It was first suggested after the 2014-15 Broadway season that we were in a new Golden Age of musical theater. For those who may be unaware, the Golden Age is an era, assigned by historians and critics, spanning from 1940 to 1960 where musicals were at their peak of quality and popularity. I for one think it an interesting coincidence that everyone agrees that the Golden Age died when Oscar Hammerstein II did, but what happened in the 1940s that brought musical theater to a new standard? What happened after the 1960s that ended the Golden Age?
Presumably this new age will have begun around the mid-2000s, taking shape with hits like Wicked and Spring Awakening and thus evolving into a definite era with modern classics like The Book of Mormon, Fun Home, and, of course, Hamilton. Now I’m happy about thriving performance art as much as anybody, but what concerns me is when and why everyone collectively decided that musical theater had gotten better, which implies that musical theater at some point stopped being great. I’m sure anyone could admit that not every show after 1960 was a complete success (Carrie certainly springs to mind), but the last fifty years had given us widely acclaimed musicals like A Chorus Line, Cabaret, Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera, Rent, the list goes on and on.
Where could the presumption that musical theater had ever hit a low point possibly have originated? Is this new golden age here to stay or is it just a short sighted fad?
The “First” Golden Age
Oklahoma! is recognized as being the stand out show that defined the Golden Age so to speak, opening March 31st, 1943. Not only was Oklahoma! the first collaboration of Rodgers and Hammerstein II, but it is credited as, thanks to esteemed choreographer Agnes de Mille, one of the earliest musicals to use dance as an artistic form of storytelling. A huge thanks also goes to Rodgers and Hammerstein II themselves, considering the book was the first of its kind to propel the plot through both song and scenes. Oklahoma! was a product of new ideas and experiments in storytelling coming together in a way no other show had. It ran for 2,212 performances.
What soon came later was an onslaught of new shows that mimicked Oklahoma!’s structure, often fairly successfully. The better known musicals that had married plot to song were shows like South Pacific, Guys and Dolls, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, etcetera, etcetera, and so forth. Songwriters now had to become dramatists and a lot of them did a good job. These two decades also introduced the world to the creative minds of Lerner and Loewe, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Leonard Bernstein, and others. It was simply a time where the American musical started to grow up.
Hey, Mama, Welcome to the Sixties!
Jack Viertel, senior vice president of Jujamcyn Theaters, has a tremendous history lesson on how Broadway changed in the 60s in his book The Secret Life of the American Musical, but I’ll relay his talking points for you here.
Up until the mid-twentieth century, it was fairly common for most middle- and upper-class families to own a piano, and parents would often encourage if not force their children to take up piano lessons. For a long time playing the piano off of sheet music was the only way to hear music in the house. Eventually in the 20’s the radio became instrumental to the common household, not requiring young people to learn the piano, but knowing how to play gave them a sense of culture all the same. In the late 50s, Rock ‘N’ Roll music had started to come into the mainstream, terrifying adults and titillating their kids. Thanks to the guitars design and accessibility, performers were able to sing and play an instrument and give more of a showy performance, a la Elvis Presley. America had stopped playing the piano to pick up the guitar, and theatrical composers weren’t far behind. Hair was the first musical to embrace rock ‘n’ roll, but Broadway pushed back, tightly gripping onto the old ways of songwriting but not succeeding. Rock had become to music of America, and thus sparked musicals with rock elements like The Wiz, Rent, Spring Awakening, Memphis, American Idiot, and so on.
The Broadway musical could now be loud, angsty, and exciting in a different way. This change in music composition is up for debate whether it was for the worse or better for Broadway, but it indisputably broadened audiences and brought tremendous variety to the Great White Way.
The AIDS Crisis
Being born in the late 90s, I know nothing firsthand about what it was like to live through the AIDS Crisis. When I was in elementary school and adults were telling me about sex, in the same breath they also told me that I had to be careful or it could kill me. Albeit that’s scary to hear when you’re twelve, but my parents’ and teachers’ generation was the one who lived through it and the one who lost people near and dear to them. It seemed that statistically no larger group of people was affected by the disease than the theater world, and not just gay couples but heterosexual ones as well. I wish that every soul lost could have been immortalized in such a way as Ali, Gordon, Pam and Sue in Jonathan Larson’s Rent, but such is life. During these two decades of fear and loss, I think there was a terrible gap creatively in terms of art being created; the aspiring directors, composers, and choreographers being mentored by such minds as Peter Allen, Michael Bennett, Bob Fosse and their ilk were either discouraged to create or passed away before they even had the chance. I think the worst testament to this was the 49th Tony Awards in 1995 where there was just so little to nominate (only two nominees for Best Musical and one nominee for Best Book of a Musical and Best Score of a Musical). Thankfully within the last 20 some odd years we’ve climbed out of this funk, but Times Square definitely still feels its ripples.
The British Are Coming!
During the AIDS Crisis, though likely not directly linked, Broadway received a flood of biblical proportions in the form of British musicals. In a time of confusion for what the American musical wanted to be, English composers and directors came by land and sea to plant the Union Jack in our beloved theaters. Claude-Michel Schönberg and Herbert Kretzberg, Andrew Lloyd Webber and his many collaborators, Rupert Holmes, Pete Townsend on behalf of The Who, even Disney’s The Lion King was scored by Elton John and Tim Rice. Shows like Cats, Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera, and Miss Saigon were colossal successes, while arguably lacking in intellectual content they more than made up for it by relying heavily on special effects and marketing. The trend hasn’t stopped either; Billy Elliot, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Matilda have been received with tremendous success and could only go farther.
New Composers
It’s hard to attribute exactly why this happened or where the idea originated, but it suddenly became very popular for successful celebrities to just go and make a musical. Be it out of wanting to challenge themselves, having a story meant for the stage, or, God forbid, being bored, there are many shows that have been conceived by the most unconventional of artists.
I have to believe this trend started with the unexpected success of The Book of Mormon, which opened in 2011 and took home 9 Tonys including Best Musical. The show was of course created when Trey Parker and Matt Stone went to see Avenue Q on Broadway and discussed the possibility of collaborating with Robert Lopez, where he told them his idea: “something with Mormons.” The book and score is just as shocking and riotous as you would expect coming from the creators of South Park, but what was so special about Mormon was that Parker and Stone already knew how to write a musical, in some sense. After making a career off their 24-minute-long cartoons, plus four movies, the comedy team had perfected storytelling and understood what works and what doesn’t.
Then came a small burst of musicals written by celebrities. Kinky Boots, with a book by seasoned veteran of the theatre Harvey Fierstein, featured a score by Cyni Lauper, whom until then had never written theatrically. More recently, and in the same season no less, Bright Star, written by newcomers Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, along with Waitress with music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles. Now the ratio of quality to success for all of these shows is certainly not up for debate considering Kinky Boots is still alive and well, and Waitress is one of the few shows from this past season that continues to thrive, but Bright Star is a whole ‘nother story.
With a show like Hamilton invading all landscapes of popularity as a rap/hip hop musical, it’s hard to imagine there wasn’t an audience out there for a folk musical. Right before the nominations, Martin, Brickell and her husband Paul Simon were moved to putting their own money in the show out of desperation to keep the show afloat, therefore breaking the only two rules of producing a musical (1. Never put your own money in the show 2. Never put your own money in the show!) Modern audiences were skeptical about a folk musical, and Steve Martin playing the banjo during intermission unfortunately didn’t help. I will never forget what Mr. Martin said during this years’ Tony Awards broadcast, jesting what he’d learned from writing a musical; “If you want to be on Broadway you have to work hard, you have to study for years, and find the perfect story to tell. Or, you can do what I did; already be famous.” It’s a big shame considering Martin being famous didn’t make Bright Star the best show it could have been, and I’m afraid that future newcomer’s ambition will overpower their inexperience in writing theatrically.
Hamilton: An American Hit
Ah yes, the big one. I’m sure most of you reading this article skipped to this category out of sheer excitement. Lin-Manuel Miranda had a crazy idea that nobody, not even the people he asked to read for the show, had very high hopes for. But he stepped up to the plate with a big ol’ bat and sent the ball flying farther than anyone would have dreamt he could. I think the ball might still be flying, actually, because there’s still no telling where Hamilton might go. Now listen, before I say anything, I know it’s important that my own friends who only listened to Top 40 have memorized all the lyrics to a Broadway show. I know it’s important that one show was nominated for a record breaking 16 nominations. I know it’s important that six of those nominations were bestowed to actors of color and that three of them won. But critical reception and quality of show set aside, can we talk a little bit about the ten other brand new shows that opened in the 2015-2016 season? Incredibly diverse and ambitious shows with captivating performances and sweeping scores like On Your Feet!, American Psycho, Bright Star, Amazing Grace, Allegiance, School of Rock, and the rest had a little something that was at least worth buying a ticket for, almost half of them closing after two or three months, and I have to think Hamilton plays a small part in that.
Now maybe I’m wrong. Maybe in 1957 My Fair Lady was such an unbelievable powerhouse that it overshadowed gems like The Most Happy Fella, Bells Are Ringing, and Candide. Maybe the fact these shows were less successful has nothing to do with Hamilton and everything to do with marketing, concept, execution and interest. But bottom line, akin to how Hair inspired mediocre rock musicals, I’m dreading the upcoming hip hop musicals about underappreciated historical figures (fingers crossed for Claudette Colvin, I guess). But man, I just want to talk about Justin Townsends lighting design for American Psycho.
Finale Ultimo
A fear of mine while writing this was that people might interpret my criticism as hating musicals, which isn’t the case. In fact, the opposite is true; I love, LOVE musicals. It’s simply my stance that musicals now, though still great in their own right, haven’t been able to go toe to toe with the groundbreaking musicals of the Golden Age. While I may not agree entirely with everyone, I get where they’re coming from. A juggernaut that changed the face of Broadway in Oklahoma! is reflected in Hamilton. The spirit of the almost plotless musicals of the 20s can be found in jukebox musicals like Mama Mia! and American Idiot. Musical theater has never been more popular and diverse and thought provoking than it is now, and that’s awesome. I just think I'm upset that I wasn't around for the first Golden Age, but I think this so named Second Golden Age will do nicely.
