history-of-musicals-blog

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The History of Musical Theatre

Music and dance have been incorporated into performances for a long time. They were used in Greek stage comedies as early as the 5th Century. People have always thought of music and dance as an entertaining artform. But it wasn’t until the mid-late 19th Century that musicals, as we know them today, started to form become a part of mainstream society.   Many musicals have been lost to history as there was no archive that existed for all theatre credits of performance credits. This is also why musical theatre had a slow climb into the societal mainstream as keeping up with the ever-changing ideas of modern life is difficult. Even now, theatre is on the outskirts of popular media and is seen as a niche interest. 

The most common form of musical in the modern age are ‘Book Musicals’ which are stories that have songs and dances integrated throughout them to aid telling the story. The French were unofficially the first to start creating an art form close to what we typically have now, a big one to come out of France in 1870 was La Fille de Madame Angot, which was a comedic musical play with a myriad of music stylings within the performance. It was a funny, sexy play which kicked of many other performers in France to follow suit and create their own musical plays, which later became what we now know as musicals.  

There are still many people that believe musicals are only for children and are no deeper than a few fun songs and light-hearted dancing. It has been said that, although many musicals are light-hearted and fun to watch, there are also many that were made to be deeper, complex meanings that can teach the audience something or give a reflection on some of societies flaws. The music is a way of connecting and having deeper emotion than words can bear. It has been said about musicals that when the emotions are too big for words, they sing, and when the emotions are too big for melody, they dance. 

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A collection of musicals,and their symbols, that have been throughout the years. Also the original poster for ‘La Fille de Madame Angot'

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Performance of Musicals

Of course musicals are performances in the standard sense, people pay money to see people pretending to be different characters, pay to see people ‘perform’. But looking into the aspects of performance, musicals are so much more than that. There is definitely play performance within musicals, the actors play with each other, with the audience and with their characters. Many musicals are seen as more light-hearted and fund than other forms of theatre, because of their elements of play.   There are many superstitions within the theatre, some of which involve ritualistic tendencies like leaving the ghost light turned on in the centre of the stage when everyone leaves. The history of that superstition is unclear but no matter what, any big theatre you go to will have the one singular light left lit in the centre of the stage. 

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Creation of Musicals

Musicals come from many different sources. There are musicals made from books, such as Les Misérables, Percy Jackson and the lightning thief, etc.  Musicals that are created from myths and legends like Hadestown, and of course original musicals not based off of anything like Cats, Be more chill, Dear Evan Hansen. There are many other inspirations for musicals, they can be made from just about anything. But a big inspiration for musical creation in the 21st Century, are musicals that are created from films. There have been films made from films such as Tootsie, Newsies, Mean girls, Anastasia and many more.  

Musicals can also come from many different creators, there are the names that are known for musical theatre like Stephen Sondheim and Rogers and Hammerstein. There are also creators that come from other forms of media like Singer-Songwriters writing songs or entire soundtracks to musicals like the number of celebrity singers collected to write songs for ‘SpongeBob: The Musical’ or Alan Menken, who usually writes for Disney movies, writing or adapting songs for Broadway.  

The two I mainly on in this blog are examples of ‘Book Musical’s based from popular films. Elton John’s ‘Billy Elliot: The Musical’, and Sara Bareilles’ ‘Waitress’. Both based on films from the 2000s. 

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Billy Elliot

Billy Elliot is a great example of a musical that tells the story of a real time period without being based on events of a true story. It is also, of course, based on the 2000 film of Billy Elliot but adapted for the stage. The musical was created after Elton John saw the movie and was so moved by the story that he decided to write music for it and thus ‘Billy Elliot: The Musical’ was born.   Together with Tim Rice on the book and lyrics, and Elton John on the music, the musical came together for its debut on the West End in Victoria Palace Theatre on the 11th of May, 2005. At the West-End debut, the lead role of Billy Elliot was alternated by three different boys Liam Mower, James Lomas and George Maguire.  For the stage adaptation, a scene was added where the stage turns into a sort of dreamscape where Billy is dancing with an older boy and it there to represent who Billy sees himself being in the future if he follows the path of dance, it’s who Billy wants to be.   The stage version of Billy Elliot was popular from the moment it hit the stage, people already loved the film and almost everyone was familiar with the work of Elton John.   There were many runs of Billy Elliot put on throughout the UK and The United States and was a hit every time. So much so that in 2014 there was a 10-year anniversary live version made (released in 2015) which had an after curtain-call dance which called back many of the actors who had previously played Billy professionally.

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Photos taken of the 2015 production. Included are photos from the curtain call, when Billy first joins the dance class, Billy and Michael dressing up, and Billy with dreamscape Billy (who he hopes to be in the future)

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A clip of after the curtain call when all of the previous, professional 'Billys' come out on stage to dance with each other.

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Plot of Billy Elliot

Set in Durham County in the time of the minor strikes (1984-85), a young boy is living with his senile old grandmother and a Father and brother riled up by the minors’ strike and involved in the riots. Until he stumbles across a ballet class after his boxing class. Billy instantly falls in love with the dance and is encouraged by the dance teacher, Mrs Wilkinson, to audition for the Royal Ballet School. Billy is keen until his father, Jackie, finds out about the ballet and, due to the fragile masculinity apparent in the 1980s forbids Billy from auditioning and even attending classes for ballet anymore. Jay young described this as “hyper-masculine culture fed by homophobia:” (2011). This results in a big argument within the family between duty to the family and pursuing what you love. This kind of thing happened especially in the working class as the families were not as well off so would have to do very well to get anywhere in life, and challenging fragile societal norms is not something that will help you climb the ladder of social class. This is especially not helped by the fact that Billy’s best friend, Michael, likes to cross dress by wearing women’s dresses and lipstick.   This is why it is such a big revelation when Jackie realises this could be Billy’s ticket out of the working class and into a wider world. The Royal Ballet School was out of Durham County and could set Billy up with a future that leads to wealth and fame. This causes Jackie to go back to work as a minor, despite the strike, and become what they called a ‘scab’, someone who breaks the strike.   The musical ends with the minors losing the strike and going back to work, while Billy leaves to join the Royal Ballet School.  

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Waitress

Based off the film from 2007 Waitress is a touching, heart-wrenching musical about a woman living in a small town who feels as if her life is falling apart round her. Book, lyrics and music written by the wonderfully talented Sara Bareilles, Waitress made its Broadway debut in the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on April 24th, 2016, nine months after its first debut production in August 2015 at the American Repertory theatre.   The lead role of Jenna was originated by Jessie Mueller, and the male lead was originated by Drew Gehling. But there have been many different productions of waitress since it opened on both Broadway and on the West End and are currently still running in 2019. These casts are even keeping up with the times and casting internet personalities in lead roles, with Joe Sugg currently on West End as Ogie and Colleen Ballinger as Dawn on Broadway.  

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Here I’ve added some pictures taken of the musical when it was on Broadway. Jenna baking a pie, Jenna and her co-workers in the diner where they work, and Dr Pomatter and Jenna in his Doctor’s Office.

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Waitress had a performance at the 2016 Tonys where two versions of, arguably, Waitress’ most known song merged into one. Sung by the creator, Sara Bareilles, and the woman who originated the Role, Jessie Mueller.

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Plot of Waitress

Waitress is the story of a woman, Jenna, in the American South. The musical starts with Jenna finding out she is pregnant, in the bathroom of the Diner where she works. This starts a downwards spiral for Jenna as she realises she’s stuck in a waitressing job, she hates her husband and is now having a baby with him. To top it all off she starts an affair with the doctor helping her have the baby. Her only hope now, pie. Jenna is an outstanding pie creator and baker and plans to use those skills in a pie bake-off and take the prize money to start her new life, so she saves up her tips for the entry fee and travel expenses. Unfortunately, her husband finds the money and she is not able to attend the bake-off as he takes the money and leaves.   When Jenna suddenly goes into labour, she is given an envelope from the owner of the diner, an old man with a tough exterior but a secret heart of gold. He passes away just as Jeanna’s baby is born and has left the diner to her.   Jenna ends the affair with her doctor and leaves her husband making it just her, her new-born daughter, Lulu, and her new diner. Things are looking up for her after all.  

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References

Gänzl, Kurt. “Musicals-The complete illustrated story of the world’s most popular live entertainment” Carlton Books Limited, 1995 

Kuehler, Stephen. "American Repertory Theater Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2015–2016." New England Theatre Journal 27 (2016): 143-46. Web. 

Miller, Derek. "Average Broadway." Theatre Journal 68.4 (2016): 529-53. Web. 

Schechner, Richard, and Richard Schechner. Performance Studies : An Introduction, Routledge, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/vuw/detail.action?docID=1128311. 

Young, Jay. “Performing History, Class and Gender in Billy Elliot: The Musical.” Active History, 4 Mar. 2011, activehistory.ca/2011/03/performing-history-class-and-gender-in-billy-elliot-the-musical/.