Musicals with exotic locales — Page 2

"Part of Guys and Dolls takes place in Havana, Cuba."

Not to mention the sewers of NYC. Then we can add the South Pacific, a show boat on the Mississippi, Argentina and River City, IA.

As this thread suggests, musicals with exotic settings are actually the norm, rather than the exception. Even the best "contemporary-set" musicals (COMPANY, FALSETTOS) tend to make the modern day "exotic" by setting their stories in "psychological" spaces. Or they "exoticize" the present day by adding a supernatural element (ONE TOUCH OF VENUS).

It's really only the musical comedies built around vaudeville routines of the 20s-40s that have true, contemporary settings. And even then those settings often have a taste of the exotic: Coney Island, say (I HAD A BALL), a cruise ship (ANYTHING GOES) or a dude ranch (GIRL CRAZY).

Exotic settings demand greater spectacle, obviously, but I also think they help audiences accept that characters burst into song on the street. After all, the show is set in an imaginary place with picturesque customs. (I'm not saying the thinking is that literal; I think the reaction is instinctive.) The exotic setting and characters are more likely to be "big enough" to sing.

Updated On: 1/6/15 at 05:06 PM

^^^^ True, but for your average Broadway theatergoer (out-of-towner or Upper West Sider), the lower East Side is as distant and exotic as Thailand.

How is Paris exotic ?

The Light in the Piazza- Italy
Do I Hear a Waltz- Again, Italy
Passion- Again, Italy
A Little Night Music- Sweden
Mamma Mia!-Greece
Aspects Of Love- Southern France

Next will be musicals at the automat. :)

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Huss417,

LOVE CYCLE! (Round, and Round...)

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"I kinda thought the original post was clearly asking about "Exotic" in the sense of mid-20th-century USA "exotic". "Girl Crazy"? Nope. SOUTHWESTERN, maybe, but only exotic if you're FROM Bangladesh. And as for "Rent" being as distant and....NAH...folks from Missouri don't think of the East Side as exotic, just depraved. How funny that a simple question turns a bunch of people into white-wine-answering esoterics."

Well, pardon me for taking the OP's question seriously. Phoenix wasn't the fifth-largest city in the country in 1930. A dude ranch in the Southwest was indeed "exotic" in its way, because it was a place that most theatergoers had never been.

As for RENT, the piece itself establishes the Lower East Side as a foreign country. In fact, I believe they sing a song about it called "La Vie Boheme".

I repeat: if you really want a thread composed of nothing but lists (and I admit the fondness for such threads escapes me), it would be much more efficient to list musicals that DON'T have a locale that is "exotic" in the broad sense of the word.

Updated On: 1/7/15 at 05:06 PM