Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
#1Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 6:55pm
Okay, so I am taking a course this semester on the history of the musical in America. It's a really good course, I am already learning some very interesting stuff, but something my instructor said stuck out at me. When going through the syllabus, he was saying that he was devoting one day to the trends and developments in the past 35 years because, as he puts it, nothing really big has been going on.
Really? I think there are some MAJOR trends that have affected Broadway. The British musicals being transported overseas are a big thing. Rent, Disney, Spring Awakening and the trend towards more youth and family-centered productions. The economy and how it's affecting shows. The trend for musicals being made into movies. There is a TON to go on, in my opinion. So, I guess what I am wondering is what you think about this and do you agree or disagree?
Updated On: 1/22/09 at 06:55 PM
#2re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 7:45pm
Um.
Sweeney Todd
Sunday In The Park With George
#2re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 8:10pm
That's another thing... the timing is all off with regards to certain shows! There is a whole day devoted to Sweeney. It also notes Hair and Falsettos scheduled for the next day.
Updated On: 1/22/09 at 08:10 PM
husk_charmer
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/19/06
#3re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 8:15pmplease tell me he includes A Chorus Line...I may be forced to find said professor and kick him.
http://www.youtube.com/huskcharmer
#4re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 8:20pmAwww, what about Les Miserables? It definitely made a huge difference in the way musicals were handled, and gave rise to the whole 'mega-musical' machine-operated musical. Plus, um, it's pretty good!
In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy
#5re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 8:20pmHedwig and the Angry Inch
"Picture "The View," with the wisecracking, sympathetic sweethearts of that ABC television show replaced by a panel of embittered, suffering or enraged Arab women" -the Times review of Black Eyed
husk_charmer
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/19/06
#6re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 8:24pm
Schmerg-
You forget, Cats pre-dates Les Miz, and I'd call it the start of the "mega-musical"
http://www.youtube.com/huskcharmer
#7re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 8:27pmSo your professor isn't familiar with A Chorus Line, the British musical invasion of the 80s, or Rent?
#8re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 8:28pmYou're right, I forgot CATS came first. But CATS (which I actually liked) was really a choreography piece and more of a concept thing-- Les Mis was more similar to later big musicals of the type, you know?
In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy
husk_charmer
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/19/06
#9re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 8:30pmTrue. Les Miz started the UK Popera thing...but we did get Phantom first here.
http://www.youtube.com/huskcharmer
#10re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 8:34pmAh, you're right... as per usual!
In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy
BNN
Broadway Star Joined: 12/12/05
#11re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 8:36pmYour professor used a very poor choice of words to say nothing has really been going on, but since its more about the history of the musical, modern musical theatre may not have AS much to add as earlier years.
Tick Tock
#12re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 8:48pm
Actually, he started the first classes with the opening of ACL and ended it with "One." He also showed a clip from LVB and LMC from Rent when talking about opera and it's influences. I think he is smart and knows his stuff, I am really learning alot about musical theatre, he just seems discredits a lot of the more recent stuff as fluff, which isn't always the case IMO. He made it clear the first class that he is NOT an ALW fan, for example. Fine, but that doesn't mean his works haven't influenced Broadway, for better or for worse.
Also; that could be it, but I still think the way he seemed to discredit it's importance to musicals as we know them today is missing a LOT of what history about. To be fair, it isn't a course through the history department, but the music department, and I might just have a different view as a history major.
Updated On: 1/22/09 at 08:48 PM
#13re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 9:06pmI would say JCS or Evita started the whole UK popera thing, tbh.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
#14re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 9:29pmThat's pretty much saying Sondheim's career is irrelevant. Basically, your professor just showed he's a fraud and an idiot. Drop the class.
Hi, Shirley Temple Pudding.
AfterTheSky
Swing Joined: 1/15/09
#15re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 9:48pm
I think the fact that the Tony Winner this year was a Latino-centric show is incredibly important. Not to mention the musical diversity of the score.
And, "Spring Awakening" is not everybody's favorite, but I think the way it handles certain issues make it a very important show. Similar with Rent, and how it addresses AIDS, homosexuality, transvestites...it embraces so many marginalized "types." It's also important for how many tweens and teens got into Broadway because of it. I think it's the same for movies-turned-musicals. Some might see them as commrecial crap but I see them as a great way to get kids involved with theatre.
I also second what others have been saying. Whether you do or don't like rock operas, you cannot deny their influence.
WishingOnlyWounds2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/25/08
#16re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 9:50pmTo the OP: Spring Awakening didn't make that big of an impact, fact of the matter is 10 years from now not many people will know what it is. Overall, though I disagree with your professor.
2008: Feb. 18- Rent, Feb. 19- Curtains, April 18- Xanadu, April 22- Wicked, April 26- Legally Blonde, May 31- Wicked, June 13- The Little Mermaid, June 28- Wicked and Young Frankenstein, July 2- The Little Mermaid, July 6- A Chorus Line and Legally Blonde, August 16- Xanadu, September 13- Legally Blonde and 13, September 28- Xanadu and Spring Awakening, Oct. 12-GYPSY and [title of show], Oct. 19- Hairspray & Legally Blonde, Nov. 9- Wicked and 13, Dec. 14-13, Dec. 26- Billy Elliot, 2009: Jan 1- Shrek, Jan 2- 13 and Wicked, Jan 4- 13, Feb 17- In The Heights, Feb 19- Billy Elliot, Feb 22- Sweeney Todd (tour), March 28- Mary Poppins, April 4- Mamma Mia!, April 15- Jersey Boys (on tour), April 25- next to normal & 9 to 5
May 1- Billy Elliot, May 3- Spelling Bee (tour), May 8- Chicago, May 21- Wicked, June 6- Everyday Rapture, June 23- The Wiz, June 25- Hair July 15- Shrek, August 9- Wicked, September 7- Rock of Ages, October 11- Next To Normal, October 23- The Marvelous Wonderettes, November 7- Ragtime November 29- Dreamgirls, December 25- Billy Elliot, December 30- Finian's Rainbow, 2010: January 9- Bye Bye Birdie, January 16- Memphis February 17- The Phantom of The Opera, February 18- God of Carnage, March 7- Billy Elliot, March 31- American Idiot
#17re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 9:53pmyeah, I must saw A Chorus Line is a critical piece of art
COOOOLkid
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/15/05
#18re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 10:07pmYour professor sounds like a typical theater know-it-all geek who tries to impress everybody with his pretentious views.
"Hey, you! You're the worst thing to happen to musical theatre since Andrew Lloyd Webber!"
-Family Guy
ggersten
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/06
#19re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 10:08pm
I guess the question about ALW - starting with Evita - is whether he really had an influence on Broadway. Yes, his shows took up theatres for a long time - but did they change the way Broadway presented itself. R&H changed the look and manner of shows that others wanted to write. Perhaps LesMiz/Miss Saigon owed something to ALW, but what else? There no doubt have been attempts - but without success.
Did the last 35 years have more attempts to musicalize popular movies? If he thinks so, that seems to be an important development, even if its one littered with failures - because that is what dictates what is being produced. There always have been musicalizations of movies, but there is the sense that it is more dominant in the last 20 years. That seems important.
It seems to uninformed me that since 2000 more shows are transferring or trying to transfer from Off-Broadway to Broadway, after proving audience appeal Off-Broadway. Before, didn't shows go out of town to work out the kinks - now they work them out off-broadway. While some shows open out of town - it's usually one stop, Chicago, Seattle, Denver, San Diego - not quite the old road.
What about the basically non-book musical - which included award winners from Aint Misbehavin to Jerome Robbins Broadway to Fosse to Contact?
What about the rise of regional theatres commissioning and presenting musicals which then get taken to Broadway - thinking primarily of La Jolla Playhouse. But several plays have gone the same route - Magic Theatre in San Francisco; Steppenwolf in Chicago. How has that influenced the shape and form of today's musical?
Just thoughts off the top of my head.
#20re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 10:08pmjasonf; Actually he has made it clear he is a BIG Sondheim fan. I think maybe the timeline is a bit off. We have a whole class scheduled to be all Sweeney. Also a whole period on Sondheim. I also don't plan on dropping the course. I think he is smart and I am learning a lot already, as I have said before. I just think he might not be giving enough credit to the importance of recent musical theatre history. By the way; thanks for all the comments. It's interesting to get everyone else's opinion on this.
Scott Briefer
Broadway Star Joined: 5/3/04
#21re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 10:20pm
Wish to correct a mistake. We did not get Phantom of the Opera first. It opened in London before it opened here on Broadway.
I don't know your professor, and I don't know the context of his comment, but I definitely disagree that Broadway has been stagnant for 35 years.
#22re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 10:30pm
also, (as an example) remember people walked out of "West Side Story" when it came on the scene. Scholars will never look at recent contributions as "classics" or in some cases even noteworthy. 35 years is a bit ridiculous, though. Many things have irrevocably shaped theater in that time... for good and bad. All the shows mentioned before (Rent, A Chorus Line, etc...) have proven to be landmark achievements.
"Those who can't do, teach. And those who can't teach... teach gym."
- Woody Allen
#23re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 11:00pmAs usual, its another case of a "teacher" "teaching" was he/she "wants" you to believe
"Ok ok ok ok ok ok ok. Have you guys heard about fidget spinners!?" ~Patti LuPone
#24re: Nothing really important on Broadway these past 35 years?
Posted: 1/22/09 at 11:27pm
Stop whining. You're lucky to have a college-level course in the history of the musical in America.
I had to study Chaucer--in the original Middle English.
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