#1
Posted: 9/5/04 at 5:45am
Reading posts the past few days has made me wonder, "Where is the Broadway musical heading?"
I know very little about Broadway in comparison to many people, like Margo Channing, so allow me to try an express myself.
For me, musicals as I know them started around Rodgers and Hammerstein. So we have "Oklahoma", which consists of beautiful songs. Later on, there is Comden and Green, "Singing In The Rain". The Broadway musicals were the popular music, unlike today.
Skipping ahead, we have "Funny Girl", "Les Miserables", "Phantom of the Opera", and so many others.
Today, our original musicals seem to be taking their cues from pop music, like "Wicked" and "Rent", and appealing to younger audiences. There is also the emergence of the "off-broadway avant garde" musical, like "Urinetown" and "Avenue Q", which are original, yet seem to scare the living daylights out of some people who were raised with Rodgers and Hammerstein, and the like. "I hear they actually pee at the audience."
So what's next? A rap musical? Hip-hop? An endless amount of musicals with no original scores, a story strung along to previously existing works, like "Mamma Mia"? Or musicals based on movies, such as "Hairspray" and "The Producers"? Or more revivals and imports?
Note that I am leaving Sondheim out of this, purposely, because he has spanned many decades, composing original music not derived from whatever the popular music was at the time. Or so it seems.
Any ideas?
I know very little about Broadway in comparison to many people, like Margo Channing, so allow me to try an express myself.
For me, musicals as I know them started around Rodgers and Hammerstein. So we have "Oklahoma", which consists of beautiful songs. Later on, there is Comden and Green, "Singing In The Rain". The Broadway musicals were the popular music, unlike today.
Skipping ahead, we have "Funny Girl", "Les Miserables", "Phantom of the Opera", and so many others.
Today, our original musicals seem to be taking their cues from pop music, like "Wicked" and "Rent", and appealing to younger audiences. There is also the emergence of the "off-broadway avant garde" musical, like "Urinetown" and "Avenue Q", which are original, yet seem to scare the living daylights out of some people who were raised with Rodgers and Hammerstein, and the like. "I hear they actually pee at the audience."
So what's next? A rap musical? Hip-hop? An endless amount of musicals with no original scores, a story strung along to previously existing works, like "Mamma Mia"? Or musicals based on movies, such as "Hairspray" and "The Producers"? Or more revivals and imports?
Note that I am leaving Sondheim out of this, purposely, because he has spanned many decades, composing original music not derived from whatever the popular music was at the time. Or so it seems.
Any ideas?
Deet: Shira, I Love You!
May take a couple of years still though.
