Musical Theatre
American theatre is divided between straight plays and musicals. This has nothing to do with sexual orientation. A straight play is a play without music--one in which actors do not have to be able to sing or dance to be successful. A musical is a play composed of acted scenes called the book, vocal and instrumental music, and dance.
Types of Musical Theatre
Music and dance in theatre has a long history. Earlier forms
of musical theatre include opera and operetta. Opera by definition
contains no dialogue scenes. What it does have are recitative
in which characters chant/sing conversations; arias, or
songs; and dance. Operettas differ from opera in that they feature
lighter themes and more popular musical styles. Musicals were
commonly called Musical Comedies from the forties to the sixties.
At that point, the arrival of musicals with serious or dark themes
made the name inaccurate. Today we know them simply as: Musicals.
One way to categorize musicals is by the proportion of their
elements. Book musicals are those in which the acting scenes
clearly dominate; having a strong and coherant story. Since the
seventies the dance musical, usually directed and written by
a choreographer such as Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Michael Bennett
and Tommy Tune have became popular. One could even say dance
musicals are the most popular form inasmuch as the top
two longest running shows in Broadway history, A Chorus Line
and Cats, are both of this ilk. A third type emphasizes
music, particularly the sung-through musicals of Stephen Sondheim.
If you were to ask most Americans if they have ever gone to the
theatre, the majority who have would've seen a musical. There
is no question that musicals are the most popular and commercially
successful of all genres of theatre today. Why is this so? One
part of the answer is that they are heavily marketed. Chances
are, if you've seen a television commercial for a play, it was
probably for a musical. But marketing alone does not explain
their popularity. I believe that musicals are popular because
they connect to people in ways that straight plays do not.
The Music Connection
Music is the most ubiquitous of all the performing arts. Music surrounds us in restaurants and elevators, it accompanies commercials, we listen to it in the car on the way to school or work, and some carry it wherever they go with a Walkman. The simple fact is that we have been exposed to more music in our lives than any other art form. Why is this important? Because one can develop a kind of expertise in any subject just by massive exposure to it. If a college theatre arts major had seen as many plays as she had heard songs, she would have a greater knowledge base than her professors! But that isn't all. Most people have gone beyond the passive listener role to have actually made music. Some have attempted with varying degrees of success to play an instrument, and everybody has sung--even if only in church or the shower. The point is this: one develops a greater depth of appreciation of an art by having tried to do it. We appreciate the mastery of Michael Jordan because most of us have tried to dribble down the court and shoot a basket at some time in our lives. When it comes to appreciating music, we are all pretty sophisticated.
The Dance Connection
But musicals contain more than just music; dance is the other point of connection. We may not have been exposed to as much dance as music, but we are more likely to have tried to do it in front of other people--an audience. Americans are more likely to have participated in social dance than to have attended a dance concert. If we have watched dance it has probably been on television: either American Bandstand, Soul Train, or as music videos on MTV. Whether we move like Michael Jackson or are "dance-dyslexic," we all know how difficult it is to do really well. This is another point of contact. When an audience watches skilled professional dancers in the big production numbers of Chicago, Rent, or Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk, they appreciate the degree of difficulty from first-hand experience.
Familiarity Breeds Appreciation
One of the things that puts people off about straight theatre is the fear, real or imagined, that they are outsiders. They sit puzzled as others in the audience nod sagely at something just said or laugh out loud at something that must have been a joke. People tend to dislike that which they don't understand. This situation is even more acute at a Shakespeare play where very little makes sense to the uninitiated. But a play with music, even the same play, would suddenly seem more familiar, less alienating. We are comfortable with music--it makes sense to us. The audience has an immediate point of contact with the play, something they understand. Music and dance give them a way to participate in the experience, whether or not they like it. Even if they don't like the music or dance they can articulate why. Our familiarity and participation in both music and dance give the musical a clear advantage in attracting and holding an audience.
Marketing
Films, like food, can be marketed by giving away a free taste. Since film is a visual medium, you are shown clips of exciting or funny scenes both on television and as trailers in movie theatres. Trailers are the scenes of "coming attractions" that are shown before the feature, so-called because they used to follow the movie. Obviously this is much harder to do with theatre. First of all, there aren't that many "big effects shots" on the stage--if the falling chandelier from Phantom of the Opera were shown it would give away the climax. On the other hand, music from a musical can be offered as a tease. Unlike a dialogue scene, people like hearing the same song over and over, especially the "big numbers" from the show. It develops interest in the rest of the musical--people who were familiar with "Memories" and "Music of the Night" wanted to see Cats and Phantom for those tunes alone. The film industry has also learned the value of music in marketing. From watching the ads for Titanic you would almost think it was a musical. Hollywood producers take great care in selecting a catchy theme song that is performed by a popular artist to give a boost to their marketing efforts. Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" did much to propel Titanic to record profits.
Musicals on Film and Television
The musical is the least realistic form of popular drama.
After all, do people really break into song at intimate moments,
or dance down the street after a date? To me it is no wonder,
then, that musicals would find a home in the least realistic
of all the modes of dramatic arts: the stage. There was a time
when Hollywood had its own golden age of musicals. In the thirties
and forties there were Busby Berkeley dance extravaganzas, the
water ballets of Esther Williams, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers,
and Gene Kelly's Singin' In The Rain, clips of which were
shown extensively on TV upon the occasion of his death in 1998.
Since then, the only musicals you are likely to see on the movie
screen are adaptations of Broadway hits such as Grease
and Evita. Musicals produced for television are the rarest
bird of all. Steven Bochco's brave attempt, Cop Rock,
a kind of musical NYPD Blue died quickly during the 1983
season. Television simply cannot sustain that degree of serious
non-realism.
On the other hand, there are many examples of films being made
into stage musicals. Sunset Blvd. and Big both
started out as films before ending up on Broadway with music
added. This trend seems to be accelerating as within the next
year or so Broadway will host musical versions of Saturday
Night Fever (Tony Manero may be inarticulate, but he can
sing) and Footloose (no, not with Kevin Bacon!).
A Matter of Scale
Not all musicals are big. Playwrights and composers often put together small musicals that require fewer sets and costumes, small casts, and only a piano or small combo of musicians. These enable small or poorly financed groups to do musicals and the authors to make their money in smaller amounts over a longer period of time. One of the most successful of all time is The Fantastiks which played off-Broadway forever and is still often revived. There are also cabaret musicals and musical revues which replace traditional story with a loosely organized sequence of music and dance numbers. These often focus on a theme such as a specific style of music or the work of a particular composer or choreographer. Some recent examples include Putting It Together (1998) which stitches music by Steven Sondheim to a kind of people-at-a-party "plot", and Jerome Robbin's Broadway (1989) and Fosse: A Celebration in Song and Dance (1998) which feature famous dance numbers from these choreographers' popular hits. Clearly theme replaces plot as the primary structural element in such pieces.
DIGRESSION: A Very Brief History
But most people think of the classic Broadway blockbuster
megahit when they think of musicals. These have a grand tradition
going back to a Golden Age from the late forties to the early
sixties. Musicals from this period are familiar to many even
though they may have only seen the film versions. Oklahoma,
The Sound of Music, The King and I, My Fair
Lady, and Fiddler on the Roof are typical examples.
From the late sixties until the eighties Broadway and its musicals
went into a decline. Probably the most important composer during
this period was Stephen Sondheim whose dark works emphasized
music over dialogue and dance elements. But even his most popular
pieces, Company, Follies, and Sweeney Todd,
were appreciated more by theatre aficionadoes than by the
general public. What seemed to revive Broadway's mass popularity
was an infusion of talent from Europe in the seventies and eighties.
Although this book focuses on American theatre, it is simply
impossible to discuss the recent evolution of Broadway without
mentioning the British, especially one man: Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Beginning in 1972 with Jesus Christ, Superstar, he generated
a string of popular hits that have reinvigorated the form: Evita
(1978), Cats (1982), Phantom of the Opera (1987),
and Sunset Blvd. (1993). What distinguishes his work is
the lushness and melodic accessibility of his songs--people simply
love his tunes. Particularly interesting is the fact that many
of these plays were "sung-through" musicals--practically
operas! Examples of these are Evita, Passion (1994)
and Parade (1998). Carried along by this same wave were
other imports such as Les Misérables (1987) and
Miss Saigon (1989). Also contributing to the success of
these musicals was their use of lavish decor and special effects.
Some people went to Miss Saigon just to see the helicopter
land on stage!
Times Square Renaissance
Today Sir Andrew's popularity has waned, and Broadway has a new and unlikely savior: Walt Disney. What we know as Broadway, the heart of the American theatre, surrounds Times Square, a bow-tie-shaped clearing where Broadway slices diagonally through Seventh and 42nd Street in midtown Manhattan. It all began here in 1895 when Oscar Hammerstein I built the first theatre. As Broadway faded over the last twenty-five years, this district became ever more squalid and dangerous. By 1992 there were 47 porn shops alone, and many topless bars, peep booths, and XXX-rated movie theaters in the area. 42nd Street was an open-air drug market crawling with prostitutes. At this point the city made a serious commitment to urban redevelopment and things began to change. MTV and stylish publishing houses have made their headquarters here. New hotels, restaurants, and other businesses dot the now squeeky-clean streets. The Walt Disney Company first opened a superstore, then led the way for other corporate entertainment giants to buy into the theatre business. Disney took the abandoned New Amsterdam Theatre, built in 1903 to house the Ziegfeld Follies, and returned it to its Art Nouveau splendor. It is now home to the hit musical The Lion King. Livent Inc. combined the old Lyric and Apollo theatres into their new Ford Center for the Performing Arts where Ragtime now plays. Other historic theatres have been similarly rescued. But these changes did not come without controversy. Some romanticized the raw sleazy energy of the old Broadway and lamented its being made "safe for Mickey Mouse." They even made a musical about the bad old days of the seventies called The Life (1996).
The Business of Show Business
Although we have learned that the film industry is all about
money and theatre about art, the Broadway musical business is
an exception. Broadway is the big-business part of stage show
business. About 75% of the gross receipts on Broadway are from
musicals. Bringing a musical to the stage is a very expensive
proposition. On the other hand, if a musical is a blockbuster
hit, it can make a lot of money for its investors. Yes, that's
right, investors. To raise enough capital to get a musical
on its feet, the producers must look for people with money to
invest. Traditionally this has been done through limited partnerships
or profit participation. But one of the most recent developments
was undertaken by producer Garth Drabinsky and his Livent Inc.
out of Toronto, Ontario, producer of Show Boat and Ragtime.
He went beyond the world of private investors and offered shares
in his company on the NASDAQ stock exchange! As an investment,
musicals are very speculative and most people who invest in them
lose their money. It's basically a rich man's game. It should
be noted that although Drabinsky was fired by Livent after his
indictment for cooking the books, the shows (and the company)
go on.
The long-run hit has been the economic goal of Broadway-style
commercial theatre for many years. The current New York record
holder is Cats, which passed the previous leader A
Chorus Line in 1997 with 6,138 performances since 1982. One
of the longest running shows in Los Angeles was a little straight
play about fans of the Chicago Cubs called Bleacher Bums
which closed in 1991 after 11 years. It probably cost about $29.95
to open. Obviously profitability depends not only on how long
a show runs, but how many people you can get into the theatre
and how much they pay. The current Broadway top, the face
value of the most expensive ticket, is $75. A sold-out Broadway
house can bring in as much as $100,000 per night, eight times
per week. In order to make back its nut, the amount of
money needed to open a show, a musical has to run for several
months just to break even. After that, profit can be made by
investors. The nut for a big musical averages about $10 million
these days. Shows that close early for lack of audience, and
many do, are financial disasters.
A Chorus Line: A Case History
This second most popular musical of all time was unusual in
that it had a comparatively small budget due to its modest use
of scenery and costumes. It opened on Broadway in 1975 and closed
in 1990 after over 6000 performances. During that time over 6.5
million people saw it and 511 actors cycled through its cast
of twenty. It was jointly produced by The New York Shakespeare
Festival and Michael Bennett (its author and director). It won
the Tony Award for best musical and in numerous other categories
as well. Its nut was only $1.1 million, a laughably small amount
even in its own day. By the time it closed it had grossed about
$147 million. But that is only part of the story of a successful
American musical. Even while a show is running on Broadway, new
companies are cloned to perform in other cities, and on the road.
For instance, the Los Angeles company ran from 1976 to 1978 before
touring to other cities. The show ultimately was performed in
twenty-two nations and brought in an additional $131 million.
Some of this income was gained through sale of records, T-shirts,
other souvenirs, and the film rights. The total profit after
expenses had been deducted was about $50 million. With their
75% share the New York Shakespeare Festival created an endowment
that helps to support them to this day. Who said musicals aren't
good for art?
As we have learned, many musicals are made into films as well.
The producers sold the film rights of A Chorus Line to
Universal Pictures in 1975 for $5.5 million plus 20% of the distributor's
gross rentals above $30 million. This turned out to be a very
smart move for the theatre people since by the time the film
got made in 1985 nobody cared about A Chorus Line anymore.
This film which cost $27 million to make brought in only $9.8
million. The film people lost over $17 million on the deal.
Phantom Phacts
A more recent example of a successful musical is Phantom
of the Opera which continues its long Broadway run. As indicated
above, much of the profit from a musical comes from its cloned
companies. Once it has become obvious that a musical is going
to be a hit, plans are made to duplicate the production. Copies
of the sets and costumes are ordered, and auditions are announced
for a new cast. In the case of Phantom, it was such a
smash hit in London that New Yorkers eagerly bought $18 million
worth of advance tickets before the American clone opened
there in 1988. With opening costs of $8.5 million it was paid
for before even opening its doors! Its producer, British impresario
Cameron Mackintosh, quickly provided a Los Angeles company which
opened in 1989, as well as two national touring companies. The
L.A. company broke the local record with $15 million in advance
sales, most of which came in before the box office was even
open. Sales from "The Phantom Collection" of souvenirs
(including a $23 glow in the dark T-shirt) have brought in millions
alone. The show was also a windfall for Los Angeles' Center Theatre
Group/Ahmanson, which simply moved its entire season to another
theatre and rented their house to the Brits. During the three
years of Phantom's L.A. run, CTG/Ahmanson's reserve fund
swelled from $1.5 million to nearly $12 million from their 5%
share of the box office take. A similar arrangement was made
for a subsequent Mackintosh show, Miss Saigon.
Phantom has a company of 134 comprised of 36 actors, 60
crew members, 30 musicians, and a staff of eight. There are 120
wigs, 260 costumes, 165 trap doors in the stage, 500 lighting
instruments, and 102 candles. The famous chandelier has 30,000
beads and took six months to construct, and 5,600 pounds of dry
ice are used each week. The wireless microphones that the performers
wear use up about 20,000 AAA batteries per year.
Touring Companies
There are two kinds of touring companies of Broadway musicals: sit-down and bus-and-truck. A sit-down tour is a full-scale clone of the Broadway production which moves into a major city such as Los Angeles or Chicago where it settles in for as long as tickets will sell. When their weekly income drops too close to their weekly expenses, the show either moves on to settle in another large city or disbands. A bus-and-truck national touring company is a slimmed-down version of the original, designed to fit into smaller auditoriums for shorter runs. To be profitable, the smaller cities it travels to must be able to sustain engagements of at least one week. It gets its name from the bus which carries personnel and the semi-tractor trailers which carry all the scenery, costumes, lights, and other equipment. For example, a sit-down company of Les Misérables had set up shop in Los Angeles for a year in 1988, but the touring company which visited the Orange County Performing Arts Center in 1991 came in 48 trucks for only a three-week run.
Show Me The Money
Budgets for musicals are larger than any other form of theatre. This is due to the audience's expectation of spectacular scenery and gorgeous costumes, as well as the salaries paid to large casts and a full orchestra. Typically, the largest single expense is for scenic elements, followed closely by advertising. A theatre budget is composed of two parts. The first is the nut, or pre-production budget. This is the amount of money required to bring a show from the idea phase to opening night. The second part is the maintenance, or running budget. This is the amount of money needed to keep a show open from week to week. Large production musicals like Showboat and Ragtime usually have to gross in excess of $400,000 per week in order to maintain profitability. The following chart shows the allocation of money for the pre-production budget of the Los Angeles production of Ragtime. The show opened in June 1997 and closed in 1998.
Reading Assignment
You should be reading Chapter 18 in your textbook to get more information about musicals. After studying the chapters go to the online quiz at:
Chapter 18 - Quiz #17
Take the quiz and send the answers back to me as directed at the bottom of the quiz--check class calendar for specific due date for the quiz.
Lecture Exercise
Name three reasons why musicals are the most popular genre of theatre today.
Note that when submitting the answer start the subject line with:
TH101DE -- YourLastName -- L-20
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