
-- Cabaret
-- Promises Promises (the first successful Broadway show with electronic instruments in the pit)
-- Hair (the first successful rock musical)
-- A Chorus Line
-- Sweeney Todd
-- Cats (the first Brit mega-musical)
-- Les Miz (the height of the mega-musical)
-- The Lion King ("Disneyfication" officially becomes a term on Broadway because of this show; it also lead to the transformation of 42nd Street)

and, as much as it pains me to say it (remember we're talking "influential" here not "best")

-- Mamma Mia (the first mega-jukebox musical spawning dozens of imitators -- soon half of Broadway will be filled with third-rate musicals based on pop song catalogues from the 70's and 80's)

I know I've forgotten a few, but I'm doing this off the top of my head and it's late ......

Updated On: 8/12/04 at 05:34 AM

[mikelg80]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 7:30am

OKLAHOMA - unless i'm mistaken this was the first show to you use dance as a means of furthering the story as opposed to dance being a pretty break from the plot. It was also the beginings of using the ensemble as individual characters. This was a huge breakthrough for the musical genre and Agnes DeMille deffinately had a huge influence on what was to come in terms of Fosse, Bennett, Robbins etc etc

[rockfenris2005]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 7:41am

The Confidence Man

by

Ray Errol Fox

and

Jim Steinman

would've made a MAJOR impact on the quality of musicals and their lyrics, set designs and music (in terms of eclectism). Joe Papp, in the shadow of his Hair and Chorus Line triumphs, was meant to produce this in Broadway in 1975 with the talents of Andrea Marcovicci and William Atherton. Problem was, he kept stealing the leads for Shakespeare productions... This led to the rapid unravelling of one of American's undiscovered masterpieces (the greatest I have seen, on the scale of ShowBoat and probably better) and it was only ever performed as a cabaret at Manhattan Theatre Club (where the front-of-house waitress was Mary Steenburgen), a school production at Queen's College, a revival in Cincinnati by James and Sarah Updike - November of this year - and the Australian premiere with myself as co-producer. The CD is, thankfully, available at Footlight.

Updated On: 8/12/04 at 07:41 AM

[MusicalDirector109]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 8:04am

Of course, " Show Boat" in 1927 and "Porgy and Bess". March 31, 1943, "Oklahoma!" opened and the dawn of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II with "Oklahoma!". The integrated musical was born. Songs and dances were used to serve the plot. They were no longer "fillers" but they extended character development and moved the show forward. Of course the concept musical of Stephen Sondheim and the popular operas of Andrew Lloyd Webber.

[rockfenris2005]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 8:31am

It wasn't just Lloyd Webber and Sondheim. Think of all the great undiscovered musicals of history. I would love to own every one of them!

[robbiej]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 10:24am

Margo!

You left out Company???

[kitkatgirl54]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 10:30am

no one has put Rent yet? i understand a lot of it goes along the lines of HAIR but I think it has really molded a lot of the more rock inspired stuff that we have been seeing on broadway just recently. also at the time it was a big deal that there were some heavy issues in that (especially gay culture) and now there is much more of it on broadway.

definitely agree about the lion king. and showboat. west side story is a major one. i'm going to have to say annie also because it started that child screaming thing that is very classic broadway now. and cats because now musicals think they need to run for decades. i wish more shows would take after assassins and caroline or change -- short and sweet and no one is sick of their job yet. in my opinion, shows have a 1 year expiration date, and Cats definitely changed that.

[Emilou983]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 10:40am

Contact!


For whatever it's worth... It paved the way for Movin' Out. But, more importantly, it won best musical and it did not have live music! ACK!

[Plum]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 10:41am

Oooh, I would definitely put Company on my list, along with Oklahoma!, A Chorus Line, Hair, and, to a slightly lesser extent, Show Boat.

[morosco]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 10:43am

I have to agree with robbiej. COMPANY would have to fit in somewhere on the list. It's structure as a musical was most unusual for it's day. Updated On: 8/12/04 at 10:43 AM

[Emilou983]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 10:44am

OH!!! DUH!!!

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG! (The story is told from the end to the beginning)

[fiesta1]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 12:18pm

IMHO, Merrily's timing device is a gimmick. I do not think that it changed Broadway. Name me another successful backwards musical.

I'd credit Oklahoma as the most influential musical of the 20th century. The music/lyrics/dance were integrated with the plot, and propelled the story forward. Thanks to DeMille, and R&H, musicals were not the same. In addition, this was a case where innovation was a box office success. My guess is that there has been a professional production of Oklahoma running somewhere in the US every weekend for the past 50 years (especially in dinner theatre). Plus, without Oscar Hammerstein, I doubt we would have Sondheim

[JC14]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 12:36pm

Agree with RENT completely. Dreamgirls also.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 12:38pm

dance of the vampires.
carrie.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 12:40pm

Name me another successful backwards musical.

To name another, there would have had to have been one. Merrily played a gazillion previews and then something like 8 performances in its first incarnation.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 12:50pm

Oklahoma. For the same reasons as above.

[CJR]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 1:12pm

My vote goes to A Chorus Line

[ponine24601]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 1:15pm

a chorus line, rent, les mis.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 1:15pm

Rent
The Producers
Les Miz
Phantom
Gypsy
West Side Story
there are more....

[mallardo]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 1:33pm

To me Caroline or Change is a "breakthrough" musical. Will it have an impact down the line? I sure hope so.

[wickedfan]

Posted: 8/12/04 at 1:35pm

If you get the NY Times book of reviews of shows in the past century, they have two sections. One called "Shows that changed the century" or something like that and "Unforgettable productions of the Century". It gives a good idea of what shows truly are "Groundbreaking" and have changed musical theatre forever.