The term "book musical" encompasses a wide range of forms that must be understood before we proceed further. On one end of the spectrum lies the musical comedy, which is a book show (as opposed to a plotless revue) in which songs and dances serve a light, humorous story, with a happy ending guaranteed. Although How To Succeedis certainly a musical comedy, it transcends the frivolous. On the other end lies the musical play, which takes itself more seriously. Plot, character development, and theme are usually emphasized.
Sunday in the Parkis the closest example among our six shows, but it is more accurate to call it a "concept musical," the term representing a subset of musical plays that revolve around a central idea instead of emphasizing character or linear plot. In the middle of the continuum lies the operetta, which may take one of several forms, including the modern operettas of Rodgers and Hammerstein. This type can include both comedy and drama; it generally takes place in a foreign, even exotic setting, and it is meant to be at least partially escapist. South Pacificis a perfect example of this form. Yet the "escape" to a tropical isle is illusory, as the problems of civilization follow both characters and audience.
No history of the musical would be complete without looking at the accomplishment of George and Ira Gershwin, and Of Thee I Singis, except for the opera Porgy and Bess,their work most worthy of analysis. One need only compare this show with Girl Crazy(1930) and the Gershwin musical comedies of the 1920s to see how the brothers' craft improved. George's classical training subtly influences the music, and even though the music was not cited by the Pulitzer committee, it was of integral importance. The libretto, moreover, shows why George S. Kaufman was the most successful comic playwright of his day. In terms of cultural studies, Of Thee I Singprovides plenty of material on the subject of Washington politics, as well as a non-depressing nod toward the Depression of the 1930s. In the line of political musicals stretching from Strike Up the Bandto I'd Rather Be Right, Of Thee I Singis the finest example. Although this satirical musical is often described as dated and unrevivable, recent Presidential campaigns suggest otherwise.
If the Gershwins were the most talented practitioners of the theatrical songwriting craft during the 1930s, at least until George's tragic death in 1937, the 1940s belonged to Rodgers and Hammerstein. Indeed, Stephen Sondheim asserts that the history of the book musical is the history of Oscar Hammerstein II and that every musical since Rodgers and Hammerstein is a response-either conforming to or rebelling against-that songwriting pair. While Oklahoma!is the seminal work, South Pacificrepresents the apex of the team's craft and popularity. As a modern operetta set in a far-off land, the show complements the comic operetta Of Thee I Sing, which is imbued with the spirit of musical comedy. Because most musicals are adaptations, and because South Pacific derives from a Pulitzer Prize-winning work of fiction, examining this musical illuminates the important process of adaptation. Finally, while the show's treatment of World War II is largely conventional, it anticipates in its examination of Asian-Caucasian relations the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
The ubiquitous label "by Rodgers and Hammerstein" was accurate, for they controlled every aspect of production in their musicals. In Fiorello!,the guiding force was not the songwriting team, but the director and co-librettist, George Abbott. Just as Irving Berlin is popular music, Mr. Abbott (who was still active until his 1994 death at age 107) wasBroadway--he even wrote a play with that title in 1926. His work on Fiorello!reveals much about how to mount the complex piece of machinery we call "musical." We may, moreover, look at Fiorello!as the nexus of a series of successful political plays and a handful of celebrated biographical plays. It also marks the beginning of the end for Establishment-affirming, Eisenhower-era musicals.
Coming just two years after Fiorello!, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Tryingrepresents the change in attitude that reflected the new Kennedy spirit of shooting for the moon. Indeed, both President Kennedy and the Mercury astronauts attended performances of the show amid considerable fanfare. Much of the success of this work stems from the seamless melding of the work of composer-lyricist Frank Loesser, librettist-director Abe Burrows, and de facto choreographer Bob Fosse. How To Succeedis also a lampoon of big business and the Horatio Alger story, a myth that the popular 1995 revival of the show proves still interests us-even if the sexist elements of the original have been swept under the carpet in the "revisal."
A Chorus Lineran four times longer than How To Succeed,which was itself a huge hit. The story of theatrical foot soldiers reflected in an upstage mirror, A Chorus Line holds a mirror up to the audience in a dialectic between individuality and conformity that was serving the Me Decade in the 1970s. This work can be seen from a number of viewpoints: as a concept musical, as a director/choreographer-dominated creation (with composer and lyricist hired relatively late in the process), as a workshop-developed project, as a backstage-story musical, and as a popular phenomenon.
Sunday in the Park with George, by contrast, seems to be speaking to a non-existent It Decade in which art, rather than the individual, rules. Although based on the life of Georges Seurat, the musical is not biographical in the way that Fiorello!covers the life of LaGuardia, nor does it seek to humanize the performing artist as A Chorus Linedoes. Rather, Sunday in the Parkalmost demands that the audience step into the musical and experience it purely aesthetically. Assuming this is possible, stepping back out of the work and interpreting the aesthetic experience is a challenging task.
A look at this group of Pulitzer Prize-winning musicals reveals a number of similarities, but none so eerie as the number of endings it represents: the last hit Broadway musical for the Gershwins, the final innovative musical for Rodgers and Hammerstein, the culminating success of George Abbott's long career, the last Frank Loesser musical to reach Broadway, and, at least indirectly, the untimely deaths of collaborators Michael Bennett, James Kirkpatrick, Nicholas Dante, and Edward Kleban following their unprecedented Broadway success. Conversely, the newly forged Bock-Harnick and Sondheim-Lapine collaborations represent beginnings (to be accurate, Bock and Harnick had composed one previous score together). Given the present state of the art, one wonders whether the one-musical-per-decade pattern will continue for drama's most prestigious, and in the case of musicals, most poignant prize.
(Of course since I wrote this in 1993 Rentwon the Pulitzer Prize in 1997.)