Political issues being used for musical context has been a popular choice for playwrights and composers throughout the years, becoming more prominent in recent musical plays such as Hamilton (Manuel-Miranda. 2015) and Come From Away (Hein & Sankoff. 2013) . The Broadway musical grew more ambitious in almost every aspect including subject matter and political commentary, in particular, another Rodgers and Hammerstein collaboration, Pipe Dream (Rodgers & Hammerstein II. 1955) The work of Rodgers and Hammerstein in Pipe Dream can used as a insight into the social state of Musical Theatre and Broadway throughout the golden age.
The original production written by the duo featured political commentary heavily throughout. Despite, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s string of successful shows, Pipe Dream, despite taking the greatest advance of ticket sales in Broadway history, was considered a failure for the duo ‘Pipe Dream was one musical Rodgers and Hammerstein should have never written’ (Green. 1983. p.136).
At the beginning of the 1950’s, the American Musical rarely dealt with political topics. Call Me Madam (1950) by Irving Berlin could be considered an exception – a parody musical focusing on the life of Washington D.C hostess and Democratic party fundraiser Perle Mesta, who was appointed the role of United States Ambassador of Luxembourg in 1949. Most commonly throughout the 1950’s, the American Musical dealt with social and topical themes in a way similar to the musicals of the 1930’s. A reason for this could be the distances from World War II. (Bauch. 2003. p. 68) It can be argued however that musicals of 1950’s dealt with the contemporary topics more seriously than satirically, unlike the musicals of the 1930’s. Hamilton in todays reviews has been considered a movement for Musical Theatre history. When the show premiered, The New York Times said “History is happening in Manhattan” in regards in Lin Manuel-Miranda’s new production. Another review of the production claims that Hamilton is the most important musical of our time. This is down to the fact that the musical has a political commentary that gets audiences thinking of race, gender and theatre in ways they are not used to (Business Insider UK. 2016) [Online]. Hamilton, based on the 2004 doorstop biography of Alexander Hamilton (Chernow. 2004) uses musical juxtaposition by using Rap as its main source of storytelling. The story, based in the 1700’s, is away from the time that Rap is associated with. Hamilton is not the first rap musical to be written, as Todd Kriedler’s Holler If Ya Hear Me (2013) used the music of Rap artist Tupac Shakur. However, Hamilton has become the first commercial hit to establish Rap music to the stage. (Howard. 2017) [Online] The success of Hamilton could be compared to that of Hair (MacDermot. 1967) because at the time of release, the music used in the musical plays was relevant and attractive to ‘modern’ audiences. Hamilton in particular focuses on an important piece of American history through rap and hip-hop, thus reaching across a wide spectrum of audiences interested in either the social and political side, or the music throughout the show. (Business Insider UK. 2016) [Online].
Hamilton could be argued as a representation as the modern popular musical, bringing musical theatre back into the lives of the every day home. This is discussed in an article by The New York Times, bringing the attention that whats heard in airwaves and clubs, has not represented that of whats on stage on Broadway for six decades (The New York Times. 2015) [Online]. The Broadway musical in the ‘golden-age’, if successful, would have been popular in homes as they would have represented the music at the time of their premiere; songs such as ‘Oh What A Beautiful Mornin’’ (Oklahoma! Rodgers and Hammerstein, 1943) [Libretto] would’ve have been a hit on stage and in popular culture.
During the first half of the 20th century, the American songbook was often dictated by Broadway tunesmiths. But by the late 1950s, songs from musicals had become a quaint breed apart from the songs that America danced to and sang in the shower.
(The New York Times. 2015)
Music could be considered the most important factor when making a musical show, giving the composers and lyricists the most prominent job in creation of a show. For a musical to succeed as an entity, all of its many collaborative parts must work together (Engel. Chap. 1 p.1 1977) This becomes apparent when adaptions of plays are written for the musical universe. The original material has to be altered for the stage, such as West Side Story (Bernstein. 1961). This musical is taken completely out of context from the play Romeo and Juliet, the Shakespeare classic the musical was based upon. According to broadway composer Lehman Engel in ‘The Making of a Musical’ (1977) he states that within a show, there is a program consisting of several different classifications of music that follow along in a contrasting sequence. This sequence is known as A A B A. This means that no matter how different one song may be to one another – this sequence is a the root of each of them. In theatre, this sequence can be used to tell a story through musical blocks. Section A would have the most advantages as it introduces the audience to the main themes of the song. The repeat of Section A would have the stress of the plot line and more examples of the themes throughout. The third section A would usually be the climax of the song, with minor harmonic and melodic alterations. (Engel. Chap. 1 p.2. 1977) Section B is known variously as either the release or bridge of a song, when a character expresses a thought change, leading the song to have a lyrical and musical contrast compared to the other sections. The A A B A is found in theatre music as early as the nineteenth century. In today’s West End, there is a wide array of jukebox musicals – a musical film or stage production that uses previously released popular songs as its musical score. In London’s West End as of 2018, there are numerous jukebox musicals currently running; Tina: The Musical, Bat Out of Hell The Musical, Thriller – Live, Mamma Mia! & Motown: The Musical. These musicals, in some cases, do not follow the stereotypical musical formula.