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The Book of Mormon is genius – could this be a new golden age for musicals? The Book of Mormon is genius – could this be a new golden age for musicals?
(6 months later)
This week, the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon opened in London. Even before a single review had appeared, tickets were being resold at up to £350. The show has already earned millions for its creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who also gifted the world with South Park. It's enough to make you ask: "Crisis? What crisis?"This week, the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon opened in London. Even before a single review had appeared, tickets were being resold at up to £350. The show has already earned millions for its creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who also gifted the world with South Park. It's enough to make you ask: "Crisis? What crisis?"
There's no mystery about the show's recession-busting success, in the US and – one feels safe in predicting – here. It's simply a work of genius, so brilliantly conceived and executed that it makes astonishingly savage and sophisticated satire into joyous, hilarious, literally all-singing, all-dancing fun and glamour.There's no mystery about the show's recession-busting success, in the US and – one feels safe in predicting – here. It's simply a work of genius, so brilliantly conceived and executed that it makes astonishingly savage and sophisticated satire into joyous, hilarious, literally all-singing, all-dancing fun and glamour.
Remarkably, despite the fact that there's barely a moment's respite from robust engagement with issues generally guaranteed to provoke hysterical controversy, The Book of Mormon has so far seemed almost magically immune from anything more than minor outbreaks of such attention. It picked up nine Tony awards in 2011, its opening year on Broadway. In a country where establishment reluctance to garland work that could be considered offensive is not uncommon, that's good going.Remarkably, despite the fact that there's barely a moment's respite from robust engagement with issues generally guaranteed to provoke hysterical controversy, The Book of Mormon has so far seemed almost magically immune from anything more than minor outbreaks of such attention. It picked up nine Tony awards in 2011, its opening year on Broadway. In a country where establishment reluctance to garland work that could be considered offensive is not uncommon, that's good going.
The Book of Mormon's closest spiritual cousin, Stewart Lee's Jerry Springer: The Opera, by contrast, caused endless outrage. Somehow, though, The Book of Mormon, manages to mock and ridicule all of the most dangerous and exploitative hypocrisies of western civilization with such charm and intelligence that barely a soul wants to appear bad sport enough to risk spoiling the fun. Even Mormons. Yet, despite the singularity of The Book of Mormon's success, a trend can be detected. Next month sees the London opening of another hit Broadway musical, Once. Last year it received eight Tony awards, which could be seen as a greater achievement than The Book of Mormon's nine, since Once started out as a small off-Broadway show set in Dublin, with an Irish writer, Enda Walsh, and an English director, John Tiffany – rather than a very American show from people who had already experienced huge success with a cult TV animation.The Book of Mormon's closest spiritual cousin, Stewart Lee's Jerry Springer: The Opera, by contrast, caused endless outrage. Somehow, though, The Book of Mormon, manages to mock and ridicule all of the most dangerous and exploitative hypocrisies of western civilization with such charm and intelligence that barely a soul wants to appear bad sport enough to risk spoiling the fun. Even Mormons. Yet, despite the singularity of The Book of Mormon's success, a trend can be detected. Next month sees the London opening of another hit Broadway musical, Once. Last year it received eight Tony awards, which could be seen as a greater achievement than The Book of Mormon's nine, since Once started out as a small off-Broadway show set in Dublin, with an Irish writer, Enda Walsh, and an English director, John Tiffany – rather than a very American show from people who had already experienced huge success with a cult TV animation.
Particularly for Walsh, Once was a departure. He's more used to writing gritty, social-realist material, such as his brutal, disturbing play The Walworth Farce. Likewise, Tiffany and Once's choreographer, Steven Hoggett, are best known for Black Watch, which, despite its awesome theatrical strengths, was hardly lighthearted. This is also an unexpected time to revive A Chorus Line, the 1975 musical about the backstage desperation of those who make careers as dancers in musicals. But there it is, back in the West End, making the auditorium weep from the outset.Particularly for Walsh, Once was a departure. He's more used to writing gritty, social-realist material, such as his brutal, disturbing play The Walworth Farce. Likewise, Tiffany and Once's choreographer, Steven Hoggett, are best known for Black Watch, which, despite its awesome theatrical strengths, was hardly lighthearted. This is also an unexpected time to revive A Chorus Line, the 1975 musical about the backstage desperation of those who make careers as dancers in musicals. But there it is, back in the West End, making the auditorium weep from the outset.
My contention is that while it's acknowledged that hard times stimulate artistic creativity – the Young British Artists movement emerging from the recession of the 1980s being a classic example, or the explosion of literary success in a previously moribund 1980s Scotland – recessions are an almost perversely fortuitous environment for the flourishing of musicals.My contention is that while it's acknowledged that hard times stimulate artistic creativity – the Young British Artists movement emerging from the recession of the 1980s being a classic example, or the explosion of literary success in a previously moribund 1980s Scotland – recessions are an almost perversely fortuitous environment for the flourishing of musicals.
The perversity is in the fact that even modest musicals are expensive, while movements like the YBAs typically start out in the counterculture, where a lack of cash inspires alternative methods of seeking audiences, and a release from commercial considerations prompts broader creative exploration. You'd imagine that trips to London's West End and tickets to frivolous entertainments such as musicals would be the first thing axed from household budgets in lean times. What actually seems to happen is that musicals become more experimental, and start attracting people who wouldn't usually go to them. Even Jerry Springer found its success in 2003, when economic times were hard, and home-owners were living with high mortgage interest rates and negative equity.The perversity is in the fact that even modest musicals are expensive, while movements like the YBAs typically start out in the counterculture, where a lack of cash inspires alternative methods of seeking audiences, and a release from commercial considerations prompts broader creative exploration. You'd imagine that trips to London's West End and tickets to frivolous entertainments such as musicals would be the first thing axed from household budgets in lean times. What actually seems to happen is that musicals become more experimental, and start attracting people who wouldn't usually go to them. Even Jerry Springer found its success in 2003, when economic times were hard, and home-owners were living with high mortgage interest rates and negative equity.
There was a real and justifiable fear at the start of the Great Depression that the Broadway musical simply wouldn't survive. What actually happened, explains the late musical theatre historian Stanley Green, was this: "The musical theatre – the most opulent, escapist, extravagant and unabashedly commercial form of the theatre – could not hide from what was going on. Of course, it could still provide relief from reality. It could still offer evenings of mirth and song and glamour. But it showed a growing awareness of its own unique ability to make telling comments on such issues of the day as the folly of war, municipal corruption, political campaigns, the workings of the federal government, the rising labor movement, the dangers of both the far right and the far left, and the struggle between democracy and totalitarianism. It discovered that a song lyric, a tune, a wisecrack, a bit of comic business, a dance routine could say things with even more effectiveness than many a serious-minded drama, simply because the appeal was to a far wider spectrum of the theatergoing public." Thus, George and Ira Gershwin established their careers in the 1930s, with 1931's Of Thee I Sing becoming the first musical to win a Pulitzer prize. Other notable firsts included 1933's offering by Irving Berlin, As Thousands Cheer, which became the first Broadway show in which an African-American, Ethel Waters, shared equal billing with white stars. In a consolidation of that success, 1935's Porgy and Bess featured an entirely African-American cast. Likewise, 1937's The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was considered dangerously pro-union, and established the idea that musicals could be overtly political.There was a real and justifiable fear at the start of the Great Depression that the Broadway musical simply wouldn't survive. What actually happened, explains the late musical theatre historian Stanley Green, was this: "The musical theatre – the most opulent, escapist, extravagant and unabashedly commercial form of the theatre – could not hide from what was going on. Of course, it could still provide relief from reality. It could still offer evenings of mirth and song and glamour. But it showed a growing awareness of its own unique ability to make telling comments on such issues of the day as the folly of war, municipal corruption, political campaigns, the workings of the federal government, the rising labor movement, the dangers of both the far right and the far left, and the struggle between democracy and totalitarianism. It discovered that a song lyric, a tune, a wisecrack, a bit of comic business, a dance routine could say things with even more effectiveness than many a serious-minded drama, simply because the appeal was to a far wider spectrum of the theatergoing public." Thus, George and Ira Gershwin established their careers in the 1930s, with 1931's Of Thee I Sing becoming the first musical to win a Pulitzer prize. Other notable firsts included 1933's offering by Irving Berlin, As Thousands Cheer, which became the first Broadway show in which an African-American, Ethel Waters, shared equal billing with white stars. In a consolidation of that success, 1935's Porgy and Bess featured an entirely African-American cast. Likewise, 1937's The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was considered dangerously pro-union, and established the idea that musicals could be overtly political.
Rodgers and Hart also established themselves during the 1930s, during this time of experimentation with social and political themes. The partnership disbanded in 1943, when Richard Rodgers teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein, and created the first of their massive hits, Oklahoma! So, there's a clear personal link between those more purposeful and serious musicals of the 1930s and the progress of the duo who created classics such as Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music – all underpinned by hefty, non-frivolous themes. It's easy to see how dark masterpieces such as 1957's West Side Story, 1960's Oliver! and 1966's Cabaret owe a debt to the early works of Rodgers and Hammerstein.Rodgers and Hart also established themselves during the 1930s, during this time of experimentation with social and political themes. The partnership disbanded in 1943, when Richard Rodgers teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein, and created the first of their massive hits, Oklahoma! So, there's a clear personal link between those more purposeful and serious musicals of the 1930s and the progress of the duo who created classics such as Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music – all underpinned by hefty, non-frivolous themes. It's easy to see how dark masterpieces such as 1957's West Side Story, 1960's Oliver! and 1966's Cabaret owe a debt to the early works of Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Historically, the golden age of the musical is considered to have ended with the close of the 1960s. In a textbook example of the genre's ability to reinvent itself, it was this sudden decline – as a long economic boom got under way – that inspired A Chorus Line, the 1975 off-off-Broadway theatrical experiment that became the biggest hit Broadway had ever known. While it exposed the physical and economic privations endured by the dancers in money-spinning musicals, it also offered ground-breakingly realistic depictions of the lives of gay people, who John B Kenrick argues in Our Love Is Here to Stay have been finding solace and a sense of belonging in musical theatre since the 1800s.Historically, the golden age of the musical is considered to have ended with the close of the 1960s. In a textbook example of the genre's ability to reinvent itself, it was this sudden decline – as a long economic boom got under way – that inspired A Chorus Line, the 1975 off-off-Broadway theatrical experiment that became the biggest hit Broadway had ever known. While it exposed the physical and economic privations endured by the dancers in money-spinning musicals, it also offered ground-breakingly realistic depictions of the lives of gay people, who John B Kenrick argues in Our Love Is Here to Stay have been finding solace and a sense of belonging in musical theatre since the 1800s.
Of course, I'm not suggesting there have been no musicals of significance since A Chorus Line in 1975. That would be absurd. But plenty of people view the dominance of Lloyd Webber, and the fading-soap-star rest home that is Chicago, as a sign of complacency, not vitality. When Les Miserables opened in the mid-1980s, no one believed it would be a hit, because it was so gloomy. Maybe it's significant that while Les Mis ran and ran, it wasn't until this recession that it was made into a successful film. And maybe, just maybe, one of the surprising consequences of this recession is going to be another period of innovation and excitement for the musical.Of course, I'm not suggesting there have been no musicals of significance since A Chorus Line in 1975. That would be absurd. But plenty of people view the dominance of Lloyd Webber, and the fading-soap-star rest home that is Chicago, as a sign of complacency, not vitality. When Les Miserables opened in the mid-1980s, no one believed it would be a hit, because it was so gloomy. Maybe it's significant that while Les Mis ran and ran, it wasn't until this recession that it was made into a successful film. And maybe, just maybe, one of the surprising consequences of this recession is going to be another period of innovation and excitement for the musical.
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