musical theater
At the beginning of the twentieth century, American theatre was heavily dominated by commercialism. In 1909, an attempt to establish a European-style art theatre in New York City was made (Geisinger, 241). The building was so cavernous and unsuited for experimental work that the project failed after two seasons. Dedicated to producing the best of European and classical drama and to fostering new American plays, the first production groups of the 1900's were amateurs (Geisinger, 241). The memberships were organized by subscription, so that true experiment could be conducted without commercial pressure. One of the first of these companies in New York City was the Washington Square Players. From a similar group, the Provincetown Players, appeared the first American dramatist of international stature, Eugene O'Neill. His first full-length play, Beyond the Horizon, was successfully produced in 1920. (Taubman, 121). "Most of O'Neill's subsequent work represented a restless search for theatrical style such as expressionism in The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape and allegory in his updating of Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy, Mourning Becomes Electra, before he found a suitable idiom for modern tragedy in his autobiographical play Long Da
During the 1960s, a strong ultramodern theatre movement known as "Off-Off-Broadway" emerged (Blum, 310). "Among the most influential groups were Joseph Chaikin's Open Theatre, Richard Schechner's Performance Group, Julian Beck's and Judith Malina's Living Theatre, and Peter Schumann's Bread and Puppet Theatre" (Blum, 310-311). These groups sought to explore taboo topics such as sexuality, nudity, and primitivism. They also signaled, however, a movement away from "literary values: coherent speech and concise dialogue were in most cases replaced by improvisations, grunts, and shrieks" (Blum, 311). After Rodgers and Hammerstein breathed new life into the musical comedy with Oklahoma!, the form acquired more sophistication with such Broadway successes as Guys and Dolls and My Fair Lady, and it broke new ground in West Side Story produced in 1957, which conveyed much of the plot through dance. "The range of subjects widened: hippie culture was introduced in Hair, religion was popularized in Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar in 1971, and dance became the central element in shows such as A Chorus Line and Dancin' in the late 1970's" (Blum, 358). By the 1980s, Stephen Sondheim had become the most innovative force in the musical theatre, combining the roles of lyricist and composer in such works of immense technical sophistication as Company in 1970, A Little Night Music in 1973, and Sunday in the Park with George in 1984 (Blum, 358). Blum, Daniel. A Pictoral History of American Theatre 1860-1970. New York: Crow Publishers, Inc. 1969. By the late 1970s, the wild experiments had dissolved into conventional pla
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Approximate Word count = 1097
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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