Morgan Mahan
Professor Bohm
Music 127
21 April 2019
Broadway musicals have been around for over a century. With over forty theatres along the Broadway, many musicals have come in and out of fame during this time. The history of Broadway musicals has seen large changes and growth throughout the music industry. This change comes in many ways, but mainly from New York culture as well as the culture and views of the world. Growth in the musical culture includes with issues of race, sexism, economical standings, and more. The early Broadway musicals were innovations to the newer musicals of today. Even if they are still running, those older musicals have helped change the way the culture is of shows being written today. Although there are many musicals that come to mind that have helped shape the musical culture, three truly stand out. West Side Story, Show Boat, and Oklahoma! are the three that have truly shown innovation through lyrics, plot lines, and choreography to help shape the Broadway musicals that we know today.
In September 1957, the first run of West Side Story made audiences fall in love with the dramatic story of Romeo and Juliet once again. Arthur Laurents’ book brought back the powerful message that still remains as a timely love story between two clueless youths. “The West Side Story sound embodies everything that we now think of as “the American sound”. Bernstein’s work with Aaron Copland and study of George Gershwin is largely evident in his score for West Side Story” (Marshall 2018).8 Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim wrote some of the best lyrics and scores that the musical theater has seen. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has been recreated into a modern-day New York City story as a couple young lovers that find themselves struggling to be together with their two street gangs battling throughout the movie, the Jets who are “American” and the Sharks from Puerto Rico. Tony and Maria’s struggle to live in the community full of hate, violence, and judgement, is one of the innovative musicals on Broadway.
West Side Story was also one of the first musicals to use sampling as a technique for song writing. As Maria sings “I Feel Pretty”, audiences are reminded of hearing this song a few years prior in Alan Jay Lerner’s My Fair Lady. The lyrics of “America” give a motivational feel of the dreams of being in America, which gave an idea to future musicals like Newsies, which shows young men dreaming of a new, more wealthy life. West Side Story has been a popular selection in high schools across America. Giving audiences a new, modern way to look at the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet while bringing in more modern social issues and a better understanding of the poetry Shakespeare wrote.
In 1927, Show Boat was first seen at Ziegfeld Theatre. With this musical, an entire new genre formed for American musical theatre. Show Boat was the first musical to have a musical plot and still be apart of the comedic genre. The show brought comedy and drama throughout the show, while giving audiences the humor and love that musical goers strive to see. During this time, musicals did not usually show the full, true feelings of romance, tragedy, and comedy throughout the entire performance. In the past, musicals have given comedy, but with no constant plot line that is truly easy to follow for audiences. Show Boat gave an actual plot line with a believable love story that grasped the hearts and mind of everyone who saw the show.
The difference between this show and the musicals that came before it are very noticeable in comparison. Show Boat was part of the change in musical theater that includes actual extras on the stage and better sets throughout the story. Before this generation of productions, there were cardboard cutouts of characters and sets on the stage, which this change gives a positive growth in the stage environment. Show Boat also gives more meaning in its lyrics. The lyrics in this show have a difference in earlier musical theater lyrics by having more serious lyrics and the songs have an easier time following the plot. In the song, “Ol’ Man River”, the lyrics help describe the Mississippi River and its importance to the people who travel and use it. The lyrics throughout this show give more of creative way to be more poetic and free with the audience. Along with the lyrics and dialog of Show Boat, the score also is seen as a growth in the theater community. The score helped create a new type of melody musical theater, which some have said it is “a pioneer in creating a new genre in the musical theatre and though many remarkable productions since 1927 have developed the musical play into a genuine art form Show Boat still remains one of the best of the species” (Kantor, PBS).
While Show Boat and West Side Story have given new ways to shape genres and show modern takes on stories, Oklahoma! shaped the modern age of choreography. Agnes De Mille was the shows choreographer, who gave the show one of its best innovations. She decided for Oklahoma!, the casted dancers were hired more for their talent, and less for their looks (Malet 2016). According to Malet, Oklahoma! was “the integrated musical that marked a revolution in American theater”. Along with Show Boat, this show was the start of musicals having structure and a complete sense of the musical environment. It shows the switch between having a full musical and shows a complete way of moving a story through music and dance, which has only been done before in non-musicals.
Oklahoma! has also made major changes to the American musical theater, just like Show Boat. “Just how important a libretto’s architecture became to the musical can be seen by how few predecessors of Show Boat and Oklahoma! can hold the stage today, even when they contain a larger quotient of standard songs than the fluffy, libretto-poor musical comedies of the same period” (Rich 1984). Together, these two musicals have helped shape their predecessors in many ways. The American musical theater was paved by this new era of art, and even West Side Story would not be such a hit that it is today without Showboat and Oklahoma!, as it has some of the best scores, choreography, and stories lines of its time.
These shows have helped give the American musical theater a new way to create productions for decades. Throughout plot lines, lyrics, scores, and dance, musicals moved into a new generation of stories and revisions that have helped make musicals more of a success. Audiences have seen a major change in the past century of how stories are written and shaped by the culture and talent of the community of American musical theater. Show Boat helped bring the new era of stage entertainment, West Side Story showed how to reintroduce old stories and turn them into new ones, and Oklahoma! showed audiences new ways of bringing choreography into the plot lines. Without these three shows, the American musical theater could still be performing out of time stories with minimal growth into the 21st century.