Watershed Musicals

[idinalover2]

Posted: 11/6/13 at 6:56am

Watershed Musicals what are some that you know and what year and why?

[After Eight]

Posted: 11/6/13 at 7:13am

The Black Crook (1866) is considered the first American book musical.

La Cage aux Folles (1983) is a watershed musical in reverse. It was the last hurrah. But very welcome!

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 11/6/13 at 7:32am

Show Boat 1927 epic drama through song and dance
The Threepenny Opera 1928 more provocative than anything that has happened before; or since! musically as well as socially
Oklahoma 1943 integrated song and plot which, although arguably it may not have been the first (see Show Boat, above), set the trend
South Pacific 1949 recent history in American musical drama, inaugurated that particular brand American musical theater social consciousness that has been a mainstay ever since
The Most Happy Fella 1956 the sung through musical
Hair 1967 plotlessness and contemporary music of a very different stripe than what had been the standard Broadway sound
1776 1969 startling use of prolonged scene without song
Company 1970 the concept musical
No No Nanette 1971 revival of 1921 show the watershed revival megahit nostalgia show, arguably formative to "The Revival Craze" that's been gangbusters ever since
Jesus Christ Superstar 1971 set the trend for the sung through musical, since then they've been a constant, ushered/presaged the Brit mega musical
A Chorus Line 1975 one set, one act, singularly electrifying momentum and dramatic impact








Updated On: 11/6/13 at 07:32 AM

[anmiller07]

Posted: 11/6/13 at 12:01pm

Please excuse my ignorance - can someone tell me what a Watershed Musical is? I tried to google it and did not find an answer.

[tazber]

Posted: 11/6/13 at 12:05pm

A game changer; a turning point.

"Watershed" is not specific to theater, it's just a term used to indicate that something was very influential and changed the status quo (or at least the perception of what the status quo could be).

Updated On: 11/6/13 at 12:05 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 11/6/13 at 7:56pm

A few quibbles, henrik:

While it's certainly true that SHOW BOAT has moments of integration that suggest what Hammerstein would accomplish later, it really can't be compared to OKLAHOMA! on that ground. Witness how no two productions of SHOW BOAT even have the same song list; the same can't be said of OKLAHOMA! (I agree they are both watersheds; I just think you overstated the case for the earlier show.)

THE MOST HAPPY FELLA is one of my favorite scores and it has a lot of music. But it is by no means through-sung. G&S came closer long before and even they included short dialogue passages.

If you want to point to an early through-sung musical, Weill's STREET SCENE comes much closer, though even there one finds occasional spoken lines. (And of course there's the original draft of PORGY AND BESS, but that wasn't seen on Broadway in 1935.)

As for the "concept musical", I don't think one can call COMPANY the first. I'd argue that Robbins had been moving in that direction for two decades and how were CABARET and ZORBA anything but? If we get over the pro-WEST SIDE STORY bias, I'd go so far as to argue that THE MUSIC MAN has all the elements we later associate with the concept musical: use of non-theatrical influences (train, marching band, etc.), substitution of theatrical conventions for representational action (barbershop quartet), etc. and so forth.

What COMPANY did do was give us a show where concept was substituted entirely for plot--and did it so well that it influenced later shows. And a show where the songs commented rather than advancing the plot (a direct rejection of the Hammerstein conventions). To be precise, Sondheim ("FORUM") and WEILL ("LOVE LIFE") had done these things before, but I agree that COMPANY was the "watershed" that converted most of us to think in terms of concept over plot.

(Another earlier example would be HAIR. I tend to think of HAIR as sui generis (despite attempts to imitate it) and it's hard for me to imagine Prince and Sondheim being influenced by it, but it is almost as plotless as COMPANY.)

In short, I agree with your list. I'm merely quibbling about some of your reasoning.



Updated On: 11/6/13 at 07:56 PM