Musical Theatre
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Musical theatre is dramatic storytelling in which song and often dance are integral to the narrative, sung live by actors with an orchestra and shaped to advance plot and character rather than merely entertain. The music spans operetta, jazz, swing, pop, and rock idioms, but is unified by theatrical craft: the "I want" song, the eleven-o'clock number, the act-one finale, ensemble counterpoint, and reprise. Voices are trained for projection and diction, arrangements built to fill a house, and lyrics prized for wit and clarity. The mood swings from soaring romance to comic patter to gut-punch pathos, all in service of the book.
History
American musical theatre grew from The Black Crook (1866), European operetta, minstrelsy, and vaudeville into the songbook era of Kern, Berlin, and the Gershwins, with Show Boat (1927) proving the form could carry serious drama. Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! (1943) fully integrated song, story, and dance, launching a golden age; Stephen Sondheim then reinvented its ambition, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's megamusicals globalized it in the 1980s. From Rent (1996) to Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton (2015), the form kept absorbing pop, rock, and hip-hop; centered on Broadway and the West End, it remains a vital commercial and artistic tradition.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- My Shot(2015) — Lin-Manuel MirandaSpotifyYouTube
- Defying Gravity(2003) — Idina MenzelSpotifyYouTube
- Bring Him Home(1987) — Colm WilkinsonSpotifyYouTube
- The Music of the Night(1986) — Michael CrawfordSpotifyYouTube
- Tomorrow(1977) — Andrea McArdleSpotifyYouTube
- Seasons of Love(1996) — Original Broadway Cast of RentSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Ethan Mordden, Anything Goes: A History of American Musical Theatre (Oxford, 2013)
- Larry Stempel, Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theater (2010)
- The Cambridge Companion to the Musical