I just read this article and found it very interesting and decided to share it here if anyone wishes to read and discuss it. It bodes well for our young artists. MT is changing in many ways, but positively.
http://www.playbill.com/article/are-we-living-in-a-new-golden-age-of-musical-theatre
I really enjoyed the article. One of the things I have always found amusing is the idea that musicals are elitist…when in reality, musicals were originally created for “the masses” - the people who didn’t want to go sit through an evening of Shakespeare etc. (though of course, Shakespeare was written for the masses too… )
Same with Gilbert & Sullivan–created for the masses, now considered elitist (except the elite complain about the silly plot lines).
Loved this article. Maybe it’s a generational “DNA” thing. My own parents got engaged on my mom’s 21st birthday after they went to see South Pacific at the movie theater. I grew up listening to that LP along with many others, as well as soundtracks for the Disney movies and the spin off records from the Partridge Family, The Monkees, The Jackson Five, Donnie and Marie, HR Puff N Stuff, that show Bobbie Sherman was in. . . I was also of the generation that perennially waited for Cinderella, Charlie Brown, The Sound of Music, the animated Christmas shows to come on TV (Burl Ives singing Silver and Gold anyone??) to come on TV. As preteens, we even made a night of watching those shows with friends. As my kids - all boys - were growing up, our VHS library was very heavy on Disney (how many times can watch Beauty and the Beast or Great Mouse Detective??), Thomas the Tank Engine (MT S could sing that theme song before he could utter his first words), and remember all those Wild Animal videos that had music videos “built in”? My H added in the pop/rock concert videos to the viewing/listening diet (non-MT Ss are both in rock bands). How could my kids NOT grow up to think musical theater was cool? OK, so the non-MT sons don’t think it’s quite as cool as MT S, but they ALL loved seeing Book of Mormon, and even my most curmudgeonly MT “hater” S - recovering cello player who at age 3-5 never got enough of watching Disney’s Cinderella (he LOVED the mice) - happily went with me to see Seth MacFarlane in concert singing the Great American Songbook. We’ve been programmed - and so have our kids. Here’s to coming out of the closet!
I’m still a sucker for golden age!
Maybe I’m overstating the impact of “Hamilton”, but Lin-Manuel Miranda may have done something revolutionary. In the end you have to give the people what they want, and “Hamilton” does precisely that; it blends our insatiable appetite for history with music that is relatable to the under-40 crowd which is not “all-in” on the retreads. I can envision LMM “copycats” originating similar content and making this the preferred genre of American musical theatre for some time.
One can olny hope as my D is told all the time her type in a Golden Age soprano!
Great article! I wish as compelling a case could be made that it’s also a Golden Age for actors, but with the proliferation of non-equity and low-scale equity tours and the apparent over saturation at most
auditions I’m not as sure of that. In any case, it is exciting that the art form seems to be embraced by a larger segment of the viewing public of late, and also that there is a vibrant community of young writers and composers expanding the repertoire!
I sure hope this article is on the mark. I really do believe there will be more abundant opportunities for these talented and ambitious kids to make a living doing what they love and have trained so hard for. I also think that for those of them who have the ability to create as well as perform (the “quadruple threats” if you will), they will be the ones like Lin-Manuel Miranda who revolutionize the industry. Good times ahead folks, I can feel it.
Just to add to this thread I started with the Playbill article, Playbill also published a little video on this topic…
http://www.playbill.com/video/musical-theatres-new-golden-age
Another excellent new article on the same idea…
http://www.vulture.com/2016/03/new-york-theater-new-golden-age.html?mid=twitter_vulture
Exciting article! Bodes well for all these kids aiming to work in theater in New York.