Nineteenth Century Origins

• Minstrelsy, esp. olio section
• Vaudeville
• Follies/musical revues
• Black Crook, 1866

• follies, revues, even vaudeville adopt themes, central characters or sketchy plots
• ragtime then jazz music, becomes popular in nightclubs and on stage, soon radio and phonograph
• jazz dances move from nightclubs to theatre stages

• Unity and integration of plot, character, music, dance, visuals
• Show Boat, 1927; Kern and Hammerstein and Ferber
• songs and dances fit character and plot
• chorus dramatically justified
• other musicals imitate, strive for unity through 30's, into 40's
• Hollywood films slower to adopt unity as ideal, still an evolving medium, extravaganzas such as Busby Berkeley's too popular

• greater integration of dance
• "choreographer" coined by Agnes DeMille
• new dance style for musical comedy combines ballet, jazz, modern
• Oklahoma!, 1942, Rodgers and Hammerstein, DeMille
• romantic leads, soprano and tenor, ballads
• character parts: soubrette, dancers, heavy, older characters, ethnic types; patter songs and featured dancers
• dramatic justification of company numbers
• West Side Story, 1957, Robbins, Bernstein, Sondheim
• new levels of integration of music and dance; pulled from contemporary life
• tragic story, dark presentation of present time and place

• Rock musical (Hair! 1968)
• concept musical (Company, 1970)
• "poor theatre" from Jerzy Grotowski's term (Man of La Mancha, 1965)
• darker, more cynical stories, music, dance style (Cabaret, 1966, Chicago, 1975)
• British invation (Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jesus Christ Superstar, 1973)
• most recently, revivals of golden age shows and Disney hits 42nd St (Carousel, The Lion King (1997))