The Song Planner

Musical Revue

tagStarted 1907Peak 1968–1995Last big hit still active

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Stage / Screen / Soundtrack → Musical Theatre / Broadway

The musical revue is a plotless stage entertainment built from a series of songs, sketches, and dances unified by a theme, composer, or era rather than a continuous story. Musically it is a showcase — a songbook celebration or topical satire — that strings together numbers for variety, virtuosity, and audience delight, often spotlighting a single writer's catalog or a musical style. Small casts and tight bands are common, and the emphasis falls on performance, arrangement, and pacing over character arc. The mood is convivial and celebratory, an evening of songs presented for their own considerable pleasures.

History

The revue tradition ran from the Ziegfeld Follies (from 1907) and the topical satirical revues of the 1930s through mid-century, then found new life as the songbook revue: Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (1968), Ain't Misbehavin' (Fats Waller, 1978), and Sophisticated Ladies (Ellington, 1981) celebrated single artists, while Smokey Joe's Cafe (Leiber and Stoller, 1995) became Broadway's longest-running revue. Compilation and satirical revues (Forbidden Broadway) persisted off the main stage; freed from plot, the revue put songcraft and performance front and center and remains a beloved, economical theatrical form.

Defining artists

Essential listening

  • Stand by Me(1995) — Original Broadway Cast of Smokey Joe's CafeSpotifyYouTube
  • On Broadway(1995) — Original Broadway Cast of Smokey Joe's CafeSpotifyYouTube
  • Hound Dog(1995) — Original Broadway Cast of Smokey Joe's CafeSpotifyYouTube
  • Spanish Harlem(1995) — Original Broadway Cast of Smokey Joe's CafeSpotifyYouTube
  • If We Only Have Love(1968) — Original Cast of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in ParisSpotifyYouTube
  • Amsterdam(1968) — Original Cast of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in ParisSpotifyYouTube
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Sources

  • Larry Stempel, Showtime (2010)
  • Gerald Bordman, American Musical Revue: From The Passing Show to Sugar Babies
  • cast-album liner notes