When and why did overtures go out of style?

[TazTarney]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 5:11pm

Seems like no one does them anymore. Why is this? Have we as theatre goers gotten stupid and unappreciative?

Updated On: 9/27/14 at 05:11 PM

[Tag]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 5:21pm

Culture today. Nobody has time for anything. Short attention spans.
All people do is talk through overtures and check their phones.

[TazTarney]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 5:23pm

I like them. to me when the lights go off it's time to shut the hell up and listen to pretty music!

[mjohnson2]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 5:24pm

We don't really have strong enough scores to support listening to them in an overture.

[ljay889]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 5:27pm

They're not traditional overtures, but thankfully we have David Yazbek's killer openings to Full Monty, Scoundrels, and Verge.

[TazTarney]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 5:27pm

What current shows on bway have overtures?

[JohnyBroadway]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 5:41pm

Cinderella is one of the few shows that has traditional overture.

[jnb9872]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 5:53pm

Both of Mel Brooks' musicals had great, lengthy overtures. Most of the recent musicals that even have overtures have had brief, short ones; one or maybe two minutes. (URINETOWN, SPAMALOT, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, NEWSIES, GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE are among these ranks) Both YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and especially THE PRODUCERS had tremendous, full-blooded overtures.

THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA had a gloriously understated overture, a beautiful entree into the world of Guettel's Italian soundscape.

[JohnyBroadway]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 5:55pm

The full length Producers overture on the cast recording is not what was played at the theatre 8 night a week. It was trimmed down to about a minute and a half.

[jnb9872]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 5:57pm

To answer the original question, I think one important factor (which doesn't devolve into criticizing attention spans of the audience and actually discusses the merit of the material and style of musical theatre as it evolves) is the sea change from orchestral music to more pop/rock-based styles. TOMMY has an overture, and it is epic and one of my favorites, but it's particularly hard to think of examples of overtures from rock-based scores. Something about the sweep and texture of orchestral music lends itself more favorably to an overture treatment, and as more and more musicals eschew full orchestras for different musical configurations, the overture naturally is no longer as common.

[JoseLee_]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 6:27pm

I just checked my itunes library & the most played overture is from Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Jukebox musical with an overture? YES! It's so amazing and makes me so happy.

[ShakinBaconGirl]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 6:32pm

It's cause most shows have a pop/rock vibe to them these days. We don't get many new musicals like GUYS AND DOLLS, MUSIC MAN and HELLO DOLLY anymore Now it's all about "Oooooh how many times can I say the f word in a song". We are in the age of shock value musical theatre. But I'm just being a pessimist. I LOVED Book of Mormon

[A1st]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 6:41pm

Aladdin has a pretty traditional Overture

[PianoMann]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 6:47pm

They're not traditional overtures, but thankfully we have David Yazbek's killer openings to Full Monty, Scoundrels, and Verge.

Yes! I absolutely love the overture-esque instrumentals at the beginning of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. They establish the tone of the entire show so well.

I also love the way Bullets Over Broadway staged their overture. It's a great short listen in its own right, but it certainly held the audience's attention when Nick Cordero came out with a semi-automatic and shot the show curtain!

[Visceral_Fella]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 7:10pm

I loved the overture from The Color Purple.

[tazber]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 7:17pm

I think many of today's new scores could absolutely support an overture.

The main reason they aren't around (in the grand tradition I mean) is that audiences simply won't sit through them anymore.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 7:27pm

Do any shows have an Entr'acte anymore?

[mjohnson2]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 7:29pm

I know it's a revival, but CABARET has one of my favorite entr'actes of all time and is currently playing on Broadway.

[Fan123]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 8:03pm

Phantom provided a great first experience of an overture for me when I saw it 'in my yoof', as of course the overture is somewhat incorporated into the story, to great dramatic effect. Since then, if anything I find myself wondering if the remainder of any show can live up to the excitement and anticipation I feel during its overture. I suppose one could argue that audiences "shouldn't need" mood lighting and chandeliers etc in order to enjoy an overture, but if it works for a given show and enhances the holistic theatre experience for the audience, why not? Perhaps having more 'semi-staged' overtures is the way to go.

[darquegk]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 8:10pm

Lengthy overtures are examples of programatic music, designed to be absorbed intelligently and in silence as one would a classical work. In the days when symphonies and the Pops were primary forms of entertainment and still in the mainstream, these made sense- more than simply introducing the world and tunes of the show (many older overtures are not orchestral medleys, but independent works without repeated motifs), they were a part of the evening, not a part of the show.

As programmatic music left modern culture, the overture became part of the show, not a prelude to it. You began seeing short overtures or staged overtures as musical scenes.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 8:19pm

Overtures once played an important role in marketing the hit singles of a show, back when musicals spawned popular, hit songs.

The songs played during the overture would be careful selected and ordered to give people a second or third chance to hear a melody before leaving the theater. With songs firmly planted in the ear, theatergoers would be prepared to hear these songs in nightclubs, on the radio, etc and, of course, be eager to buy a single by a popular artist.

[jnb9872]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 9:10pm

Thank you, darque and Whizzer, for two more excellent points.

The idea of it being generational and the audiences' fault, and not the way the mechanics of the style and substance in the evolution of the form and the cultural landscape at large, is such a useless trope to me. Audiences simply won't sit through them anymore? When have you ever seen an audience walk out in disgust or dismay at the sound of an overture?

[Visceral_Fella]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 9:11pm

Gothampc, Carrie has an entr'acte for some reason.

[darquegk]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 9:16pm

Many shows have entr'acte but no overture, as before a show begins there are announcements, lowering of lights and other formalities. Music before Act 2 makes the transition back less abrupt.

[James885]

Posted: 9/27/14 at 9:20pm

These days many creative teams would rather jump right into the action of the show immediately. When Light In The Piazza was running, I remember an interview with Bartlett Sher where he explained why they didn't use the full length overture heard on the cast recording in the theater. He said something along the lines of how he didn't want audiences to just sit and stare at a bare stage for five minutes.

Updated On: 9/27/14 at 09:20 PM