What are Significant Musicals and Why??

[Jwaa]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 4:21am

Hey guys,

I was wondering if you could help me,

I need to think of 8 significant musicals, and explain why they are significant...

spanning from 1927 to the present day....

I was wondering if you had any ideas???

Would be extremely grateful for your input,

thanks

Josh
X

[ashley0139]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 7:24am

West Side Story- pioneer in subject matter

Oklahoma!- well...

Sorry, it's early and I'm not thinking right now.

[Urban]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 7:51am

I could say a few things, but basically I'll let Margo, best12bars or frontrowcentre2 tell it, because they know there stuff and will blow me out of the water with what I know will be bloody brilliant answers.

[Songsstresss]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 12:40pm

Show Boat- It was the first real musical; incorporated songs into the story, integrated cast, dealt with serious subject matter, and brought together all the facets of theater from the time.
Oklahoma- Brought more dance (the dream ballet) into musical theater. Even more integrated theater.
West Side Story
My Fair Lady
Company
A Chorus Line
Phantom or Les Mis
Lion King

There are many others! Just some suggestions. (And Show Boat HAS to be the first you discuss. It is inarguably the beginning of the american musical.)

[PerforMeg]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 12:40pm

SHOWBOAT-1927: This was the first musical to step away from the light opera feel of everything that was running at the time: It challenged vaudeville and musical comedy by incorporating a serious subject matter and well thought out characters.


PORGY AND BESS-1935: The most celebrated opera by an American composer (Gershwin). This was a continuation of the path started by SHOWBOAT.

OKLAHOMA-1943: Again, continued with the same pricipals listed above. It's largest achievement was the introduction of Agnes DeMille's dream ballet, which illustrated another way to show the inner workings of the characters.

MY FAIR LADY-1956: Stanley Green calls it "The most influential musical of the fifites". Took a very well known play and hardly changed any of the dialogue, simply incorporating music into what was already there. Explored class distinctions.

WEST SIDE STORY-1957: My personal favorite score of all time. West Side was perhaps the first musical that used a perfectly even balance of drama, singing, and dance to tell it's story. So unique in that it was written for operatic singers, yet required dancers of unparalleled skill. Newbie Stephen Sondheim got his first taste of recognition from his lyrics for this.

THE MUSIC MAN-1957: Partly because it beat West Side Story for best new musical. Also because it was the first major Broadway musical success to have the same composer, librettist, and lyricist. It also boasted completely original material (no source) and the fun rap style songs "Trouble" and "Rock Island".

THE FANTASTICKS-1960: Because it just closed four years ago.


FIDDLER ON THE ROOF-1964: Held the distinction of beling the longest running Broadway show for several years. Dealt with issues of poverty and religion with a comedic yet truthful edge. Also legendary for the constant battles waged between Zero Mostel (Tevye) and the director, Jerome Robbins.

COMPANY-1970: The first collaboration between the legendary team of Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince. Introduced the idea of the "concept" musical-an emphasis on the way the story was told as well as the story itself.

A CHORUS LINE-1975: Held the title of longest running Broadway show for a LONG time. Again, an original story line, which was developed through workshops with actual dancers, who told their personal stories. Explored the reality of theatre-working doesn't mean fame and fortune.

42nd STREET-1981: A publicity stunt by producer David Merrick shocked everyone but worked like a charm. The show's director, Gower Champion, passed away on opening night. Rather than tell the cast before the show or in private, Merrick came out onstage at the end of the show, in front of all the press, and announced to the clueless cast that Champion had died. Ticket sales skyrocketed.

I've named a lot and I'm out of time but also consider: SWEENEY TODD, CATS (Sorry, but it's significant-no one hates to admit that more than me), LES MIS, INTO THE WOODS, MISS SAIGON, RENT, and THE PRODUCERS. And as far as significant flops go: CARRIE and maybe IN MY LIFE. Ha!

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 12:46pm

I think you should also add Gigi because it was the first musical taken from a movie and Gypsy because, well, it's probably the most popular star vehicle of all time and it's usually considered the closest thing to a "perfect" musical where the book, music and dance are equally important to the story and wonderfully written.

[Tir Na Nog]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 1:16pm

As much as most people hate it, "Cats" certainly has a place on ANY significant musicals list.

As far as "real" significance goes, it depends on how deep you wanna go. Here are some "deeper" and less obvious choices:

"A Little Night Music" for its daring 3/4 waltz-time concept.

"Shuffle Along" first all black revue to play "Broadway".

"Passion" for it's EXTREMELY daring concept. Not only did Sondheim decide the show should be a chamber musical, it was one of the first times an audience had absolutely no room to applaud. I remember seeing it and feeling very strange that their were no pauses for me to clap!

"Cabaret" was the first musical to directly deal with the rise of Nazism.

"Of Thee I Sing" The first musical to recieve the Pulitzer prize.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 1:32pm

A Chorus Line - took stories that people told in a workshop and weaved them into a hit musical. Also significant because it elevated the chorus line, usually kept in the back, to main character. One of the main characters is mostly a voice in the auditorium.

The Fantastiks - helped in creating "off-Broadway". Shows that a well written piece only needs imagination. One of the few shows that allowed people who saw it in the 1960's to return 40 years later to see it with their grandchildren.

Oh! Calcutta - All characters appear nude. Also shows that you don't need good music, story or acting to have a show run for years.

Grease - A Broadway show really can be turned into a big screen movie musical success.

Hair - Creators were trying to bring the sounds, emotions and events from the street into the theater. In other words, contemporary events were weaved into the musical.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 1:53pm

Some great suggestions, but adding two cents.

In terms of West Side Story, which I think is the most significant, there's so many aspects of it--dark subject manner, young performers, incorporating dancing so much in telling the story which gave birth to triple threat performers, and Bernstein's music IMO is a significant piece on its own.

Showboat and Oklahoma and A Chorus Line w/o a doubt.

Personally, I wouldn't agree that Music Man is one at all...

Perhaps Guys & Dolls as it was one of the first to use...more common language in the show and esp. songs...like instead of using some kind of profound advanced words lyrics included "sue me what can you do me, etc"

Cats giving birth to the mega-musical, though personally I think it's the weakest of all of those.

Beauty and the Beast maybe for leading the idea of corporations making and producing musicals.

La Cage Aux Folles was perhaps the first very successful "gay musical."

[hushpuppy]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 3:21pm

Performeg: your list is excellent. BTW: 42nd Street opened in 1980 not 1981. I'm old enough to have seen it.

A couple of additions for consideration:
PAL JOEY: The first 'dark' musical, where the hero is a rather unlikable character.
CAROUSEL: The first musical where the lead character dies
HELLO, DOLLY!: The first musical that ran forever based on what would later be called 'stunt casting'. Forget for a minute how magnificent Pearl Bailey was in the title role, the show ran for 6+ years based on the fact that David Merrick kept trotting out over-the-hill actresses to play the title role.

[Sporti2005]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 3:40pm

Showboat - first integrated musical. there is absolutely no way you can not have this on the list.

oklahoma - agnes de mille's 20-minute dream ballet was HUGE. also, it was taken from a book (green grow the lilacs) - which shows the change of leisure time being personal (reading to yourself, etc) to entertainment taking prominence.

and basically, now that i've written those two up....i'm realizing that i just completely agree with performeg. so just look back up at hers!

[pab]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 3:45pm

"JCS was a world away from the rock musicals of the late 1960s. With all dialogue set to music, this work qualified as the first rock opera."

[RuprechtJr.]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 4:04pm

Into the Woods is definatley a significant musical because it has so many different lessons neatly packaged into a sad but happy musical...Even though I love Phantom, I think it should have won Best Musical that year instead of Phantom.

[PerforMeg]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 4:08pm

Thanks hushpuppy. I stand corrected. :)

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 4:15pm

Carrie should be listed.

[sweeedboy]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 5:43pm

First of all i am going to second, third, or whatever, showboat. It simply must be included due to the fact that it revolutionized the musical. I am going to second something that has been said but not getting much recognition.
Hair is one of the stand out musicals of the last century. People forget but not only did it have an effect on theater but it challenged many laws and ways Americans think. More conservative towns tried to close it down and their were hate crimes, riots, etc. to try and get it to close in certain cities... if you read the heartbreaking book by Jonathan Johnson(i hope thats right, im going from memory) he was deeply effected by these things. Hair pushed what was allowed in art and showed that freedom of expression was extremely important. It was also the first show to truly bring the unvoiced sentiments to light and provide a show where the most uppity members of society could go and understand what was decaying around them. The show, when done right, is simply brilliant.

[Pippin]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 6:36pm

not so much artistically speaking, but commercially and marketing wise, Pippin was the first musical to advertise with a nationally televised tv commercial.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 6:39pm

is this your homework? I guess I'm the only one who has a problem with this....oh well.

[sidwich]

Posted: 10/21/05 at 6:54pm

I think "Oklahoma!"'s got to be on anyone's list. It's pretty much the watershed of Musical Theatre. Besides the integration of dance into the story which everyone's already remarked about, it was landmark in the integration of songs into the story. The songs actually push the story along. Previously, scenes would pretty much stop for the song. "Oklahoma!" changed all that. For example, "Surrey With the Fringe On Top" isn't just about Curly asking Laurey to the dance, it *is* him asking her to the dance. It was also a complete shift in the concept of opening the show. It opens with a woman churning butter onstage (which is how "Green Grow the Lilacs" opened... completely revolutionary to open a show without a chorus number and a lot of chorus girls whether they were integral to the plot or not.

"Show Boat" was the first musical to deal with serious subject matter. It wasn't a musical comedy... it was the first "musical play." As others have commented, it began the shift in integration of song that "Oklahoma!" completed.

I'd also probably put "Cabaret" down as one of the first "concept musicals," perhaps the first one that was a mainstream hit. It was a musical that broke with the R&H tradition of integrating the songs into the story. "Concept musicals" were less about the story, and more about a "concept." The music, song and dance don't so much push a story as comment on the character, ideas, etc. In "Cabaret," life really is a cabaret. The cabaret concept comments on what is going on outside the cabaret in Post-Weimar, Pre-Third Reich Germany.

I think you also would have to put down the "Princess Musicals" by Kern, Wodehouse and Bolton down, although I would probably put them down more as a group than as "Oh, Boy!", "Leave it to Jane", etc. I think they were ground-breaking in finally making the break from the European tradition of operettas and 3/4 time, and forming the foundation of American Musical Theatre as a unique integration of book, song and dance.

"West Side Story" is probably the peak of the integration of the traditional book musical. Total and complete fusion of dance, music/lyrics and story. Robbins really took what De Mille started with her dream ballets, and completely integrated the dance into actually telling the story.

I'd have to think about what I'd say for the other three.

[sidwich]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 1:58am

One other one that I thought of is "Pippin" which is the first musical that really used and capitalized on television advertising. It really revolutionized the way that musicals were marketed.

[fiatlux]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 4:21am

I suppose you need to define what you mean by significant but....

SHOWBOAT - daring for its time and for the themes it explored

DIE DREIGROSCHENOPER - a revolutionary, dark, cynical work which remains a masterpiece

OF THEE I SING - For its satire

PORGY AND BESS - an ambitious attempt at the folk opera form (I'm in a minority of one, I'm sure, but I think it's less than the sum of its parts but it certainly moves things on)

OKLAHOMA! - R&H introduce a musical "more serious in intent"

FOLLIES - significant as it looks back at the Broadway musical of the past and marks the uncertain future

JCS - a rock musical that works

SWEENEY TODD - a masterpiece.....

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 11:25am

I posted most of this in response to a "shows you must know" thread a little while back, but it was for the Top 5.

So, I'll add in three more to get your Top Eight:


SHOW BOAT
I think this is the birth of the modern dramatic American musical. It took a serious, literary subject and pulled it up out of a (then) standard Vaudevillian presentation. Most shows prior to that would have a little plot, then a song or two (sometimes having NOTHING to do with the plot), then another "sketch" or scene, and a big chorus number. They would tell a story eventually, but the material wasn't contained or focused on storytelling. "Show Boat" changed all of that. It was enormously controversial, too. Can you imagine tackling the themes of interracial marriage, alcoholism, compulsive gambling and miscegenation back in 1927? In a splashy show produced by Ziegfeld for mainstream audiences? Extremely daring. After that, you can throw in the classic score by Hammerstein & Kern, which would be reason enough to list this show. I believe they had EIGHT "hit songs" that swept the nation. The only reason it didn't run longer was a little thing called the stock market crash. Ziegfeld was forced to shut it down.

OKLAHOMA!
Considered the father of the modern American musical (although I would give that honor to Show Boat, personally). Hammerstein again, this time teamed with Richard Rodgers on their first effort together. They, along with director Rouben Mamoulian and choreographer Agnes de Mille set the bar for everything to follow. It's classic storytelling from head to toe, and was a monster hit in its day.

GYPSY
This is modern, American musical theatre at its very best. Probably the best written show ever (book, music & lyrics). It's pretty much a flawless effort. Start with the original Merman version on CD (not one of the many revivals), and read the libretto... and you'll see why.

HAIR
Not technically the first rock musical on Broadway, but rock music's first "big hit." It is also considered by many to be Broadway's first "concept musical" (several years ahead of Sondheim's "Company") to reach the Boards. I'm sure this point is debatable, but "Hair" was definitely ground-breaking in its day to say the least, and qualifies as a landmark in the medium. It's also (sadly) the LAST musical on Broadway [1968] to have multiple songs hit the top of the pop charts. While most people back then believed this show would BEGIN a new era in popular Broadway music (Richard Rodgers saw this show and depressingly proclaimed his style of music officially dead), it actually was the LAST show of the era when Broadway music and pop music were one in the same.

A CHORUS LINE
This is the "ultimate" concept musical. Not the first (as I have already said), but for me, the very best. It's a brilliant show from start to finish, that evolved in such an organic way---from a group of dancers getting together to tell their stories. And if you're a performer, it will get under your skin and stay with you forever. A pure theatrical experience.

SWEENEY TODD
Sondheim's masterpiece. Not theatrically ground-breaking (as his "Company" was), but this show definitely took the art form to a new and higher level. It will leave you breathless. When I first listened to the OBCR, I played it three times in a row without moving from my spot (and it's not a short show!). I didn't know musical theatre could rise to such heights. A crowning achievement for the art form.

LES MISERABLES
Again, not the first, but arguably the BEST of the British "poperas" (or pop music operas). This show initiated an invasion of large, spectacle, opera-style (sung-through) musicals that would rule Broadway until the end of the millennium.

RENT
Not exactly ground-breaking as a "first of its kind" for anything, but this show helped bring the Broadway musical back to "the streets" during an extremely bleak era, when many scholars and critics had proclaimed the American musical art form was dead. This show lifted it out of the hands of a small, sophisticated, upper-class audience (and tourists) and gave it back to the young people of America. It injected new life and hope for the future of the Broadway musical.

EDIT: Urban---Thanks so much for the compliment! High praise, indeed.

Updated On: 10/23/05 at 11:25 AM

[farfrombway]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 11:28am

1. Man of La Mancha- Well it was about a guy that fights windmills. It showed that a show could be very different and still be popular. Like Avenue Q etc.
2. Oklahoma!- I believe it was the one of the first if not the first musicals that had song's, music, dialogue, and a story that you could follow.
3. Avenue Q- Twisted yet has a heart.
4. Wicked
5. The Producers- Well it's fall out of your seat funny and has/had some extordinary talent in it.
There is more but suddenly I have an urge to listen to a musical. Gotta go.

[professor]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 11:31am

The original post here sounds suspiciously like a school assignment. Jwaa, maybe you should try doing your own homework and not posting assignments to a message board for others to give you the answers.

Sorry to be such a downer.

[Plum]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 11:52am

Grease - A Broadway show really can be turned into a big screen movie musical success.

Uh...West Side Story, anyone? The movie was more successful than the show itself.

Anyway, I agree with what seems to be the forming consensus:

Show Boat- For pioneering the book-based form, and for being comparitively progressive on race

Porgy and Bess- An "American folk opera" that truly lived up to the designation, and also significant race-wise

Oklahoma!- For the dream ballet, the smooth integration of song, drama, and dance so everything reflects on story and character, and for launching the era of the book musical for good, not to mention the R&H team

West Side Story- Not so much a pioneer as the culmination of a trend, this musical might have the best incorporation of dance ever. Also features an absolutely golden team of collaborators- score by Bernstein, lyrics by Sondheim, book by Laurents, direction and choreography by Robbins, Hal Prince as a co-producer, and all based on a Shakespeare play.

Cabaret- Even though Flora the Red Menace was Kander and Ebb's first show, this was their first huge success, as well as a precursor of the concept musical form

Company- Once again, while A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum was his first composer/lyricist credit, this was where Sondheim had his first big splash while pioneering the concept musical form

Jesus Christ Superstar- ALW had teamed up with Tim Rice on Joseph and the Incredible Technicolor Dreamcoat before, but this was their first big hit, also remarkable at the time for being released as a concept album before it was produced

A Chorus Line- Used the novel process of workshop development, and was obviously a huge hit