Theatre History II

1. An Introduction

2. Often regarded as the first
American musical. A 5 ½ hour
melodrama loosely based on
Goethe’s Faust featuring lots of
spectacular scenery along with
songs and dances (by scantily clad
young ladies!).
The playwright initially refused to
have his play “cheapened” by
including musical numbers!

4. The comic operettas of Gilbert
and Sullivan began in Britain
in the 1870s and quickly
became popular in the US.
The Pirates of Penzance is the
best known and most produced
G&S operetta in the US now.

6. Non-English comic operettas
such as Austrians Franz
Lehar’s The Merry Widow also
were imported to the US.

8. African-Americans also
had developed their own
form of musical theatre,
such as Eubie Blake’s
Shuffle Along.
Most American theatre was
and would remain racially
segregated.

10. The first serious epic
narrative in Broadway
history. It contains what
many believe to be the
greatest score ever.
It was the first time that
serious black and white
characters held the stage
together as equals.

12. The first great American opera
by one of the country’s most
ambitious composers—George
Gershwin.
It was a series of vignettes of
life in a black Charleston
ghetto called Catfish Row,
where a cripple named Porgy
falls blindly in love with a
woman named Bess.

14. The first musical to integrate
songs and dances to extend the
narrative and the debut
collaboration between Rodgers
and Hammerstein.
A simple tale of cowhands and
farmers finding love and
community in the Oklahoma
territory.

16. Cole Porter’s play-within-a-play
that successfully brought
Shakespeare to the musical stage.
A loosely plotted scenario about
the tryout of a musical version of
Shakespeare's “Taming of the
Shrew," starring a man and his
ex-wife, who discover they still
belong together.

18. Based on Damon Runyon’s
short story, this musical
comedy celebrated and made
fun of native New Yorkers.
It depicted the awkward
romance between an habitual
gambler named Sky
Masterson and a Salvation
Army-type missionary girl
named Sarah.

20. One of the most impressively
choreographed musicals of all
time; it brought a new tone of
tragedy to musical theatre.
Following Shakespeare's Romeo
& Juliet, the story depicts star-
crossed lovers caught between
rival gangs (whites vs. Puerto
Ricans) in New York City.

22. The longest running theatre
production in the world (over
50 years!).
Based on Edmond Rostand’s
The Romancers and created by
two Texans, this musical shares
a story of love and the loss of
innocence.

24. An exploration of different
forms of musical narrative
that brought the conflicted
world of Nazi Germany to the
Broadway stage.
The musical mixed cabaret
numbers with the story of
Sally Bowles, a second-rate
American singer who recently
moved to Berlin.

26. The first musical to transfer
from Off-Broadway and to
feature a rock score (as well as
full nudity).
With no real plot, it was
simply a revue of song and
dance, showing practically
every aspect of the
counterculture during the
Vietnam era.

28. The first collaboration between
Stephen Sondheim and Harold
Prince.
A sophisticated and theatrical
collection of vignettes about a
man named Robert and the five
married couples who surround
him.

30. A backstage saga unlike any
musical before it that
represented the triumph of
the director-choreographer.
A collection of songs and
dances that focuses on 25
dancers desperately
auditioning for eight jobs on
the chorus line of a new
musical.

32. The first successful stage
adaptation of a movie musical
and the longest running
American musical of the 1980s.
In the story, a Broadway
producer is attempting to
mount a new musical during
the Great Depression (1930s),
but he cannot find the right
leading lady.

34. The longest running
Broadway musical of all time
and the first of the British
mega-hits to conquer
Broadway.
Based on the writings of T.S.
Eliot (and all of the
characters are—you guessed
it—cats).

36. A French (music and lyrics)
and British (libretto) creation
about the French Revolution
that premiered in London in
1985 and came to Broadway
in 1987.
Popularly known as “Les
Miz,” there have been over
10,000 performances so far.

38. A standard romantic
musical comedy about
two mismatched lovers,
who, in this case, are both
men.
The first successful
Broadway musical with a
homosexual love story.

40. Julie Taymor’s spectacular
adaptation of the Disney
movie featuring life-size
jungle puppets.
Featuring sophisticated
technology and a culturally
diverse cast, the musical was
hugely successful and is still
playing.

42. A rock musical adaptation
of Frank Wedekind’s 1892
controversial play about
teen angst and sexuality.
During each performance,
a limited number of
audience members sat on
stage with the performers.

44. A rock musical version of the
comic book with music by
U2’s Bono and Edge.
The most expensive musical
in Broadway history—over
$70 million. Also unusual in
that it had 182 “previews”
before officially opening.

46. Much of the information for this presentation
comes directly from the PBS series Broadway:
The American Musical and can be found online at
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/index.html.
The video clips come from youtube.com and
feature recent productions with “non-
traditional” (racially integrated) casts that would
not have been typical of the original productions.

47. 2012 U.S. Fulbright Scholar
Faculty of Arts, University of Prishtina