Chapter Resources

Chapter 1 – The Birth of “Staged” Music

Musical Example 1 - The Coronation of Poppea - Claudio Monteverdi / Giovanni Francesco Busenello, 1642 - Act I, Scenes 3 and 4

  • Spotify Link: (Musical Example 1 begins at 3:49) https://open.spotify.com/track/5BIOUwlRy8TUBFNrGFNOkv
  • Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/track/3ZeDmykH2NFniEBW6IT57B
  • Spotify Recording Information: L'Incoronazione di Poppea [Abridged Version] (2000 Digital Remaster): “Signor, deh, non partire!” and “Speranza tu mi vai” (Poppea/Nerone) By Claudio Monteverdi, Magda László/Richard Lewis/Oralia Dominguez/Lidia Marimpietri/Walter Alberti/Carlo Cava/Frances Bible/Duncan Robertson/Soo-Bee Lee/John Shirley-Quirk/Hugues Cuénod/Dennis Wicks/Dennis Brandt/Gerald English/Elizabeth Bainbridge/Annon Lee Sil, John Pritchard, Sir John Pritchard, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Online Plot Summary 1: The Coronation of Poppea

Giovanni Francesco Busenello turned to the Roman historian Tacitus for the plot of The Coronation of Poppea, but the opera’s opening “Prologue” is entirely imaginary. In the heavens, the Goddesses of Virtue, Fortune, and Love are quarreling, for Love claims to have the most power over mankind and history. The rest of the opera is, in a sense, the “proof” of Love’s claim, for indeed Virtue does not win in this tale. The ethical characters—the Empress Ottavia, the wise advisor Seneca—are utterly defeated by the end, while the adulterous Emperor Nero and his mistress Poppea are triumphant throughout.        

The story is set in Rome in A.D. 65, and Poppea’s objective is clear: she wants to become Empress of Rome. She abandons her former lover Ottone and seduces Nero. (His guards stand outside her house and gossip while their master is inside.) As the dawn breaks, Poppea extracts a promise from Nero that he will return soon (see Musical Example 1). Poppea is almost giddy with excitement because her scheme is working so well, but her servant Amalta cautions her to be wary of the Empress Ottavia. Indeed, Ottavia begs the gods for vengeance. Seneca counsels Ottavia to bear her misfortunes with dignity, and he also advises Nero to honor his wife rather than divorce her; Seneca’s advice falls on deaf ears in both cases. Moreover, Nero, egged on by Poppea, orders Seneca’s execution. Ottone seeks romantic consolation with another woman, Drusilla, yet the act ends with him still murmuring Poppea’s name.

Act II begins with the god Mercury forewarning Seneca of his death sentence. Seneca’s stoic acceptance of death stands in marked contrast to Nero and Poppea’s behavior; they gleefully celebrate Seneca’s forced suicide. In the meantime, Ottavia orders Ottone to murder Poppea (maybe Ottavia is not so virtuous after all!). Ottone, disguised in Drusilla’s clothes, sneaks up on Poppea while she is napping in her garden—but the Goddess of Love intervenes, and Poppea awakens just in time to see “Drusilla” escaping.

The real Drusilla is arrested in Act III for the attempted murder; she makes a false confession in an effort to save Ottone. Ottone, conscience-smitten, then confesses that he made the murder attempt, dressed as Drusilla. Nero strips Ottone of his property and orders him into exile; Drusilla begs (and is allowed) to go with Ottone. Nero then directs his rage at Ottavia for hatching the murder plot; she, too, must be banished. He orders that she be placed in a boat; she must go wherever the winds carry her. Ottavia sings a lovely lament as she prepares to leave her family and country, and the opera ends—as foretold in the title—with the coronation of Poppea.

  • Boogaart, Jacques. “Octavia Reincarnated: Busenello’s and Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea.” In “Music’s Obedient Daughter”: The Opera Libretto from Source to Score, edited by Sabine Lichtenstein, 37–67. Textxet: Studies in Comparative Literature, 74. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2014.
  • Carter, Tim. Monteverdi’s Musical Theatre. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002.
  • Fenlon, Iain. The Story of the Soul: Understanding Poppea. Royal Musical Association Monographs, David Fallows, ed. No. 5. London: Royal Musical Association, 1992.
  • Sternfeld, F. W. The Birth of Opera. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
  • Whenham, John, ed. Claudio Monteverdi: Orfeo. Cambridge Opera Handbooks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Chapter 2 – Developing Genres in the Eighteenth Century: Ballad Opera and Singspiel

Musical Example 2 - The Beggar’s Opera - Anonymous; arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch and Frederic Austin / John Gay, 1728 - Act I, Scene 1, No. VII

  • Spotify Link: (Musical Example 2 begins at 15:28) https://open.spotify.com/track/2Z3g9sexWm5EryK8XB9VI2\
  • Spotify Recording Information: The Beggar's Opera: Act I, Airs 1 - 18: By Pro Arte Orchestra, The Pro Arte Chorus, John Cameron, Elsie Morison, Monica Sinclair, Ian Wallace, Owen Brannigan, Robert Hardy

Online Plot Summary 2a: The Beggar’s Opera

Like a good farce, the plot of The Beggar’s Opera is a mass of threads that intertwine, forming at last the rope by which the master criminal Captain Macheath is (almost) hanged. Macheath is a highwayman, and therefore has business dealings with Mr. Peachum, who is a “fence”—a receiver of stolen property. Before the story opens, Macheath has secretly wed Mr. Peachum’s daughter Polly. Mr. and Mrs. Peachum are irate when they discover the surreptitious marriage—for they had been grooming and polishing their daughter so she could become the mistress of some wealthy and influential patron. By marrying, Polly has thwarted her parents’ hopes for her career as a successful prostitute (!). “Our Polly Is a Sad Slut!” (Musical Example 2) is the scene in which Polly’s parents berate her for her foolishness. (In one of Gay’s “digs” at high society, he has an exasperated Mrs. Peachum tell her daughter, “Why, thou foolish jade, thou wilt be as ill [used], and as much neglected, as if thou hadst married a Lord”—implying that aristocrats were no strangers to spousal abuse.) Moreover, Mr. Peachum worries that Macheath knows too much about the Peachums and might betray his father-in-law for financial gain. Soon, Mr. and Mrs. Peachum hit upon the perfect solution: Polly should turn Macheath in to the authorities, thus earning the reward for his arrest—but instead Polly warns Macheath about his danger.

In the second act, which opens in a tavern, Macheath tells his gang that he must lie low for a while—and then he begins to entertain a group of “women of the town” (prostitutes) who have arrived at the tavern. Unfortunately for him, one of the ladies gives a signal to the constables, who enter to arrest Macheath. The next scene is set in Newgate prison, where the jailor Lockit and Peachum are arguing about reward payments. Soon, the jailor’s pregnant daughter Lucy enters Macheath’s jail cell; Macheath is the father of her child. Lucy is understandably outraged to hear that he has married Polly—and is even more irate when Polly arrives at the jail to visit her husband. A violent quarrel ensues, mimicking a famous real-life argument between two operatic sopranos that had taken place on stage some years earlier. After Polly is dragged away by her father, Macheath manages to calm Lucy down by claiming that Polly has invented the marriage. When Macheath promises to marry Lucy, she helps him escape.

Macheath is not free for long in the third act; Lockit and Peachum find out where Macheath is hiding. Meanwhile, Polly visits Lucy in order to apologize and Lucy presents Polly with a glass of poisoned wine. Before Polly can sip from the glass, however, she drops it in horror upon seeing Macheath enter in chains, having been recaptured. Both women plead with their fathers for mercy toward Macheath, but there is another twist to the tale: four more women make an appearance, each with a child, and each claiming to be Macheath’s wife. Faced with this onslaught, Macheath declares he is ready to be hanged. But before he goes to the gallows, a Beggar and a Player enter the stage. The Player exclaims that the Beggar (ostensibly the author of this story) can’t allow Macheath to die, since that would be a tragic finish, and operas are supposed to end happily. The Beggar agrees to change the ending, illogical as such a last-minute reprieve might be, and at last Macheath admits that his marriage to Polly was entirely legal.

Musical Example 3 - Bastien und Bastienne - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart / Johann Andreas Schachtner (after Weiskern) (K6. 46b), 1768 - No. 10: “Diggi, Daggi”

  • Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/track/4eMWpFbbpoSjnY1x4zrgkL
  • Spotify Recording Information: Bastien und Bastienne, K. 50(E. -K.46b) Singspiel in einem Akt: X. Aria. Andante maestoso Colas: Diggi, daggi By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Vinson Cole, László Polgár, Edita Gruberova

Online Plot Summary 2b: Bastien und Bastienne

>Although only three cast members are required for this short pastoral tale, they are more than sufficient to reveal quite a bit about human nature. The one-act story begins with an unhappy shepherdess, Bastienne, who laments that the shepherd Bastien no longer loves her. Bastienne asks Colas, the village wise man, for help, and he explains that Bastien has simply been distracted by a flirtation with a noblewoman from the nearby palace. Colas tells her that in order to win Bastien back, she must pretend that she no longer cares for him. When Bastien returns, confident of Bastienne’s fidelity, he is shocked when Colas tells him that Bastienne has found someone else to love.

It is Bastien’s turn to beg Colas for help, so Colas utters the magic spell “Diggi, Daggi” (Musical Example 3). Bastien is overjoyed to think his shepherdess will be his once again—so he is stunned to find that not only does she still not seem to care for him, but also she seems not even to recognize him. At last he convinces her that he has no interest in other women, and she relents; they are happily reunited and they end by praising Colas and his “magic.”

  • Fiske, Roger. English Theatre Music in the Eighteenth Century. London: Oxford University Press, 1973.
  • Gagey, Edmond McAdoo. Ballad Opera. New York: Columbia University Press, 1937. Reissued 1965 by Benjamin Blom, Inc.
  • Gutman, Robert W. Mozart: A Cultural Biography. San Diego: Harcourt, 1999.
  • Osborne, Charles. The Complete Operas of Mozart. New York: Da Capo, 1978.
  • Schultz, William Eben. Gay’s Beggar’s Opera: Its Content, History and Influence. New York: Russell & Russell, 1967.
  • Tyler, Linda. “Bastien und Bastienne: The Libretto, Its Derivation, and Mozart’s Text-Setting.” Journal of Musicology 8, no. 4 (Autumn 1990): 520–552.

Chapter 3 – Developing Genres in the Eighteenth Century: Opera Buffa and Dramma

Musical Example 4 - Così fan tutte - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart / Lorenzo da Ponte (K. 588) - 1790 - Act I, Finale - “Dammi un bacio”

  • Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/track/6BNFiTMZ691OtH1wHEKWHb
  • Spotify Recording Information: Così fan tutte, K.588 / Act 1: "Dammi un bacio" By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Francisco Araiza, Thomas Allen, Karita Mattila, Anne Sofie von Otter, Elzbieta Szmytka, José van Dam, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner

Online Plot Summary 3: Così fan tutte

When a man boasts about the faithfulness of his fiancée, it seems inevitable that there will be someone on hand who would like to prove him wrong. When it is two men doing the boasting, and they are overheard by a world-weary old cynic, the plot for an opera comes to life. The two men are Neapolitan soldiers—Guglielmo (a bass) and Ferrando (a tenor)—and the cynic is Don Alfonso (also a bass). The soldiers are engaged to two sisters, Fiordiligi and Dorabella (both sopranos), and Don Alfonso makes a bet with the men that, if put to the test, neither of their fiancées will prove to be more faithful than any other female. The officers are quick to take up the challenge, and they even agree to follow all of Don Alfonso’s instructions.

Don Alfonso starts by telling the sisters that the soldiers have been called away to war, and so there is a sorrowful farewell between the two couples. After the men have left, the women continue to weep, and they are shocked when their cynical maid Despina (another soprano) advises them to behave like soldiers would—in other words, they should find themselves new lovers. Don Alfonso later bribes Despina to introduce his two “Albanian” friends to the sisters; these are of course the two soldiers in disguise. Each man begins to woo the other man’s fiancée, and both men are pleased to find their fiancées reacting indignantly to the Albanians’ amorous advances. The men “up the ante,” though, by pretending to take poison because of the seeming hopelessness of their passion, and while Don Alfonso and Despina supposedly run to find help, the sisters grow distraught. Despina re-enters, now disguised as a doctor who had been trained by Dr. Mesmer (the same doctor who had commissioned Mozart’s first Singspiel, and who was well-known for his technique of waving large magnets around his patients in order to affect their magnetism and bodily humors). Miraculously saved by the “doctor’s” magnets, the two Albanians stagger to their feet, but then ask for a kiss to complete their cure. (“Dammi un bacio”—“give me a kiss”—constitutes Musical Example 4). Appalled at the idea, the sisters refuse, but we can see that they are weakening—and this ends the first act.

At the beginning of Act II, the sisters persuade themselves that there wouldn’t be any harm in a mild flirtation with these new suitors. So, when the Albanians return to sing a serenade, the two couples pair off. An oddity of the premise is that the more successful the disguised soldiers are, the closer they come to losing their bet, but each is undoubtedly trying to prove that the other man’s fiancée is weaker than his own. Moreover, it seems that the two men get caught up in their role-playing as well as in the thrill of the chase itself. In this spirit, Guglielmo makes an exaggerated effort during his stroll with Dorabella, and at last persuades her to exchange love tokens with him—and so she gives him her locket with Ferrando’s portrait inside.

Fiordiligi, meanwhile, remains steadfast, although she admits to herself later that the disguised Ferrando is having an impact. When the two men meet to compare notes, Ferrando is outraged to find that Dorabella has yielded, and thus Don Alfonso is able to taunt him into making one more supreme attempt to woo Fiordiligi in revenge. Even Dorabella tries to get Fiordiligi to follow her example. Poor Fiordiligi—she knows she’s beginning to yield, so she plans to escape temptation by disguising herself as a soldier and seeking out her fiancé Guglielmo on the battlefield. Although she has made this decision, she is at a fever pitch of emotion, and she ultimately collapses into the disguised Ferrando’s arms when he arrives serendipitously. In this way, the second couple has now enabled Don Alfonso to win his bet.

Still, Don Alfonso wants to take it one step further, so he gets the versatile Despina to disguise herself as a notary, and a double wedding begins to take place. The couples have just signed the marriage contract, however, when military trumpets are heard. The Albanians flee in terror, and then the two soldiers “return” from what the writer Erik Smith points out was clearly a very short war. They discover the marriage contract, pretend to chase the Albanians, and then return to reveal the truth. The sisters beg for forgiveness, and the lovers are then reunited. Don Alfonso points out, “I deceived you, but my deception undeceived your lovers, who henceforth will be wiser”—in other words, the soldiers have been shaken out of their complacency forever. The couples have learned that they should trust their common sense, not the ups and downs of emotional excess.

  • Dent, Edward J. Mozart’s Operas: A Critical Study. London: Chatto and Windus, 1913. Reprinted Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1947.
  • Heartz, Daniel. Mozart’s Operas. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.
  • Mann, William. The Operas of Mozart. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.
  • Orrey, Leslie. A Concise History of Opera. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1972.
  • Osborne, Charles. The Complete Operas of Mozart. New York: Da Capo, 1978.
  • Rushton, Julian, ed. W. A. Mozart: Don Giovanni. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
  • Smith, Erik. “Così fan tutte.” CD Booklet for Così fan tutte, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Sir Colin Davis. With Montserrat Caballé, Ileana Cotrubas, Janet Baker, Nicolai Gedda, Wladimiro Ganzarolli, and Richard Van Allan. Philips 416 633-2, Recorded in London, June, 1974. 3 compact discs.
  • Steptoe, Andrew. The Mozart—Da Ponte Operas: The Cultural and Musical Background to Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988.

Chapter 4 – The Musical Stage in the American Colonies

Musical Example 5a - “Alknomook: The Death Song of the Cherokee Indians” - Anonymous / Anne Home Hunter (before 1787) - (arrangement published c. 1800)

Online Plot Summary 4: Tammany; or, The Indian Chief

Not much of Tammany was preserved for posterity—the score and the script for the spoken dialogue were never published, so we have only scattered bits of information and the words to the songs to use in piecing together a sense of the story. Tammany opened with a prologue (written by Richard Bingham Davis) that lamented the destruction of the Native American way of life once the European colonists began to arrive.

Tammany focuses on a Cherokee Indian named Tammany, son of Alkmoonac. Tammany loves Manana, but their happiness is in peril. Spaniards have invaded the Cherokee homeland, and the conquistador Ferdinand is also attracted to Manana. Ferdinand captures Manana and carries her off. There is a brief comic interlude while Wegaw, another Indian, sings a song in praise of “fire-water,” but then Tammany sings of his anguish over Manana’s abduction and vows revenge. Tammany rescues Manana, and they flee to his cabin—but the pursuing Spaniards set the cabin on fire. The lovers—realizing they are about to die—sing a duet of determination and defiance (Musical Example 5b). The story ends with the chorus singing the praises of “valiant, good and brave” Tammany and “chaste” Manana.

  • Chase, Gilbert. America’s Music from the Pilgrims to the Present. Revised Third Edition. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992.
  • Hamm, Charles. Music in the New World. New York: W. W. Norton, 1983.
  • Lowens, Irving. Music and Musicians in Early America. New York: W. W. Norton, 1964.
  • Marble, Charles C. Addresses of the Dead. New York: G. W. Dillingham, 1887.
  • Mates, Julian. America’s Musical Stage: Two Hundred Years of Musical Theatre. New York: Praeger, 1985. Paperback edition, 1987.
  • Porter, Susan L. With an Air Debonair: Musical Theatre in America, 1785–1815. Washington & London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.
  • Sonneck, O. G. “Early American Operas.” In Miscellaneous Studies in the History of Music. New York: Macmillan Co., 1921. Reprinted New York: Da Capo Press, 1968.
  • Virga, Patricia H. The American Opera to 1790. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1982.
  • Walsh, David, and Len Platt. Musical Theater and American Culture. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003.

Chapter 5 – France and Spain in the Nineteenth Century

Musical Example 6 - Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld) - Jacques Offenbach / Hector Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy, 1858 - Act IV, No. 28 - “Galop infernal”

  • Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/track/6PUqoWtkpa4eT7Px8lTUDU
  • Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/track/6PyeyLXgM1rpmWApTrvbFh
  • Spotify Recording Information: Orphée aux enfers, ACT 2, Quatrième tableau: les Enfers: Maintenant, je veux (Jupiter/Pluton) and La la la. Le menuet n'est vraiment si charmant (Pluton/Jupiter/Venus/Eurydice) - By Jacques Offenbach, Laurent Naouri/Jean-Paul Fouchécourt/Orchestre de l'Opéra National de Lyon/Orchestre de Chambre de Grenoble/Marc Minkowski, Sébastien Rouland, Marc Minkowski, Choeur & Orchestre De L'Opéra National De Lyon, Orchestre De L'Opéra National De Lyon, Orchestre de Chambre de Grenoble

Online Plot Summary 5: Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld)

In this updated retelling of the Orpheus legend, Orphée (Orpheus) is an atrociously bad musician who plays the violin incessantly, boring his wife Eurydice to tears. To enliven her days (and nights), she has embarked on an affair with a shepherd/honey-manufacturer, Aristée (Aristeus). The opéra-bouffe opens with Eurydice picking flowers. Sneaking up on her, Orphée begins a serenade—for he has mistaken Eurydice for a shepherdess he has wanted to seduce. Each soon realizes that the other is being unfaithful, and a violent quarrel ensues; each of them stomps away in a fury. Eurydice is soon bitten by a snake, but Aristée reveals that he is actually the god Pluton (Pluto), and he offers to take her away to the Underworld. Eurydice is delighted to leave. When Orphée gets word of Eurydice’s disappearance, he, too, is euphoric—but his exultation is cut short by L’Opinion publique (Public Opinion)—a character feared by gods and mortals alike. L’Opinion publique bluntly informs him that he must go to Jupiter and demand the return of his wife. With enormous reluctance, Orphée obeys the order.

Act II is set in Olympus, where the gods and goddesses gossip about Pluton’s “abduction” of Eurydice. Jupiter scolds Pluton, who angrily reminds Jupiter about his many affairs with mortal women (could Jupiter represent Napoleon III, a notorious womanizer?). Jupiter’s wife Junon (Juno) takes umbrage, and Vénus encourages the inevitable riot. The uproar is interrupted at last by the entrance of Orphée, led by L’Opinion publique. Despite the half-heartedness of Orphée’s pleas, Jupiter agrees that Eurydice should be returned to Orphée, even though he himself has developed an interest in Eurydice.

In the third and fourth acts, Eurydice is kept in seclusion, but this is no challenge for Jupiter; he merely turns himself into a fly and enters Eurydice’s chamber through the keyhole. She and Jupiter (whom the other gods call “Jupie”) hit it off immediately. Eventually, though, Orphée (still dogged by L’Opinion publique) reminds Jupiter of his promise. Jupiter tells Orphée that Eurydice will follow him back to his boat, but he must not turn to look at her. Obediently, Orphée heads back to the river—and Jupiter hurls a thunderbolt at Orphée to make sure he turns. Orphée is thrilled by this development, since he can now rejoin his shepherdess. L’Opinion publique is disgusted, but the gods are delighted to welcome Eurydice back to the Underworld. They perform a series of dances, including the frantic “Galop infernal” (Musical Example 6)—better known as the can-can.

  • Chase, Gilbert. The Music of Spain. Second revised edition. New York: Dover Publications, 1959.
  • Faris, Alexander. Jacques Offenbach. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1980.
  • Hadlock, Heather. “‘Ce bal est original!’: Classical Parody and Burlesque in Orphée aux enfers by Crémieux, Halévy and Offenbach.” In “Music’s Obedient Daughter”: The Opera Libretto from Source to Score, edited by Sabine Lichtenstein, 155–84. Textxet: Studies in Comparative Literature, 74. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2014.
  • Kracauer, S. Orpheus in Paris: Offenbach and the Paris of His Time. Translated by Gwenda David and Eric Mosbacher. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1938.           
  • Sturman, Janet L. Zarzuela: Spanish Operetta, American Stage. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000.
  • Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1983.

Chapter 6 – The Serious and the Not-so-Serious: Germany, Italy, and Austria in the Nineteenth Century

Musical Example 7 - Die Fledermaus (The Bat) - Johann Strauss II / Karl Haffner and Richard Genée, 1874 - Act II, No. 9 - “The Watch Duet”

Online Plot Summary 6: Die Fledermaus (The Bat)

If your friend Gabriel von Eisenstein had stranded you at a masquerade party, forcing you to walk home by yourself in broad daylight while dressed in a bat costume, what would you do? Well, if you were Dr. Falke, you’d seek your revenge by making a fool of Eisenstein in return. Falke’s elaborate scheme is the plot to Die Fledermaus, set in Vienna in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Falke has enlisted the help of Prince Orlofsky, who is hosting another masquerade ball. Falke distributes a number of invitations to the ball, but he keeps the guest list a secret—so Rosalinde, for instance, doesn’t know that her husband Eisenstein is going to this party, and neither of them knows about their maid Adele’s invitation. What they do know is this: a short time earlier, Eisenstein had been convicted of a minor offense, and Eisenstein is due to report for his short eight-day prison sentence on the same night as Orlofsky’s ball. Falke convinces Eisenstein that they have time to go to the ball briefly before Eisenstein goes to jail, so Eisenstein dresses up; Rosalinde, thinking he’s on his way to the prison, is a bit surprised by his attire. However, she’s distracted by the approaching secret visit of a former boyfriend, Alfred, who is planning to arrive after her husband has left the house. The maid Adele has also been excused for the night, so Rosalinde and Alfred are all set for a private evening together.

Their rendezvous is interrupted when the prison governor Colonel Frank arrives at the house to escort Eisenstein to prison. Alfred (prodded by Rosalinde) makes a quick decision: he pretends to be Eisenstein, since it would ruin Rosalinde’s reputation for her to be home alone with a man who is not her husband. After Alfred and the warden have left, Rosalinde receives a note from Falke, telling her that her husband has gone to a party and she should come and see what he’s up to. Rosalinde disguises herself as a Hungarian countess and heads off to Prince Orlofsky’s ball.

At the party, Eisenstein’s having a bad night: he flirted with a lovely lady who turned out to be his own parlor maid, Adele; her “Laughing Song” was a merry reaction to his mistake. He then tries to impress a beautiful Hungarian countess by showing her a trick he can perform with his pocket watch (the Musical Example 7 “The Watch Duet”)—but the countess is of course Rosalinde, who recognizes the trick and her husband. She manages to trick him by stealing the watch away.

The party continues until Eisenstein realizes he’d better make his way to the prison. He is unnerved to hear that the jail already has a prisoner named “Eisenstein,” but then he figures out what must have happened. When Rosalinde arrives, he starts to berate her for her infidelity. But she has the watch—and by producing it, reminds Eisenstein that he had not behaved too well himself while at the masquerade party. All the other guests arrive at the prison, and Eisenstein knows where to put the blame for the whole situation: it resulted from too much champagne!

  • Budden, Julian. The Operas of Verdi. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973.
  • Newman, Ernest. The Wagner Operas. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1949.
  • Pastene, Jerome. Three-Quarter Time: The Life and Music of the Strauss Family of Vienna. New York: Abelard Press, 1951. Reprinted Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1971.
  • Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983.
  • Wechsberg, Joseph. The Waltz Emperors: The Life and Times and Music of the Strauss Family. New York: Putnam, 1973.

Chapter 7 – England in the Nineteenth Century: Gilbert and Sullivan

Musical Example 8 - The Pirates of Penzance - Sir Arthur Sullivan / Sir William Gilbert, 1879 - “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General”

Online Plot Summary 7: The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty

Gilbert and Sullivan’s fourth collaboration began with the working title of The Robbers, and so the incorporation of policemen within the plot made perfectly good sense. When, midway through the show’s creation, Gilbert and Sullivan converted the robbers into pirates, the policemen were harder to explain—but their continued presence helped support the crazy illogic of the overall story. But there is logic as well, if you accept the premise that “doing one’s duty” is the most important responsibility that one has.

The story opens along the coast of Cornwall, where the pirates are celebrating: their apprentice Frederick has just turned twenty-one and has thus ended his indenture. Frederick is not so happy, however, for his nursemaid Ruth has just informed him that she—being a bit hard of hearing—made a small mistake in his apprenticeship: Frederick’s father wanted his son to be trained as a “pilot,” but Ruth misheard him, so Frederick ended up as a pirate. Frederick is now torn: he loves his comrades, but he feels his duty to society compels him to shun the dishonest life of piracy. Duty wins out; in fact, he informs the pirates that he feels duty-bound to make every effort to destroy them. But because they are his friends, he does warn them that their tenderhearted ways are affecting their success as pirates; word has gone out up and down the coast that since the pirates are orphans themselves, anyone they attack who claims to be an orphan is able to escape unmolested. Astonishingly, all of Cornwall seems to be populated by orphans!

Frederick has a second ambition as well. Although Ruth assures him that she is beautiful and would make a suitable bride for him, he hasn’t seen any other woman since the age of eight, and he wants to make a comparison first. By coincidence, a group of sisters have come to the very beach where Frederick has disembarked from the pirate ship. One sister, Mabel, agrees to help redeem him from his previous life of crime by marrying him. Just then, the pirates discover the maidens, and they decide to force the young women into matrimony. Frederick cannot defend the sisters single-handedly, but their father—Major-General Stanley—makes his appearance (see Musical Example 8). It appears the Major-General is himself an orphan, so the pirates unwillingly agree to release him and his daughters.

Now the Major-General is overcome by guilt: he is not an orphan after all. Frederick talks him out of confessing, however, and tells his future father-in-law that policemen plan to arrest the pirates. But there is bad news for Frederick: it turns out he was born on February 29, so he is still only a little past five years old—his indenture won’t end for fifty-one more years. Again, Frederick struggles with his sense of duty, but since he is now once again a pirate, he decides he must tell the Pirate King that the Major-General is no orphan. Learning of this deception, the Pirate King vows to attack that very night.

The Major-General’s home is protected by policemen, but they are no match for the pirates. The Pirate King warns the police not to claim to be orphans, but the Sergeant has a better idea: he appeals to the pirates as loyal Englishmen to yield in the name of Queen Victoria. The pirates, who also recognize their duty when they hear it, surrender immediately. But before they are led off to jail, Ruth announces that these aren’t real pirates, but are merely noblemen with too much free time. As (repentant) peers who have renounced their illegal profession, they are now entirely suitable as sons-in-law—so all ends happily.

  • Baily, Leslie. Gilbert and Sullivan: Their Lives and Times. New York: Viking Press, 1973.
  • Bradley, Ian, ed. The Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan. New York: Penguin Books, 1982.
  • Hardwick, Michael. The Drake Guide to Gilbert and Sullivan. New York: Drake Publishers, 1973.
  • Hayton, Charles. Gilbert and Sullivan. (Modern Dramatists.) New York: St. Martin’s, 1987.
  • Jefferson, Alan. The Complete Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Guide. New York: Facts on File, 1984.
  • Moore, Frank Ledlie. The Handbook of Gilbert and Sullivan. London: Arthur Barker, Ltd., 1962.
  • Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983.
  • Wren, Gayden. A Most Ingenious Paradox: The Art of Gilbert and Sullivan. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Chapter 8 – The United States in the Early Nineteenth Century

Musical Example 9 - “Camptown Races” - Stephen Foster / Stephen Foster, 1850

  • Austin, William W. “Susanna,” “Jeanie,” and “The Old Folks at Home”: The Songs of Stephen C. Foster from His Time to Ours. New York: Macmillan, 1975.
  • Dizikes, John. Opera in America: A Cultural History. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993.
  • Kislan, Richard. Hoofing on Broadway: A History of Show Dancing. New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1987.
  • Nathan, Hans. Dan Emmett and the Rise of Early Negro Minstrelsy. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962.
  • Riis, Thomas L. Just Before Jazz: Black Musical Theater in New York, 1890–1915. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.
  • Sampson, Henry T. Blacks in Blackface: A Source Book on Early Black Musical Shows. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1980.
  • Toll, Robert C. Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show in Nineteenth-Century America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.

Chapter 9 – New American Genres of the Later Nineteenth Century

Musical Example 10 - The Black Crook - Giuseppe Operti / Charles M. Barras, 1866 - “Amazons’ March” (from 1871 Production)

Online Plot Summary 9a: The Black Crook

The playwright Charles M. Barras copyrighted the script of The Black Crook in 1863, but its central premise is an old and familiar one: a man makes a bargain with the devil that his life will be extended in exchange for delivering other human souls. The main villain of The Black Crook is Hertzog, who has struck a deal with the diabolical Zamiel: Hertzog will get an additional year of life for each human soul that he can damn during the coming year. (Hertzog gives the extravaganza its title, for he is a hunchback, or “crook” back.) Another villainous character is Count Wolfenstein, who has designs on the beautiful maiden Amina. Amina’s foster mother, Dame Barbara, agrees to send Amina to the count’s castle in the Harz mountains. The plan is that Amina will be educated in the ways of the nobility so that she can eventually become the count’s bride. Amina is not happy at the prospect, for she loves the impoverished painter Rodolphe. Secretly, the count gives orders for Rodolphe to be captured and thrown into a dungeon of his castle.

In Act II, Hertzog and his comic servant Greppo visit Rodolphe in his cell. Hertzog tells Rodolphe about riches in the mountains; with this wealth Rodolphe could claim Amina’s hand. With Greppo’s help, Rodolphe wants to go search for the treasure; Hertzog gloats, knowing that he is sending Rodolphe straight into Zamiel’s clutches. (Meanwhile, Dame Barbara has begun flirting with Von Puffengruntz, the count’s steward.) During Rodolphe’s journey, he drives a serpent away from a small bird, and he thus unwittingly rescues the disguised Stalacta, Queen of the Golden Realm, from Zamiel. Stalacta rewards Rodolphe with various gifts, including a magic ring.

The third act opens six months later, when a grand masquerade ball is in progress in honor of the count’s birthday. A group costumed as Amazons performs as part of the revels (Musical Example 10). A mysterious “prince” has arrived at the ball, but the count orders the guests to unmask—and the prince and his servant prove to be Rodolphe and Greppo. Rodolphe kisses his magic ring and the fairies instantly come to his aid. In the confusion, Rodolphe escapes with Amina (and Greppo persuades one of Amina’s attractive handmaidens, Carline, to come along as well). During the fourth act, Hertzog and the count pursue the runaways, chasing them through the woods of Bohemia, a forest fire, and a cave with glittering stalactites. At last Rodolphe defeats the count in a duel; Hertzog runs away, only to be forced to forfeit his life in Zamiel’s demonic underworld. The extravaganza ends with a series of astonishing transformations depicting the wonders of Stalacta’s magical kingdom.

Musical Example 11 - Evangeline - Edward E. Rice / J. Cheever Goodwin, 1874 - “My Heart”

Online Plot Summary 9b: Evangeline

By refusing to present “sex” on stage (in the form of scantily clad chorus girls), Rice and Goodwin needed to hold their audience by other means. Their silly but engaging plot (ostensibly based on Longfellow’s epic poem Evangeline) presented a number of “cliff-hanger” moments as the two lovers Gabriel and Evangeline (Eva) struggle to join in marriage. The story opens in the village of Acadia in Nova Scotia. A Lone Fisherman appears from time to time, never speaking but entertaining the audience with his various adventures (silently wrestling an eel, a lobster, and so forth); he also unwittingly contributes to an important plot twist.

As the show begins, Gabriel (played by a woman) toasts Eva, the woman he loves. We soon learn that Eva is harboring two sailors who have deserted their ship. Moreover, her deceased uncle, who hated marriage, has bequeathed his fortune to her on the condition that she not wed; if she does marry, she forfeits the inheritance and it goes to LeBlanc. However, Eva knows nothing of this bequest, or its stipulation, for LeBlanc has hidden the will. Understandably, LeBlanc tries to facilitate her wedding to Gabriel. Meanwhile, Catherine, Gabriel’s aunt (played by a man), has her heart set on marrying LeBlanc. One dramatic moment occurs when a whale pursues Eva until Gabriel rescues her. Also, a stammering corporal comes to look for the missing sailors, but he fails to find them.

While sitting at her spinning wheel, Eva takes time to reflect on Gabriel’s wonderful qualities in “My Heart” (Musical Example 11). However, she and Gabriel quarrel over her pet heifer, since Eva wants the cow to accompany them on their honeymoon. Eva’s father Ben breaks up the argument, and LeBlanc has a wedding contract all ready to sign. After Gabriel has written his name, Evangeline starts to sign hers. She is interrupted when a military captain leads in a group of soldiers. They are searching for the fugitive sailors, who are quickly discovered, and Eva is arrested for concealing them. She will be taken to England to be tried for her crime; all the other characters go along as chaperones.

Shipwrecked, the travelers come ashore in a mysterious country where diamonds litter the ground. Of course they pick some up, and native policemen arrive to arrest them. The local king orders that these diamond thieves must be executed. However, the prisoners display masonic signals (Freemasons were members of a secret society)—and the native king turns out to be a mason as well!—so the travelers escape punishment.

The long-deferred marriage ceremony resumes, and Eva again starts to sign the contract—but once more, approaching soldiers are heard in the distance. However, the captain is no longer interested in prosecuting Eva, so she finishes her signature at last. LeBlanc is ecstatic—until it turns out that the Lone Fisherman had used the will to light his pipe. Catherine promises to share all she has with him when they are married, but the joke is on LeBlanc; her fortune proves to be a handful of change. The story ends with a dazzling balloon ascent, with at least Eva and Gabriel living happily ever after.

  • Corio, Ann. This Was Burlesque. New York: Madison Square Press, 1968.
  • Gilbert, Douglas. American Vaudeville, Its Life and Times. New York: Whittlesey House, 1940.
  • Jackson, Allan S. “Evangeline: The Forgotten American Musical.” Players: The Magazine of American Theatre 44, no. 1 (October/November 1968): 20–25.
  • Jackson, Richard, ed. Evangeline (1877). Early Burlesque in America, Vol. 13. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1994.
  • Kislan, Richard. Hoofing on Broadway: A History of Show Dancing. New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1987.
  • Leavitt, M. B. Fifty Years in Theatrical Management. New York: Broadway, 1912.
  • Loney, Glenn, ed. Musical Theatre in America: Papers and Proceedings of the Conference on the Musical Theatre in America. (Contributions in Drama and Theatre Studies, Number 8). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984.
  • Mates, Julian. America’s Musical Stage: Two Hundred Years of Musical Theatre. New York: Praeger, 1985. Paperback edition 1987.
  • Matlaw, Myron, ed. The Black Crook and Other Nineteenth-Century American Plays. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1967.
  • Rogers, Bradley. “Redressing The Black Crook: The Dancing Tableau of Melodrama.” Modern Drama 55, no. 4 (Winter 2012): 476–96.
  • Root, Deane L. American Popular Stage Music, 1860–1880. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1981.
  • Slide, Anthony. The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994.
  • Spitzer, Marian. The Palace. New York: Atheneum, 1969.
  • Stein, Charles W., ed. American Vaudeville As Seen by Its Contemporaries. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984.
  • Walsh, David, and Len Platt. Musical Theater and American Culture. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003.

Chapter 10 – Operetta in America, 1880–1903

Musical Example 12 - Robin Hood - Reginald de Koven / Harry B. Smith, 1891 -“Brown October Ale”

Online Plot Summary 10a: Robin Hood

Since the Middle Ages, people have retold the legend of Robin Hood in song, and de Koven and Smith’s 1890 operetta adhered to most (but not all) of the conventions of this long tradition. Set in England at the time of King Richard I’s reign, the operetta opens in the town of Nottingham. Friar Tuck, the spiritual guide to a band of outlaws of Sherwood Forest, auctions stolen booty to the poor, while one outlaw, Allan-a-Dale, flirts with Annabel, daughter of the innkeeper Dame Durden. Annabel’s father has been fighting in the Crusades with the king for the past decade, and Dame Durden is troubled that she has received no reply to her annual letter and gift of a homespun suit; has she become a widow?

Many people have come to Nottingham for an archery contest, including young Robert of Huntingdon. He’s ready to claim his father’s title and legacy from the Sheriff of Nottingham, who had been guardian of the estate until Robert came of age. The Sheriff is also guardian of Lady Marian Fitzwalter, who has just received King Richard’s decree that she is to marry the new Earl of Huntingdon. Lady Marian dresses herself as a page so that she can go to the fair and judge the young man for herself, but she quickly abandons her disguise after meeting and falling in love with Robert (who wins the archery competition). However, the Sheriff has other plans: he has forged documents giving the Huntingdon earldom to Sir Guy of Gisborne. Sir Guy will get the title and Lady Marian; the Sheriff will keep Huntingdon’s riches for himself. After the Sheriff announces the substitution, the dispossessed Robert takes refuge with the Merry Men of Sherwood Forest.

Misunderstandings abound in the story. Robert, or “Robin,” thinks Lady Marian is willing to marry Sir Guy, and so he tries to distract himself with Annabel. Allan-a-Dale is outraged, but Little John advises him to drown his sorrows with “Brown October Ale” (Musical Example 12). The Sheriff and Sir Guy have come to Dame Durden’s inn in disguise—but the Sheriff is wearing a tinker’s costume, which leads to problems: Dame Durden recognizes it as the last homespun suit she had sent to her spouse. She thinks that the man wearing it must be her husband (even if he’s grown unrecognizable), and the Sheriff—who had bought his outfit from Friar Tuck—doesn’t dare explain her mistake. If he reveals where he got the clothes, he would have to arrest himself for receiving stolen property, so he goes along with the pretense for the time being. (How Friar Tuck got the suit is unexplained.)

Lady Marian has escaped from Nottingham in order to join the outlaws of Sherwood Forest. She is dismayed to learn that Robin is pursuing Annabel, but decides to wait at Annabel’s window herself in order to confront Robin when he comes to sing a serenade. The couple soon straighten out the confusion, and Lady Marian happily agrees to marry Robin. However, in the dark, Allan-a-Dale thinks it is Annabel who is promising to wed Robin, so, in anger, Allan reveals Robin’s presence to the Sheriff and Sir Guy; Robin is promptly arrested.

In the third act, the situation looks dire: not only is Robin to be executed, but Annabel has also been carried off to Nottingham to wed the Sheriff in a double ceremony with Lady Marian and Sir Guy. Friar Tuck and Little John, wearing monks’ robes, arrive at Robin’s cell to hear his confession, and Robin is able to escape by swapping clothes. Robin disguises himself as the bishop who will conduct the wedding, and at the crucial moment, not only does Robin reveal his real identity, but a letter arrives from King Richard as well, who pardons the true Earl of Huntingdon for his illegal activities as Robin Hood. All ends happily (except, of course, for the Sheriff and Sir Guy—and, alas, with no resolution to the mystery of Dame Durden’s missing spouse).

Musical Example 13 - Babes in Toyland - Victor Herbert / Glen MacDonough, 1903 -“I Can’t Do the Sum”

Online Plot Summary 10b: Babes in Toyland

Anyone who is familiar with nursery rhymes will recognize some of the Mother Goose characters who populate Babes in Toyland, but these familiar names experience a new set of adventures, thanks to the libretto by Glen MacDonough. Jane and Alan, two orphaned siblings, have deliberately been shipwrecked by their wicked Uncle Barnaby, because he wants to seize control of their fortune. Barnaby also has romantic designs on Contrary Mary, the girl Alan loves, and Barnaby pressures Mary’s mother, the Widow Piper, into agreeing that her daughter should marry Barnaby now that Alan and Jane are lost in the shipwreck.

Contrary Mary, true to form, runs as far away as she can manage—which means she flees to Toyland. The Widow Piper’s son Tom-Tom—Jane’s fiancé—goes in pursuit of his sister, fearing she won’t be safe. To Barnaby’s further chagrin, his niece and nephew survived the shipwreck and have returned. Improvising quickly, he tells Jane and Alan that their home has burned down while they were gone, but that they have a new house. They are led into the Spiders’ Forest, but they realize that they’re in danger, so they struggle to find a way out of the woods. Still, they take time to free a beautiful white moth caught in a web. The moth transforms into the Moth Queen, and her butterfly subjects lead Jane and Alan safely through the forest to the magical country of Toyland (where math problems, as Jane discovers in Musical Example 13, don’t always compute as expected).

Jane and Alan joyfully encounter Contrary Mary and her brother Tom-Tom. The two reunited couples soon realize that although Toyland seems to be a wonderful place, full of every imaginable childish delight, something is wrong—it turns out that the evil Toymaker holds sway over the land. He hates children and is secretly crafting toys that kill! Uncle Barnaby and the Toymaker soon join forces, but some of the Toymaker’s dangerous devices end up murdering their creator. Poor Alan had tried to rescue the Toymaker, but his attempted good deed has backfired, and he is being accused of homicide. Even though, in desperation, Contrary Mary weds Barnaby, since he claims to be able to save Alan, Barnaby breaks his word and hands Alan over to the Toyland authorities.

Alan is quickly convicted and is sentenced to die, unless he can plead “the benefit of widow.” This obscure Toyland custom allows a widow to marry a condemned man and thereby save him from execution. Unfortunately for Alan, though, Toyland currently has only one widow, an opera singer, and she regards Alan’s singing as, well, inadequate. Alan’s executioners decide to make the job simple by poisoning his wine—but Barnaby, scolded endlessly by Mary—grabs the wineglass to fortify himself, and he immediately drops dead. It takes Mary only a moment to realize that now she is a widow and can save her beloved Alan by marrying him. Moreover, Alan has found a vial of the Toymaker’s magic dust and is able to remove the evil from the murderous toys. The story ends with the toys all coming to life and rejoicing over the happy ending.

  • Bordman, Gerald. American Operetta from H. M. S. Pinafore to Sweeney Todd. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
  • Fields, Armond, and L. Marc Fields. From the Bowery to Broadway. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
  • McMillin, Scott. The Musical as Drama: A Study of the Principles and Conventions Behind Musical Shows from Kern to Sondheim. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006.
  • Root, Deane L. American Popular Stage Music, 1860–1880. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1981.
  • Rosenberg, Bernard, and Ernest Harburg. The Broadway Musical: Collaboration in Commerce and Art. New York: New York University Press, 1993.
  • Smith, Cecil. Musical Comedy in America. New York: Theatre Arts Books (Robert M. MacGregor), 1950.
  • Smith, Harry B. First Nights and First Editions. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1931.
  • _______. Stage Lyrics. New York: R. H. Russell, 1900.
  • Stedman, Jane W. “‘Then Hey! For the Merry Greenwood’: Smith and deKoven and Robin Hood.” Journal of Popular Culture 12, no. 3 (Winter 1978): 432-445.
  • Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983.

Chapter 11 – The Continuing Dominance of Operetta

Musical Example 14 - Naughty Marietta - Victor Herbert / Rida Johnson Young, 1910 -“Italian Street Song”

Online Plot Summary 11: Naughty Marietta

In the eighteenth-century French colony of New Orleans, Étienne Grandet, son of the acting governor, has returned from a trip to France. Or has he? Actually, Étienne is living a double life: he is also the pirate Bras Priqué, who has been terrorizing the Louisiana coast. Moreover, as part of a scheme to seize control of Louisiana, he has secretly imprisoned the true governor of New Orleans. Only a couple of people know the pirate’s real identity: his father (a cowardly man who is willing enough to share in the pirate’s plunder) and Étienne’s mistress, the slave Adah. The citizens of New Orleans are frightened not only by Bras Priqué but also by the “ghost” of one of his supposed victims: the ghost’s disembodied voice has been heard to sing an incomplete melody—“Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life”—in the town fountain.

A rag-tag group of men march into New Orleans, led by Captain Dick Warrington, singing one of Naughty Marietta’s big hits, “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp.” Since their supply ships have been suffering from Bras Priqué’s attacks, they have come to New Orleans to get an arrest warrant for the pirate as well as to meet a ship bearing casquettes—the eighteenth-century equivalent of mail-order brides. In hopes of winning the brides for themselves, the men want to be present as the unusual cargo debarks.

After the excitement of the casquettes’ arrival fades and the town square empties, the ghostly melody is again heard wafting from the fountain—but then a very human singer emerges from a large urn. It is Marietta, an Italian runaway who has fled an unwelcome marriage. She is spotted by Captain Dick, but she regards him as a friend—she’d met him and his troop earlier, before she escaped from the casquettes—so she asks him to help her hide. Reluctantly, he arranges for her to pose as the son of Rudolfo, who operates a marionette theater. Teasingly, before she leaves, she asks Dick if he can finish her incomplete melody; she dreamed that the man who can complete the tune would prove to be the man she loves. Dick refuses to try and is irritated when he finds himself whistling the tune a short time later.

Marietta performs the “Italian Street Song” in the town square (Musical Example 14), just before the news arrives that the King of France is offering a large reward for the Contessa d’Altena, who was known to have traveled with the casquette girls after fleeing her aristocratic family. The Contessa can be identified by a partial melody she is in the habit of singing. Étienne, reading the dispatch, sings a portion of the melody, and the townspeople realize that it’s the same tune they’ve been hearing in the fountain. Unfortunately for Marietta, Captain Dick’s lieutenant spots her and identifies her as a casquette in disguise. She is pulled forward, and she admits she’s not a boy but denies that she’s the Contessa. In the resulting confusion, she manages to escape with Rudolfo.

In the second act, Captain Dick advises Marietta not to go to the annual Quadroon Ball, so of course she does attend! Marietta thinks Dick is interested in Adah, so she flirts with Étienne. Étienne, in the meantime, is convinced that Marietta is indeed the Contessa, and he wants her as his wife, since he can use her fortune to support his plans to take over the colony. He proposes, and she asks what he will do about Adah; carelessly, he says that he will sell her off. He is as good as his word; in the middle of the ball, he announces the auction. Adah, terrified that she will be sold to someone even more hateful, begs Captain Dick for help, so he keeps bidding until he has topped all other offers. Jealous, Marietta announces her engagement to Étienne—and he decides that speed is of the essence; he orders that the wedding should take place immediately. Adah approaches her new master, Dick—but he tells her that she is free. Adah wants to thank him, so she tells him that she knows how he can stop the wedding. All Dick needs to do is tear open Étienne’s right sleeve, for he has his pirate alias tattooed upon his arm.

Delighted, Dick does what Adah has suggested—but when the pirate is exposed, it turns out that Dick cannot arrest him, for the Grandet family have an official “whipping boy,” Simon, who is the one who must be punished for any of their wrongdoing. Poor Simon is dragged off to jail. When Marietta returns in her bridal gown and discovers the truth about Étienne, she refuses to marry him, so he imprisons her, too. Soon, however, outside her cell, she hears a voice singing—and completing—the song from her dream. It is Dick, come to her rescue, and now she knows him to be the man she truly loves. Étienne is vanquished, and the lovers join together in a happy duet of “Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life.” The operetta ends with the chorus joining in for one last repetition of the “Italian Street Song.”

  • Alpert, Hollis. Broadway: 125 Years of American Musical Theatre. New York: Little, Brown, 1991.
  • Deutsch, Didier. “Opera Gives Its Regards to Broadway.” Ovation 7, no. 8 (September 1986): 30–35.
  • Grun, Bernard. Gold and Silver: The Life and Times of Franz Lehár. London: W. H. Allen, 1970.
  • MacQueen-Pope, W., and D. L. Murray. Fortune’s Favourite: The Life and Times of Franz Lehár. London: Hutchinson, 1953.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Better Foot Forward: The History of American Musical Theatre. New York: Grossman Publishers (A Division of the Viking Press), 1976.
  • Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983.
  • Waters, Edward N. Victor Herbert: A Life in Music. New York: Macmillan, 1955.

Chapter 12 – Challenges to Operetta

Musical Example 15 - In Dahomey - Will Marion Cook / Paul Dunbar, 1902 - Interpolation by Harry von Tilzer / Vincent Bryan - “(I Wants to Be) A Actor Lady”

  • Spotify Recording Information: I Wants to Be a Actor Lady By Renée Crutcher

Online Plot Summary 12a: In Dahomey

Although the basic premise of In Dahomey generally remained consistent—African American scam artists search for a lost heirloom while preying on “reverse colonists” who are hoping to return to Africa—the songs and dances performed in the course of the story changed dramatically between productions of In Dahomey, and even during the course of a single production. Rather than concern for a coherent storyline, the focus was almost exclusively on entertainment; in fact, a reviewer commenting on the London production warned prospective audience members to “forget purpose, plot, reason, and coherence, simply look and listen.”

In Dahomey’s lost heirloom is a small, engraved silver box, and its owner is Cicero Lightfoot, a resident of Gatorville, Florida, who happens to be the president of the Dahoman Colonization Society. Anxious to retrieve his treasure, Lightfoot writes to an intelligence agent in Boston and asks him to send two detectives. The intelligence man suspects that the casket is just misplaced, not lost or stolen, so he decides to offer the job to two out-of-work con men, Shylock Homestead and Rareback Pinkerton (played by the famous comedy team of Bert Williams and George Walker). The two friends are startled to hear the details of the case, for they know that casket! They had just sailed upriver from the South, and they had sold the silver box to a fellow passenger after buying it from another stranger on the boat.

Homestead and Pinkerton also learn that their friend Hustling Charlie has managed to get hired to escort the southern colonists to Africa. Charlie will get a percentage from the doctor who treats the travelers for seasickness, and if a colonist fails to survive the journey, Charlie even has a deal worked out with an undertaker. Charlie agrees to cut the con men in on his scam. They all travel to Florida so the pseudo-detectives can “search” for the casket before the party sails.

In Act II, set in Gatorville, the con men meet various members of the colonization society, including Lightfoot’s daughter, Rosetta. In several versions of In Dahomey, Rosetta performs “A Actor Lady” (Musical Example 15) during this act. Of course, Homestead and Pinkerton fail to locate the casket in Florida, so they travel with the colonists to Dahomey, the setting of Act III.

Inadvertently, by giving the King of Dahomey a gift of whisky (which they had liberated from the colonists’ supplies), Homestead and Pinkerton have performed a special Dahoman gesture of appreciation, so the king appoints them as Caboceers—a sort of councilor or governor—in return. The colonists don’t fare so well; they manage to offend the king, so they are put in jail to be executed on the next festival day, known as Customs Day. The new Caboceers present the king with yet another gift of whisky, and the king agrees, in exchange, to allow the prisoners to be released. In fact, to show that he bears no ill will, the king presents the colonists with a silver box obtained from a sailor who had been shipwrecked along Dahomey’s shore—it is Lightfoot’s heirloom, miraculously returned to him.

Moreover, the king wishes to present his Caboceers with a special honor: he wants them to carry a message to his great-grandfather—who has been dead for some hundred years. Homestead and Pinkerton are not slow to figure out what this “honor” entails, and they quickly decide that their best course of action is to join with the colonists in their plans to return to the United States.

Musical Example 16 - Little Johnny Jones - George M. Cohan / “Harris” (Cohan), 1904 - “Yankee Doodle Boy”

  • Spotify Recording Information: The Yankee Doodle Boy By Richard Perry

Online Plot Summary 12b: Little Johnny Jones

Corny, sentimental, patriotic, naïve—Little Johnny Jones has been called all these things, and merits them all (as does Cohan himself). A brash young jockey named Johnny Jones (modeled after the real jockey Tod Sloan, who rode a horse for the King of England in the 1903 Derby) has come to England to ride a horse named Yankee Doodle in the Derby races. Johnny advises his fellow Americans gathered in the lobby of the Hotel Cecil to bet on the “Yankee Doodle Boy” (Musical Example 16). After winning the race, which he expects to do, Johnny plans to retire and marry his girlfriend Goldie Gates. A manipulative gambler, Anthony Anstey, tries to persuade Johnny to lose, since, from a gambling perspective, that would be more profitable. Johnny angrily refuses to get involved in anything dishonest—but then, when Johnny really does lose the race, Anstey, in revenge, spreads a rumor that Johnny had “thrown” the race—had lost deliberately—and Johnny’s reputation is in tatters.

At an English port, Johnny prepares to board a U.S.-bound ship, but he meets a large crowd of angry race-goers who had bet on Yankee Doodle. Johnny decides that he must stay in England and clear his name. His detective friend “The Unknown” (based on a New York sheriff, Big Tom Foley) stays on the ship to continue investigating the source of the rumor. While the ship pulls away, Johnny waves and asks the passengers to “Give My Regards to Broadway.” As the ship reaches the horizon (in an impressive transformation scene), Johnny sees some fireworks launched from its deck—the Unknown’s signal to Johnny that he’s discovered some useful evidence on board. Johnny cheers up enormously, and he arranges to sail to America on the next ship.

Matters grow more complicated when the villain Anstey kidnaps Goldie Gates and takes her—where else?—to San Francisco, where Anstey has a gambling establishment. Johnny pursues them through exotic Chinatown, but pauses to deliver his famous soliloquy “Life’s a Funny Proposition After All.” Although Johnny has no answers to his soliloquy’s rhetorical questions, he is at last able to defeat Anstey’s schemes and regain his good name and fiancée.

  • Cohan, George M. Twenty Years on Broadway and the Years It Took to Get There: The True Story of a Trouper’s Life from the Cradle to the “Closed Shop.” New York: Harper & Brothers, 1925.
  • Graziano, John. “Images of African Americans: African-American Musical Theatre, Show Boat and Porgy and Bess.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Musical, 2nd ed., edited by William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird, 89–102. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
  • Harris, Charles K. After the Ball, Forty Years of Melody: An Autobiography. New York: Frank-Maurice, Inc., 1926.
  • Jasen, David A. Tin Pan Alley: The Composers, the Songs, the Performers and their Times. New York: Donald I. Fine, 1988.
  • Kahn, E. J., Jr. The Merry Partners: The Age and Stage of Harrigan and Hart. New York: Random House, 1955.
  • Loney, Glenn, ed. Musical Theatre in America: Papers and Proceedings of the Conference on the Musical Theatre in America. (Contributions in Drama and Theatre Studies, Number 8). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984. See: Helen Armstead-Johnson, “Themes and Values in Afro-American Librettos and Book Musicals, 1898–1930,” 133–142; Jane Sherman, “Denishawn in Vaudeville and Beyond,” 179–185; and Stephen M. Vallillo, “George M. Cohan’s Little Johnny Jones,” 233–234.
  • Mates, Julian. America’s Musical Stage: Two Hundred Years of Musical Theatre. New York: Praeger, 1985.
  • McCabe, John. George M. Cohan: The Man Who Owned Broadway. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Anything Goes: A History of American Musical Theatre. London: Oxford University Press, 2013.
  • _______. Ziegfeld: The Man Who Invented Show Business. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2008.
  • Murray, Ken. The Body Merchant: The Story of Earl Carroll. Pasadena, CA: Ward Ritchie Press, 1976.
  • Riis, Thomas L. Just Before Jazz: Black Musical Theater in New York, 1890–1915. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.
  • _______. More than Just Minstrel Shows: The Rise of Black Musical Theatre at the Turn of the Century. (I.S.A.M. Monographs: Number 33.) Brooklyn: Institute for Studies in American Music, 1992.
  • _______ , ed. The Music and Scripts of In Dahomey. (Recent Researches in American Music, Volume 25) (Music of the United States of America, Volume 5). Madison: A-R Editions, 1996.
  • Sampson, Henry T. Blacks in Blackface: A Source Book on Early Black Musical Shows. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1980.
  • Saxon, Theresa. “In Dahomey in England: A (Negative) Transatlantic Performance Heritage.” Atlantic Studies 13, no. 2 (2016): 265-281.
  • Smith, Cecil. Musical Comedy in America. New York: Theatre Arts Books (Robert M. MacGregor), 1950.
  • Walsh, David, and Len Platt. Musical Theater and American Culture. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003.
  • Woll, Allen. Black Musical Theatre From Coontown to Dreamgirls. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989.

Chapter 13 – The Princess Shows

Musical Example 17 - Leave It to Jane - Jerome Kern / Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, 1917 - “Cleopatterer”

Online Plot Summary 13: Leave It to Jane

One of the novelties of Leave It to Jane was that it was a “football” musical—one of the first shows to acknowledge the growing American mania for the sport. By using a collegiate setting, Bolton and Wodehouse could incorporate campus romance (and parental interference), undergraduate hijinks, and loose references to history and literature.

The initial premise of the story, taken from a 1904 play, is not so far-fetched: Hiram Bolton, an alumnus of Bingham College, is delighted with his son Billy’s football prowess, so he sends Billy—an all-American halfback—to his alma mater so that Bingham can defeat its archrival, Atwater College (and thereby win a large bet for Hiram). But, the very day that Billy arrives at Bingham, he meets Jane Witherspoon, and her father just happens to be the president of Atwater. Billy, along with “Stub” Talmadge and most other males in the cast, finds Jane enchanting. Jane sings “A Siren’s Song” to Billy (a literary reference to the legend of the Lorelei) and, in so doing, persuades him to transfer to Atwater College and play for its football team under an assumed name.

Comedy enters the show through mistaken identity (Billy is pretending to be a visiting botanist) and through the “education” of a country boy, Bub Hicks, who learns, among other things, how to get engaged to (and later “dis”-engaged from) Flora Wiggins, a local waitress with idiosyncratic views about history, as we learn in “Cleopatterer” (Musical Example 17). The romantic tangles are finally unsnarled after the Big Game on Thanksgiving Day. Billy is upset to learn that Jane had lured him to Atwater merely to beat Bingham—and she confesses that yes, that had been her plan, but now she’s grown to love him for himself—and Billy realizes he returns her feelings.

  • Banfield, Stephen. Jerome Kern. Yale Broadway Masters, edited by Geoffrey Block. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006.
  • Bordman, Gerald. Jerome Kern: His Life and Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
  • Davis, Lee. Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern: The Men Who Made Musical Comedy. New York: James H. Heineman, 1993.
  • Freedland, Michael. Jerome Kern. New York: Stein & Day, 1978.
  • McMillin, Scott. The Musical as Drama: A Study of the Principles and Conventions Behind Musical Shows from Kern to Sondheim. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006.
  • Wilk, Max. They’re Playing Our Song: From Jerome Kern to Stephen Sondheim—The Stories Behind the Words and Music of Two Generations. New York: Atheneum, 1973; London: W. H. Allen, 1974.
  • Wodehouse, P. G., and Guy Bolton. Bring on the Girls!: The Improbable Story of Our Life in Musical Comedy, with Pictures to Prove It. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1953.

Chapter 14 – Increasing Drama on the Stage

Musical Example 18 - Rose-Marie - Rudolf Friml / Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II, 1924 - “Indian Love Call”

  • iTunes Recording Information:Rose Marie - Julie Andrews

Online Plot Summary 14a: Rose-Marie

Although Rose-Marie is not a melodrama, it has many of the features we might associate with old-time melodrama: a heroine agreeing to an unwanted marriage to a villain in order to protect the man she loves, as well as a dose of heroism from a Canadian Mountie. In this operetta, however, the Canadian Mountie is not the sole hero; several of the characters work together to expose the evildoers.        

The Canadian setting of Rose-Marie features natural scenery, far removed from the European ballrooms so prevalent in conventional operettas. The story opens in the bar at Lady Jane’s rustic hotel in Fond du Lac, Saskatchewan, with a raucous gathering of mountain men and local residents. Two of the leading characters of the show—Rose-Marie La Flamme (half Indian, half French-Canadian) and the miner she hopes to marry, Jim Kenyon—are out taking a moonlit walk. Rose-Marie’s brother Émile and the unctuous Ed Hawley from Quebec have other schemes, however; regardless of her wishes, they plan to marry her to Hawley. They agree that Émile should take Rose-Marie away from Fond du Lac to the trapping grounds at Kootenay Pass, so she’ll be out of Jim’s reach. Jim is no fool, however, and arranges to meet Rose-Marie at a deserted mountain cabin near a legendary “lover’s stone,” high above a valley. It is said that the Indians used to sing the “Indian Love Call” (Musical Example 18) next to the stone, sending the melody down through the echoing valley in order to win maidens in marriage.

Before leaving Fond du Lac, Jim goes with some maps to visit Black Eagle in order to settle an argument over the rights to a gold mine Jim is excavating with his partner, Hard-Boiled Herman. Unwittingly, Jim interrupts a rendezvous between Hawley and the duplicitous Wanda, who has been carrying on an affair with Hawley even though she is Black Eagle’s lover. Hawley hides while Wanda gets rid of Jim; Jim leaves the maps behind to prove his case. Wanda and Hawley then pick up where they left off—Hawley is “buying off” Wanda so he’ll be free to marry Rose-Marie—but the lovers are caught in a final amorous embrace by Black Eagle. Enraged, the Indian begins choking Hawley, but Wanda snatches up a knife and stabs Black Eagle in the back. When Sergeant Malone of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigates, Wanda shows Malone the maps and blames Jim for the murder.

Meanwhile, Jim has been offered a mining job in Brazil. If Rose-Marie decides to travel with Jim, she will meet him that evening at their hidden cabin; if she decides to stay, she will sing the “Indian Love Call” up the valley to him as a signal that he should journey alone. Although Rose-Marie wants to go with Jim, she changes her plan when Sgt. Malone arrives with a warrant for Jim’s arrest. She promises to marry Hawley if Émile swears not to reveal where Jim is, and then she sings the “Indian Love Call,” sending it echoing up the valley so that Jim will leave for South America without her.

The second act opens in Québec, where Rose-Marie is slowly starting to believe Wanda’s tales that Jim is a murderer. Jim risks arrest by sneaking into Québec to see Rose-Marie, but when Rose-Marie sees Wanda in Jim’s company, she refuses to believe he is innocent. Meanwhile, Herman wheedles the truth out of Wanda by implying that Hawley is blaming the murder on her. As the marriage ceremony begins, Wanda interrupts by announcing to all the guests that she had murdered Black Eagle in order to protect Hawley, the man she loves. Rose-Marie races back to the Kootenay Pass, where she joins Jim in one last echoing performance across the valley of the “Indian Love Call,” ending the story in his arms.

Musical Example 19 - The Vagabond King - Rudolf Friml / Brian Hooker and W. H. Post, 1925 - “Song of the Vagabonds”

  • Spotify Recording Information: Song Of The Vagabonds, From The Film: "The Vagabond King" By Paul Weston And His Orchestra And Chorus, Gordon Macrae

Online Plot Summary 14b: The Vagabond King

True love wins—and true love loses—in the far-from-lighthearted operetta The Vagabond King. The fictional tale is set in medieval France and centers on two real historical figures: François Villon, a vagabond poet, and King Louis XI. Villon tends to think very highly of himself, and rather poorly of the king, and he has been sending anonymous love letters to a highborn lady of the French court, Katherine de Vaucelles. The king has also been wooing her, but she is intrigued by her unknown correspondent, so she rejects the king’s proposal.

Louis cannot understand what makes Katherine so haughty, and so he follows her when she goes to a Parisian tavern to meet her mysterious poet. Louis, eavesdropping, hears Villon not only promise the moon to Katherine “if he were king,” but also hears himself sneeringly condemned by Villon as a “do-nothing, dare-nothing” ruler. Villon is critical of Louis’s handling of Paris’s problems—including the siege of the city by the Duke of Burgundy.

Outraged over being mocked, Louis decides to force Villon to take the throne for a day; moreover, in order to chastise Katherine, Louis orders Villon to woo her, and if Villon is not successful in winning her by the end of the day, he will be executed. This punishment is more widespread than Louis knows; Huguette de Hamel, a Parisian prostitute, loves Villon and had hoped to marry him—but now Villon must pursue Katherine instead.

Faced with the Burgundian army outside the walls of Paris, Villon turns to the beggars and thieves of Paris—the “lousy rabble of low degree”—and rouses them into taking up arms to defend their city in the stirring “Song of the Vagabonds” (Musical Example 19). The vagabonds are successful in protecting their kingdom, and Villon makes good progress in his pursuit of Katherine, although she does not know his true identity. Meanwhile, though, there is a traitor among Louis’s advisors—Thibault d’Aussigny—who ambushes Villon. In a striking act of self-sacrifice, Huguette throws herself in front of Thibault’s sword, saving Villon from the assassination attempt, but dying herself. Louis cannot fathom Villon’s grief for a harlot, but Villon declares, “She had God’s breath in her body, sire.”

Even with his city rescued from its attackers, the ungrateful Louis wants to make sure Katherine knows just exactly who Villon is before she accepts Villon’s proposal. Katherine is horrified that she has almost given her hand to a thief, but as the king proceeds with the execution, she remembers the feelings she had felt for Villon during his heroic day as ruler of France—so she offers her own life instead. Louis realizes that he knows of no citizen who would do the same for him, and he decides to allow the aristocratic Katherine and the lowborn Villon to marry, thus sparing Villon at the last moment.

  • Bordman, Gerald. American Operetta from H. M. S. Pinafore to Sweeney Todd. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
  • Everett, William A. “American and British Operetta in the 1920s: Romance, Nostalgia and Adventure.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Musical, 2nd ed., edited by William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird, 72–88. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
  • _______. Sigmund Romberg. Yale Broadway Masters, ed. by Geoffrey Block. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007.          
  • Fordin, Hugh. Getting to Know Him: A Biography of Oscar Hammerstein II. New York: Random House, 1977.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Make Believe: The Broadway Musical in the 1920s. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
  • Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983.

Chapter 15 – Musical Theater of the Lighter Kind

Musical Example 20 - No, No, Nanette - Vincent Youmans / Irving Caesar, 1925 - “Tea for Two”

Online Plot Summary 15: No, No, Nanette

Nanette is a young woman who longs to misbehave a bit. Her guardians are Jimmy and Sue Smith, and Jimmy is as generous a man as Sue is tight-fisted. Jimmy—a Bible publisher—has been generous too often during his travels, and now three women (Betty, Winnie, and Flora) are depending on him financially. Therefore, he turns to his lawyer Billy Early for help. Billy has troubles of his own; his wife Lucille is an extravagant spender, so Billy is glad to get the fee Jimmy will pay. Billy’s assistant, Tom Trainor, loves Nanette but finds Nanette’s desire to kick up her heels a bit shocking, and they end up quarreling.

When Flora telephones and says she’s coming to see Jimmy, he flees to his seaside cottage; he secretly invites Nanette to come along, since Sue had earlier refused permission for Nanette to go to the beach with her friends, and Jimmy wants to cheer Nanette up. Meanwhile, Jimmy and Billy’s whispered plans spark the suspicions of Lucille and Sue, who start wondering what their husbands are up to.

Gradually, all Jimmy’s “friends” arrive at the cottage; they think that Jimmy is cutting off his financial support because they have not had affairs with him—so a dance competition results while the astonished Jimmy can’t believe there is a “Fight Over Me.” Billy and Tom arrive, and Tom is appalled that Nanette could have spent the night alone with a married man, even if he is her guardian. Nanette manages to placate Tom, and they start dreaming about the future in “Tea for Two” (Musical Example 20). After Flora and Lucille also arrive, Billy hits on the idea of telling Jimmy’s three “charities” that Jimmy is offering them a severance package because he’s handing all his money over to his wife.

When Sue appears, she believes that Billy is the one carrying on a triple affair. Sue takes the side of the three women, since she thinks Billy should be punished for his misbehavior, and Sue eggs on the women into demanding a higher and higher settlement. Lucille, meanwhile, is distraught until she realizes that Billy couldn’t have been supporting these women—he doesn’t have any money! It doesn’t take long for Sue and Lucille to straighten things out, and even Nanette starts telling the truth—and only the truth—to Tom, allowing everyone to sing one last chorus of “I Want to Be Happy.”

  • Bordman, Gerald. American Operetta from H. M. S. Pinafore to Sweeney Todd. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
  • _______. Days to Be Happy, Years to Be Sad: The Life and Music of Vincent Youmans. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
  • Gennaro, Liza. “Evolution of Dance in the Golden Age of the American ‘Book Musical.’” In The Oxford Handbook of The American Musical, edited by Raymond Knapp, Mitchell Morris, and Stacy Wolf, 45–61. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
  • Kislan, Richard. The Musical: A Look at the American Musical Theater. New, revised, expanded edition. New York & London: Applause Books, 1995.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Make Believe: The Broadway Musical in the 1920s. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
  • Seibert, Brian. What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015.
  • Snelson, John, and Andrew Lamb. “Musical” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 2001. Vol. 17, 453–465
  • Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983.
  • Wilk, Max. They’re Playing Our Song: From Jerome Kern to Stephen Sondheim—The Stories Behind the Words and Music of Two Generations. New York: Atheneum, 1973; London: W. H. Allen, 1974.

Chapter 16 – Great Partnerships of the Early Book Musical: Kern and Hammerstein

Musical Example 21 - Show Boat - Jerome Kern / Oscar Hammerstein II, 1927 - “Ol’ Man River”

Online Plot Summary 16: Show Boat

In the first of Show Boat’s many unexpected moments, the curtain rises, not to parade a chorus line of leggy showgirls, but to reveal a group of African American dockworkers, complaining in song about their backbreaking labor. Soon, though, they and the townspeople of Natchez, Mississippi, are thrilled to see the Cotton Blossom arrive, one of the “show boats” that were the South’s floating theaters, offering entertainment to audiences along the river. Andy Hawkes is its captain; he introduces Frank and Ellie, the comedy team, as well as Julie LaVerne, the sultry star. Her husband (and costar) Steve gets into a fistfight with Pete, a deckhand, just as Cap’n Andy is describing the cast on the show boat as “one big happy family.”

Andy and his wife Parthy Ann have a daughter, Magnolia, who has just met a charming gambler, Gaylord Ravenal; their attraction is instant and mutual. The sheriff declares that men like Gaylord aren’t welcome in Natchez; he should move along. Innocently, Magnolia asks Joe, an African American stevedore, for information about Gaylord. Joe shrugs and tells her she’d be better off asking “Ol’ Man River” (Musical Example 21).

When Julie sings “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” about Steve, Queenie, the cook, wonders how a white woman would know that African American song. Soon afterward, the mystery is explained. Pete has revealed Julie’s secret to the Natchez sheriff: she is half black. The sheriff threatens to arrest Julie and Steve—who is white—for miscegenation. Steve has cut Julie’s hand and sucked blood from the wound so that he, too, has Negro blood in him. Unpersuaded, the sheriff warns Cap’n Andy that it’s against the law in Mississippi for black and white performers to appear on the same stage. Julie and Steve pack their belongings, leaving Cap’n Andy in a bit of a lurch: he has a show to put on! Cap’n Andy promotes Magnolia into the starring role (over Parthy Ann’s strenuous objections). Gaylord Ravenal, who has asked for a lift downriver, appears to be the perfect solution for a replacement leading man.

In time, Magnolia and Gaylord marry and leave the Cotton Blossom. But Gaylord hasn’t been able to stop gambling, and eventually he deserts Magnolia and their young daughter Kim. The coincidences come fast and furious for a while: Frank and Ellie run into Magnolia, and they suggest that she seek a job at the Trocadero. At the Trocadero, the headliner turns out to be Julie, now an alcoholic, who is rehearsing “Bill” for the upcoming New Year’s Eve show.

When Magnolia arrives for an audition, Julie eavesdrops from her dressing room. Hearing how much Magnolia needs a job, Julie abruptly resigns. (Julie vanishes at this point, although in Ferber’s novel, she is later glimpsed in a house of prostitution. Even without that revelation, though, Julie’s inexorable descent gives American musical theater what the writer Ethan Mordden calls “its first tragic heroine.”)

Magnolia’s parents have come for a surprise New Year’s visit, unaware of Gaylord’s recent desertion. While Parthy Ann sleeps, Cap’n Andy makes his way to the Trocadero, just as Magnolia makes her shaky debut. He urges her on, and she wins over the crowd by singing the nostalgic “After the Ball.”

Years later, after a stellar career, Magnolia retires to the Cotton Blossom. One day, an old man appears at the showboat. He is, of course, Gaylord, and despite the hurts of the past, he and Magnolia are still in love—so they, with most of the other main characters, are reunited for the final scene.

  • Banfield, Stephen. Jerome Kern. Yale Broadway Masters, edited by Geoffrey Block. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006.
  • Bordman, Gerald. American Operetta from H. M. S. Pinafore to Sweeney Todd.New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
  • Colvan, E. B. (Zeke). Face the Footlights!: A New and Practical Approach to Acting. New York: Whittlesey House, 1940.
  • Decker, Todd. Show Boat: Performing Race in an American Musical. Broadway Legacies, edited by Geoffrey Block. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
  • Fordin, Hugh. Getting to Know Him: A Biography of Oscar Hammerstein II. New York: Random House, 1977.
  • Freedland, Michael. Jerome Kern. New York: Stein & Day, 1978.
  • Furia, Philip. The Poets of Tin Pan Alley. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
  • Graziano, John. “Images of African Americans: African-American Musical Theatre, Show Boat and Porgy and Bess.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Musical, 2nd ed., edited by William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird, 89–102. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
  • Hammerstein, Oscar, II. Lyrics. Reprinted Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Books, 1985.
  • Higham, Charles. Ziegfeld. Chicago: Regnery, 1972; London: W. H. Allen, 1973.
  • Kreuger, Miles. Show Boat. New York: Da Capo Press, 1990. First published 1977 by Oxford University Press.
  • Maxwell, Gilbert. Helen Morgan: Her Life and Legend. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1974.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Make Believe: The Broadway Musical in the 1920s. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
  • Ries, Frank W. D. “Sammy Lee: The Broadway Career.” Dance Chronicle 9, no. 2 (1986): 1-95.
  • Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983.
  • Wilder, Alec. American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900–1950. London: Oxford University Press, 1972.

Chapter 17 – Great Partnerships of the Early Book Musical: Rodgers and Hart

Musical Example 22 - On Your Toes - Richard Rodgers / Lorenz Hart, 1936 - “The Three B’s”

Online Plot Summary 17: On Your Toes

On Your Toes is a show about class distinctions, depicting the snobbism targeted at various forms of artistic entertainment. The first debate—between vaudeville and art music—opens the show: Lil and Phil Dolan disagree about the best path for their son, Junior, a hoofer (dancer). Should he join them on the vaudeville stage? His mother wants him to pursue the more “respectable” career of a music teacher. Junior unwittingly settles the argument—and exposes another class distinction—when Phil discovers that Junior has been dating a girl who’s a member of a “number-two act.” The Dolans receive top billing in vaudeville, and Junior shouldn’t be caught dead consorting with lesser performers. Junior’s fate is sealed; he must abandon the vaudeville circuit and train to become a music professor.

Some fifteen years later, Junior is now in front of his music history class at Knickerbocker University. In “The Three B’s” (Musical Example 22), his pupils reveal the same confusions about historical composers that plague music majors today! However, two of Junior’s students are promising composers; Miss Frankie Frayne is a songwriter, while Sidney Cohn is working on a jazz ballet score, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue. Here another class distinction is revealed: Junior values jazz more than Frankie’s Tin Pan Alley style. But Frankie makes a deal with her teacher: if he helps her with her current song, she’ll enlist the help of Peggy Porterfield, a wealthy society matron, to back Sidney’s ballet.

Peggy takes the Slaughter project to the Russian Ballet, and the company has mixed reactions. Vera Baronova, the prima ballerina (the female star), is intrigued with the jazz ballet. She’s miffed with her co-star and unfaithful lover Konstantine Morrosine, and Sidney’s ballet calls for her to perform a striptease—an ideal way to punish Morrosine. In contrast, the head of the ballet troupe, Sergei Alexandrovitch, feels this jazz ballet is not “elevated” enough for his company. Still, Peggy urges Junior to study the ballet company to learn more about the genre.

Junior has realized that he loves Frankie, but while he is at ballet rehearsals, he catches Vera’s eye. She demonstrates the company’s current ballet, Princess Zenobia, to him. He’s able to follow the moves quickly, thanks to his old vaudeville dance training. On the ballet’s opening night, a member of the chorus has been arrested, so Junior is immediately conscripted into putting on a costume and filling in. In a panic, he starts to flub the part—but the audience thinks the humor is deliberate, and suddenly Princess Zenobia starts to enjoy much stronger ticket sales.

Junior tells Frankie that he has fallen in love with her. But, he still needs to be charming to Vera, since her support is essential in getting Sidney’s ballet to the stage. Frankie worries how deep Junior’s feelings really are. A jealous Morrosine is also worried about Vera’s interest in Junior.      

Peggy at last leverages Sergei into performing Slaughter on Tenth Avenue by threatening to withdraw her financial support—and since her support is to the tune of a million dollars, Sergei has no choice but to agree. Slaughter rehearsals start, and Sergei discovers that Junior can dance the lead male role far better than Morrosine, so he gives the starring part to Junior.

Morrosine, who already thinks Junior has stolen Vera’s attention, is outraged at losing his position in the ballet company as well. His solution? Hire a hit man! Morrosine tells the gangster to take his shot during the premiere of the ballet, since everyone will be distracted by the dance. The gunman positions himself in the front row of the audience, ready for his moment, and the ballet begins. Fortunately for Junior, a friend in the ballet company hears about the scheme and hands him a note—during the ballet—explaining the danger. Junior realizes he needs to be a moving target, so he keeps dancing AND dancing AND dancing until at last the police arrive and an exhausted Junior can collapse into Frankie’s arms.

  • Abbott, George. Mister Abbott. New York: Random House, 1963.
  • Block, Geoffrey. Enchanted Evenings: The Broadway Musical from Show Boat to Sondheim. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
  • Copeland, Roger. “Broadway Dance.” Dance Magazine 48 (November 1974): 32–37.      
  • Gottfried, Martin. Broadway Musicals. New York: Abradale Press/Abrams, Inc., 1984.
  • Green, Stanley, ed. Rodgers and Hammerstein Fact Book: A Record of Their Works Together and with Other Collaborators. New York: The Lynn Farnol Group, 1980.
  • Hart, Dorothy, ed. Thou Swell, Thou Witty: The Life and Lyrics of Lorenz Hart. New York: Harper & Row, 1976.
  • Hirsch, Foster.  Harold Prince and the American Musical Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
  • Hyland, William G. Richard Rodgers. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1998.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Make Believe: The Broadway Musical in the 1920s. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
  • Nolan, Frederick. Lorenz Hart: A Poet on Broadway. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
  • Rodgers, Richard. Musical Stages: An Autobiography. New York: Random House, 1975. Reprinted New York: Da Capo Press, 1995.
  • Secrest, Meryle. Somewhere for Me: A Biography of Richard Rodgers. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
  • Steven, Suskin. Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway’s Major Composers. Revised and expanded 3rd edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
  • Symonds, Dominic. We’ll Have Manhattan: The Early Work of Rodgers and Hart. Broadway Legacies, ed. by Geoffrey Block. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
  • Taylor, Deems. Some Enchanted Evenings: The Story of Rodgers and Hammerstein. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953. Reprinted: Westport, CT: Greenwood Press Publishers, 1972.

Chapter 18 – Great Partnerships of the Early Book Musical: The Gershwins (1)

Musical Example 23 - Girl Crazy - George Gershwin / Ira Gershwin, 1930 - “I Got Rhythm”

Online Plot Summary 18: Girl Crazy

“Girl crazy” is the diagnosis, and Danny Churchill is the wealthy New York playboy who is suffering from the condition. The cure? Ship Danny out West—to the all-male town of Custerville, Arizona; it’s had no women for fifty years. Danny employs the cab driver Gieber Goldfarb to drive him the whole 3,000 miles (after Danny has invited an entire Broadway chorus line to come join him out West). The fare? $742.30. Other New York friends also show up, including Danny’s former girlfriend Tess Harding and the man who had also pursued her, Sam Mason. At first, Danny is dismayed at the rustic conditions at Buzzards, his family’s ranch—no electricity!—but then he is inspired to transform his home into a glamorous dude ranch, complete with a saloon and gambling casino (after all, he has the Broadway showgirls). The casino entertainment comes in the form of Kate Fothergill, a high-energy singer who is married to gambler Slick; he has been hired to run the casino.

Sheriffs in Custerville have a high mortality rate, but Gieber is talked into running for the position—and wins. The losing candidate, Lank Shannon, is so irate that Gieber has to disguise himself as a (Yiddish-speaking) Indian chief. Danny starts to pursue the postmistress Molly Gray, who comes to Custerville from a nearby town, although he again faces competition from his old rival from New York, Sam. Meanwhile, Kate is not too happy to find that her husband Slick seems to be pursuing other female interests too. After Kate catches him offering to take two of the show girls to San Luz, Mexico, Slick manages to explain the situation, and the relieved Kate goes on to perform the exuberant “I’ve Got Rhythm” (Musical Example 23).

In the meantime, having won $6,000 in the new gambling room, Sam persuades Molly to visit San Luz with him. Danny tries to stop her, and they end up quarreling. Still, Danny and half the residents of Custerville end up in Mexico as well. During the visit, Sam upsets Molly by booking them into a shared hotel room, so Danny threatens to break his neck.

When Sam actually is assaulted, Danny immediately falls under suspicion. It takes another Gieber-in-disguise ruse (this time dressed as a woman) to uncover the real culprits: Lank and his sidekick Pete, who were trying to rob Sam of his gambling winnings. Returning to Custerville, Slick again convinces Kate of his love for her—and Danny accomplishes the same thing with Molly, so the show ends with both couples happily united.

  • Banfield, Stephen. “Sondheim and the Art That Has No Name.” In Approaches to the American Musical, edited by Robert Lawson-Peebles, 137-160. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1996.
  • Carnovale, Norbert. George Gershwin: A Bio-Bibliography. (Bio-Bibliographies in Music, Number 76; Donald L. Hixon, series advisor.) Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000.
  • Ewen, David. A Journey to Greatness: The Life and Music of George Gershwin. London: W. H. Allen, 1956.  
  • Furia, Philip. Ira Gershwin: The Art of the Lyricist. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
  • Gershwin, Ira. Lyrics on Several Occasions: A Selection of Stage & Screen Lyrics Written for Sundry Situations; and Now Arranged in Arbitrary Categories. To Which Have Been Added Many Informative Annotations & Disquisitions on Their Why & Wherefore, Their Whom-For, Their How; and Matters Associative. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1959.
  • Gilbert, Steven E. The Music of Gershwin. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1995.
  • Hischak, Thomas S. Word Crazy: Broadway Lyricists from Cohan to Sondheim. New York: Praeger, 1991.
  • Jablonski, Edward. Gershwin. London: Simon & Schuster, 1988.
  • Kimball, Robert, ed. The Complete Lyrics of Ira Gershwin. London: Pavilion Books Ltd., 1993.
  • Kislan, Richard. The Musical: A Look at the American Musical Theater. New, revised, expanded edition. New York & London: Applause Books, 1995.
  • Kreuger, Miles, et al. CD Booklet for George and Ira Gershwin’s Girl Crazy. John Mauceri, conductor. With Lorna Luft, David Carroll, Judy Blazer, Frank Gorshin, and David Garrison. Elektra Nonesuch 979250-2. Recorded in New York, February 26-28, 1990. 1 compact disc.        
  • Lerner, Alan Jay. The Musical Theatre: A Celebration. New York: Da Capo Press, 1986.
  • Merman, Ethel. Who Could Ask For Anything More, as told to Pete Martin. New York: Doubleday, 1955.
  • Rimler, Walter. George Gershwin: An Intimate Portrait. Music in American Life. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009.
  • Rosenberg, Deena. Fascinating Rhythm: The Collaboration of George and Ira Gershwin. New York: Dutton, 1991. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997.
  • Sandrow, Nahma. Vagabond Stars: A World History of Yiddish Theater. New York: Harper & Row, 1977.
  • Schwartz, Charles. Gershwin: His Life and Music. Indianapolis & New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1973.
  • Starr, Larry. George Gershwin. Yale Broadway Masters, edited by Geoffrey Block. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011.

Chapter 19 – Great Partnerships of the Early Book Musical: The Gershwins (2)

Musical Example 24 - Porgy and Bess - George Gershwin / DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin, 1935 - “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’”

  • Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/track/322QWArmkBTX52UZF642gR
  • Spotify Recording Information: Porgy and Bess (highlights): Mus' be you mens forgot about de picnic...Oh, I got plenty o' nuttin' (Annie, Jake, Clara, Porgy, Chorus, Serena, Maria) By George Gershwin, Sir Willard White/Damon Evans/Cynthia Clarey/Bruce Hubbard/Marietta Simpson/Harolyn Blackwell/Paula Ingram/Glyndebourne Chorus/Craig Ruttenberg/London Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle, Willard White, Sir Simon Rattle, London Philharmonic Orchestra

Online Plot Summary 19: Porgy and Bess

Porgy and Bess is set in Catfish Row, a tenement in Charleston, South Carolina, where a kaleidoscope of musical styles conveys the passions, joys, and sorrows of the impoverished residents. A driving jazz opening at last relaxes and leads into a peaceful scene: Clara rocks her baby and sings “Summertime.” Soon, though, a fight breaks out while men are shooting craps, and a drunken Crown kills Robbins. Crown then flees, abandoning his girlfriend Bess. Because of Bess’s immoral lifestyle, the God-fearing women of Catfish Row all reject her. Sportin’ Life, a drug dealer who peddles “happy dust,” wants Bess to go with him to New York, but the crippled Porgy offers Bess the chance to share his small living quarters. Meanwhile, the residents of Catfish Row pool their meager resources to help Robbins’s widow Serena to pay for the funeral.

In the second act, Clara is worried. Jake insists he needs to keep fishing to provide for their son, but it’s time for the dangerous September storms. In contrast, Porgy rejoices in his simple existence—especially now that Bess has come into his life—by singing “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’” (Musical Example 24). Bess is grateful that he ignores her sordid past, and the two of them fall in love. Porgy arranges for an unethical lawyer to “divorce” Bess from Crown (even though they had never been married).

Soon afterward, the residents of Catfish Row are going to nearby Kittiwah Island for a picnic. Porgy’s disability makes him unable to go, but he urges Bess to enjoy herself without him. At the end of the picnic, however, Bess learns that the island has been Crown’s hiding place. Crown forces Bess to stay with him, but in a few days, delirious with fever, Bess makes her way back to Catfish Row, begging Porgy to forgive her. Porgy tells her she never needs to be afraid again.

The emotions reach a climax as a violent hurricane blows along the coast, just as Crown feels it’s safe for him to reappear in Catfish Row. Jake’s fishing boat has capsized, so Clara thrusts her baby into Bess’s arms and runs to try to rescue her husband; Crown goes too, after mocking Porgy about his inability to help.

The third act opens with the tenement dwellers mourning Clara and Jake, who both died in the storm. Bess gently croons “Summertime” to their orphaned infant. Crown is presumed drowned as well, but soon he sneaks into Catfish Row, trying to reclaim Bess—and Porgy kills him. Porgy doesn’t cooperate with the authorities, so he is jailed for contempt. Bess, despairing at the loss of both her lovers, succumbs to drug addiction once again, and agrees to travel north with Sportin’ Life. When Porgy is released, the tenement dwellers reluctantly tell Porgy the sad news of her departure. Porgy hitches up his small goat cart, vowing to travel to New York and find Bess. His optimism as he sings “Oh, Lawd, I’m On My Way” is a closing ray of hope in the bittersweet story.

  • Alpert, Hollis. The Life and Times of Porgy and Bess: The Story of an American Classic. London: Nick Hern Books, 1990.     
  • Block, Geoffrey. Enchanted Evenings: The Broadway Musical from Show Boat to Sondheim. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
  • Carnovale, Norbert. George Gershwin: A Bio-Bibliography. (Bio-Bibliographies in Music, Number 76; Donald L. Hixon, series advisor.) Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000.
  • Duncan, Todd. “58. From an Interview with Robert Wyatt (1990).” In The George Gershwin Reader. Ed. by Robert Wyatt and John Andrew Johnson. Readers on American Musicians, ed. by Scott DeVeaux. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.         
  • Ewen, David. A Journey to Greatness: The Life and Music of George Gershwin. London: W. H. Allen, 1956.  
  • Furia, Philip. Ira Gershwin: The Art of the Lyricist. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
  • Gershwin, Ira. Lyrics on Several Occasions: A Selection of Stage & Screen Lyrics Written for Sundry Situations; and Now Arranged in Arbitrary Categories. To Which Have Been Added Many Informative Annotations & Disquisitions on Their Why & Wherefore, Their Whom-For, Their How; and Matters Associative. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1959.
  • Gilbert, Steven E. The Music of Gershwin. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1995.
  • Hischak, Thomas S. Word Crazy: Broadway Lyricists from Cohan to Sondheim. New York: Praeger, 1991.
  • Horn, David. “Who Loves You Porgy? The Debates Surrounding Gershwin’s Musical.” In Approaches to the American Musical, edited by Robert Lawson-Peebles, 109–126. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1996.
  • Jablonski, Edward. Gershwin. London: Simon & Schuster, 1988.
  • Kimball, Robert, ed. The Complete Lyrics of Ira Gershwin. London: Pavilion Books Ltd., 1993.
  • Rimler, Walter. George Gershwin: An Intimate Portrait. Music in American Life. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009.
  • Rosenberg, Deena. Fascinating Rhythm: The Collaboration of George and Ira Gershwin. New York: Dutton, 1991. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997.
  • Schwartz, Charles. Gershwin: His Life and Music. Indianapolis & New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1973.
  • Starr, Larry. George Gershwin. Yale Broadway Masters, edited by Geoffrey Block. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011.
  • Starr, Lawrence. “Gershwin’s ‘Bess, You Is My Woman Now’: The Sophistication and Subtlety of a Great Tune.” The Musical Quarterly 72 (1986): 429­–48.
  • _______. “Toward a Reevaluation of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.” American Music 2, no. 2 (Summer 1984): 25–37.
  • Thompson, Robin. The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess: A 75th Anniversary Celebration. Milwaukee: Amadeus Press, 2010.
  • Weinert-Kendt, Rob. “‘Porgy and Bess’ Reboot Perseveres Despite Its Critics.” Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2014.
  • Woll, Allen. Black Musical Theatre From Coontown to Dreamgirls. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989.
  • Wyatt, Robert, and John Andrew Johnson, eds. The George Gershwin Reader. Readers on American Musicians, edited by Scott DeVeaux. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Chapter 20 – Great Solo Acts: Irving Berlin

Musical Example 25 - As Thousands Cheer - Irving Berlin / Irving Berlin, 1933 - “Supper Time”

Online Plot Summary 20: As Thousands Cheer

Since As Thousands Cheer is a revue, it does not have a continuous storyline. However, the assorted vignettes are all unified: they represent the items that can be found in a daily newspaper, such as news reports, human interest features, weather forecasts, advice columns, and the comics. In a sense, this revue presents a fascinating “time capsule” of the concerns and values of readers in the 1930s.

The listing below presents the order of the “articles” in the revue’s newspaper; each title was projected onto the theater’s proscenium (the front wall that surrounds the stage) before each scene.

Act I

  • Prologue: The newsboys excitedly patter their way through the newsflash: not only did a dog bite a man, but the man also bit the dog right back!
  • “Franklin D. Roosevelt Inaugurated Tomorrow”: This lead article depicts the outgoing President Hoover and his First Lady as they “liberate” various mementos while packing to leave the White House; the President bids his Cabinet farewell with a Bronx cheer.
  • “Barbara Hutton to Wed Prince Mdivani”: The odds concerning the heiress’s wedding are discussed in the song “How’s Chances?’                  
  • “Heat Wave Hits New York”: This weather report features a sizzling musical discussion of the current tropical “Heat Wave.”
  • “Joan Crawford to Divorce Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.”: The two film stars argue over which one of them should get top billing in their divorce announcement.
  • “Majestic Sails at Midnight”: In an era before air travel was commonplace, the sailings of the great passenger ships were reported regularly. Here, America’s European allies sing “Debts,” one of Berlin’s clever quodlibets, blending Berlin’s original melody with the “Star-Spangled Banner.”
  • “Lonely-Heart Column”: The plaintive ballad “Lonely Heart” is addressed to an advice columnist called Miss Lonely Heart; the melancholy letter-writer seeks someone to love.
  • “World’s Wealthiest Man Celebrates 94th Birthday”: John D. Rockefeller’s children try to give him something special for his birthday: the Radio City Music Hall (but he doesn’t want it, telling them to “Take it right back to whoever sold it to you”).
  • “The Funnies”: In one of the show’s most delightful production numbers, various well-known characters from the Sunday comic strips come to life on stage.
  • “‘Green Pastures’ Starts Third Road Season”: With Broadway close at hand, New York newspapers usually give reports on the ups and downs of show business.
  • “Rotogravure Section”: For many years, newspapers depicted the latest fashions on pages printed in a sepia-colored ink—so the costume designer dressed the entire cast in brown hues, ranging from white through umbers, siennas, taupes, and chocolate, as they sang “Easter Parade.”

Act II

  • “Metropolitan Opera Opens in Old-Time Splendor”: The Met’s production of Verdi’s Rigoletto is interrupted by a series of inane commercials.
  • “Unknown Negro Lynched by Frenzied Mob”: An African American mother sings “Supper Time” (Musical Example 25), wondering how she will explain to her children that their father won’t be coming home for supper ever again.
  • “Gandhi Goes on Hunger Strike”: Although the title might imply that this, too, is a serious topic, Mahatma Gandhi discovers (along with evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson) the power of advertising.
  • “Revolt in Cuba”: The revolution provides an opportunity for vigorous Latin American dancing.
  • “Noël Coward, Noted Playwright, Returns to England”: Coward’s eccentricities are lampooned as a hotel staff reflects on their attempts to serve the desires of the British playwright.
  • “Society Wedding of the Year”: Another lavish production number allows the chorus to sing “Our Wedding Day” (even though the audience may have been shocked to learn that the bride and groom seem to have shared an address before the wedding).
  • “Prince of Wales Rumored Engaged”: Readers of newspapers followed the matrimonial entanglements of foreign heads of states as avidly as those of Hollywood stars and the rich.
  • “Josephine Baker Still the Rage of Paris”: A homesick expatriate singer living in Paris still has “Harlem on My Mind.”
  • “Supreme Court Hands Down Important Decision”: The court’s decision stipulated that musicals could no longer end with the customary reprises of the show’s most popular songs—so Berlin wrote “Not For All the Rice in China” to give the cast a “new” song at the end of the revue.
  • Barrett, Mary Ellin. Irving Berlin: A Daughter’s Memoir. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
  • Bergreen, Laurence. As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin. New York: Penguin Books, 1990.
  • Freedland, Michael. Irving Berlin. New York: Stein & Day, 1974.
  • Hamm, Charles. Irving Berlin: Songs from the Melting Pot: The Formative Years, 1907–1914. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
  • Magee, Jeffrey. Irving Berlin’s American Musical Theater. Broadway Legacies, ed. by Geoffrey Block. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  • Sharaff, Irene. Broadway & Hollywood: Costumes Designed by Irene Sharaff. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1976.
  • Waters, Ethel. His Eye is on the Sparrow. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1951.

Chapter 21 – Great Solo Acts: Cole Porter and Other Efforts in the 1930s

Musical Example 26 - Anything Goes - Cole Porter / Cole Porter, 1934 - “Anything Goes”

Online Plot Summary 21: Anything Goes

The “emergency” replacement plot for Anything Goes did a brilliant job of incorporating the materials prepared for the original version, and the resulting storyline is an energetic farce. Similar to nineteenth-century melodrama, Anything Goes is full of people in disguise, an unwelcome engagement, and a myriad of twists and turns before the “right” couples are united at the end.

The hero is Billy Crocker, a somewhat incompetent employee of the business tycoon Elisha J. Whitney. Billy goes to the docks to say goodbye to his boss, who is sailing on the SS American from New York to England, as is Reno Sweeney, a nightclub singer. Billy has just fallen in love with a mysterious young woman he met in a taxi; he doesn’t know that she is the heiress Hope Harcourt or that she, too, is sailing on the same ship with her fiancé, Sir Evelyn Oakleigh. One passenger who is not on board is Snake Eyes Johnson, Public Enemy Number One, who missed the boat. He was to have sailed in the company of the Reverend Dr. (Moon-Face) Moon and Snake Eyes’s girlfriend, Miss Bonnie Letour. (Moon is Public Enemy Number 13, but wants to move up in the rankings. He and Bonnie are disguised as a minister and a missionary.)

Billy is just about to leave the ship when he spots his former taxi companion (and her fiancé). He makes a snap decision; he stays on board as a stowaway, and Moon offers Billy the empty berth in his cabin. The one drawback to Moon’s cabin is that it is directly across the hall from Whitney’s cabin—and of course Whitney thinks Billy is back in New York, handling his business affairs. To assist Billy, Moon steals Whitney’s glasses, but Billy still has a lot of dodging to do, and he spends much of the show in various disguises.

Billy proceeds to woo Hope vigorously, but he doesn’t realize that Hope is marrying Sir Evelyn in order to save her family’s firm. Billy asks Reno for help: will she try to lure Sir Evelyn away from his fiancée? Reno’s first effort—to create a situation in which it would appear that Sir Evelyn has compromised her—goes awry, but she continues her pursuit. Soon, she is able to report that she’s gotten Sir Evelyn to kiss her. At this rate, she may well end up a “Lady”—especially since this is an era in which “Anything Goes” (Musical Example 26). Meanwhile, the ship’s crew has seen through Billy’s first disguise (as a sailor), and his second disguise works only briefly. When he is unmasked yet again, the captain and passengers now believe that he is Snake Eyes Johnson—and Billy is startled to find that they’re treating “Public Enemy No. One” as a celebrity rather than as a criminal.

Since Billy (as “Snake Eyes”) identifies the “Reverend Dr.” Moon as a spiritual advisor who is trying to help him reform, the captain asks Moon to lead a revival meeting. Moon hears various passengers’ confessions—including an admission from Sir Evelyn that he has had a one-night stand with Plum Blossom, a young Chinese woman. Meanwhile, Hope knows that Billy is not Snake Eyes, and isn’t very impressed with his current ruse—so Billy confesses his identity to the ship’s passengers, and also reveals that Moon isn’t really a minister. The captain throws both Billy and Moon in the brig.

When the ship arrives in England, the wedding party makes its way to the Oakleigh estate—but the proceedings are interrupted by Moon, Billy, and Reno, now disguised in Chinese attire. Moon and Billy are “Plum Blossom’s” parents, and they claim that Sir Evelyn violated their daughter and needs to do the right thing by her now. They think that Sir Evelyn will break off his engagement with Hope, but Sir Evelyn’s Uncle Oakleigh offers a financial settlement instead, which Moon quickly accepts (to the disgust of his co-conspirators).

Billy then makes a discovery: it turns out that Hope’s family business is not in trouble; they’ve been misled by the scheming Uncle Oakleigh. If the merger goes through, Whitney’s business will be hurt, so Billy tells his boss the whole story. Whitney makes a large cash offer to buy Hope’s (solvent) company, which removes Sir Evelyn’s incentive to marry her. Things end very tidily for Billy and Hope and for Sir Evelyn and Reno; even Moon is able to swallow his dismay over being demoted from the Most Wanted list, thanks to the large check he still has from Uncle Oakleigh.

  • Block, Geoffrey. Enchanted Evenings: The Broadway Musical from Show Boat to Sondheim. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
  • Brahms, Caryl, and Ned Sherrin. Song By Song: The Lives and Work of 14 Great Lyric Writers. Egerton, Bolton, U.K.: Ross Anderson Publications, 1984.
  • Buckalew, Flora C. “Cole Porter’s Anything Goes: Its Making and Remaking.” Ph.D. thesis, Pennsylvania State University, 1995.
  • Citron, Stephen. The Musical From the Inside Out. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1992.
  • Eells, George. The Life That Late He Led: A Biography of Cole Porter. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1967.    
  • Gill, Brendan. Cole: a Biographical Essay. Edited by Robert Kimball. London: Michael Joseph, 1971.
  • Green, Stanley. Ring Bells, Sing Songs: Broadway Musicals of the 1930s. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1971.
  • Hischak, Thomas S. Word Crazy: Broadway Lyricists from Cohan to Sondheim. New York: Praeger, 1991.
  • Kimball, Robert, ed. The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1983.
  • Morley, Sheridan. Spread a Little Happiness: The First Hundred Years of the British Musical. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1987.
  • Skinner, Cornelia Otis. Life with Lindsay & Crouse. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976.
  • Steyn, Mark. Broadway Babies Say Goodnight: Musicals Then and Now. New York: Routledge, 1999.

Chapter 22 – New Achievements from Familiar Names: Rodgers and Hart, Irving Berlin

Musical Example 27 - Pal Joey - Richard Rodgers / Lorenz Hart, 1940 - “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered”

Online Plot Summary 22a: Pal Joey

The sordid tale that shocked 1940s audiences opens with a slick song-and-dance man, Joey Evans, auditioning to be Master of Ceremonies at a sleazy nightclub. Mike Spears, the owner, figures the glib Joey is the sort he can use, and Gladys Bumps, the club’s lead singer, shows Joey the ropes. Meanwhile, Joey uses his best pick-up line, “I Could Write a Book (About You),” on a young woman he spots on the street. Linda English is flattered by his attention, but she’s not really the type Joey is looking for—not only is she not wealthy, but she’s currently so poor that she’s sleeping on her brother’s couch.

Joey meets Linda again when she visits the nightclub with a boyfriend, but Mike tells Joey to pay attention instead to a wealthy society woman, Vera Simpson (Mrs. Simpson). The world-wise Vera knows Joey’s type too, and Joey knows she knows it, so he refuses to entertain her as Mike wishes, and Vera leaves in a huff at being ignored. Mike fires Joey, but Joey makes a bargain with him: if Vera’s not back in a night or two, then Joey will leave the job and forgo all salary. Mike, with nothing to lose, agrees to the bet. (During this altercation, Joey never notices that Linda has left the club, too.)

Joey loses the bet, for Vera never shows up. He tries calling Linda, but she hangs up on him. He then phones Vera, telling her that she cost him his job—and it’s not long until she is paying for his apartment, buying him clothes, and even setting him up in a nightclub of his own. She muses to herself that she’s “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” (Musical Example 27). She and Joey both know that their relationship is strictly physical, but he dreamily envisions the future nightclub.

Joey hires Gladys and other performers away from Mike to staff his new venture, “Chez Joey,” and he meets with a reporter who is covering the nightclub’s debut. Gladys persuades Joey to sign with an agent as well. Some time later, Linda arrives at the club with a C.O.D. package. While she’s waiting for payment, she overhears Gladys and the agent discussing a scheme to blackmail Vera by threatening to tell Mr. Simpson about the love nest Vera maintains for Joey. Linda immediately tells Vera and Joey about the plot. Vera is suspicious at first that Linda may want Joey for herself, but Linda is fully aware of Joey’s shortcomings—and isn’t interested. Vera thanks the younger woman for her warning and places a phone call to the police commissioner, who arrests the blackmailers when they show up. Vera knows that when things have gotten to this stage, it’s time to call the affair off. Joey is disconsolate at first, but soon he’s heard conning yet another young woman, telling her “I Could Write a Book.”

Musical Example 28 - Annie Get Your Gun - Irving Berlin / Irving Berlin, 1946 - “Anything You Can Do”

Online Plot Summary 22b: Annie Get Your Gun

Although it is a fictionalized story, Annie Get Your Gun is based on a real person, Annie Oakley, and the real “Wild West Show” she joined to display her marksmanship. The plot, set during America’s frontier era, opens in Cincinnati, Ohio. The advance man Charlie Davenport—the person who travels ahead of a troupe, arranging bookings and lodgings—tries to persuade hotel owner Mr. Wilson to board the company for free if the troupe’s sharpshooter, Frank Butler, can beat any local champion. Annie Oakley strides on stage; she has some game to sell, and Mr. Wilson is impressed with her clean shooting. Here is a woman who might win the bet for him, and Annie is happy to be his champion.

Before the shooting contest, Annie brags to a handsome stranger about the challenge. She’s very attracted to him, but his dream woman is nothing at all like tomboyish Annie. She’s startled to learn that the stranger is Frank himself (but not so shaken up that she loses her shooting eye). After she wins the contest, Charlie wants to add her to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show as Frank’s partner. Frank refuses until Annie begs to be merely his assistant, and Charlie, Frank, and Buffalo Bill celebrate by observing, “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” Only Dolly, Frank’s former assistant, is unhappy.

All goes smoothly enough for a time, and Frank even starts planning to propose to Annie, until she accidentally makes Frank feel upstaged by performing a challenging stunt on a motorcycle. Dolly’s also angry with Annie, for Annie helped Winnie (Dolly’s daughter) to marry Tommy, another member of the troupe. In a temper, Frank announces that he is joining Pawnee Bill’s show, a rival enterprise, where he’ll perform his old act with Dolly. The only bright spot is that Chief Sitting Bull—who had been featured in Pawnee Bill’s show—is intrigued with Annie to the point that he joins Buffalo Bill’s show as a financial backer (despite his long-standing personal rules to the contrary!).

Time passes, and the Wild West Show returns from a triumphant tour of Europe—triumphant in the sense that they were greatly admired, but disastrous financially. All they have to show for their efforts is a chest of glittering medals Annie has earned with her shooting. What is worse, when they reach New York, they learn that Pawnee Bill’s show is currently playing at Madison Square Garden, where it is the toast of the town.

Sitting Bull has an idea: even though Pawnee Bill’s show is getting the attention, Buffalo Bill’s show has the better acts; the two shows should merge to create one great powerhouse. (Annie is delighted at the idea, as long as she gets to merge with Frank.) Pawnee Bill is surprisingly amenable to the proposal, but his willingness is explained when it turns out his finances are in equally poor shape. In fact, the only way to save the two shows is to sell off Annie’s medals. She’s willing, but she’s proud of her success, and she wants Frank to see her wearing them first.

When she and Frank are reunited, he exhibits his previous tenderness for her; in fact, he wants to give her, as a gift, the three medals he’s won for his shooting. Annie opens her coat to display the vast array of medals she’s already earned herself—and Frank feels upstaged all over again. Instantly, the merger is off (and the romance), but a new shooting match is proposed: Annie versus Frank, to determine who really is the best shot, with her chest of medals staked against the three belonging to him.

Dolly arrives at the contest location early the next morning, intent on sabotaging Annie’s guns. She’s caught by Sitting Bull and Charlie, but after she leaves, they get to thinking: Frank’s pride is the crux of the matter; he just can’t tolerate losing to Annie. If she should win, there’s simply no chance of a merger. They happily complete the sabotage that Dolly had not finished.

Annie and Frank taunt each other at the start of the match, trash-talking by means of Musical Example 28, “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better).” But Annie’s shooting is wildly off target—and Frank’s cheerfulness and affection toward her increases accordingly. Annie asks for a replacement gun, and her score improves dramatically, but Chief Sitting Bull feels compelled to intervene. He hands her the first (sabotaged) weapon, telling her, pointedly, that she can get a man with a gun, if she uses this gun.

The truth dawns on Annie, and, using her initial rifle, she resumes missing the target as she had before—but she does so with a light heart now. She cheerfully delivers the medals to Frank after he wins the competition. It is agreed that the proceeds from the medals will fund a new combined Wild West show that will star the world’s best sharp-shooting team: Mr. and Mrs. Frank Butler.

  • Abbott, George. Mister Abbott. New York: Random House, 1963.
  • Barrett, Mary Ellin. Irving Berlin: A Daughter’s Memoir. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
  • Bergreen, Laurence. As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin. New York: Penguin Books, 1990.
  • Berman, Marshall. On the Town: One Hundred Years of Spectacle in Times Square. 2nd ed. London: Verso, 2009.
  • Block, Geoffrey. Enchanted Evenings: The Broadway Musical from Show Boat to Sondheim. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
  • Buckalew, Flora C. “Cole Porter’s Anything Goes: Its Making and Remaking.” Ph.D. thesis, Pennsylvania State University, 1995.
  • Donovan, Timothy P. “Annie Get Your Gun: A Last Celebration of Nationalism.” Journal of Popular Culture 12, no. 3 (Winter 1978): 531–539.
  • Engel, Lehman. This Bright Day: An Autobiography. New York: Macmillan, 1974.
  • Engel, Lehman. Words with Music. New York: Schirmer Books, 1972.
  • Fordin, Hugh. Getting to Know Him: A Biography of Oscar Hammerstein II. New York: Random House, 1977.
  • Forte, Allen. The American Popular Ballad of the Golden Era, 1924–1950. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.
  • Gaver, Jack. Curtain Calls. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1949.
  • Harrison, John. “Pal Joey Meets More Than His Match.” Journal of Popular Culture 12, no. 3 (Winter 1978): 526–530.
  • Hart, Dorothy, ed. Thou Swell, Thou Witty: The Life and Lyrics of Lorenz Hart. New York: Harper & Row, 1976.
  • Hart, Dorothy, and Robert Kimball, eds. The Complete Lyrics of Lorenz Hart. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1987.
  • Hyland, William G. Richard Rodgers. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1998.
  • Magee, Jeffrey. Irving Berlin’s American Musical Theater. Broadway Legacies, edited by Geoffrey Block. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  • Marx, Samuel, and Jan Clayton. Rodgers and Hart: Bewitched, Bothered and Bedeviled. London: W. H. Allen, 1977.
  • Maslon, Laurence. Broadway: The American Musical. Updated and Revised. Milwaukee: Applause Theatre and Cinema Books, 2010.
  • Nolan, Frederick. Lorenz Hart: A Poet on Broadway. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
  • Rodgers, Richard. Musical Stages: An Autobiography. New York: Da Capo Press, 1995.
  • Secrest, Meryle. Somewhere for Me: A Biography of Richard Rodgers. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
  • Taylor, Deems. Some Enchanted Evenings: The Story of Rodgers and Hammerstein. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953. Reprinted Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1972.         

Chapter 23 – A Cole Porter Renaissance and the Rise of Recognition

Musical Example 29 - Kiss Me, Kate - Cole Porter / Cole Porter, 1948 - “I Hate Men”

Online Plot Summary 23: Kiss Me, Kate

Kiss Me, Kate’s title comes from the last scene of Shakespeare’s comedy The Taming of the Shrew, when Petruchio bids his newly cooperative wife Katherine to embrace him. Petruchio had wagered that he could bend the independent Kate to his will, and their power struggle is the source of most of the play’s humor. The premise of Kiss Me, Kate is that The Taming of the Shrew has been adapted as a musical for a theatrical company headed by Fred Graham. Fred’s ex-wife Lilli Vanessi plays Katherine; Lois Lane plays Bianca, Katherine’s sister; and Bill Calhoun plays Lucentino, who loves Bianca.

The relationships are less tidy backstage. Since her divorce from Fred, Lilli has met the politician Harrison Howell, who is a backer of the new show. Fred, meanwhile, has grown interested in Lois. Lois, however, loves Bill, and Bill, sadly, loves gambling. The story opens in Baltimore, where the last rehearsals of the new musical are underway. After rehearsal, Lois goes looking for Bill, who had missed the curtain call practice (in which the order of the bows at the end of the show is worked out). Lois learns that Bill has run up a $10,000 gambling debt (and signed Fred’s name to the I.O.U.!).

Lilli, meanwhile, engages in a verbal sparring match with Fred. Gradually, though, they stop sniping at each other and begin to reminisce about an old operetta in which they had appeared years before. They are interrupted by two Mob-like heavies, who jabber at Fred about a $10,000 I.O.U. He’s mystified by their visit, so they decide to give him a little more time to “remember,” thinking this will intimidate him; they promise to return later. Fred’s problems grow a little worse when Lilli receives a good-luck bouquet from him—he had intended it for Lois, but it was misdelivered. Since it uses the same flowers that had been used in Lilli’s wedding bouquet, she thinks it’s a gesture toward reconciliation.

The story switches to the actors’ portrayal of the Shakespearean adaptation. Bianca is wooed by multiple suitors, but she cannot marry until her older sister Katherine is wed. Unfortunately for Bianca, Katherine makes it clear that she’s not interested in her suitor Petruchio—or anyone else—in “I Hate Men” (Musical Example 29). But a problem develops: while Lilli was offstage between scenes, she read the card addressed to Lois within the bouquet. When she re-enters the stage as Katherine, she’s in a rage and assaults Fred (playing Petruchio) in every way she can manage. When he, in return, gives her the spanking called for in the Shakespeare play, it’s delivered with a nontheatrical intensity.

The explosion of onstage violence was not enough to let Lilli vent her outrage; she telephones Harrison to tell him she’s quitting the theater and wants to marry him immediately. Fred desperately tries to stop her, for the show must go on, but she’s too angry to listen. During the argument, the two gangsters reappear, still talking about a $10,000 debt. Fred has an idea; he decides to “confess” to the I.O.U., but tells the two bill collectors that he can’t pay up until the show has earned the money through ticket sales, which may take most of the week. However, Fred lets them in on the secret that Lilli is walking out. If she leaves, Fred won’t be able to raise the funds they want. Alarmed at this prospect, the gangsters decide to go “persuade” Lilli to stay with the show. Disguised as members of the chorus, they drag her onstage to force her through the marriage scene with Petruchio. The audience, knowing that Katherine is supposed to be an unwilling bride, thinks nothing is amiss.

Backstage, Harrison has arrived, and Fred gets him aside to tell him a series of believable half-truths. When Lilli complains about being kept prisoner, Harrison humors her but doesn’t believe her—thereby adding to her vexation with Fred. Unexpectedly, the situation changes: thanks to a gangland power coup, the goons have lost their boss. The I.O.U. is now worthless, and Fred is free—and so is Lilli. She marches off to a taxi. The gangsters accidentally end up onstage, in front of the audience that has been waiting patiently; the two heavies leap into a spontaneous rendition of “Brush Up Your Shakespeare.” At last the curtain rises, since Fred has decided to take the play through as far as he can, even without Lilli. To all the actors’ surprise, however, Kate makes her expected entrance to deliver the “Women Are So Simple” speech, and both the onstage and backstage stories end with Lilli in Fred’s arms.

  • Atkinson, Brooks. Broadway. Revised Edition. New York: Limelight Editions, 1974.
  • Block, Geoffrey. Enchanted Evenings: The Broadway Musical from Show Boat to Sondheim. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
  • Eells, George. The Life That Late He Led: A Biography of Cole Porter. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1967.    
  • Gaver, Jack. Curtain Calls. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1949.
  • Gill, Brendan. Cole: A Biographical Essay. Edited by Robert Kimball. London: Michael Joseph, 1971.
  • Kimball, Robert, ed. The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1983.
  • Kraut, Anthea. Choreographing Copyright: Race, Gender, and Intellectual Property Rights in American Dance. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
  • Morrow, Lee Alan. The Tony Award Book: Four Decades of Great American Theater. New York: Abbeville Press, 1987.
  • Rosenberg, Bernard, and Ernest Harburg. The Broadway Musical: Collaboration in Commerce and Art. New York: New York University Press, 1993.
  • Schwartz, Charles. Cole Porter: A Biography. New York: The Dial Press, 1977.
  • Stevenson, Isabelle. The Tony Award: A Complete Listing with a History of the American Theatre Wing. New York: Arno Press, 1975.
  • Swain, Joseph P. The Broadway Musical: A Critical and Musical Survey. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Chapter 24 – Politics and Social Commentary

Musical Example 30 - The Threepenny Opera - Kurt Weill / Bertolt Brecht, 1928 - “The Ballad of Mack the Knife (Moritat)”

Online Plot Summary 24: The Threepenny Opera

Most of The Threepenny Opera’s characters are familiar names from The Beggar’s Opera, but some of their roles have changed: Macheath is now the leader of the London underworld of the nineteenth century, while Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum equips beggars with pitiful-looking accessories to increase their “earnings” (which must then be shared with Peachum). The Brecht-Weill version opens in a Soho street fair, with various beggars, criminals, and prostitutes milling around while a ballad singer relates Macheath’s dreadful activities in a song called “The Ballad of Mack the Knife” (Musical Example 30). Afterward, in Peachum’s shop, he and his wife are dismayed to learn that their daughter Polly has been seeing Macheath.

Meanwhile, Macheath is redecorating a stable with stolen furnishings in preparation for his marriage to Polly, even if she is unenthusiastic about the venue as a wedding location. During the celebration, London’s chief of police, Tiger Brown, arrives; he and Macheath, it seems, are old army buddies, and are now involved in various intrigues.

When the Peachums learn about the marriage (and about the police chief’s unsavory association with Macheath), Polly’s father is determined to see Macheath arrested. Polly warns her new husband about the danger, but Macheath’s fondness for the ladies proves to be his downfall. On his way out of town, he stops by a brothel where he always visits the prostitute Jenny. However, Mrs. Peachum has bribed Jenny to betray Macheath. He is arrested and jailed.

The police chief’s daughter, Lucy, is the mistress of the jail—and she is also another love interest of Macheath’s. When Polly arrives to visit her imprisoned husband, the two women sing an angry “Jealousy Duet.” Polly’s mother drags her away from the prison. After a little sweet-talking from Macheath, who denies his marriage to Polly, Lucy arranges for Macheath to escape.

Macheath is not on the loose for long; Peachum has galvanized Tiger Brown into action by threatening to lead the beggars of London in a public disturbance during the upcoming royal coronation. And once more, Macheath’s sexual appetite trips him up; he is again betrayed by Jenny because she is upset to find him visiting a rival prostitute, Suky Tawdry. After his re-arrest, Macheath is sentenced to hang. But, suddenly, the Queen’s Messenger rides in on a horse, announcing that Macheath is pardoned—because of the civic celebrations for the coronation, convicted criminals are being granted amnesty. In fact, Macheath is elevated into the British peerage and given a castle. Peachum concludes the story by drily commenting, “Mounted messengers from the Queen come far too seldom, and if you kick a man he kicks you back again. Therefore never be too eager to combat injustice.”

  • Aldrich, Richard Stoddard. Gertrude Lawrence as Mrs. A: An Intimate Biography of the Great Star. New York: Greystone Press, 1954.
  • Brecht, Bertolt. Plays. Volume I. London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1961.
  • Drew, David. Kurt Weill: A Handbook. London: Faber & Faber, 1987.
  • Hinton, Stephen, ed. Kurt Weill: The Threepenny Opera. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
  • Houseman, John. Run-Through: A Memoir. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972.
  • Jarman, Douglas. Kurt Weill: An Illustrated Biography. London: Orbis Publishing, 1982.
  • McHugh, Dominic. “‘I’ll Never Know Exactly Who Did What’: Broadway Composers as Musical Collaborators.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 68, no. 3 (Fall 2015): 605–652.
  • McNeil, Donald G., Jr. “New Show Is First Not to Have to Pay Idle Musicians.” The New York Times, 8 February 1995.
  • Meffe, Robert. “How Many Musicians Does It Take? A History and Analysis of the Shrinking Broadway Pit Orchestra.” Studies in Musical Theatre 5, no. 1 (2011): 99–115.
  • Miller, Scott. Strike Up the Band: A New History of Musical Theatre. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2007.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Anything Goes: A History of American Musical Theatre. London: Oxford University Press, 2013.
  • Mulder, Catherine P. Unions and Class Transformation: The Case of the Broadway Musicians. New Political Economy. New York: Routledge, 2009.
  • Quinn, Susan. Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made High Art out of Desperate Times. New York: Walker & Co., 2008.
  • Roth, Marc A. “Kurt Weill and Broadway Opera.” In Loney, Musical Theatre in America; 267–272.
  • Sanders, Ronald. The Days Grow Short: The Life and Music of Kurt Weill. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1980.
  • Schebera, Jürgen. Kurt Weill: An Illustrated Life. Translated by Caroline Murphy. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1995.

Chapter 25 – Rodgers and Hammerstein: Oklahoma!

Musical Example 31 - Oklahoma! - Richard Rodgers / Oscar Hammerstein II, 1943 - “Pore Jud is Daid”

Online Plot Summary 25: Oklahoma!

Even though there had been occasional shows that bucked tradition, when the opening curtain began to rise at a musical, most audiences would expect to see a large-scale production number featuring the entire cast (and especially leggy chorus girls). Therefore, the opening of Oklahoma! must have come as quite a surprise: Aunt Eller stands alone on stage, quietly churning butter. Then, offstage, “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” begins, and it’s a solo song rather than an ensemble number for the chorus.

The singer is the cowboy Curly, who has come to Aunt Eller’s farmhouse in the Oklahoma territory to ask Laurey, Eller’s niece, to go with him to the box social that evening. (Besides dancing, box socials feature an auction that is a type of dating ritual. The women of the community prepare box dinners, and when a man is the highest bidder for a particular picnic basket, he can share the meal with the woman who prepared it.) Laurey has no interest in riding on the back of Curly’s horse, but Curly enchants her with a description of “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top.” Therefore, Laurey is outraged to hear Curly say that he invented the whole thing, so to spite Curly, she agrees to go to the social with the farmhand Jud Fry. Since Curly actually had hired a comfortable surrey, he invites Aunt Eller to come with him.

It seems that things are looking better for the lovelife of another cowhand, Will Parker. He won $50 in a steer-roping contest, so now he intends to propose to Ado Annie Carnes, since her father had said Will could marry her if he ever scraped together $50. Unfortunately, Will spent the entire $50 on gifts for his friends back home, so his matrimonial prospects are dim all over again. To make matters worse, while Will was gone, Ado Annie had been flirting with the peddler Ali Hakim. Eventually, her father—catching them at it—insists that Ali marry Ado Annie (with Mr. Carnes’s shotgun reinforcing his argument).

Aunt Eller’s farmhouse is a convenient stop for freshening up before journeying on to the box social at the Skidmore ranch, so Laurey has to watch her neighbor Gertie Cummings flirt with Curly. Laurey finds herself alone with him, but neither of them is willing to admit his or her attraction to the other. Nevertheless, Curly makes a trip over to the smokehouse, which Jud uses as his lodging. Curly tries to convince Jud in “Pore Jud is Daid” (Musical Example 31) that if Jud were to commit suicide, all the people of the neighborhood would weep and wail and regret treating Jud badly. Although Jud is temporarily mesmerized by this vision, he comes to his senses before actually hanging himself, and the two men proceed to quarrel over Laurey.

Ali shows his wares to Jud, but Jud wants a “little wonder”—a vicious trick viewing device with a knife in it, and Ali doesn’t sell that sort of thing. Ali does sell a bottle of smelling salts to Laurey. She sniffs the salts and begins to dream. She sees what her subconscious mind is fearing: Jud attacks and vanquishes Curly, and then carries her off. When she awakens, both men are waiting for her, but Jud grabs her arm. Fearful that he might hurt Curly, she does not resist, and Jud leads her away.

The second act opens with a rousing square dance at the box social. Meanwhile, Ali has an idea; he starts to buy Will’s presents so that Will can once again have the $50 he needs to woo his bride. One of Will’s purchases was a “little wonder.” Ali doesn’t want the dangerous device, but Jud buys it. Will once again has the cash he needs to satisfy Ado Annie’s father. But, when Ado Annie’s basket comes up for auction, Will bids excitedly; after all, he has $50 to spend. Ali reluctantly bids $51, unable to think of any other way for the cowboy to keep his “bridal stake.” Will eventually does claim his bride, but Ali finds himself married to Gertie Cummings before the show is over.

During another round of bidding, it looks as if Jud will win Laurey’s basket, but Curly throws in his saddle, then his horse, and finally his gun, and wins the auction. Jud then tries to get Curly to examine the “little wonder,” but the unsuspecting Curly is saved when Aunt Eller wants to dance. Jud later gets Laurey alone, but she struggles free and tells him he’s fired from his job as their farmhand. Curly comes looking for her, and Laurey is at last ready to accept his proposal of marriage.

But Jud’s not defeated yet. After the wedding, when friends of the newlyweds have come to interrupt their wedding night with a noisy serenade (sometimes known as a shivaree), Jud attacks Curly. In the ensuing struggle, Jud is killed by his own knife. The assembled friends serve as jurors at a remarkably speedy trial, determining that the death was caused in self-defense. Curly and Laurey celebrate their union while the territory residents also rejoice in the admission of the new state of Oklahoma into a larger union.

  • [Anon.] Rodgers and Hammerstein. Josef Weinberger Music Theatre Handbook 5. London: Josef Weinberger Ltd., 1992.
  • Bell, Marty. Broadway Stories: A Backstage Journey through Musical Theatre. New York: Limelight, 1993. Reprinted as Backstage on Broadway: Musicals and their Makers. London: Nick Hern Books, 1994.
  • Carter, Tim. Oklahoma!: The Making of an American Musical. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.
  • De Mille, Agnes. Dance to the Piper. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Paperback ed. New York: Bantam Pathfinder Editions, 1964.
  • _______. And Promenade Home. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1959.
  • Easton, Carol. No Intermission: The Life of Agnes de Mille. New York: Little, Brown, 1996.
  • Engel, Lehman. Words with Music. New York: Schirmer Books, 1972.
  • Feuer, Jane. The Hollywood Musical. 2nd ed. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1993.
  • Fordin, Hugh. Getting to Know Him: A Biography of Oscar Hammerstein II. New York: Random House, 1977.
  • Goldstein, Richard M. “‘I Enjoy Being a Girl’: Women in the Plays of Rodgers and Hammerstein.” Popular Music and Society 13, no. 1 (1989): 1–8.
  • Grant, Mark N. The Rise and Fall of the Broadway Musical. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2004.
  • Green, Stanley, ed. Rodgers and Hammerstein Fact Book: A Record of Their Works Together and with Other Collaborators. New York: The Lynn Farnol Group, Inc., 1980.
  • Hammerstein, Oscar, II. Lyrics. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Books, 1985.
  • Hyland, William G. Richard Rodgers. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1998.
  • Kislan, Richard. Hoofing on Broadway: A History of Show Dancing. New York: Prentice Hall, 1987.
  • _______. Nine Musical Plays of Rodgers and Hammerstein: A Critical Study in Content and Form. Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1970.
  • Knapp, Ray. The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.
  • Kraut, Anthea. Choreographing Copyright: Race, Gender, and Intellectual Property Rights in American Dance. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
  • Langner, Lawrence. The Magic Curtain: The Story of a Life in Two Fields, Theatre and Invention, by the Founder of the Theatre Guild. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1951. London: George G. Harrap and Co. Ltd., 1952.
  • Malone, Jacqui. Steppin’ on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African American Dance. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Beautiful Mornin’: The Broadway Musical in the 1940s. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
  • _______. Rodgers and Hammerstein. New York: Abrams, 1992.
  • Nolan, Frederick. The Sound of Their Music: The Story of Rodgers and Hammerstein. New York: Walker & Company, 1978.
  • Riggs, Lynn. Green Grow the Lilacs: A Play. New York: Samuel French, 1931.
  • Rodgers, Richard. Musical Stages: An Autobiography. New York: Da Capo Press, 1995.
  • Rogers, Bradley. “Redressing The Black Crook: The Dancing Tableau of Melodrama.” Modern Drama 55, no. 4 (Winter 2012): 476–96.
  • Secrest, Meryle. Somewhere for Me: A Biography of Richard Rodgers. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
  • Taylor, Deems. Some Enchanted Evenings: The Story of Rodgers and Hammerstein. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953. Reprinted: Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1972.
  • Wilk, Max. OK! The Story of “Oklahoma!” New York: Grove Press, 1993.
  • Young-Gerber, Christine. “‘Attention must be paid’, cried the balladeer: The concept musical defined.” Studies in Musical Theatre 4, no. 3 (2010): 331–342.

Chapter 26 – Rodgers and Hammerstein: Carousel and South Pacific

Musical Example 32 - Carousel - Richard Rodgers / Oscar Hammerstein II, 1945 - “What’s the Use of Wond’rin’?”

Online Plot Summary 26a: Carousel

Carousel’s unusual opening is a pantomimed waltz depicting the meeting of the two lovers-to-be, Julie Jordan and Billy Bigelow, at the carnival carousel where Billy works as a “barker,” encouraging potential customers to climb aboard. The carousel owner, Mrs. Mullin, is jealous of the attention her handsome barker is giving to Julie, a mill worker from a small New England town who is visiting the carnival with a coworker, Carrie Pipperidge. When Mrs. Mullin tries to interfere, Billy reacts angrily, so Mrs. Mullin fires him. Julie is horrified that Billy has lost his job on her account, so when he asks her to meet him, she readily agrees—even though she will miss her curfew at the dormitory where she stays with the other mill workers. Her boss, Mr. Bascombe, has no patience for what he regards as young women with loose morals, so Julie is soon out of a job as well.

Unlike Carrie, engaged to an upstanding fisherman named Enoch Snow, Julie has never shown interest in marriage. Billy is intrigued by this attitude and asks her if she would marry him. Julie replies that she would wed him only “If I Loved You.” Soon enough, though, Julie and Billy become husband and wife. Their ensuing life together is far from happily-ever-after, for Billy has no luck finding a job. He grows surlier and surlier, finally striking Julie after picking a quarrel. People think even less of Billy after word gets around that he’s a wife-beater, but they do nothing about it. Meanwhile, Carrie and Mr. Snow look forward to their own marriage.

Billy is feeling pressured on three fronts. He’s been idling away the hours with a known troublemaker, Jigger Craigin, who has cooked up a scheme to rob the mill owner, and Jigger wants Billy’s help. Also, Mrs. Mullin has offered Billy his old job back, and he is tempted by the thought of his carefree days as a barker—but Mrs. Mullin wants a bachelor; he must leave Julie to return to his former career. But Julie’s news for Billy is the biggest pressure of all: she’s going to have a baby. Billy is both thrilled and panicked by his impending fatherhood, and in the course of a dramatic “Soliloquy,” he determines that he’ll have to help Jigger with his plan, since he’ll need money to raise a child.

The second act opens with the community busying itself with a clambake and scavenger hunt. During the evening, Jigger has tricked the naïve Carrie into an embrace, and her fiancé Mr. Snow is outraged when he discovers them. Carrie is distraught, fearing her engagement may be broken, but Julie tries to be philosophical about relationships, asking Carrie, “What’s the Use of Wond’rin’?” (Musical Example 32). At the start of the treasure hunt, Julie is hurt when Billy teams up with Jigger rather than her, and she’s even more upset when she feels a hidden knife in his shirt. Billy shoves her aside and heads off with Jigger. They’re not going to the treasure hunt, however; this is the night that they plan to rob the mill owner of his payroll.

Things go awry fairly quickly, for their knives are no match for Bascombe’s gun. Jigger escapes, but Bascombe keeps his weapon pointed at Billy while waiting for the police. Billy can’t face the horror of a life in prison, so he stabs himself. Julie arrives as his life ebbs away, and he tries to explain to her what he had wanted to accomplish. Julie tells him what she’d always been too shy to say—that she loves him—but it is too late; she is now a widow.

Julie feels lost, but knows that she must keep her head up for the sake of her unborn child. She’s encouraged by her cousin Nettie Fowler, who insists, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Billy, in the meantime, meets the heavenly Starkeeper, who tells him that he can’t enter heaven without more good deeds to his credit. Billy can attempt to redeem himself by returning to earth for one day; this will give him the chance to put right some of his misdeeds.

Heavenly time moves at a different pace than that of the earth, and Billy’s child Louise is fifteen years old and ready to graduate from school by the time Billy returns. Her life has been unhappy and lonely; in an extended dance, she depicts the miseries of a child who has been shunned all her life because her father was a criminal who committed suicide. Billy tries to tell her good things about her father; he’s also brought her a gift of a star from heaven. But Louise is suspicious of this stranger and refuses the gift. Frustrated, Billy hits her, just as he had hit her mother. Louise runs to Julie for comfort, and even though Julie can’t hear Billy, she finds the abandoned star and seems to understand his message.

During the graduation ceremony, it is as if the speaker is talking to Louise personally: “I can’t tell you any sure way to happiness. All I know is you got to go out and find it fer yourselves. You can’t lean on the success of your parents. That’s their success. And don’t be held back by their failures! Makes no difference what they did or didn’t do. You jest stand on yer own two feet.” The wise old speaker bears an uncanny resemblance to the Starkeeper, and it is no surprise that the “magic” of Carousel occurs at this point. After listening to the speech, the girl sitting next to Louise reaches out to her with a hug, and, by sheer willpower, Billy helps his daughter to believe the doctor’s message. He is also finally able to say to Julie that he loved her. In the process, Billy at last finds his own road to redemption.

Musical Example 33 - South Pacific - Richard Rodgers / Oscar Hammerstein II, 1949 - “Bali Ha’i”

Online Plot Summary 26b: South Pacific

Although South Pacific is set against the backdrop of World War II’s Pacific theater, the story is actually centered on two relationships and the role that prejudice plays in keeping people unhappy. The young nurse Nellie Forbush is stationed at a naval base on a South Pacific island, and she is increasingly attracted to Émile de Becque, a suave, older Frenchman who owns a local plantation. She’s beginning to believe she wants to marry this man. Later, though, she discovers that he has been married before—to a deceased Polynesian wife who bore him two children. Nellie had thought that the children were the offspring of a servant, and she is brought up short by the prejudice she feels against people of color; she simply can’t conceive of becoming the stepmother to these mixed-race children.

A second troubled relationship develops after Lt. Joe Cable arrives at the base. He meets a native entrepreneur, Bloody Mary, and she immediately pegs Joe as the right man for her daughter Liat. Mary describes the lovely island of “Bali Ha’i” (Musical Example 33), hoping to lure the young Marine to her home. The enterprising sailor Luther Billis quickly volunteers to help Joe get to the island, since Luther knows that he can purchase native goods there cheaply. Mary’s intuition is proved correct: Joe and Liat feel an immediate spark that is not hampered by the lack of a common language.

Joe’s purpose for coming to the naval base is more complicated, however. The military commanders want to station a man on an island overlooking a channel used by the Japanese navy. This spy can radio back to them about the movements of the Japanese fleet. It will be a dangerous assignment, and Joe wants to meet with Émile de Becque, since Émile knows the islands well. In fact, Joe would like Émile to go with him on this hazardous mission. Émile refuses, however, because of the danger; he is on the brink of a new partnership with Nellie, and doesn’t want to risk his life.

Matters come to a head on the night of the Thanksgiving Follies, which Nellie and the other nurses are presenting to the enlisted men. Bloody Mary is pressuring Joe to marry Liat, and he refuses, believing that he can’t bring a wife of another race home to his family in the United States. Angrily, Mary tells Joe that she will therefore force Liat to marry an old wealthy planter who will beat her, and she drags her daughter away. Meanwhile, Nellie refuses Émile’s proposal of marriage, saying that she can’t overcome the prejudice that was born in her. In frustration, Émile turns to Joe, saying he doesn’t believe that such feelings are born in people. Joe agrees with Émile; he exclaims that prejudice must be “Carefully Taught.” Angry with himself for having been too weak to stand up against prejudice, he decides that he will marry Liat after his mission is over. Émile, on the other hand, feels he has lost everything, and he is now willing to go on the dangerous mission.

The two men are delivered safely to their hiding place and succeed in transmitting a great deal of valuable information. Nellie, while nursing wounded men, hears that the Frenchman is involved in the mission. The base commander allows her to listen in on the next radio broadcast, but they are all dismayed at Émile’s report: Joe has been killed by enemy fire. Even as they listen, Émile is cut off.

Stunned, Nellie walks along the beach, cursing her stupid prejudice, only to encounter a distraught Bloody Mary and Liat. Liat absolutely refuses to marry the planter; she wants no one but Joe Cable. Nellie is heartsick and can only embrace Liat wordlessly. Nellie then comes to a decision: no one knows if Émile is alive or dead, and his children—no matter what their race—are alone. She goes to his home to care for them, and while singing a simple French tune with them, a fourth voice joins in: it is Émile, battered but safely returned.

  • Block, Geoffrey. Richard Rodgers. Yale Broadway Masters, ed. Geoffrey Block. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003.
  • Citron, Stephen. The Musical From the Inside Out. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1992.   
  • Easton, Carol. No Intermission: The Life of Agnes de Mille. New York: Little, Brown, 1996.
  • Flinn, Denny Martin. Musical!: A Grand Tour. New York: Schirmer Books, 1997.
  • Fordin, Hugh. Getting to Know Him: A Biography of Oscar Hammerstein II. New York: Random House, 1977.
  • Gaver, Jack. Curtain Calls. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1949.
  • Hammerstein, Oscar, II. Lyrics. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Books, 1985.
  • Horowitz, Mark Eden. Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Decisions. 2nd ed. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2010.
  • Hyland, William G. Richard Rodgers. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1998.
  • Kislan, Richard. Nine Musical Plays of Rodgers and Hammerstein: A Critical Study in Content and Form. Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1970.
  • Laufe, Abe. Broadway’s Greatest Musicals. New, illustrated, revised edition. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1977.
  • Lovensheimer, Jim. South Pacific: Paradise Rewritten. Broadway Legacies, edited by Geoffrey Block. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
  • Martin, Mary. My Heart Belongs. New York: William Morrow, 1976. London: Q. H. Allen, 1977.
  • Maslon, Laurence. The South Pacific Companion. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Anything Goes: A History of American Musical Theatre. London: Oxford University Press, 2013.
  • _______. Rodgers and Hammerstein. New York: Abrams, Inc., 1992.
  • Rishoi, Niel. “Carousel, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Operatic Musical.” The Opera Quarterly 18, no. 4 (Autumn 2002): 534–54.
  • Nolan, Frederick. The Sound of Their Music: The Story of Rodgers and Hammerstein. New York: Walker & Company, 1978.
  • Rodgers, Richard. Musical Stages: An Autobiography. New York: Da Capo Press, 1995.
  • Secrest, Meryle. Somewhere for Me: A Biography of Richard Rodgers. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
  • Sondheim, Stephen. Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954–1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010.
  • Steyn, Mark. Broadway Babies Say Goodnight: Musicals Then and Now. New York: Routledge, 1999.
  • Suskin, Steven. Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway’s Major Composers. Revised and Expanded 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
  • Swain, Joseph P. The Broadway Musical: A Critical and Musical Survey. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Chapter 27 – Rodgers and Hammerstein: The King and I and The Sound of Music

Musical Example 34 - The King and I - Richard Rodgers / Oscar Hammerstein II, 1951 - “Hello, Young Lovers”

Online Plot Summary 27a: The King and I

A ship has just docked in nineteenth-century Bangkok, where Englishwoman Anna Leonowens is to work as governess to the children of the King of Siam. As soon as she and her son Louis land, though, Anna learns that not everything is as she hoped. The Kralahome (the prime minister) informs her she is to live in the palace, even though her contract said she would have her own house. She wants to take the matter up with the King, only to find that she is not allowed to meet him—or her future pupils—for many weeks. Meanwhile, Lun Tha has escorted the beautiful Tuptim as a gift to the Siamese king from the prince of Burma. Sadly, though, Tuptim and Lun Tha have fallen in love during their journey.

Anna is at last introduced to the King, only to find that he is a cyclone of energy and she has no opportunity to speak to him at all. The King’s chief wife, Lady Thiang, explains the King’s exalted position to Anna. In Lady Thiang’s view, for instance, Tuptim should be delighted to have become one of the King’s possessions. Anna’s not convinced; she muses about her sympathy for the unhappy couple, and then remembers her own happiness with her husband in “Hello, Young Lovers” (Musical Example 34). She is soon distracted by the myriad of royal children who are to become her students.

In a gradual way, Anna’s instruction of these children starts to undermine the palace’s status quo. The King wants his children to be well educated, but the more they learn about the wide world beyond Siam’s borders, the more his position as absolute monarch is threatened. Matters come to a head when Anna presses the King on the issue of her house; when he calls her a servant, she is determined to leave Siam. Her departure would be disastrous for Lun Tha and Tuptim, for Anna has been helping the lovers to meet secretly. Moreover, Siam is threatened by an imperialist Britain, which regards the country as barbaric and in need of British stewardship. Lady Thiang pleads with Anna to stay and help the King with the delicate diplomatic measures needed to stave off this foreign encroachment

Anna recognizes the King’s great need and agrees to do her best. She helps the King to come up with a lavish plan to host the English ambassador Sir Edward Ramsay when he visits, so the diplomat will see how civilized Siam is becoming. The King leads the court in praying to Buddha for success in their endeavor; in a subtle thank-you gesture to Anna, he promises Buddha to build Anna’s bungalow.

The second act opens with the King’s wives marveling at their new voluminous hoop skirts. Despite the inevitable gaffes, the diplomat’s arrival goes smoothly enough. Trouble is brewing behind the scenes, though. Tuptim is making desperate plans to escape with Lun Tha, after narrating an entertainment which itself is a bit dangerous for her; it is a danced pantomime of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s antislavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which the Siamese call “The Small House of Uncle Thomas.” Tuptim finds it hard to control her emotions as she recounts the sad tale of the slave separated from her lover. Nevertheless, the show goes well, and the King is happy that his guests have been entertained.

The King is much less happy, however, when he gets the news that Tuptim has escaped. He is soon distracted by a freewheeling conversation with Anna that climaxes when she asks him to dance, demonstrating the English polka. The mood is broken when the Kralahome announces that the runaway lovers have been stopped; Lun Tha was killed in the escape, and Tuptim has been captured. Anna tries to protect Tuptim from punishment, but the King won’t listen to her. Angrily, Anna accuses him of not understanding how the lovers felt, since he has never loved anyone himself—he has no heart. The King is furious with Anna, and he picks up a whip to punish Tuptim personally—but finds he cannot beat the girl in front of Anna, and he storms out of the room. The Kralahome berates Anna for undermining the King’s authority to the point that he can’t even punish a traitor. Anna, meanwhile, has seen a side of the King that she can’t condone or accept, and she resolves to leave Siam at last.

Anna is boarding a ship, but it seems the King does have a heart, and it is failing his body; he wishes to see Anna once again. Anna races to him, and just in time. The crown prince is there, and Anna realizes that the boy will need her help as he learns to rule his country; she orders that her bags be taken off the ship. The King talks with the prince about assuming the throne, and the prince begins to describe his first edict: he will forbid the traditional prostration in the King’s presence in favor of a less humiliating form of bowing. As the prince talks, the King dies quietly, with Anna kneeling beside him.

Musical Example 35 - The Sound of Music - Richard Rodgers / Oscar Hammerstein II, 1959 - “Do-Re-Mi”

Online Plot Summary 27b: The Sound of Music

For those familiar with the 1965 Twentieth Century Fox film of The Sound of Music, the opening of the stage musical comes as a bit of a surprise. Like Oklahoma!, the first singing heard in the show comes from offstage—but this singing is in Latin, it is a monophonic chant, and it is the first music heard in the show; there is no preceding overture. The chant summons the nuns of the Nonnberg Abbey to prayer, and soon they wonder: where is Maria, one of the Abbey’s postulants? (A postulant is a woman preparing for the life of a nun, but who has not yet taken her vows.) Maria is out in the adjacent hills, having forgotten the time. The Mother Superior, mistress of the Abbey, recognizing that Maria may not be well suited to a contemplative life in the church, sends Maria on a mission to help a widower with the upbringing of his seven children. Maria is reluctant to leave the abbey, but is obedient.

When Maria arrives at the von Trapp home, she realizes that Captain Georg von Trapp—a naval officer who is away from home—runs his household with military precision, dressing his children in uncomfortable uniforms. The children have rebelled by putting a long series of prior governesses to flight, and at first it looks like they will have no trouble routing Maria as well. Then she discovers that they don’t know how to sing, and she distracts them from their mischievous ways by teaching them “Do-Re-Mi” (Musical Example 35). Moreover, Maria surprises the oldest daughter, Liesl, as she is trying to sneak back in out of the rain after meeting a boyfriend, Rolf. Liesl is startled to learn that Maria does not plan to tell Liesl’s father of her misdeed, and she realizes that this new governess will be her friend—something the sixteen-year-old girl has long needed. Maria also comforts the younger children during a thunderstorm with the cheerful yodeling tune “The Lonely Goatherd.”

Because the children have no playclothes, Maria resorts to making them rough-and-tumble outfits out of old curtains—which horrifies the captain when he returns to his home with a guest, Baroness Elsa von Schräder. The captain’s friend Max Detweiler has already been teasing Elsa about wealth, so these recycled clothes seem even worse. The captain is starting to scold Maria when the beautiful singing of the children interrupts him. The captain had put music aside after the death of his wife, but their sweet song melts his heart, and soon he and his children are gathered in a rare embrace.

Since the captain is close to proposing to Elsa, he gives a party to introduce her. From the captain’s perspective, the evening is not a success: his guests are polarized between loyalty to their Austrian homeland and affiliation with the Nazi forces that threaten to overtake Austria in 1938. After listening to the children sing, Max thinks the children would be a hit at an upcoming Music Festival. Meanwhile, the captain finds Maria teaching the traditional “Ländler” dance to young Kurt, and he cuts in to demonstrate the steps himself; he and Maria both sense that something special is happening. Since the captain and Elsa are virtually engaged, Maria sees no recourse but to flee, so she sneaks away while the captain argues with Max about the propriety of letting his children perform publicly. The Abbey is not the refuge Maria hoped it would be, however. The Mother Superior convinces Maria that the convent is not a place for escape and that Maria must go back and face the situation in the von Trapp home.

Meanwhile, the children are distraught over Maria’s departure and refuse to sing, and the captain forbids them to speak of her. They are even unhappier to hear that they will have a new mother, Elsa. The children are overjoyed when Maria returns, but when she learns of the captain’s engagement, she says that she will stay only until he can make other arrangements for the children’s care. Meanwhile, tension is growing in the household over Max’s involvement with the Germans. Max’s rationalization is that if the Germans gain power over Austria, he’d like to have some friends among them; Elsa agrees with Max. The captain most emphatically does not agree, and Elsa realizes that her fiancé is such a loyal Austrian that he is likely to become an outlaw if and when the Germans invade. She doesn’t want to take the risk of marriage to such a man, and she breaks off the engagement. The captain and Maria are free to marry.

While they are on their honeymoon, the situation grows more tense at home, for despite the treaty terms resulting from the German surrender at the end of World War I, Germany has united with Austria in the maneuver known as the Anschluss. Max, while babysitting, helps the children to practice for the Music Festival and neatly sidesteps orders to fly the Nazi flag outside the von Trapp home. The newlyweds are horrified at the state of affairs when they return: not only does the captain not want his children to sing in the festival, but Rolf—using a Nazi salute—delivers a telegram that orders the captain to take up a commission in the German navy. Before the captain can make up his mind to flee with his family, a German admiral arrives to put further pressure on the captain to report for duty immediately. Fortunately, Maria has a copy of the festival program, and she convinces the admiral to give von Trapp more time, since the family is scheduled to perform in two days.

After their festival performance, the von Trapps slip away one by one as the children sing “So Long, Farewell.” The German soldiers who are guarding the hall assume that the family is backstage, awaiting the judges’ results. When the von Trapps are named as the first-prize winners, and no one comes forward to accept the award, the guards run in pursuit. The family finds their way to the abbey, where the nuns hide them. One soldier discovers them—but it is Rolf, and he finds that he cannot betray Liesl’s family. After the coast is clear, the abbess allows the family to leave through the back gates, where they can “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” as they journey toward freedom in Switzerland.

  • Aldrich, Richard Stoddard. Gertrude Lawrence as Mrs. A: An Intimate Biography of the Great Star. New York: Greystone Press, 1954.
  • Brahms, Caryl, and Ned Sherrin. Song By Song: The Lives and Work of 14 Great Lyric Writers. Egerton, Bolton, U. K.: Ross Anderson Publications, 1984.
  • Citron, Stephen. The Musical From the Inside Out. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1992.   
  • _______. The Wordsmiths: Oscar Hammerstein 2nd and Alan Jay Lerner. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
  • Flatow, Sheryl. “How Christopher Renshaw Crowned a New King.” Playbill.com. 9 August 1996. http://www.playbill.com/article/how-christopher-renshaw-crowned-a-new-king-com-100753  [22 July 2016].
  • Goldstein, Richard M. “‘I Enjoy Being a Girl’: Women in the Plays of Rodgers and Hammerstein.” Popular Music and Society 13, no. 1 (1989): 1–8.
  • Green, Stanley. The Rodgers and Hammerstein Story. London: W. H. Allen, 1963.
  • Hammerstein, Oscar, II. Lyrics. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Books, 1985.
  • Hyland, William G. Richard Rodgers. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1998.
  • Kislan, Richard. Hoofing on Broadway: A History of Show Dancing. New York: Prentice Hall, 1987.
  • _______. Nine Musical Plays of Rodgers and Hammerstein: A Critical Study in Content and Form. Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1970.
  • Knapp, Ray. The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.
  • Laufe, Abe. Broadway’s Greatest Musicals. New, illustrated, revised edition. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1977.
  • Martin, Mary. My Heart Belongs. New York: William Morrow, 1976. London: Q. H. Allen, 1977.
  • Maslon, Laurence. The Sound of Music Companion. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Coming Up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
  • ________. Rodgers and Hammerstein. New York: Abrams, 1992.
  • Nolan, Frederick. The Sound of Their Music: The Story of Rodgers and Hammerstein. New York: Walker and Co., 1978
  • Rodgers, Richard. Musical Stages: An Autobiography. New York: Da Capo Press, 1995.
  • Sharaff, Irene. Broadway & Hollywood: Costumes Designed by Irene Sharaff. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1976.
  • Viertel, Jack. The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows are Built. New York: Sarah Crichton Books, 2016.

Chapter 28 – Lerner and Loewe

Musical Example 36 - Brigadoon - Frederick Loewe / Alan Jay Lerner, 1947 - “Almost Like Being in Love”

Online Plot Summary 28a: Brigadoon

What would happen if time could stand still? Two lost travelers, New Yorkers Tommy Albright and Jeff Douglass, find an answer to that question when distant singing leads them through the mist into the Scottish village of Brigadoon on market day. When they arrive, they are perplexed for many reasons: the village doesn’t seem to be on their map, the townspeople are all dressed in quaint, old-fashioned outfits (with no tourists in sight beyond Tommy and Jeff), and it seems odd that the vendors don’t know what to make of their American currency. Soon, though, Fiona MacLaren and Meg Brockie take charge of the two wayfarers. Meg is man-hungry and gets Jeff aside for a private visit as soon as she can, but Fiona takes Tommy along to gather heather to use as decoration for her sister Jean’s wedding to Charlie Dalrymple.

Not all the townspeople are celebrating, however. Harry Beaton is in love with Jean as well, so he is sick with jealousy and claims to hate the entire village. Tommy, meanwhile, is entranced with Brigadoon and with Fiona most of all. Tommy and Fiona remark to each other, “It’s Almost Like Being in Love” (Musical Example 36), but this lighthearted mood dissolves when Tommy notices that Charlie has signed the MacLaren family Bible—and he dated his signature May 24, 1746. Fiona won’t say anything about this mystery, however, merely leading Tommy and Jeff to meet the schoolmaster, Mr. Lundie.

Mr. Lundie explains Brigadoon’s peculiarities. In early 1746, the village had been threatened by a band of evildoers and wizards. The local minister, desperate to save his town, begged God to save the village by whisking it away from the marauders’ path. God granted Mr. Forsythe’s prayer, allowing the village to appear for only one day every hundred years; at night, while the townspeople slept, another hundred years would elapse. But, for this miracle to take place, Mr. Forsythe had to be willing to give up his own life. The minister loved his flock and agreed to the bargain. He died, and the miracle began: only two days have passed in the village, while two hundred years have gone by in the outside world.

The wedding ceremony takes place, and then the dancing begins. Harry performs an intricate sword dance, and then asks Jean to join him. Before she can start to dance, however, he grabs her and kisses her. Charlie leaps to her defense, but Harry pulls a knife. Suddenly, though, Harry presents a greater threat: he runs away. One condition of the miracle is that all the townspeople must stay in their village. If even one person leaves, the miracle will be destroyed, and Brigadoon will vanish forever.

With this danger at hand, all the village men run in pursuit. Stumbling in the rough landscape, Jeff accidentally trips Harry, who falls onto some sharp rocks and is killed. Back in the village, the wedding festivities resume. Jeff cannot forget what just happened; he grows increasingly disturbed by this strange enchanted village, and he begins to urge Tommy to leave before night falls and they are doomed to stay in the village forever. Tommy has fallen in love with Fiona, but he is shaken by Jeff’s fears and agrees to depart. He bids Fiona farewell, assuring her she has his heart, and the two men leave just as the mist begins to shroud the village once more.

Tommy tries to resume his busy New York life, but it is no use; he is constantly reminded of Brigadoon. He breaks off his engagement, knowing that his heart has been given elsewhere, and at last he decides to fly back to Scotland just to be where his love was, even if he can’t see her again. Jeff agrees to go along, and they find their way to the remote spot where the village had first appeared to them. To their surprise, they hear the same sweet song that had rung through the forest the first time. They don’t see the village itself, but a sleepy Mr. Lundie appears, clad in his nightshirt. Tommy’s great love for Fiona has become part of the miracle as well, so Mr. Lundie has been awakened to lead Tommy back to Brigadoon. As Mr. Lundie explains, “When ye love someone deeply anythin’ is possible.” A speechless Jeff watches the two men vanish into the mist, and the forest is silent once more.

Musical Example 37 - My Fair Lady - Frederick Loewe / Alan Jay Lerner, 1956 - “Just You Wait”

Online Plot Summary 28b: My Fair Lady

Derivatives of the Cinderella story had been absent from Broadway for a long time when My Fair Lady reached the Great White Way, but the musical proved that the old tale still could be entertaining. In this case, Cinderella is an impoverished flower seller named Eliza Doolittle. She splutters in indignation when a clumsy gentleman knocks her violets into the mud, but a bystander warns her that someone is writing down everything she says. She thinks he is a policeman, but he turns out to be Professor Henry Higgins, a scholar of language and dialects, who is fascinated by her mangled Cockney pronunciation. This conversation catches the attention of Colonel Pickering, who is knowledgeable about Indian dialects. The two men recognize their kindred interests and go off in each other’s company; as they leave, Higgins absentmindedly hands Eliza all the change in his pockets—more money than she’s ever seen before. She and her friends dream of ways to spend the windfall.

Armed with this fortune, Eliza goes to the Professor’s house and asks him to give her elocution lessons so that she can get a respectable job in a flower shop. Boastfully, Higgins tells his new friend Pickering that he could improve Eliza’s speech so much that she could pass as a lady at the upcoming Embassy Ball. Laughing, the Colonel proposes that they wager on it. Promptly, Higgins orders his housekeeper, Mrs. Pearce, to bathe and dress Eliza suitably.

Eliza’s physical transformation is underway, but she is working far harder than Cinderella ever did. She finds it impossible to force her mouth to produce “proper” English. Her father arrives, accusing Higgins of having designs on his daughter. Higgins calmly offers to send her home, but that’s not what Alfred Doolittle is after: he wants cash. Higgins is entertained at Doolittle’s amoral willingness to sell his daughter, and ends up giving Doolittle a whopping five pounds. Eliza is angry with everyone, and she dreams of ways Higgins might meet his comeuppance in “Just You Wait” (Musical Example 37).

At long last, an exhausted Eliza properly pronounces a phrase that has eluded her for weeks: “The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly in the Plain.” Higgins, Pickering, and Eliza all whirl around the room in excitement. Higgins decides to take the “new” Eliza for a trial run at the Ascot races. Eliza looks lovely in her elegant clothes, but she still uses rude Cockney slang, now carefully enunciated. Despite these gaffes, the young Freddy Eynsford-Hill is completely smitten by her. Nevertheless, Pickering is appalled and wants to cancel the bet. Higgins, in contrast, is even more determined. At last, the night of the ball arrives, and all goes swimmingly—for a time. Then disaster looms: a guest at the ball is Zoltan Karpathy, himself an internationally famous expert on languages. He senses a mystery about Eliza and closes in on her as the act comes to a close.

When Higgins, Pickering, and Eliza return home in Act II, they are jubilant. Although Karpathy had declared that Eliza was indeed no lady, he felt that Eliza spoke English far too well to be a native Englishwoman; she must be a Hungarian princess! But as the elation settles down, Eliza worries, “What next?” Higgins ignores her frustration, casually suggesting that she could go get married or work in the flower shop that had initially motivated her education. Eliza is upset by his lack of concern, so she packs her things and leaves.

On the doorstep, Eliza encounters Freddy, who would love to marry her—but he’s too weak-willed to suit her. Going back to the flower market, she realizes that no one recognizes her. Only her father knows her, and he’s focused on his own troubles. It seems that Higgins had told a philanthropist that Doolittle was the most original moralist he knew, and the millionaire left Doolittle a sizable bequest in his will—and now Doolittle’s landlady insists on matrimony. Higgins, meanwhile, can’t figure Eliza out and sings a “Hymn to Him” as a declaration of male superiority.

Eliza at last decides to go to Higgins’s mother for advice. Eliza tells her the full story, and Mrs. Higgins is appalled at her son’s behavior—and she tells him so when he comes searching for Eliza. He and Eliza have yet another quarrel, and they both stomp away angrily. Back at his home, however, the Professor rather disconsolately starts to listen to a recording of Eliza’s voice he had made when her lessons had just started. As the recording plays, Eliza comes in, switches off the machine, and continues to speak, replacing her own recorded voice. Higgins is too irascible to show his happiness at her return, but he growls at her, “Where the devil are my slippers?” and she knows that he wants her back in his life. Whether or not this is the typical prince of whom a Cinderella might dream, Higgins is the grumpy prince whom Eliza wants.

  • Easton, Carol. No Intermission: The Life of Agnes de Mille. New York: Little, Brown, 1996.
  • Garebian, Keith. The Making of My Fair Lady. Buffalo: Mosaic Press, 1998.
  • Green, Benny. A Hymn to Him: The Lyrics of Alan Jay Lerner. New York: Limelight Editions, 1987.
  • Green, Stanley. The World of Musical Comedy. Third edition, revised and enlarged. South Brunswick and New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1974.
  • Jablonski, Edward. Alan Jay Lerner: A Biography. New York: Henry Holt, 1966.
  • Jones, John Bush. Our Musicals, Ourselves: A Social History of the American Musical Theatre. Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 2003.
  • Kasha, Al, and Joel Hirschhorn. Notes on Broadway: Conversations with the Great Songwriters. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1985.           
  • Kislan, Richard. Hoofing on Broadway: A History of Show Dancing. New York: Prentice Hall, 1987.
  • Laufe, Abe. Broadway’s Greatest Musicals. New, illustrated, revised edition. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1977.
  • Lees, Gene. The Musical Worlds of Lerner & Loewe. London: Robson Books, 1990.
  • Lerner, Alan Jay. The Musical Theatre: A Celebration. New York: Da Capo Press, 1986.
  • Leve, James. American Musical Theater. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
  • Maslon, Laurence, ed. American Musicals 1950–1969: The Complete Book & Lyrics of Eight Broadway Classics. New York: The Library of America, 2014.
  • McHugh, Dominic. Loverly: The Life and Times of My Fair Lady. Broadway Legacies, edited by Geoffrey Block. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Coming Up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
  • Oates, Jennifer. “Brigadoon: Lerner and Loewe’s Scotland.” Studies in Musical Theatre 3, no. 1 (2009); 91–99.
  • Ostrow, Stuart. A Producer’s Broadway Journey. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999
  • Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983.

Chapter 29 – Leonard Bernstein

Musical Example 38 - West Side Story - Leonard Bernstein / Stephen Sondheim, 1957 - “America”

Musical Example 39 - West Side Story - Leonard Bernstein / Stephen Sondheim, 1957 - “Tonight (Quintet)”

  • Spotify Track 10 https://open.spotify.com/track/6cTI7NS46iOgIzHrAq3gUA
  • Spotify Recording Information:West Side Story (Original Broadway Cast): Tonight (Quintet and Chorus) By Max Goberman, West Side Story Ensemble, Chita Rivera, Larry Kert, Carol Lawrence, Ken Le Roy, Mickey Calin

Online Plot Summary 29: West Side Story

In many urban areas today, conflicts between gangs are a regrettable but familiar occurrence. In 1957, however, the bitter struggles between a Puerto Rican gang (the Sharks) and a white gang (the Jets) came as a shock to many viewers. The Jets want to organize a fight—a rumble—to protect what they regard as their territory against a gang of “foreigners.” The Jets decide to issue their challenge at the school dance that evening. Their former leader, Tony, has “retired” from fighting, believing that there is more to life than just the gang. However, his best friend Riff, the Jets’ new leader, persuades Tony to go to the dance with them.

Tony’s decision is fateful, for he sees Maria, the younger sister of Bernardo, leader of the Sharks. Maria has just come to America to marry Chino, and she is attending her first American dance. Tony and Maria are mesmerized by each other, and time seems to stop as they dance and, gently, begin to kiss. Just then, Bernardo becomes aware of what his little sister is up to, and he angrily orders Tony to stay away from her. Riff interrupts the confrontation by delivering the challenge to rumble, and Bernardo agrees to meet Riff at the local drugstore—the Jets’ usual hangout—after the dance to plan the details of the fight.

Tony finds his way to the fire escape outside Maria’s apartment, where she sneaks out to meet him. Unaware of this secret rendezvous, Bernardo’s girlfriend Anita tries to get him to look at the situation from Maria’s perspective. Bernardo is too angry to share Anita’s reasoning, and he leaves with the other Sharks for the war council at the drugstore. Anita and the other girlfriends argue about the merits and drawbacks of their new homeland in “America” (Musical Example 38).

The Jets are waiting at Doc’s drugstore, where Riff tries to calm them down. When the Sharks arrive, tensions mount again until Tony talks them into letting the rumble be decided by a fistfight between the best man of each gang. Bernardo, thinking the Jets’ combatant will be Tony, agrees; he’s disappointed to learn that another Jet, Diesel, will be his opponent. The next day, Tony visits Maria at the bridal shop where she works; she’s upset about the rumble and gets Tony to promise that he’ll stop it.

As the sun sets, everyone starts to anticipate the night to come in the “Tonight (Quintet)” (Musical Example 39). When the rumble starts, Bernardo mocks Tony, trying to goad him into fighting. Riff lunges forward on his friend’s behalf, and Bernardo pulls a knife. Riff, too, is armed, so the fight has become very dangerous. Tony, not wanting Maria’s brother to be hurt, calls out to his friend. While Riff is distracted, Bernardo lunges forward and kills him. In a fury, Tony grabs Riff’s knife and kills Bernardo. Stunned, Tony stands staring at what he’s done until the Jets drag him away.

Unaware of these events, Maria delights in her new love by singing “I Feel Pretty.” The happy tune comes to an abrupt end when Chino comes to tell her about her brother’s death. Maria worriedly asks about Tony, so Chino angrily tells her that it was Tony who killed Bernardo. Chino pulls out a gun and leaves to seek revenge. Tony creeps into Maria’s room via the fire escape, however, and Maria is soon overwhelmed by her love for him. They huddle together, dreaming of a happier world.

The Jets are distracting themselves from their own fury and grief by lashing out at society in “Gee, Officer Krupke.” Meanwhile, Anita wants to grieve with Maria, but is surprised to find Maria’s door locked. Hurriedly, Tony and Maria arrange to meet at the drugstore later, and Tony slips away. It doesn’t take Anita long to figure out what Maria’s been up to, and she can’t believe that Maria is involved with a person outside of their culture. Maria brings Anita up short by asking her if she doesn’t remember what it is like to be deeply in love. Chastened, Anita hugs Maria tightly—until the police arrive. They want to question Bernardo’s sister. Maria realizes that she won’t be able to get away to the drugstore, so she begs Anita to go in her place.

Anita soon regrets her attempt to help when she gets to the drugstore and is almost raped by the Jets, who are gleeful at finding an unprotected Puerto Rican right in their midst. Doc intervenes to save her, but Anita takes her revenge: she tells the Jets that Maria is dead—that Chino shot her in a jealous rage. When Tony hears this false tale, he starts running through Maria’s neighborhood, begging for Chino to come kill him too. Hearing Tony’s voice, Maria dashes outside, and the two lovers run toward each other in joy. However, Chino also has heard Tony’s shouts, and he shoots just as Tony reaches Maria; Tony crumples in her arms. Crazy with grief, Maria picks up the gun and threatens to kill all the gang members, Jets and Sharks, as long as there is still a bullet left for her. She cannot fire, however, and collapses in tears. The Jets gather around to pick up their fallen friend, but he is too heavy. Before they drop his body, however, several of the Sharks step forward to help shoulder the burden. They carry Tony away, with a grieving Maria following. No one had been able to stop the sad cycle of hate and violence and now it is too late.

  • Banfield, Stephen. Sondheim’s Broadway Musicals. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993.           
  • Bryer, Jackson R., and Richard A. Davison, eds. The Art of the American Musical: Conversations with the Creators. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005.
  • Burton, Humphrey. Leonard Bernstein. New York: Doubleday, 1994.
  • Burton, William Westbrook, ed. Conversations About Bernstein. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
  • Crawford, Cheryl. One Naked Individual: My Fifty Years in the Theatre. Indianapolis / New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1977.
  • Flinn, Denny Martin. Musical!: A Grand Tour. New York: Schirmer Books, 1997.
  • Garebian, Keith. The Making of West Side Story. Buffalo: Mosaic Press, 1998.
  • Guernsey, Otis L., Jr., ed. Broadway Song & Story: Playwrights/Lyricists/Composers Discuss Their Hits. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1985.
  • Henderson, Amy, and Dwight Blocker Bowers. Red, Hot, and Blue: A Smithsonian Salute to the American Musical. Washington: The National Portrait Gallery and The National Museum of American History, in association with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996.
  • Kasha, Al, and Joel Hirschhorn. Notes on Broadway: Conversations with the Great Songwriters. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1985.
  • Kislan, Richard. Hoofing on Broadway: A History of Show Dancing. New York: Prentice Hall, 1987.
  • _______. The Musical: A Look at the American Musical Theater. New, revised, expanded edition. New York & London: Applause Books, 1995.
  • Loney, Glenn, ed. Musical Theatre in America: Papers and Proceedings of the Conference on the Musical Theatre in America. (Contributions in Drama and Theatre Studies, Number 8). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984.
  • Mandelbaum, Ken. Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops. New York: St. Martin’s, 1991.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Better Foot Forward: The History of American Musical Theatre. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1976.
  • Oja, Carol J. “West Side Story and The Music Man: Whiteness, Immigration, and Race in the US During the Late 1950s.” Studies in Musical Theatre 3, no. 1 (2009): 13–30.
  • Peyser, Joan. Bernstein: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, 1987.
  • Prince, Hal. Contradictions: Notes on Twenty-Six Years in the Theatre. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1974.
  • Sondheim, Stephen. Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954–1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010.
  • Swain, Joseph P. The Broadway Musical: A Critical and Musical Survey. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
  • Theodore, Lee. “Preserving American Theatre Dance: The Work of the American Dance Machine.” In Loney, Musical Theatre in America, 275–277.
  • Wells, Elizabeth. West Side Story: Cultural Perspectives on an American Musical. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2011.
  • Zadan, Craig. Sondheim & Co.: The Authorized, Behind-the-Scenes Story of the Making of Stephen Sondheim’s Musicals. Second edition. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.

Chapter 30 – Jule Styne and Frank Loesser

Musical Example 40 - Gypsy - Jule Styne / Stephen Sondheim, 1959 - “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”

Online Plot Summary 30a: Gypsy

A central theme in Gypsy is the need for recognition, and although the musical is named for Gypsy Rose Lee (Louise’s stage alias), the show actually puts its spotlight on her mother, Rose. Rose is the quintessential stage mother, trying to make a vaudeville star of Louise’s sister, “Baby June.” As the curtain rises, June is rehearsing “May We Entertain You”; she is taking part in a children’s talent contest organized by Uncle Jocko. Unsurprisingly, the contest is rigged, but Rose figures out Jocko’s scheme and threatens to expose him unless he names June as the winner.

In this aggressive way, Rose has been fostering June’s career, but Rose is ambitious to reach the professional vaudeville circuits. Faced with additional publicity expenses, she tries to get her father to loan her the money. He refuses; angrily, she steals a plaque from him that’s worth the amount she needs.

Rose has named the vaudeville act “Baby June and the Newsboys,” with June’s much-less-talented sister Louise performing as one of the “boys.” On the road, they meet Herbie, a candy salesman. Rose sees an opportunity: here is a man who likes children and here she is, a woman with children. Herbie would like to marry Rose, but she’s more interested in promoting her daughter’s career. Herbie compromises by becoming their agent.

Life is a struggle. The small troupe can afford only cheap hotel rooms, and breakfast might consist of leftover Chinese food. On Louise’s birthday, Rose gives her a lamb. It is to be part of a new act—“Dainty June and her Farmboys”—but even so, Louise is delighted with the gift. But then there is a bigger surprise for them all: Herbie has managed to book them on vaudeville’s Orpheum circuit.

Some time has passed. The Orpheum circuit booking failed to develop into anything bigger, but Rose is undeterred; she continues to force the not-so-young performers through the same tired routine. Herbie is disgruntled, for Rose had said she’d marry him if he got the act onto the Orpheum circuit—but now she’s insisting that she wants to get June’s name up in lights on Broadway first.

Rose arranges for the act to audition for a Broadway theater owner, T. T. Grantzinger. To everyone’s amazement, he offers them a short contract—but it’s because he sees actress potential in June. Rose refuses the contract because she has no interest in seeing June leave the act. June is in despair, knowing this could have been her big break. The act struggles on until Rose gets bad news: June has eloped with one of the “Farmboys.” Rose is outraged at this betrayal, but Herbie tries to intervene. He urges her to retire and settle down with him as his wife, but Rose’s gaze lights upon Louise. Why, she can make Louise into a star! She can create a whole new act centered on Louise. Louise is aghast at the prospect, but Rose describes her vision in “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” (Musical Example 40).

Despite Rose’s ambitions, the new act is just the old routine rehashed. By accident, the act is booked into a burlesque house (and burlesque, by this time, consists mainly of strip shows). Rose is ready to march out, but Louise is a realist: they are desperate for money, and they need the gig. Rose agrees that she will marry Herbie at last when the two-week booking ends. But just as their run is finishing, the burlesque star is arrested, and the “star spot” is vacant. Rose succumbs to show business fever all over again, pushing Louise forward as the replacement. Both Louise and Herbie are horrified, and it’s the last straw for Herbie; he walks out because he’s disgusted with how low Rose has fallen. But Rose’s idea for Louise is to make the strip routine ladylike and demure; why, Louise can sing a song from the old act, now recast as “Let Me Entertain You.” Amazingly, Rose is right for once: Louise finds that she has a knack for an effective striptease. Her new persona of “Gypsy Rose Lee” leads her to a long string of greater and greater triumphs, and at last Louise becomes the featured star at the great New York burlesque house, Minsky’s.

Rose should be happy, but she’s not. She can’t control her daughter’s life as she had in the past. After venting her frustration at Louise, she angrily wonders why she put in so much effort over so many years; Louise says quietly, “I thought you did it for me, Momma.” Rose wanders out onto the stage of an empty theater and begins to dream that it is she—Rose—who is the star. During “Rose’s Turn,” she draws upon the melodies that had been the basis of her life and of the act through the years, as if she is slowly going mad. Louise, watching from the wings, realizes that her mother has simply always wanted to get some attention, much as Louise had wanted it as a child. She suddenly understands her mother, and tenderly wraps her mink coat around Rose; they leave the stage together.

Musical Example 41 - Guys and Dolls - Frank Loesser / Frank Loesser, 1950 - “Fugue for Tinhorns”

  • Spotify Link: (Musical Example 41 begins at :31)  https://open.spotify.com/track/5Bf1CJrnD3vooFWirqmwle
  • Spotify Recording Information: Runyonland Music / Fugue For Tinhorns / Follow The Fold - Remastered 2000 By Stubby Kaye, Johnny Silver, Douglas Deane, Isabel Bigley, The Mission Group

Online Plot Summary 30b: Guys and Dolls

Guys and Dolls doesn’t begin with a song or a dance; it opens with “Runyonland”—a pantomimed depiction of various New Yorkers and tourists carrying out their daily activities (many of which are on the shady side of “legal”). Out of this riot of activity emerge three “tinhorns” (gamblers who aren’t as wealthy as they pretend to be). Each tinhorn—Nicely-Nicely Johnson, Benny Southstreet, and Rusty Charlie—tries to predict a winner in the day’s horseraces during the “Fugue for Tinhorns” (Musical Example 41). The Salvation Army band then marches into view, led by Miss Sarah Brown on cornet.

Nathan Detroit is in a dilemma. He finds locations for a crap game he runs for other gamblers (taking a percentage for his efforts), but the police have figured out most of his usual spots. He can’t set up the game at the one remaining possibility—Biltmore’s garage—because the garage owner wants a cash payment, and Nathan doesn’t have the dough. What’s worse, the high-roller Sky Masterson is in town, and Nathan just knows he’d get Sky to gamble if only they had a place to play. Nathan’s working under a second pressure—he has been engaged to Miss Adelaide, a nightclub performer, for some fourteen years, and she doesn’t like his involvement with gambling. He goes to great lengths to keep her unaware of his shady dealings. Trying to raise the money he needs, Nathan bets Sky $1,000 that Sky can’t get Sarah to travel to Havana with him the next day. Sky immediately promises Sarah to deliver a “dozen genuine sinners” in exchange for a dinner date. She’s tempted, since the mission is at risk of being shut down, but she doesn’t want to get involved with a gambler. When Sky kisses her, she slaps him—but it takes her a while!

Miss Adelaide is embarrassed to have been engaged so long, and has been inventing a fictitious marriage and kids that she describes in letters to her mother. Sadly, Miss Adelaide has found that the stress of no appointed wedding day brings out cold symptoms—and now she’s learned that Nathan’s planning another crap game, too. Sarah, meanwhile, yields to Sky’s deal, since she’s been told that her branch of the mission will likely be closed because it’s not bringing in enough business. She rationalizes that it might be saved by the dozen sinners.

The police have grown suspicious: many known gamblers have gathered in the vicinity. The gamblers claim that they’re holding a bachelor party for Nathan. Unfortunately for Nathan, Adelaide hears this cover-up story and is thrilled. She eagerly plans for them to get married the next evening, and Nathan sees no way out, so he agrees. But then the Salvation Army band comes by, and Sarah’s not among them. Nathan realizes that Sky must have won the bet—and indeed he has. After showing Sarah around Havana, he starts plying her with “Cuban milkshakes”—laced with rum. They return to New York just in time for Sarah to discover that the crap game has been played in the mission during her absence. She is furious with Sky, since she assumes he had known about the illicit plan for the mission.

Two unhappy women open the second act. Adelaide’s come down with another cold, because Nathan has called off their wedding to visit a “sick aunt.” Sarah is miserable, too, forgetting that Sky owes her what he had promised. Sky hasn’t forgotten, however, and he stakes his cash against his fellow gamblers’ souls. (He also gives Nathan a thousand dollars, leading Nathan to believe that Sky did not take Sarah to Havana.) One by one, after losing, they head to the mission. Adelaide spots Nathan and desperately begs him to come get married before the license expires at midnight. He refuses, saying he’s going to a prayer meeting, and she is outraged at what seems to her to be such a feeble lie.

The mission starts to fill up with gamblers. Proving their sincerity, they confess their sins, with Nicely-Nicely vividly relating the state of his soul in “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat.” During Nathan’s confession, Adelaide discovers that Nathan really was headed to the prayer meeting. Nathan also mentions the bet he “won”—and Sarah realizes that Sky has been protecting her reputation. This puts his behavior in a new light, and she realizes that she loves him. A double wedding ensues, with Sky now playing the bass drum in Sarah’s band. Oddly enough, as Adelaide happily contemplates her married state, Nathan has come down with a cold.

  • Banfield, Stephen. Sondheim’s Broadway Musicals. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993.           
  • Brahms, Caryl, and Ned Sherrin. Song By Song: The Lives and Work of 14 Great Lyric Writers. Egerton, Bolton, U.K.: Ross Anderson Publications, 1984.
  • Burrows, Abe. Honest, Abe: Is There Really No Business Like Show Business? Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1980.
  • _______. “The Making of Guys and Dolls.” Atlantic Monthly 245, no. 1 (January 1980): 40–52.
  • Byrnside, Ron. “‘Guys and Dolls’: A Musical Fable of Broadway.” Journal of American Culture 19, no. 2 (Summer 1996): 25–33.
  • Fitzgerald, Jason. “‘I Had a Dream’: ‘Rose’s Turn’, Musical Theatre and the Star Effigy.” Studies in Musical Theatre 3, no. 3 (2009): 285–91.
  • Garebian, Keith. The Making of Guys and Dolls. Buffalo: Mosaic Press, 2002.
  • _______. The Making of Gypsy. Buffalo: Mosaic Press, 1998.
  • Gottfried, Martin. Sondheim. New York: Abrams, 1993.
  • Green, Stanley. Encyclopaedia of the Musical Theatre. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1976.
  • Guernsey, Otis L., Jr., ed. Playwrights, Lyricists, Composers on Theater: The Inside Story of a Decade of Theater in articles and comments by its authors, selected from their own publication, The Dramatists Guild Quarterly. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1974.
  • Hirsch, Foster. Harold Prince and the American Musical Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
  • Hischak, Thomas S. Word Crazy: Broadway Lyricists from Cohan to Sondheim. New York: Praeger, 1991.
  • Laurents, Arthur. Original Story By: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.
  • Loesser, Susan. A Most Remarkable Fellow: Frank Loesser and the Guys and Dolls in His Life. New York: Donald I. Fine, 1993.
  • Mandelbaum, Ken. Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops. New York: St. Martin’s, 1991.
  • Maslon, Laurence, ed. American Musicals 1950–1969: The Complete Book & Lyrics of Eight Broadway Classics. New York: The Library of America, 2014.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Better Foot Forward: The History of American Musical Theatre. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1976.
  • Ostrow, Stuart. A Producer’s Broadway Journey. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999.
  • Riis, Thomas L. Frank Loesser. Yale Broadway Masters, ed. by Geoffrey Block. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008.
  • Runyon, Damon. A Treasury of Damon Runyon. Selected, with an Introduction, by Clark Kinnaird. New York: The Modern Library, 1958.
  • Taylor, Theodore. Jule: The Story of Composer Jule Styne. New York: Random House, 1979.
  • Viertel, Jack. The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows are Built. New York: Sarah Crichton Books, 2016.
  • Zadan, Craig. Sondheim & Co.: The Authorized, Behind-the-Scenes Story of the Making of Stephen Sondheim’s Musicals. 2nd edition. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.

Chapter 31 – Meredith Willson and Other Faces of the 1950s

Musical Example 42 - The Music Man - Meredith Willson / Meredith Willson, 1956 - “Goodnight, My Someone”

Online Plot Summary 31a: The Music Man

The Music Man opens with a train carriage full of traveling salesmen, passing the time by playing cards and chatting about their profession in the new-fangled world of 1912—and about that despicable musical-instrument seller Harold Hill, who gives other salesmen a bad name. The salesmen agree that Iowa, at least, is safe from Hill’s double-dealings, since Iowans are too stiff-necked to fall for any con jobs. As the train pulls into the River City station, one card player stands up, declares that he thinks he should give Iowa a try, and debarks the train. In large letters, his suitcase reads “Professor Harold Hill.”

Hill meets a former colleague, who warns Hill that the local librarian, Marian Paroo, is also the town’s music teacher, and she won’t fall for his sales tricks. But Hill, hearing the teacher is female, relaxes; he believes he can con her as he has conned so many women in the past. As he watches a pool table being delivered, Hill also figures out the way to grab the citizens’ attention. Hill manages to start them worrying about the evils in their midst. Marian doesn’t fall for his line, however, and goes home to give a lesson to her piano student, Amaryllis, arguing with her mother all the while about men like Hill.

Marian’s young brother Winthrop has problems of his own. Embarrassed by his lisp, he’s silent even when Amaryllis invites him to attend her birthday party. Amaryllis bursts into tears, explaining to Marian that she needs Winthrop to be her sweetheart so she can say goodnight to his name when the evening star rises. Marian reassures Amaryllis that all you have to do is leave a gap for that special person’s name if you don’t know it yet. As Amaryllis resumes playing her piano piece, Marian begins to sing “Goodnight, My Someone” (Musical Example 42) to herself.

Meanwhile, at the High School Hall, Mayor Shinn is offended when a firecracker lit by Tommy Djilas interrupts his wife’s recitation. Four prominent members of the school board quickly start arguing until Hill grabs the audience’s attention. Very quickly, he leads the town folk to believe that the way to fight evil among young people (who are at risk of being led astray by a new pool table in town) is to involve them in a brass band.

Hill makes some mistakes, however. For one thing, he doesn’t know that the mayor bought the pool table. Moreover, after appointing Tommy to be the band’s drum major, Hill selects a pretty girl to be the majorette alongside Tommy. Hill wins Tommy’s loyalty, but he has chosen the mayor’s daughter to consort with that young troublemaker. The mayor orders the school board members to find out Hill’s credentials, but Hill distracts the incompatible men by discovering that they have the four voice types needed for a barbershop quartet. Before they realize it, they have stopped quarreling and have begun harmonizing.

Because Hill can’t play any instruments himself, who will instruct the children? Hill plans to promote his “Think System,” in which one “thinks” one’s way to playing the right notes. His real ploy is to convince the townspeople also to buy uniforms for their offspring; once the kids look great, their parents won’t care how they sound. Meanwhile, Hill hears all the gossip about Marian from the town ladies. They’re shocked by the library’s dirty books—written by Chaucer, Balzac, Rabelais, and the like. The school board members catch up to Hill, but Hill distracts them by getting them to sing once again.

Like many parents, Mrs. Paroo orders a cornet for Winthrop, who is thrilled. Marian tries to warn her mother that Hill isn’t what he seems, but Mrs. Paroo merely frets again about Marian’s unmarried state. Marian discovers Hill’s background in the library’s holdings, and she goes to the mayor—but the arrival of the new instruments interrupts them. To Marian’s amazement, Winthrop is so thrilled by his bright cornet that he starts speaking excitedly. Marian realizes she can’t betray the man who wrought this miracle, so she tears out the incriminating page.

During an evening at the gym, barbershop harmony vies with young people’s dancing. The mayor is still suspicious of Hill, and Marian is conflicted—should she pretend to believe in his “Think System”? Unexpectedly, she’s no longer a social outcast, since Hill had persuaded the ladies of River City to read the books they had previously condemned. Hill keeps eluding the quartet by setting them off on more tunes. Winthrop chatters all the time about things he learned from Hill, although he doesn’t seem to be learning the band’s debut piece, Minuet in G.

Unexpectedly, Hill’s previous misdeeds catch up to him. Charlie Cowell, a rival salesman, is tired of upset citizens when he visits a town after Hill’s been there. Cowell’s decided to warn the mayor. Cowell makes the mistake, though, of asking Marian for directions; she flirts with him long enough that he must run to catch his train. When Hill invites Marian to a romantic rendezvous (the local footbridge), she agrees to go.

Hill is shocked to realize that she knows his secrets—and he’s even more surprised that she doesn’t care; she’s fallen in love with him. Hill also realizes that he loves her, too. But there’s bad news: Cowell missed the train, so he spreads the word of Hill’s duplicity. The mayor orders that Hill be arrested, but Marian points out the positive changes he has brought to their small town. The mayor is unimpressed, scornfully challenging those who support Hill to stand up. To his shock, he sees the townspeople rising one by one—including his own wife. To cap matters, the band makes its entrance, playing a barely recognizable Minuet in G. As Hill predicted, the proud parents don’t care about the performance; they are in raptures over the darling group of uniformed children. The mayor is forced to yield, and Hill’s traveling days are over; he’ll be staying in River City.

Musical Example 43 - Once Upon a Mattress - Mary Rodgers / Marshall Barer, 1959 - “Shy”

Online Plot Summary 31b: Once Upon a Mattress

Although many people have heard fairy tales as children, some of those stories seem a little bit, well, different when they are re-encountered in adulthood. As the curtain rises, a Minstrel steps forward and sings the story of the delicate princess who proved her royal blood by means of her sensitivity to a tiny pea placed under the twenty mattresses on her bed. His narrative is pantomimed behind him. The Minstrel then explains that although this account is the “prettiest” version of the tale, it’s not exactly accurate, and he should know: it happened in his kingdom.

It seems that King Sextimus has been cursed; he will be mute “until the Mouse has devoured the Hawk.” Repeated attempts to breed large mice and small hawks have been disastrous. Queen Aggravain, abetted by the Wizard, has been running the kingdom. One of her decrees is that no one in the land may marry until her meek son Prince Dauntless is wed to a “true princess of the Royal Blood,” to be determined by a “royalty test” that she will administer herself. Of course, the citizens of the kingdom are eager for Dauntless to find a bride, although all candidates so far have failed the queen’s idiosyncratic examinations. Lady Larken is especially anxious for a bride to pass the test, since Larken is in the family way and the clock is ticking. Her fiancé, Sir Harry, rides forth to comb the neighboring kingdoms in search of a suitable bride for the prince.

The courtiers rejoice when Harry returns with a most unusual candidate, Princess Winnifred, known as Fred, who swims the moat rather than be left outside. Although Fred proclaims herself to be “Shy” (Musical Example 43), Aggravain takes one look at this newcomer and declares that Fred will be tested for “Sensitivity.” Meanwhile, Lady Larken prepares a bedchamber for the guest. Mistaking Fred for a servant, Larken shreds Fred’s sopping dress into a mop and orders Fred to start scrubbing the floor. Sir Harry arrives and points out the mistake, so the humiliated Larken quarrels with him angrily.

After the argument, Larken is heartbroken, and she resolves to run away. Meanwhile, the Queen and the Wizard have hit upon a diabolical plan for their sensitivity test: they will secretly place a single pea on Fred’s bed underneath twenty mattresses. When she can’t detect the pea, this insensitivity will prove that she is not a genuine princess. To make doubly sure that Fred is too exhausted to feel anything, the Queen proclaims that there will be a ball that evening (with plenty of high-potency alcohol and wildly energetic dancing).

Despite the general exhaustion, there is much midnight activity in the castle. The Queen interrupts Lady Larken’s attempt to sneak outside the ramparts, and she orders Larken to go to Fred’s room, where Fred is trying to study for her royalty exam. Meanwhile, the King feels it’s time to share the facts of life with his son; being mute, he must deliver his talk via pantomime. Wanting to help Fred survive her test, the Minstrel and the Jester flatter the Wizard into betraying the Queen’s secret scheme.

In the meantime, Sir Harry and Lady Larken have reunited. Up in Fred’s room, the Queen is using every trick she can employ to lull the princess into slumber—a hypnotic mirror, poppy incense, the Nightingale of Samarkand, and even a little opium-laced milk. Fred goes to bed, relaxes—and then starts to toss. Twisting this way and that, it seems impossible for her to find a comfortable position. She finally sits up and tries counting sheep.

The new day arrives and the Queen is gloating in triumph. She announces to the assembled court that Fred is no true princess. Explaining that Fred should have been able to feel the pea if her blood were royal, Aggravain notes that Fred’s not even awake yet. But then, to everyone’s surprise, a bedraggled Fred staggers in, still counting sheep one by one. She hasn’t been able to sleep a wink because the bed was so uncomfortable. Angrily, Aggravain tries to hustle Fred away, but Dauntless, for once in his life, stands up to his mother. The Queen is speechless at her son’s rebellion, and suddenly the Jester realizes what has happened: the Mouse has at last devoured the Hawk. He cries, “The Queen can’t talk!” and then an unfamiliar voice is heard, saying, “But I can! And I’ve got a lot to say!” It is the King, who has just regained his power of speech. He’s now in charge again, and he’s happy to sanction his son’s marriage.

But what of Fred’s insomnia? It seems that the Minstrel helped to make Fred’s bed a little less comfortable. Underneath her top mattress can be found his lute, a helmet, a couple of lobsters, and some old jousting gear. No one cares how Winnifred managed to stay awake, however, and the assembled courtiers remind us of the admonition sung by the Minstrel at the start of the show: “You can recognize a lady by her elegant air, but a genuine princess is exceedingly rare.” Fred alone does not participate, since she has fallen asleep at last and is snoring loudly.

  • Adler, Richard. You Gotta Have Heart: An Autobiography. New York: Donald I. Fine, 1990.
  • Banfield, Stephen. Sondheim’s Broadway Musicals. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993.
  • Ewen, David. Complete Book of the American Musical Theater. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1958.
  • Gottfried, Martin. Broadway Musicals. New York: Abradale Press, 1984.
  • Green, Stanley. The World of Musical Comedy. Third edition, revised and enlarged. New York: A. S. Barnes, 1974.
  • Kasha, Al, and Joel Hirschhorn. Notes on Broadway: Conversations with the Great Songwriters. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1985.
  • Knapp, Ray. The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.
  • Mandelbaum, Ken. Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops. New York: St. Martin’s, 1991.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Better Foot Forward: The History of American Musical Theatre. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1976.
  • _______. Coming Up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
  • Oja, Carol J. “West Side Story and The Music Man: Whiteness, Immigration, and Race in the US During the Late 1950s.” Studies in Musical Theatre 3, no. 1 (2009): 13–30.
  • Prince, Hal. Contradictions: Notes on Twenty-Six Years in the Theatre. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1974.
  • Willson, Meredith. But He Doesn’t Know the Territory. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1959.

Chapter 32 – New Names in Lights in the 1960s

Musical Example 44 - 1776 - Sherman Edwards / Sherman Edwards, 1969 - “Momma, Look Sharp”

Online Plot Summary 32: 1776

During a stifling May in Philadelphia, in the year 1776, the only recourse is to wave a fan to cool off. Fans can’t cool the hot tempers of the delegates to the Second Continental Congress, however. Their challenge? To determine the colonies’ response to the burdens imposed by England. John Adams is impatient at the slow proceedings, complaining that nothing has been accomplished in a year. He, in turn, irritates the others with his constant urgings for independence. Adams is also under pressure from his wife Abigail, whose letters from Boston make her a visible presence. They argue about priorities; he wants her to rally women to manufacture saltpeter for the army, while Abigail says that women need dressmaker’s pins. Nevertheless, they recall their love for each other, despite their separation.

Adams goes to Benjamin Franklin for help. Franklin points out that people might be more receptive to the idea of independence if someone else (less obnoxious than Adams) proposed it. Franklin persuades Richard Henry Lee to talk to the Virginia legislature about such a proposal. A month later, the weather is still hot, Thomas Jefferson wants to go home, and General Washington is worried about his ill-equipped troops. But Lee returns, carrying a resolution for independence. Quickly seconded by Adams, John Hancock opens the floor to debate. John Dickinson wants no part of it, proposing that the motion be tabled indefinitely. The vote is close, but Stephen Hopkins casts the deciding vote to continue the discussion.

During the debate, it is clear that opinions are almost perfectly divided, to the point that an individual delegate can shift the balance. Dickinson moves that a decision for independence must be unanimous. Six colonies are in favor, six are against, and New York (as usual) elects to abstain. Hancock is left with the deciding vote; he opts for the unanimous decision. Adams then makes a motion himself: that further debate be postponed until a written document can be drafted, outlining the merits of independence. Once again, the Congress is split; this time Hancock’s vote grants the postponement. Hancock orders Franklin, Lee, Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston to form a “declaration committee,” but Lee begs off, so Hancock appoints Jefferson instead—to Jefferson’s dismay, for he still wants to go home. Moreover, Jefferson finds himself with the quill in his hands, saddled with doing the actual writing.

A week later, Jefferson has made no real progress, but Franklin and Adams have a surprise for him: they have sent for his wife Martha. Adams and Franklin return to the largely dysfunctional Congress; the conservative delegates are reluctant to take any action that might threaten their wealth, maintaining that they are “Cool, Cool, Considerate Men.” Meanwhile, news from the military front is not good; Washington has lost the New York harbor to the British and fears Philadelphia will be next. We learn about the personal costs of the warfare in “Momma, Look Sharp” (Musical Example 44).

After Jefferson finishes his Declaration, a brief debate ensues about a symbolic bird for the fledgling country: Jefferson advocates the dove, Franklin supports the turkey; at last they agree with Adams’s choice, the eagle. The laborious project of rewriting the Declaration to suit all the delegates begins. Jefferson agrees to a series of minor changes, but when Dickinson wants him to delete the reference to King George III as a tyrant, Jefferson balks.

Before the Congress can vote on the matter, Edward Rutledge of South Carolina raises another objection. Jefferson’s draft calls for slavery to be abolished, but Rutledge argues that slavery is the foundation of the southern colonies’ way of life, noting that Jefferson owns slaves himself. Jefferson retorts that he plans to free his slaves, but Rutledge regards him and the northern colonials as hypocrites, observing in “Molasses to Rum” that the north has gotten rich from its part in the slave trade. The southern delegates leave the chamber angrily.

Matters are at a crisis point. Adams begs the ailing Caesar Rodney to return from Delaware, knowing that Rodney’s vote will tip the balance in that colony. Adams, like Jefferson, is staunch in his support of the antislavery clause, but Franklin tells him he must agree to delete it if he is to carry the South. Downcast at the thought of this serious compromise, Adams is buoyed by a gift that arrives from his wife—two barrels of saltpeter—but he wonders why he feels no one shares his vision for the future. Washington continues to feel that Congress is unresponsive, but Hancock at last calls for a vote on the question of independence.

Each colony casts its vote. As expected, the northern and middle colonies support the resolution, although New York abstains and Pennsylvania has passed. When it comes time for South Carolina to vote, they ask again for the slavery clause to be stricken from the Declaration. Franklin turns to Adams, who turns to Jefferson—and Jefferson picks up a quill and strikes out the clause himself. With this concession, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia are willing to vote in favor.

At last, the issue comes down to Pennsylvania’s vote. The Pennsylvania delegates are divided, so Hancock polls each of them. Franklin votes “yea” and Dickinson votes “no.” James Wilson is now in an unenviable position. He usually follows Dickinson’s lead, but realizing his name might be remembered as the man who prevented American independence, he nervously votes “yea” as well. Dickinson declares that he cannot sign the now-victorious Declaration, but he will enlist in the army and fight for the new country. In an eerie, spine-tingling close, the enlarged document appears above the stage and the Liberty Bell tolls over and over again as each delegate steps forward to sign the Declaration of Independence that has given birth to a new nation.

  • Citron, Stephen. The Musical From the Inside Out. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1992.
  • Davis, Lorrie, with Rachel Gallagher. Letting Down My Hair. New York: Arthur Fields Books, 1973
  • Farber, Donald C., and Robert Viagas. The Amazing Story of The Fantasticks, America’s Longest Running Play. New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1991.
  • Filichia, Peter. Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit and the Biggest Flop of the Season, 1959–2009. Milwaukee: Applause Books, 2010.
  • Flinn, Denny Martin. Musical!: A Grand Tour. New York: Schirmer Books, 1997.
  • Green, Stanley. The World of Musical Comedy. Third edition, revised and enlarged. New York: A. S. Barnes, 1974.
  • Horn, Barbara Lee. The Age of Hair: Evolution and Impact of Broadway’s First Rock Musical. (Contributions in Drama and Theatre Studies, 42.) New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.    
  • Laufe, Abe. Broadway’s Greatest Musicals. New, illustrated, revised edition. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1977.
  • Lewis, Ferdinand. “Heated Debate about ‘Cool’ Cut.” The Los Angeles Times, 7 September 2001.
  • Mandelbaum, Ken. Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops. New York: St. Martin’s, 1991.
  • Maslon, Laurence, ed. American Musicals 1950–1969: The Complete Book & Lyrics of Eight Broadway Classics. New York: The Library of America, 2014.
  • Miller, Scott. Let the Sun Shine In: The Genius of Hair. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2003.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Open a New Window: The Broadway Musical in the 1960s. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
  • Ostrow, Stuart. A Producer’s Broadway Journey. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999.
  • Richards, Stanley, ed. Great Rock Musicals. New York: Stein & Day, 1979.
  • Stephenson, Bradley. “‘Round and Round’: Metatheatre, Illusion, and Reality in The Fantasticks.” Studies in Musical Theatre 8, no. 2 (2014): 115-127.
  • Strouse, Charles. Put On a Happy Face: A Broadway Memoir. New York: Union Square Press, 2008.
  • Wasserman, Dale. The Impossible Musical: The Man of La Mancha Story. New York: Applause Books, 2003.
  • Wollman, Elizabeth L. The Theater Will Rock: A History of the Rock Musical, from Hair to Hedwig. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2006.

Chapter 33 – Sondheim in the 1960s: Flash in the Pan?

Musical Example 45 - A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum - Stephen Sondheim / Stephen Sondheim, 1962 - “Comedy Tonight”

Online Plot Summary 33: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

The Roman slave Pseudolus assures us there will be “Comedy Tonight” (Musical Example 45). He identifies the owners of three adjacent homes: on one end is the empty house of Erronius, who is away searching for his children, stolen long ago by pirates. At the opposite end is Lycus’s house (he sells female slaves), and in the center live Senex, Domina, and their son Hero, who own Pseudolus.

Lycus and Domina are headed to the country to visit Domina’s mother and to take her a marble bust of Domina. They admonish their slave Hysterium to watch over the teenage Hero, who confides to Pseudolus that he is smitten with a beautiful girl who lives next door. Pseudolus warns Hero that she must certainly be a courtesan if she resides in Lycus’s house, but Hero doesn’t care. His difficulty is the purchase price, since Hero has nothing except a seashell collection, twenty minae, and of course Pseudolus. Pseudolus realizes that this might be his chance: he promises to find a way to unite Hero with his anonymous love if Hero will grant him his freedom in exchange.

Pseudolus’s first ruse is to jingle the bag of twenty minae to sound like a great fortune. Lycus is ever alert to the sound of money, and one by one he displays his wares. But none of the women is the one Hero wants. Hero then spots his beloved in an upstairs window, but Lycus tells him that the virgin is Philia, newly arrived from Crete, and she has already been purchased by the military captain Miles Gloriosus at a cost of 500 minae. Pseudolus doesn’t drop a beat: he sympathetically hopes that the girl will still be alive by the time Miles claims her, since hasn’t Lycus heard about that terrible plague in Crete? Lycus is panicked, for the plague could wipe out all his merchandise, so Pseudolus offers to keep Philia in their household until the captain arrives. Hero can’t believe his good fortune.

Hysterium lives up to his name when the slave girl arrives at the house, and Pseudolus has to blackmail him—by threatening to reveal Hysterium’s collection of erotic pottery—to keep him from heading straight to Domina with the news. Pseudolus then arranges for a boat on which the lovers can escape. But Philia has a moral streak; she is the property of Miles Gloriosus and insists on waiting for him. So Pseudolus decides he will mix a sleeping potion and give it to Philia. Lycus will be told she’s dead, and Hero will take the “body” with him on the boat; she won’t be awake to protest. But Pseudolus realizes he’s an ingredient short; he needs a cup of mare’s sweat, so he heads to the market.

Senex soon arrives, having dropped the marble bust and needing to have the nose repaired. Philia, thinking this must be Miles, greets him at the door, crying, “Take me!” Before a delighted Senex can oblige, Pseudolus returns home. Trying to find a quick explanation for Philia, he suggests that she’s a new maid. Senex happily plans to educate her about housework himself (although he will take her over to Erronius’s vacant house for privacy during their lessons). Pseudolus, thinking fast, spills the smelly mare’s sweat on Senex. Senex decides he will cleanse himself in Erronius’s house, so Pseudolus browbeats Hysterium into standing guard outside, keeping Senex there at all costs.

The unexpected happens: Erronius returns from his long, fruitless search. Hysterium quickly declares that Erronius’s house is now haunted, so he must walk seven times around Rome’s seven hills to exorcise the ghosts. When Senex emerges from the house, he encounters Hero, and then Philia, and the father and son each wonder about the other’s interest in the beautiful girl. But worse is to come: Captain Miles Gloriosus has arrived to claim Philia. Lycus is beside himself with anxiety, so Pseudolus offers to impersonate the slave dealer. The false Lycus tries to blandish Miles with other exotic slaves, but Miles is uninterested. Only one thing can save Pseudolus now—and that is the intermission.

Of course, the intermission has only delayed the inevitable. Pseudolus persuades Miles to wait in Senex’s house (pretending it’s Lycus’s home) while waiting for Philia. Senex, too, back in Erronius’s house, awaits Philia. Hysterium has finished making the sleeping potion for Pseudolus, but Pseudolus cannot get Philia to partake; she abstains from strong beverages. Pseudolus has a scheme, but needs a body, so he leaves to find one elsewhere.

Domina returns home to figure out what Senex is up to, and Hysterium is anguished with fear that she’ll discover even one of the many plots afoot. She adds to the complexity by dressing as a virgin to spy on her husband. Meanwhile, with somewhat tortured logic, Philia is trying to convince Hero that her submission to Miles will reveal her affection for Hero. Pseudolus returns, having failed to locate a corpse. He decides to dress up Hysterium as the deceased Philia to demonstrate to Miles that his bride is dead. Miles does the proper thing by grieving for the deceased girl and then wants to do more of the right thing by preparing her funeral pyre. Then Miles realizes two things: first, he had just been in Crete, where there was no plague, and second—the corpse isn’t dead!

A mad chase ensues, with Erronius—just returned from the hills—joining in. He thinks Hysterium is his long-lost daughter, while Miles claims her (him) as his bride, and Senex believes her (him) to be the maid. In desperation, Hysterium yanks off his blond wig. Very soon, Pseudolus is revealed as author of the web of lies, so he must die by his own hand. Implying that he will take hemlock, he orders Hysterium to fetch the potion prepared earlier. Instead, Hysterium brings an aphrodisiac he had brewed for Senex. Fortunately for Pseudolus, the effects of the potion don’t last too long.

The inevitable can be put off no longer, so Philia is handed over to Miles. A sorrowful Erronius mumbles about his poor lost children and a ring depicting a gaggle of geese. This brings Miles up short—what’s this about geese? Is the ring anything like the ring he owns? It seems that Miles is Erronius’s long-lost son. Now Philia asks: how many geese are in a gaggle? Does her ring represent the same thing? Since she is revealed to be the equally long-lost daughter, everyone realizes that it is out of the question for her to be Miles’s bride—since she is his sister—and so Philia and Hero are joyfully reunited. Pseudolus wins his longed-for freedom, and all agree that it has been a “Comedy Tonight.”

  • Adler, Thomas P. “The Musical Dramas of Stephen Sondheim: Some Critical Approaches.” Journal of Popular Culture 12, no. 3 (Winter 1978): 513–525.
  • Banfield, Stephen. Sondheim’s Broadway Musicals. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993.
  • Block, Geoffrey. Richard Rodgers. Yale Broadway Masters, edited by Geoffrey Block. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003.
  • Citron, Stephen. Sondheim and Lloyd Webber: The New Musical. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  • Coleman, Bud. “‘Give Us More to See’: The Visual World of Stephen Sondheim’s Musicals.” In The Oxford Handbook of Sondheim Studies, edited by Robert Gordon, 133–150. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
  • Franceschina, John. Music Theory through Musical Theatre: Putting It Together. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
  • Gordon, Robert. “‘Old Situations, New Complications’: Tradition and Experiment in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” In The Oxford Handbook of Sondheim Studies, edited by Robert Gordon, 63–80. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
  • Gottfried, Martin. Broadway Musicals. New York: Abradale Press/Abrams, Inc., 1984.
  • Green, Stanley. The World of Musical Comedy. Fourth edition, revised and enlarged. San Diego: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1980.
  • Ilson, Carol. Harold Prince From Pajama Game to Phantom of the Opera. Ann Arbor: U.M.I Research Press, 1989.
  • Laufe, Abe. Broadway’s Greatest Musicals. New, illustrated, revised edition. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1977.
  • Lewine, Richard. “Symposium: The Anatomy of a Theater Song.” The Dramatists Guild Quarterly. 14, no. 1 (1977): 8–19.
  • Mandelbaum, Ken. Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops. New York: St. Martin’s, 1991.
  • Maslon, Laurence, ed. American Musicals 1950–1969: The Complete Book & Lyrics of Eight Broadway Classics. New York: The Library of America, 2014.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Open a New Window: The Broadway Musical in the 1960s. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
  • Ostrow, Stuart. A Producer’s Broadway Journey. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999.
  • Prince, Hal. Contradictions: Notes on Twenty-Six Years in the Theatre. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1974.
  • Rich, Frank. “Conversations with Sondheim: On his 70th birthday, the Broadway musical's last great artist takes measure of the theater and of himself.” The New York Times Magazine, 12 March 2000.
  • Sondheim, Stephen. Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954–1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010.
  • Sondheim, Stephen. “The Musical Theater: A Talk by Stephen Sondheim.” The Dramatists Guild Quarterly 15, no. 3 (1978): 6–29.
  • Steyn, Mark. Broadway Babies Say Goodnight: Musicals Then and Now. New York: Routledge, 1999.

Chapter 34 – New Partnerships: Bock and Harnick

Musical Example 46 - She Loves Me - Jerry Bock / Sheldon Harnick, 1963 - “A Trip to the Library”

Online Plot Summary 34a: She Loves Me

“Me” is Georg Nowack, an employee at Maraczek’s parfumerie in Budapest, but who is “She”? Georg doesn’t know; “she” is his anonymous pen pal, whom he calls “Dear Friend.” His fellow clerks are Ladislav Sipos, Ilona Ritter, and the suave Steve Kodály. Arpád the messenger boy notices that Ilona is wearing the same dress she wore the day before, indicating that she has spent the night (again) with Kodály. Maraczek would like to see them sell some of the musical cigarette boxes he has overbought. Maraczek has no official openings for clerks, but he creates one when the job applicant Amalia Balash manages to sell one of the overstocked boxes.

The seasons pass, with Georg happily writing to his unknown “dear friend.” Things are less comfortable at work. He and Amalia have never gotten along, and now Ilona has quarreled with Kodály, too. Even Maraczek is grumpy; he seems particularly annoyed by Georg, who has no idea why his boss is irritated with him. Georg’s long-awaited encounter with his pen pal is to take place that evening. He doesn’t notice that Amalia is dressed up, but Ilona does, and she asks Amalia about her sweetheart. Amalia confesses she has never met him—they’ve simply been long-term pen pals.

No one is happy about Maraczek’s sudden decision that the employees must decorate for Christmas before they leave that night. The decorating takes place with very little holiday spirit, and soon, goaded by Maraczek, Georg quits. Later that evening, Amalia sits alone at a small table in a café. Back at the parfumerie, Kodály woos Ilona—but then suddenly drops her when another opportunity comes along. Outraged, Ilona vows not to fall for Kodály again. Meanwhile, Sipos has to insist that Georg go to the restaurant for the planned rendezvous; Georg wants to chicken out.

A private detective (hired by Mr. Maraczek) arrives at the nearly empty parfumerie. Mrs. Maraczek, it turns out, is having an affair with an employee—but it is with Kodály, not Georg. Maraczek retreats into his office, realizing he had suspected the wrong clerk, and had treated him poorly because of that suspicion. Arpád—who had been in the stockroom—runs forward shouting, just as a gunshot rings out. Meanwhile, at the café, Sipos and Georg peer through the café window and realize that Amalia must be the pen pal. Sipos orders Georg to go speak to her. Amalia is appalled that Georg insists on sitting at her table, since she fears he will frighten away her date. At last she actually screams in frustration, so Georg leaves. She waits and waits, but her “dear friend” never arrives.

Meanwhile, Maraczek did not die from his gunshot, but he is hospitalized, and he agrees to let Arpád be a sales clerk. Georg is rehired, but Amalia has called in sick. Concerned, Georg goes to visit her, bringing her ice cream, and he leads her to believe that her pen pal is a stout older man. After he leaves, Amalia tries to write to her “Dear Friend,” but she is continually interrupted by thoughts of Georg.

At the parfumerie, Ilona has good news. The night before, she had bravely made “A Trip to the Library” (Musical Example 46), where she met a nice man for once. The employees have no time to waste, however, for Christmas is coming, and the customers are mobbing the shop. Finally, on Christmas Eve, Amalia has planned another rendezvous with her “dear friend.” She and Georg are now cordial, and gradually the truth comes out: Georg is the dear friend—which Amalia had been hoping was the case—and now they can truly celebrate Christmas.

Musical Example 47 - Fiddler on the Roof - Jerry Bock / Sheldon Harnick, 1964 - “Do You Love Me?”

Online Plot Summary 34b: Fiddler on the Roof

What is a fiddler on the roof? He symbolizes the residents of the small Russian village of Anatevka in 1905, who try to sustain their Jewish traditions but run the risk of falling from their precarious balance because of the changing world all around them. The impoverished milkman Tevye has little time to worry about societal changes, though, for he and his wife Golde have five daughters, and three of them are of marriageable age. The eldest daughter Tzeitel warns her sisters about the prospects in store for them all, since their poor family is unable to provide them with dowries. But Yente, the local matchmaker, has been hard at work, and she has found a husband for Tzeitel: the butcher (and widower) Lazar Wolf.

Tevye, focused on his lame horse, ignores the news that Jews in distant villages have been evicted, but Perchik, who has revolutionary leanings, is appalled. Tevye takes pity on the penniless student, inviting him home for the Sabbath. Afterward, Golde sends Tevye to see Lazar Wolf. Tevye thinks that Lazar Wolf wants to buy Tevye’s new milk cow, so a slightly disjointed conversation ensues. When the men straighten out the confusion, Tevye knows that this would be a good match for Tzeitel, even though he’s not crazy about the man. As Tevye leaves the tavern, the constable pulls him aside, warning Tevye that he has been ordered to conduct some anti-Jewish demonstrations; he will try to keep them low-key. Tevye wonders why God sends him such good news and such bad tidings on the same day.

Perchik has been engaging Tevye’s second daughter Hodel in political debate and daring her to learn current dance steps. But Tevye’s preoccupied with Tzeitel right now; she says she loves her childhood playmate Motel. Tevye agrees to their marriage, but he now has a problem: how can he tell Golde that Tzeitel has his permission to marry a poor tailor rather than a wealthy butcher? Inspired, Tevye wakes Golde up in the night, telling her that he dreamed Golde’s grandmother insisted that Tzeitel marry Motel—and that Lazar Wolf’s first wife threatened to strangle the new bride if Tzeitel were to marry the butcher. Golde, deeply superstitious, decides that if the spirits of their ancestors delivered these warnings, she and Tevye will have to comply.

At the wedding, Tevye and Golde reminisce, remembering when the bride and groom were only small children. Lazar Wolf is aggrieved over the broken engagement to Tzeitel, but the villagers are soon distracted by the spectacle of Perchik inciting Hodel to cross the customary barrier that separates the men and women. Shockingly, the two young rebels start to dance together, in defiance of tradition. Tevye makes a choice; rather than making a bigger scene by separating the two, he condones their behavior by pulling Golde to the dance floor also. The newlyweds soon join in as well. This daring novelty outrages some of the older villagers, but the remaining wedding guests are delighted, and the merriment increases—until a band of Russians burst in, smashing furniture and wedding gifts left and right. The threatened “anti-Jewish demonstration” has made its ugly appearance, and Perchik is beaten to the ground for resisting.

Perchik feels he will not be able to change society if he stays in the backwater of Anatevka, so he tells Hodel he must go to Kiev. She promises to consider herself engaged to him. They go to tell Tevye, but he will not give his permission for Hodel to marry a man who is so far away. The young people shock him by telling him that they don’t want his permission, only his blessing. Reluctantly, he agrees to bless their union, since their love is so strong. He thinks about his own arranged marriage to Golde, remembering how his parents had assured him that he and his bride would grow to love each other. Curious to know if his parents’ prediction has come true, he goes to Golde and asks her, “Do You Love Me?” (Musical Example 47). Golde is impatient, but at last admits that she does indeed love Tevye.

Although this realization is a comfort, it doesn’t stop the escalating pressures of the outside world—what is rumor? What is fact? One story turns out to be true: Perchik has been arrested and sent to Siberia. Hodel takes a bold step; she leaves to join him there. The family’s sorrow over her departure is partly allayed by the joy over Motel and Tzeitel’s new arrival: their long-awaited sewing machine.

It is now time for the third daughter, Chava, to shatter tradition even more. She tells her father that she loves Fyedka. To Tevye, this romance is literally unthinkable—for Fyedka is a Christian Russian. Tevye absolutely cannot condone their love. Chava marries Fyedka all the same, but Tevye holds firm: his little “Chavaleh” is now dead to him. But Tevye is about to lose even more than his daughter: the pogroms that are driving Jews from their homes are coming closer and closer to Anatevka, and Tevye and the other villagers realize it’s time to go.

For Tevye and Golde, the path will lead to America, where they have relatives. Chava and her husband have come to say goodbye, and although Tevye cannot bring himself to address Chava directly, he turns to Tzeitel and tells her, “God be with you.” Tzeitel, realizing that Tevye is directing the blessing toward Chava, repeats her father’s words to her sister. Tevye gestures for the fiddler to follow along. Even in the new world, Tevye will uphold tradition as best he can.

  • Alpert, Hollis. Broadway: 125 Years of American Musical Theatre. New York: Little, Brown, 1991.
  • Altman, Richard, with Mervyn Kaufman. The Making of a Musical: Fiddler on the Roof. New York: Crown, 1971.
  • Bryer, Jackson R., and Richard A. Davison, eds. The Art of the American Musical: Conversations with the Creators. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005.
  • Ewen, David. Composers for the American Musical Theatre. New York: Dodd, Mead, & Company, 1968.
  • Guernsey, Otis L., Jr., ed. Broadway Song & Story: Playwrights/Lyricists/Composers Discuss Their Hits. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1985.
  • Green, Stanley. The World of Musical Comedy. Third edition, revised and enlarged. New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1974.
  • Hischak, Thomas S. Word Crazy: Broadway Lyricists from Cohan to Sondheim. New York: Praeger, 1991.
  • Ilson, Carol. Harold Prince From Pajama Game to Phantom of the Opera. Ann Arbor: U.M.I Research Press, 1989.
  • Kasha, Al, and Joel Hirschhorn. Notes on Broadway: Conversations with the Great Songwriters. Chicago: Contemporary Books, Inc., 1985.
  • Kislan, Richard. The Musical: A Look at the American Musical Theater. New, revised, expanded edition. New York & London: Applause Books, 1995.
  • Lambert, Philip. To Broadway, To Life!: The Musical Theater of Bock and Harnick. Broadway Legacies, ed. by Geoffrey Block. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
  • Mandelbaum, Ken. Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops. New York: St. Martin’s, 1991.
  • Maslon, Laurence, ed. American Musicals 1950–1969: The Complete Book & Lyrics of Eight Broadway Classics. New York: The Library of America, 2014.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Open a New Window: The Broadway Musical in the 1960s. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
  • Prince, Hal. Contradictions: Notes on Twenty-Six Years in the Theatre. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1974.
  • Solomon, Alisa. Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof. New York: Metropolitan Books / Henry Holt and Company, 2013.
  • Viertel, Jack. The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows are Built. New York: Sarah Crichton Books, 2016.

Chapter 35 – New Partnerships: Kander and Ebb

Musical Example 48 - Cabaret - John Kander / Fred Ebb, 1966 - “Tomorrow Belongs to Me”

Online Plot Summary 35a: Cabaret

Cabaret begins with a show-within-the-show: we are welcomed to the small Kit Kat Klub by the Master of Ceremonies. We can forget our troubles at this cabaret, which might be desirable, for we are visiting Berlin in the 1930s, just before the Nazi party comes into full power. There is an unspoken fear that life—which is none too good to begin with—is about to change for the worse. Like Mardi Gras revelers making the most of Carnival before the deprivations of the Lenten season begin, many German citizens are living desperate lives in an era of rampant inflation, moral decadence, and increasing violence.

Clifford Bradshaw, an American writer, is journeying to Berlin to seek his fortune. On the train, he meets Ernst Ludwig. Going through customs, Cliff realizes that Ernst hid an extra briefcase among Cliff’s belongings. Ernst explains that he had purchased too many goods in Paris and didn’t want to pay duty. As an apology, he offers to help Cliff find cheap lodging, and he promises to become Cliff’s first English student.

Cliff moves into Fräulein Schneider’s boardinghouse, which he shares with Fräulein Kost (a good-natured prostitute) and Herr Schultz, who manages a fruit shop and is shyly courting Schneider. Cliff is restless; he soon finds himself at the Kit Kat Klub. He is surprised to find an English girl as a mediocre lead performer, while she—Sally Bowles—is equally intrigued to find another English-speaker in the club, but she hurriedly ends the conversation when her protector—a partner in the club—arrives.

During an English lesson, Ernst hints that Cliff could earn even more money if he’d be willing to make an occasional trip to Paris. Unexpectedly, Sally arrives; her protector had been suspicious of her interest in the American, so she’s been kicked out of their relationship and her job at the cabaret. She’s hoping she can stay with Cliff for a while, and although Schneider is a little fretful, she’s consoled by the extra rent. Back at the Kit Kat Klub, the Emcee slyly notes that some people have more than one roommate. Schneider is also distressed by all of Kost’s male “visitors” but can’t afford to evict a paying tenant. Thank heavens for Schultz, who always brings Schneider little presents, such as today’s extravagant gift—a pineapple! At the club, the Aryan waiters are also pleased, proclaiming along with the Emcee that “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” (Musical Example 48).

Cliff’s writing continues to go slowly, but it is in part due to his increasing love for Sally. She has become pregnant, however, and Cliff feels compelled to accept Ernst’s offer of a trip to Paris, which will pay seventy-five marks. As if echoing Cliff’s financial concerns, the Kit Kat Klub features “The Money Song.” Back at the boarding house, Kost is surprised not to be scolded for the several sailors she’s had in her room, but she quickly learns that Schneider’s mind is elsewhere, having just agreed to marry Schultz. Sally immediately throws an engagement party, but there are some bumpy moments, such as when Schultz tries to be entertaining by singing a song full of Yiddish sayings. Ernst warns Schneider that she would be making a mistake to marry a non-German husband (for Herr Schultz is Jewish). Ernst and the other guests join in a rousing chorus of “Tomorrow Belongs to Me.”

As the second act begins, Schneider goes to the fruit shop to share her fears with Schultz. She doesn’t want trouble, and if she has to keep living her life without love, she will. He tries to reassure her, but a brick comes crashing through his shop window, and they know what it signals—Berlin is becoming increasingly intolerant of Jews. Meanwhile, the Emcee is tenderly singing to a gorilla in the Kit Kat Klub, explaining, “If You Could See Her Through My Eyes,” that “she wouldn’t look Jewish at all”—although, after public protests during the tryout tour, the line was changed to “She isn’t a Meeskite [an ugly woman] at all.”

Cliff is looking for a job, since he now realizes that his courier work to Paris actually supported the Nazi party. Sally’s been offered her old job back, but Cliff is opposed. Their argument is interrupted by Schneider, who has come to return their engagement gift. Schneider feels her life is centered in Berlin; she can’t just run away. Cliff realizes that’s what he and Sally should do, so he leaves to sell his typewriter for train fare, telling Sally to stay in the room. Sally, of course, leaves immediately, and he later finds her defiantly performing in the club, singing “Cabaret”—her tribute to the philosophy that we should grab everything we can out of the short life we’re allotted. Even while she sings, Ernst has a gang of Nazi thugs beat Cliff for refusing to be a courier again.

Neither Cliff nor Sally is in good shape the next morning. Cliff is packing, but Sally tells him she’s not going; moreover, she announces that she has had the child aborted. Cliff slaps her, but it doesn’t help her to see the shallowness of her choice or the extent of her delusions. She thinks of herself as a strange and extraordinary person, and this argument is all part of the drama in which she stars. Cliff leaves a train ticket for her, but she’s not interested; she believes her place is in the glittering, hard-edged world of the cabaret, where she now sings for a profusion of German military uniforms adorned with swastikas.

Musical Example 49 - Chicago - John Kander / Fred Ebb, 1975 - “The Cell Block Tango”

Online Plot Summary 35b: Chicago

An energetic, Charleston-era overture lets us know that Chicago is set in the late 1920s. As the curtain opens, Master of Ceremonies Velma Kelly invites us to join her in a visit to the Chicago speakeasy environment, where we will witness “a story of murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery, and treachery—all those things we all hold near and dear to our hearts.” Velma is addressing us—the audience—as if we’re part of the real participants in the show.

The next scene depicts what happens when Fred Casely decides to end his affair with Roxie Hart. Angrily pulling a gun, she shoots him—and then, when her husband Amos comes home, she tells him a sad story about a burglar she had to shoot. Roxie persuades Amos to tell the police that he shot the “burglar”; since Amos is nuts about Roxie, he goes along with the scheme, even though it will mean his own arrest. As Amos explains matters to the police, Roxie sings an affectionate tribute to her malleable husband. But, during the course of her song, the police identify the victim, and Amos realizes that this wasn’t a burglar—this was the man who had sold them their furniture! Amos quickly figures out that Roxie and Fred must have been having an affair. He’s no longer interested in taking the blame for the shooting, and he tells the police all he knows. They arrest Roxie for murder.

Roxie is booked into the Cook County Jail, and “The Cell Block Tango” (Musical Example 49) introduces Roxie’s cellmates. Each woman explains how she ended up in jail, although they all maintain that they’re victims of circumstances rather than murderers. During their song-and-dance, we learn, among other things, that Velma had been part of a vaudeville acrobatic act with her sister. Velma had caught her sister in bed with Velma’s husband, although Velma reports that she then blacked out and has simply no idea how her hands came to be so bloody.

We also meet the matron of the cellblock, “Mama” Morton, who explains that the place can be quite tolerable—if you’re “good to Mama.” Mama has been helping to make Velma a media star and has been arranging vaudeville bookings for Velma after her expected acquittal. However, Roxie’s appearance throws a monkey wrench in Velma’s plans: Roxie’s crime is the new, hot media topic, and not only does Roxie steal Velma’s limelight, but she grabs the attention of Velma’s lawyer as well. Billy Flynn explains that he’s not a lawyer for money; all he cares about is love—and, interestingly enough, all his clients are female. Billy’s fee is $5,000, and Roxie quickly starts wheedling the cash out of Amos.

Billy preps Roxie for an interview with a reporter from the Evening Star named Mary Sunshine. She’s just what Roxie needs, for Mary is perfectly willing to accept Roxie’s now rather-twisted version of events. A press conference follows, with Roxie on Billy’s lap so he can control her like a ventriloquist’s dummy to tell her ever-changing tale about how Roxie and Fred “both reached for the gun.”

Afterward, Roxie rejoices in her newfound media stardom and begins to plan her vaudeville career after her anticipated acquittal. Velma, on the other hand, is getting panicky—she’s lost her publicity, her lawyer, and even her trial date, so she tries to persuade Roxie to team up with her in a new version of Velma’s old sister act. Velma demonstrates a number of her old vaudeville moves to Roxie, but Roxie wants no part of it—she thinks she’s got it made on her own. But there’s bad news: a new murderess has just stolen Billy Flynn’s attention.

At the start of the second act, Roxie hits on the idea of claiming to be pregnant, and this inspiration puts her right back in the center of attention. Roxie plays it to the hilt, while Velma is furious that she didn’t think of the idea. One thing Roxie doesn’t count on is Amos’s reaction. Even though the math doesn’t quite work out, Amos is thrilled at the prospect of being a father. He proudly announces his paternity, only to find that nobody cares; the press just looks right through him, since he’s only “Mr. Cellophane.” Moreover, Billy wants Amos to divorce Roxie, thinking that this abandonment will increase public sympathy for the poor, persecuted mother-to-be.

Velma is growing increasingly desperate, and having gotten a little time alone with Billy Flynn, she shows him all the little manipulative tricks she has planned for her eventual trial. Roxie’s been thinking she’s smart enough to defend herself, but suddenly, another one of the Cook County Jail residents is found guilty. Hunyak was probably the only one of them who truly was innocent, yet she is sentenced to hang—the first woman to be executed in forty-seven years in Cook County. Roxie thinks better of her decision, allowing Billy to “Razzle Dazzle” the jury himself. As Roxie’s trial proceeds, Velma soon learns, to her horror, that Roxie is using all of Velma’s proposed mannerisms in her trial: Billy has appropriated Velma’s ideas, even down to the kind of shoes she was planning to wear. Velma and the matron, Mama Morton, commiserate with each other, asking each other whatever happened to “Class”?

As we might expect in this cynical, jaded environment, Roxie wins an acquittal—but before she can publicly gloat over her triumph, an even more sensational crime takes place in the next courtroom. The reporters run to cover this breaking story, and Roxie’s fleeting celebrity is over. Amos begs her to come home for the sake of the baby, and, surprised, she tells him there is no baby—so now there’s no Amos, either. The only thing for Roxie to do is to team up with Velma in a second-rate vaudeville sister act—but first, they step forward to thank us, the audience, for our constant support.

  • Bryer, Jackson R., and Richard A. Davison, eds. The Art of the American Musical: Conversations with the Creators. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005.
  • Citron, Stephen. The Musical From the Inside Out. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1992.
  • Garebian, Keith. The Making of Cabaret. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
  • Gottfried, Martin. Broadway Musicals. New York: Abradale Press/Abrams, Inc., 1984.
  • Guernsey, Otis L., Jr., ed. Broadway Song & Story: Playwrights/Lyricists/Composers Discuss Their Hits. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1985.
  • Green, Stanley. The World of Musical Comedy. Third edition, revised and enlarged. New York: A. S. Barnes & Company, 1974.
  • Hirsch, Foster. Harold Prince and the American Musical Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
  • Ilson, Carol. Harold Prince From Pajama Game to Phantom of the Opera. Ann Arbor: U.M.I Research Press, 1989.
  • Kasha, Al, and Joel Hirschhorn. Notes on Broadway: Conversations with the Great Songwriters. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1985.
  • Leve, James. Kander and Ebb. Yale Broadway Masters, edited by Geoffrey Block. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009.
  • Mandelbaum, Ken. Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops. New York: St. Martin’s, 1991.
  • Maslon, Laurence, ed. American Musicals 1950–1969: The Complete Book & Lyrics of Eight Broadway Classics. New York: The Library of America, 2014.
  • Miller, Scott. Deconstructing Harold Hill: An Insider’s Guide to Musical Theatre. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000.
  • _______. From Assassins to West Side Story: A Director’s Guide to Musical Theatre. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Open a New Window: The Broadway Musical in the 1960s. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
  • Prince, Hal. Contradictions: Notes on Twenty-Six Years in the Theatre. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1974.

Chapter 36 – New Partnerships: Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice

Musical Example 50 - Jesus Christ Superstar - Andrew Lloyd Webber / Tim Rice, 1970 [concept album] - “Pilate’s Dream”

Online Plot Summary 36a: Jesus Christ Superstar

Judas, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus of Nazareth, is worried. When he had first joined Jesus’s crusade, he felt that they could really do some good for their troubled land. Lately, though, people have started focusing not on their cause but on Jesus himself. Why, some are even saying Jesus is the Messiah! It makes Judas nervous that the crowds are getting too big. He knows that the ruling Pharisees won’t hesitate a moment to squelch Jesus and his followers if they become too high profile.

In Bethany, on Friday night, the apostles anxiously ask Jesus what’s going on. Mary Magdalene, a former prostitute, sees that Jesus is stressed by all the agitation, so she tries to soothe him with some scented oil. Judas sneers at her efforts, telling Jesus that it’s inappropriate to consort with a woman of her unsavory background. Jesus retorts angrily that only one whose slate is clean should throw stones. Mary again tries to calm Jesus, lulling him to sleep.

In the city of Jerusalem the following Sunday, the Pharisees and priests anxiously insist to Caiaphas, the head priest, that Jesus must die. Caiaphas agrees; he foresees their own destruction if this dangerous man is allowed to live. Outside, the crowd is excited at the sight of Jesus entering Jerusalem. Furiously, Caiaphas orders Jesus to quiet the mob, but the crowd continues to roar. Simon views Jesus as the powerful leader who will rally the Jewish people to overthrow their Roman oppressors. Jesus softly replies that no one in Jerusalem understands the meaning of true power or glory.

The Roman governor of the region, Pontius Pilate, spends a restless night. In “Pilate’s Dream” (Musical Example 50), he had seen an amazing Galilean whom people seemed at first to hate, and then Pilate saw “thousands of millions crying for this man”—and blaming Pilate for his death.

Jesus is busy elsewhere. He has found that the Temple in Jerusalem has not been kept holy. Instead, its aisles are full of merchants and moneylenders. In a fury, he drives them out of the sanctuary, only to find himself exhausted by the demands of the crippled and poor who beg him for help. In anguish, he finally orders them to “heal yourselves!” Mary takes action; again soothing him, she gets him to rest. While he sleeps, she is puzzled over her own emotional response to him, musing, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.” Although she’s used to manipulating men, she finds that Jesus scares her; he’s different, somehow.

Judas makes a momentous decision on Tuesday. He decides that he will stop Jesus before all of them are arrested as troublemakers. He goes to the Pharisees to betray what he knows of Jesus’s planned activities, since the priests are anxious to find a quiet opportunity to capture Jesus so that the arrest does not incite the crowds even further. The priests offer Judas thirty pieces of silver in payment for the information. Judas at first rejects the blood money, but the priests persuade him to take it, assuring him he can help the poor with the funds. Judas at last slowly names the Garden of Gethsemane as the best place to arrest Jesus; he and the apostles will be there on Thursday night.

On Thursday evening, Jesus and the apostles share a final meal, and Jesus is frustrated by their incomprehension of the events to come. When he insists that they will soon deny knowing him and will betray him, they’re outraged—all of them except Judas, of course, who accuses Jesus of wanting him to commit the betrayal. Jesus simply urges Judas to hurry up and do it. Unaware of the impending disaster, the remaining apostles drift off to sleep in Gethsemane, leaving Jesus to pray on his own. Jesus reluctantly tells the Lord he is ready for his anointed duty.

Judas reappears with some armed guards. To identify the right man without rousing the sleeping apostles, Judas kisses Jesus’s cheek. Gradually, the apostles wake up, but they can make only a feeble attempt at stopping the arrest. A crowd has gathered, and the people’s mood is different; they now seem more menacing and are almost gleeful about Jesus’s troubles to come. After accusing Jesus of claiming to be the Son of God, the priests decide there’s enough evidence to send him to Pilate for judgment. Meanwhile, the angry mob confronts Peter, accusing him of being one of Jesus’s followers. Trying to save his own skin, Peter denies the charge over and over again—and Mary Magdalene is struck by the fact that his denial means Jesus’s strange prediction has come true.

On Friday, Pilate is reluctant to get involved. He realizes that by rights, as a Galilean, Jesus falls under King Herod’s jurisdiction, so Herod should be the one to question Jesus. Herod is delighted at first. As he announces in “King Herod’s Song,” he’s wanted to see Jesus for a long time, hoping that Jesus will perform a miracle for him. Stoically, Jesus does not respond to the king’s taunts, and Herod angrily orders that the prisoner should be returned to Pilate.

Judas is horrified at the treatment Jesus is receiving and goes to the priests to protest. They cut him off, and he realizes the enormity of his betrayal. Driven insane by guilt and panic, he hangs himself. During the trial, Pilate cannot find any real charge to bring against Jesus, but he decides that flogging Jesus might satisfy the bloodthirsty crowd that has begun to call for Jesus to be crucified. Since forty lashes are said to kill a man, Pilate orders that Jesus be whipped thirty-nine times—but the crowd is not appeased. They continue to shriek “crucify him!,” and at last Pilate washes his hands of the matter. Since Jesus won’t defend himself, and the crowd wants him dead, then so be it.

When Pilate makes the fateful choice, Judas’s voice is heard once more. He asks Jesus if this entire sad story had been part of some great plan to become a “Superstar.” But Jesus has no answer for Judas and the crowd. Instead, now nailed to the cross, Jesus prays during “The Crucifixion” for God to forgive these people, and finally, with his last breath, tells the Lord, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” No more words are heard, but the orchestra plays “John Nineteen: Forty-One,” a reference to the Biblical verse that describes the waiting sepulcher near the spot where Jesus had been crucified.

Musical Example 51 - Evita - Andrew Lloyd Webber / Tim Rice, 1979 [U.S.] - “Another Suitcase in Another Hall”

Online Plot Summary 36b: Evita

In effect, Evita begins with its ending. A film is playing when suddenly the lights come on and an announcer’s voice is heard. He tells the audience, “It is the sad duty of the Secretary of the Press to inform the people of Argentina that Eva Perón, spiritual leader of the nation, entered immortality at 20.25 hours today.” The weeping crowds start gathering for her funeral procession, but one observer, Ché, is unmoved by the wailing all around him. Disgustedly, he disparages the proceedings as a circus, and his disdain for the deceased woman is made clear as he leads us back through time to her origins.

We learn that María Eva Duarte was born in the provinces, the illegitimate daughter of a local bureaucrat. At age fifteen, she is seduced by (or seduces) Agustín Magaldi, a second-rate singer. As his engagement in Junín comes to an end, she tells him what she wants in exchange for her virginity: she insists that he take her to Buenos Aires. Once in the big city, Eva quickly starts working her way into a position of minor prominence, as a model, a radio broadcaster, and a bit player in various films—even if her climb requires some sexual favors. Meanwhile, the Argentine government undergoes upheaval after upheaval, punctuated by military coups. The political shifts seem like a game of musical chairs, and Eva soon perceives that one Colonel Juan Perón is a likely candidate for coming out a winner. She quickly positions herself to meet him.

Intrigued by this brazen approach, Perón allows Eva to supplant his sixteen-year-old mistress. The mistress is resigned to her eviction, bravely telling herself that it’s simply time for “Another Suitcase in Another Hall” (Musical Example 51). Not everyone is complacent about Eva’s increasingly powerful role; Perón’s fellow officers in the army resent her control over Perón, while the Argentine aristocrats refuse to accept a woman with such a shady past.

Now popularly known as Evita, the new Señora Perón has been a driving force behind her husband’s 1946 campaign to become the president of Argentina. After his election, the couple stands “On the Balcony of the Casa Rosada”—the Argentine equivalent of the American White House—and greets the populace. The crowds soon shift their attention from the president to his first lady, and she basks in their attention, telling them, “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina.”

Indeed, one could only envy the twenty-six-year-old’s ensuing power. Having won over the common people, she wants to soar even higher. Anxious to widen Argentina’s (and her own) influence around the world, she heads straight for Europe. After a gratifying reception in Spain, though, Evita finds that other European countries do not offer such enthusiastic hospitality. In fact, England virtually snubs her. She is enraged and resolves to undermine the Argentine upper classes, most of which have ties to Great Britain.

Upon her return to Argentina, Evita launches the Eva Perón Foundation. Her charity thrives, especially since she has cut off government subsidies to the preexisting charities that had been run by Argentine aristocrats. Admittedly, Evita’s henchmen do occasionally resort to strong-arming contributions. Nevertheless, the Foundation promises an occasional prize lottery, so the people are excited about the possibility of sudden wealth—even if some of the Foundation’s accounting methods wouldn’t stand up to close scrutiny. Ironically, the Argentine people adore Evita all the more.

Ché is a lone dissenting voice, one who does not view the first lady as a living saint. (Most of Evita’s other detractors have been forcibly silenced.) He challenges her activities, and she justifies herself on the grounds that she’s done more good for the peasants than anyone else ever has. She argues that she would need centuries to accomplish more lasting changes—and she does not have centuries. In fact, she doesn’t even have decades, even though she is only thirty-three, for Evita has developed cancer. Perón is aware of the trouble he will face without her shrewd manipulations on his behalf.

For a time, Eva schemes to become vice-president, but Perón forces her to confront her own mortality. Increasingly feeble, she delivers a final broadcast to the ever-adoring populace, telling them, once again, “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina.” During her final hours, her wandering mind surveys images from her life (peppered by Che’s furious denunciations), and her voice is heard again, insisting that she has no regrets.

  • Bennetts, Leslie. “Lloyd Webber’s 3d Broadway Show.” The New York Times Biographical Service 13 (September 1982): 1210.
  • Braun, Michael, compiler. Jesus Christ Superstar: The Authorized Version. London: Pan Books, 1972.
  • Coveny, Michael. Cats on a Chandelier: The Andrew Lloyd Webber Story. London: Hutchinson, 1999.
  • Darden, Robert. People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music. New York: Continuum, 2004.
  • Grant, Mark N. The Rise and Fall of the Broadway Musical. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2004.
  • Kirle, Bruce. Unfinished Business: Broadway Musicals as Works-in-Process. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2005.
  • Lloyd Web[b]er, Andrew, and Tim Rice. Evita: the Legend of Eva Peron, 1919–1952. New York: Avon Books, 1978.
  • Mandelbaum, Ken. Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops. New York: St. Martin’s, 1991.
  • Mantle, Jonathan. Fanfare: The Unauthorised Biography of Andrew Lloyd Webber. New York: Viking Penguin, 1989.
  • McKnight, Gerald. Andrew Lloyd Webber. New York: St. Martin’s, 1984.
  • Miller, Scott. From Assassins to West Side Story: A Director’s Guide to Musical Theatre. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Open a New Window: The Broadway Musical in the 1960s. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
  • Nassour, Ellis, and Richard Broderick. Rock Opera: The Creation of Jesus Christ Superstar from Record Album to Broadway Show and Motion Picture. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1973.
  • Oliver, Paul. “Postwar Quartets.” In The New Grove Gospel, Blues, and Jazz, edited by Paul Oliver, Max Harrison, and William Bolcolm. New York: W. W. Norton, 1986.
  • Palmer, Robert. “The Pop Life: Writing Musicals Attuned to Rock Era.” The New York Times (February 10, 1982): C 21.
  • Richmond, Keith. The Musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber. London: Virgin, 1995.  
  • Roper, David. Bart!: The Unauthorized Life and Times, Ins and Outs, Ups and Downs of Lionel Bart. London: Pavilion, 1994.
  • Snelson, John. Andrew Lloyd Webber. Yale Broadway Masters, edited by Geoffrey Block. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004.
  • Sternfeld, Jessica. The Megamusical. Profiles in Popular Music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.
  • Walsh, David, and Len Platt. Musical Theater and American Culture. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003.
  • Walsh, Michael. Andrew Lloyd Webber, His Life and Works: A Critical Biography. Revised and Enlarged Edition. New York: Abrams, 1997.
  • Wolf, Stacy. Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
  • Wollman, Elizabeth L. The Theater Will Rock: A History of the Rock Musical, from Hair to Hedwig. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2006.

Chapter 37 – Wunderkinder of the 1970s

Musical Example 52 - A Chorus Line - Marvin Hamlisch / Edward Kleban, 1975 - “I Can Do That”

Online Plot Summary 37: A Chorus Line

On a bare stage, a line of dancers in rehearsal clothes has been auditioning for a show, each gypsy hoping to get a spot. The line has been weeded down to seventeen, but the director, Zach, needs only four men and four women. Now he wants to know something about the individuals standing on the stage, so a series of introductions begins to unfold. Mike relates that he had been a little kid, watching his sister go to dance class, when he realized “I Can Do That” (Musical Example 52). Bobby can talk about anything—and does. Sheila, Maggie, and Bebe all thought their lives would be like the ballet if they could learn to dance like ballerinas. Kristine is a good dancer, but—as her husband Al helps her explain—she’s not a singer, which has become a terrible disadvantage for a chorus line member.

Mark is so young that all he can really remember is puberty, while Connie kept waiting to grow tall enough to dance ballet. Diana started out as an actress, but she found that she could feel “Nothing” during the high school improvisation exercises. Don started his career in a nightclub, while Judy describes the unhappiness of her childhood. Greg recalls coming “out,” and Richie remembers his other career option, kindergarten-teaching. The formerly plain and flat-chested Val describes how plastic surgery has equalized her chances during auditions. Paul, however, can’t even talk about his background—and Cassie has a past that Zach already seems to know. She’s back on Broadway, after their former relationship panned out, along with her Hollywood aspirations. She returns to learning the audition’s dance routine while Zach probes into Paul’s past some more, learning that the young man has struggled to come to terms with his sexual preferences and his parents’ views about his life.

Zach continues to assess how well the dancers can sublimate their individuality into a single, matched line. Cassie, in particular, has difficulty disguising her special flair. Suddenly, disaster strikes: Paul falls to the ground with torn cartilage. His career is over, and the other dancers all know they’ll reach the same point someday. But for now, dancing is what they do—and the eight who are chosen for the line (Mike, Cassie, Bobby, Judy, Richie, Val, Mark, and Diana) are overjoyed. The show closes with them in matching performance attire, glittering through their routine, and individuals no longer.

  • Banfield, Stephen. Sondheim’s Broadway Musicals. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993.
  • Beddow, Margery. Bob Fosse’s Broadway. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996.
  • Citron, Stephen. Sondheim and Lloyd Webber: The New Musical. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  • De Giere, Carol. Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz from Godspell to Wicked. New York: Applause, 2008.  
  • Doughtie, Katherine Shirek. “Rituals, robes, and hungry ghosts.” Dramatics (January 2001): 5–7.
  • Filichia, Peter. Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit and the Biggest Flop of the Season, 1959–2009. Milwaukee: Applause Books, 2010.
  • Flinn, Denny Martin. What They Did for Love: The Untold Story Behind the Making of A Chorus Line. New York: Bantam Books, 1989.
  • Frommer, Myrna Katz and Harvey Frommer.  It Happened on Broadway: An Oral History of the Great White Way.  New York: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1998.
  • Green, Stanley. Broadway Musicals: Show by Show. Third edition. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Publishing, 1990.
  • Herrera, Brian Eugenio. “Little Steps: The Absurdity of A Chorus Line.” Studies in Musical Theatre 10, no. 1 (2016): 105–115.
  • Kasha, Al, and Joel Hirschhorn. Notes on Broadway: Conversations with the Great Songwriters. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1985.
  • Kenrick, John. Musical Theatre: A History. New York: Continuum, 2008.
  • Mandelbaum, Ken. A Chorus Line and the Musicals of Michael Bennett. New York: St. Martin’s, 1989.
  • _______. Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops. New York: St. Martin’s, 1991.
  • Miller, Scott. From Assassins to West Side Story: A Director’s Guide to Musical Theatre. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Anything Goes: A History of American Musical Theatre. London: Oxford University Press, 2013.
  • Mordden, Ethan. One More Kiss: The Broadway Musical in the 1970s. New York: Palgrave, 2003.
  • Ostrow, Stuart. A Producer’s Broadway Journey. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999.
  • Richards, Stanley, ed. Great Rock Musicals. New York: Stein & Day, 1979.
  • Suskin, Steven. More Opening Nights on Broadway: A Critical Quotebook of the Musical Theatre, 1965–1981. New York: Schirmer Books, 1997.
  • _______. Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway’s Major Composers. Revised and expanded third edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Chapter 38 – Sondheim in the 1970s: The Endless Experiments

Musical Example 53 - Company - Stephen Sondheim / Stephen Sondheim, 1970 - “Getting Married Today”

Online Plot Summary 38a: Company

Five couples—all friends of Robert’s—are gathered in his Manhattan apartment for a surprise party. Robert is turning thirty-five and is wondering if he should be married, too. He starts to examine the partnerships of all these couples, trying to judge if any of these relationships might be a model for him.

Sarah and Harry are a quarrelsome pair, each with hang-ups: Sarah’s got a problem with food, while Harry’s got a problem with drink. During Robert’s visit to their apartment, he’s the referee as they take out their problems on each other. Sarah, a karate student, vents some of her frustration by pinning Harry over and over again. He refuses to cry “Uncle,” however, and in the background Joanne explains, “It’s the Little Things You Do Together” that make “perfect relationships.” Later, Robert asks Harry if he’s ever sorry he got married; Harry replies that it’s always a yes-and-no answer.

Susan and Peter have some shocking news for Robert: they’re getting divorced. Things are even stranger at Jenny and David’s apartment, for they’re smoking marijuana. The conversation drifts toward the subject of marriage, and Robert, trying to prove that he’s not against it, insists that he’s really thinking about it and is dating three women as he explores the idea. His three female interests—April the flight attendant, Marta the kook, and Kathy who is from out of town—band together to express their shared frustration with Robert in three-part Andrews Sisters fashion.

The husbands aren’t so concerned that Robert be in a solid relationship as they are hopeful to get a thrill from hearing about his various bachelor encounters. Robert has begun to dream of the perfect companion, a composite of all his female friends’ best qualities. Meanwhile, Marta articulates the single person’s desperate anxiety to meet people in the enormous, alien city without seeming too needy.

Paul and Amy, longtime cohabitants, have decided to get married—but now that the day has arrived, Amy has cold feet. Frantically, she insists she’s not “Getting Married Today” (Musical Example 53). Paul, distraught, leaves the apartment to go tell the assembled guests that the wedding is off. Impulsively, Robert proposes to Amy himself, and Amy is struck by the irony of the situation: she’s afraid to get married, and Robert’s afraid not to. Suddenly, she realizes that it’s pouring outside and that Paul didn’t take his raincoat or umbrella. She goes tearing after him, but not without taking her bridal bouquet; the wedding is going to take place after all.

At the birthday party that opens the second act, Robert’s friends describe their relationships with him, asking Robert, “What Would We Do Without You?” Near the end of the song, after the question has been asked yet again, Robert replies, “Just what you’d usually do,” and without missing a beat, they snap back, “Right!” They console themselves with the idea that at least they are there for him, even if he has no one else. Robert is not quite as alone as they imagine, for even at that moment he is entertaining April for the evening. In “Tick Tock,” a dancer simulates their nocturnal coupling, making it clear that they are having sex rather than making love. In the morning, during a rather stilted conversation, Robert suggests that April should remain with him. No, she says, she is working a flight bound for “Barcelona,” but suddenly she has a change of heart, and to Robert’s dismay, she says she’ll stay.

Things are not over with Robert’s other relationships, either. He and Marta visit Susan and Peter. When Peter had gone to Mexico to file for divorce, he enjoyed the country so much that he called Susan and urged her to come join him. Now no longer married, they live together in deepest contentment, happier than they’ve ever been. Robert also goes with Larry and Joanne to a nightclub. Joanne drinks steadily, and while Larry is dancing, she mocks herself and other (useless) women in her situation, calling them “The Ladies Who Lunch.” The alcohol has given her temporary courage, and she propositions the younger Robert, offering to “take care of him” in exchange for a relationship. Almost without thinking, Robert blurts out, “But who will I take care of?” and turns Joanne down. She feels that he has made an important break-through.

At home, Robert realizes that he wants the feeling of “Being Alive,” and he can only have that sensation if he allows himself to love “someone.” The woman may not be perfect; there may be frustrations ahead, but he’s ready to try commitment for the first time in his life. Meanwhile, his friends await him yet again at his birthday party. When he doesn’t arrive, they slowly realize that he must have found someone else to be with at last, and saying “Happy Birthday” to the empty room, they depart.

Musical Example 54 - Sweeney Todd - Stephen Sondheim / Stephen Sondheim, 1979 - “A Little Priest”

Online Plot Summary 38b: Sweeney Todd

An ear-piercing factory whistle is heard, and various gravediggers and bystanders introduce us to the nineteenth-century “demon barber of Fleet Street.” As the prologue ends, two men have arrived at the London docks. The younger, sailor Anthony Hope, is in awe of the great city, but the older man, Sweeney Todd, views the metropolis as a black pit filled with the vermin known as society. A mad beggar woman offering her filthy body accosts them. Anthony cannot understand Sweeney’s harsh response, but Sweeney tells Anthony the horrifying tale of “The Barber and His Wife.” A powerful judge had desired Sweeney’s beautiful bride Lucy, so he drummed up false charges against Sweeney and had him transported from England. Anthony is horrified and asks what became of her. Sweeney tells him it was all a long time ago, then bids Anthony farewell.

Sweeney makes his way to Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop on Fleet Street. No one will rent her upstairs room because of its unhappy past: she says the room once housed a barber and his family, until Judge Turpin took a fancy to the wife and got rid of the husband. The judge, with his beadle’s help, deceived Lucy by luring her to a masquerade ball at the judge’s home. There he raped her, and she subsequently took poison in despair. Judge Turpin adopted her child Johanna as his ward.

As Mrs. Lovett tells the tale, she realizes that this is Sweeney himself. Sweeney is crushed, since the thought of returning to his family has buoyed him for fifteen years, and now all that is left to him is revenge. Mrs. Lovett offers him the room; moreover, she still has his barber’s tools, so he can earn a living.

Meanwhile, Johanna has grown to be as beautiful as her mother had been. She leans out a window, admiring the birds offered for sale by a street vendor. Anthony asks a passing beggar about the girl’s identity, but the beggar woman warns him that the girl’s guardian is dangerous. Nevertheless, Anthony buys a bird to please Johanna, and the judge angrily warns him to stay away —so Anthony vows to rescue “Johanna.”

Sweeney starts to build his business by challenging a rival, Pirelli. After winning easily, Sweeney invites the assembled crowd to come to his shop to be shaved, and the beadle—the judge’s henchman—wavers, then declines. Sweeney is frustrated, but Mrs. Lovett counsels him to “Wait.”

Some of Sweeney’s visitors aren’t interested in shaves. For instance, Anthony wants to hide Johanna in the shop after freeing her. Next is Pirelli, who recognized Sweeney from the past and has come to blackmail him—but Sweeney strangles him in a rage and hides the body. Downstairs, Mrs. Lovett feeds pies (and gin) to her young shop assistant, Tobias.

Because of Anthony, Judge Turpin is suddenly aware of Johanna’s beauty, and decides to marry her himself. When Anthony climbs to Johanna’s window, she quickly agrees to elope with him. Meanwhile, the beadle and the judge head off to Sweeney’s shop, where Sweeney shaves the judge in preparation for Turpin’s wedding. Sweeney is just about to murder the judge when Anthony bursts in, talking about the elopement. Sweeney is enraged, for the judge will never return. At that point, Sweeney experiences his “Epiphany”: with his blade, he can punish the wealthy for corruption and can relieve the poor from their misery. Meanwhile Mrs. Lovett, having learned about Pirelli, wonders what to do with the corpse. Wait! She always needs meat for her pies—and she and Sweeney envision the varied ingredients he might be able to supply her, such as “A Little Priest” (Musical Example 54). Their course of madness has begun.

As the second act begins, the horror increases: delighted customers are flocking to Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop, while Sweeney sends victims straight from his barber chair down to Mrs. Lovett’s basement through a handy trapdoor. The crazy beggar woman is the only one who seems to recognize the monstrous nature of Mrs. Lovett’s business, but no one listens to her. Mrs. Lovett starts dreaming of a seaside cottage, but Sweeney still dreams of vengeance. When Anthony tells him that the judge has imprisoned Johanna in an asylum, Sweeney helps Anthony disguise himself as a wigmaker who buys hair from the inmates. But Sweeney also betrays this plan to the judge, telling Turpin that Anthony will bring Johanna to Sweeney’s shop.

Tobias loves Mrs. Lovett, but mistrusts Sweeney, especially when he finds a purse belonging to Pirelli. Mrs. Lovett leads Tobias to the basement to “help her make the pies”—then locks him in. Because of aroma complaints, the beadle has come to conduct an inspection, but Mrs. Lovett persuades the beadle to accept a free shave from Todd.

Tobias is having a rough time in the basement. Not only has he discovered a fingernail in a pie, but it is also not long before the beadle’s body comes hurtling down the chute. Anthony is also having a hard time with his clumsy rescue of Johanna, but she grabs the gun and shoots the asylum’s warden.

Anthony hides Johanna (disguised as a sailor) in Sweeney’s shop while he searches for a coach. Sweeney had gone to the basement to address the problem of Tobias, but the beggar woman enters, calling for the beadle. Sweeney needs to silence this madwoman, so he quickly cuts her throat.    

Turpin arrives, as Sweeney had hoped—and with the judge’s death, Sweeney’s revenge is complete. He then remembers that he must deal with Tobias, but is surprised to see a young sailor coming out from hiding. Before he can kill Johanna, he is interrupted by Mrs. Lovett’s screams from the basement: Judge Turpin is not quite dead. Sweeney races down to finish him off—but while dragging the bodies to the furnace, Sweeney realizes that the old beggar woman was his long-lost wife: the poison had taken her wits but not her life. Now completely insane, Sweeney forces Mrs. Lovett into the furnace. Tobias, driven mad himself by these dreadful events, must destroy the man who killed his beloved Mrs. Lovett. When Anthony and Johanna arrive with the police, Tobias is found working away at the meat grinder. The Londoners all join in to finish “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd.”

  • Banfield, Stephen. Sondheim’s Broadway Musicals. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993.
  • Berkowitz, Gerald. “The Metaphor of Paradox in Sondheim’s Company.” Philological Papers 25 (Feb. 1979): 94–100.
  • Bristow, Eugene K., and J. Kevin Butler. “Company, About Face! The Show That Revolutionized the American Musical.” American Music 5 (Fall 1987): 241–254.
  • Citron, Stephen. Sondheim and Lloyd Webber: The New Musical. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  • Coleman, Bud. “‘Give Us More to See’: The Visual World of Stephen Sondheim’s Musicals.” In The Oxford Handbook of Sondheim Studies, edited by Robert Gordon, 133–150. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
  • Cronin, Mari. “Sondheim: The Idealist” in Stephen Sondheim: A Casebook. Edited by Joanne Gordon. (Casebooks on Modern Dramatists, Volume 23; Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, Volume 1916.) New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1997, pp. 143–152.
  • Gerould, Daniel. “A Toddography (including ‘Sweeney Todd the Barber’ by Robert Weston)” in Melodrama. Guest edited by Daniel Gerould. New York: New York Literary Forum, 1980, pp. 43–48
  • Gottfried, Martin. Sondheim. New York: Abrams, 1993.
  • Guernsey, Otis L., Jr., editor. Broadway Song & Story: Playwrights/Lyricists/Composers Discuss Their Hits. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1985.
  • _______. Playwrights, Lyricists, Composers on Theater: The Inside Story of a Decade of Theater in Articles and Comments by Its Authors, Selected from Their Own Publication, The Dramatists Guild Quarterly. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1974.
  • Herbert, Trevor. “Sondheim’s Technique.” Contemporary Music Review 5 (1989): 199–214.
  • Hirsch, Foster. Harold Prince and the American Musical Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
  • Ilson, Carol. Harold Prince From Pajama Game to Phantom of the Opera. Ann Arbor: U.M.I Research Press, 1989.
  • Lewine, Richard. “Symposium: The Anatomy of a Theater Song.” The Dramatists Guild Quarterly 14, no. 1 (1977): 8–19.
  • Mandelbaum, Ken. Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops. New York: St. Martin’s, 1991.
  • McGill, Craig M. “Sondheim’s Use of the ‘Hermann Chord’ in Sweeney Todd.” Studies in Musical Theatre 6, no. 3 (2012): 291–312.
  • Miller, Scott. From Assassins to West Side Story: A Director’s Guide to Musical Theatre. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996.
  • Mollin, Alfred. “Mayhem and Morality in Sweeney Todd.” American Music 9 (Winter 1991): 405–417.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Better Foot Forward: The History of American Musical Theatre. New York: Grossman Publishers (A Division of the Viking Press), 1976.
  • Ostrow, Stuart. A Producer’s Broadway Journey. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999.
  • Prince, Hal. Contradictions: Notes on Twenty-Six Years in the Theatre. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1974.
  • Roberts, Terri. “Glynis Johns: Still Tearful in ‘Clowns’.” The Sondheim Review 5, no. 1 (Summer 1998): 16–17.
  • Sondheim, Stephen. “The Musical Theater: A Talk by Stephen Sondheim.” The Dramatists Guild Quarterly 15, no. 3 (1978): 6–29.
  • Steyn, Mark. Stephen Sondheim. (Josef Weinberger Music Theatre Handbook 6.) London: Josef Weinberger, 1993.
  • Swayne, Steven Robert. “Hearing Sondheim’s Voices.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1999.
  • Taylor, Millie. “Sweeney Todd: From Melodrama to Musical Tragedy.” In The Oxford Handbook of Sondheim Studies, edited by Robert Gordon, 335–349. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
  • Walsh, David, and Len Platt. Musical Theater and American Culture. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003.

Chapter 39 – Andrew Lloyd Webber Without Tim Rice: Cats and Starlight Express

Musical Example 55 - Cats - Andrew Lloyd Webber / T. S. Eliot, 1982 [Broadway] - “Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer”

Online Plot Summary 39a: Cats

As if we have shrunk to the size of ordinary alley cats, we see on the stage enormous discarded items—a spare tire, empty cans, and other assorted rubbish. The lights dim, and the bright eyes of dozens of cats can be seen hidden in the trash. As these “Jellicle” cats decide it’s safe to emerge, they creep forward, then begin to exult in their freedom, explaining that every cat has a secret name, unknown to humans. The cats are excited by the upcoming Jellicle Ball, for the annual Jellicle choice will be made during the celebration. This decision determines which cat will get to journey to the Heaviside Layer, where Jellicles are reborn into new lives. “Who will it be? Who will it be?” they wonder.

There are a number of possibilities. For instance, there is Jennyanydots, who forces the mice and cockroaches to study music, crocheting, tatting, and the like. “The Rum Tum Tugger” is the feline answer to Elvis Presley; he’d rather tangle your knitting than be cuddled. But suddenly, all the cats freeze; an outcast has appeared. It is old Grizabella, whose formerly sleek coat is tattered and torn, and even her eye is twisted from some injury. She is shunned by the other Jellicles, and she slinks away.

The presentations continue after Grizabella has gone. We meet “Bustopher Jones,” a fine cat about town, a regular feature at the best men’s clubs of London. “Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer” (Musical Example 55), on the other hand, are housecats—but the terror of their particular household. They are a far cry from “Old Deuteronomy,” who has seen perhaps ninety-nine lives go by. The villagers will even erect a “road closed” sign, should beloved Old Deuteronomy wish to take a nap on the street pavement.

Now that Deuteronomy, the oldest cat, has arrived, it’s time for a little entertainment, so a famous dogfight, which had ended only when the dreadful Rumpus Cat put them to flight, is re-enacted. The tale has just finished when the terrifying rumor sweeps through the assembled cats that Macavity is somewhere near. After dashing into hiding, they creep back out again when the rumor proves to be false. Their rejoicing resumes as the Jellicle Ball gets underway. Once again, Grizabella slinks by, and once again, she is chased off. Rejected by the others, the lonely cat dreams of a happier past.

When the second act begins, other cats remember the past too. After Old Deuteronomy recalls former happiness, “Gus: the Theatre Cat” steps forward to share his memories. Among his many roles, he understudied Dick Whittington’s cat, and—ah, yes!—once got to play Growltiger, a rough-mannered barge cat who was the Terror of the Thames. Gus wakes up from his reminiscing just in time to hear the others celebrate the travels of “Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat.” Playfully, the cats construct a train out of items from the trash, then flee in fright once more when Macavity’s diabolical laugh is heard echoing through the alley.

It seems that the fiendish Macavity has spirited Old Deuteronomy away, and only the great feline magician, “Mr. Mistoffelees,” can help. He drapes a scarf over one of the kittens and then, whisking it away, reveals the missing cat. Just in time, too, for daylight is coming, and now Old Deuteronomy must name the feline who has been selected to go to the Heaviside Layer.

On the perimeter of the circle, Grizabella lets her “Memory” carry her back to happier times. She then starts to steal away, but one of the kittens comes and draws her back, soon joined by loving paws from the other cats. Grizabella is the chosen one, and the Jellicles watch as she ascends. Old Deuteronomy breaks the silence after her departure by explaining the proper and polite procedures for addressing cats. And, with these helpful protocol suggestions, the evening has come to an end.

Musical Example 56 - Starlight Express - Andrew Lloyd Webber / Richard Stilgoe, 1987 - “Poppa’s Blues”

Online Plot Summary 39b: Starlight Express

Many of us must travel the same journey followed by Rusty in Starlight Express: he’s a dilapidated steam engine who has to learn to put faith in himself. Rusty is but one of many engines and carriages who are under the dominion of “Control,” who speaks in a child’s voice. The trains are very competitive, since the chief portion of their time is spent racing each other. Greaseball is a muscular diesel engine, and in one of the many rather adult allusions in Starlight Express, he assures us that we “gotta keep it going all night.” The decrepit Rusty is a pretty sorry sight in comparison, but he defiantly insists that he’ll keep racing.

Various passenger coaches—Ashley, a smoking car; Buffy, the buffet; and Dinah, the dining car—tell him he’s taking too big a risk. Another blow to his ego comes when his friend Pearl, a passenger carriage, won’t be his race partner any more. We then learn more about the various entities who populate this railway. The freight cars argue that “Freight is great,” while the coaches insist that carrying passengers is what it’s all about. Even C. B. the caboose brags about himself. Suddenly, an eerie, distorted sound is heard: it is the ominous arrival of Electra, the electric train.

Every engine is required to have a coach while racing, and so Rusty gets penalized for being disconnected. Pearl tries to apologize; she’s waiting for a special steam engine, since “nobody can do it like a steam train.” She’s heard the whistle she wants in her dreams. “The Race” begins, and Dinah realizes that Greaseball is cheating, but when she confronts him, he cuts her loose. As she tells the other trains later on, she is humiliated to be “U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D.” Pearl agrees to be Greaseball’s new partner, while Dinah joins Electra. Disconsolate over Pearl’s rejection and his loss in the race, Rusty goes to listen to “Poppa’s Blues” (Musical Example 56). Poppa tells Rusty that there are other coaches; why, look right over there at that old sleeper. Rusty is horrified, but “Belle the Sleeping Car” defends herself, insisting that she’s just “down at wheel.” Poppa also suggests that Rusty ask the “Starlight Express” for help, but Rusty wonders if the Starlight is real.

The assorted engines and coaches taunt each other before the racing continues. Poppa won a spot in the next race, but has chosen Rusty to race in his stead. C. B. volunteers to be Rusty’s partner—but it turns out that C. B. isn’t the friendly caboose he pretends to be. It seems he crossed the river Kwai and now he’s a “red caboose,” secretly wrecking trains left and right. Rusty, of course, doesn’t fare too well with the double agent, who puts on the brakes whenever Rusty’s not looking. When Pearl learns about this duplicity and realizes that Greaseball knew about the scheme, she refuses to race any further with him. C. B. mocks Rusty, claiming, “You’re no engine.” The assorted Rockies (the boxcars, of course, who are named as a nod to the cinematic boxing champion Rocky) also tease Rusty, who protests angrily that he was cheated.

In despair, Rusty calls out to the Starlight Express for help, and to his amazement, the Starlight appears (sounding remarkably like Poppa). The Starlight teaches the battered steam train an important lesson, and suddenly Rusty understands, exulting, “I Am the Starlight”; he’s had the power within himself all along. Suddenly, things start to go Rusty’s way: Dinah rebels and disconnects herself from Electra, and he flips a circuit when he loses. Greaseball and C. B. are involved in a pile-up. Rusty is triumphant at last, but he soon realizes there’s more to life than racing. Pearl, meanwhile, sees Rusty through new eyes. Greaseball, apologizing to Dinah and others for his arrogance, is assured that he can be converted to steam. The assembled trains rebel against the dictates of Control at last, and Poppa exults that the days of steam will come again.

  • Citron, Stephen. Sondheim and Lloyd Webber: The New Musical. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  • Coveny, Michael. Cats on a Chandelier: The Andrew Lloyd Webber Story. London: Hutchinson, 1999.
  • Hanan, Stephen Mo. A Cat’s Diary: How the Broadway Production of Cats was Born. (Art of Theater Series.) Hanover, NH: Smith and Kraus, 2001.
  • Jones, Garth. “Purr-fect Cats.” Harper’s Bazaar 115 (September 1982): 345, 216.
  • Kislan, Richard. Hoofing on Broadway: A History of Show Dancing. New York: Prentice Hall, 1987.
  • Mantle, Jonathan. Fanfare: The Unauthorised Biography of Andrew Lloyd Webber. New York: Viking Penguin, 1989.
  • McKnight, Gerald. Andrew Lloyd Webber. New York: St. Martin’s, 1984.
  • Richmond, Keith. The Musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber. London: Virgin, 1995.  
  • Smith, Cecil. Musical Comedy in America. New York: Theatre Arts Books (Robert M. MacGregor), 1950.
  • Snelson, John. Andrew Lloyd Webber. Yale Broadway Masters, edited by Geoffrey Block. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004.
  • Sternfeld, Jessica. The Megamusical. Profiles in Popular Music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.
  • Steyn, Mark. Broadway Babies Say Goodnight: Musicals Then and Now. New York: Routledge, 1999.
  • Wadsley, Pat. “Video: Marketing Broadway via MTV.” Theatre Crafts 19 (February 1985): 14.
  • Walsh, Michael. Andrew Lloyd Webber, His Life and Works: A Critical Biography. New York: Abrams, 1989.
  • Wollman, Elizabeth L. The Theater Will Rock: A History of the Rock Musical, from Hair to Hedwig. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2006.

Chapter 40 – The Luxuriant Lloyd Webber

Musical Example 57 - The Phantom of the Opera - Andrew Lloyd Webber / Charles Hart, 1986 - “The Phantom of the Opera”

Online Plot Summary 40a: The Phantom of the Opera

“Sold!,” a voice cries during an auction of various properties from an opera house. The auctioneer notes that Lot 666 was the very chandelier involved in the mysterious, long-ago case of the Phantom of the Opera. A mighty flash of light is seen, and suddenly the chandelier is high above the audience. The overture starts to play as we are transported back to Paris of 1881.

On the stage, the Opéra Populaire rehearses an extravaganza complete with elephants. Richard Firmin and Gilles André are the new managers, and they meet prima donna Carlotta Giudicelli, tenor Ubaldo Piangi, and two chorus members: Meg Giry, daughter of the ballet mistress Madame Giry, and Christine Daaé. André asks Carlotta to sing, but midway through her aria, a heavy backdrop crashes to the stage, and nervously the performers exclaim that the Phantom is responsible. Madame Giry comes to André and Firmin with a message from the Phantom, notifying them of his customary expectations: Box 5 shall always be left vacant, and his monthly salary of 20,000 francs must be paid as usual. Moreover, payment is due now.

Startling as this news is, André and Firmin have a more immediate problem: Carlotta refuses to sing that evening, and she has no understudy. Meg steps forward, saying, “Christine Daaé could sing it.” It’s odd that Christine cannot name her voice teacher, but they allow her to demonstrate the “Think of Me” aria, and as she sings, the set around her is transformed into that evening’s performance, where the audience applauds loudly. One of the loudest bravas comes from the Vicomte Raoul de Chagny, a new patron; he has recognized Christine as a girl he had known when they were both children.

Back in her dressing room, Christine is congratulated by an unseen voice. This is her mysterious teacher, whom she thinks is the “Angel of Music” her dying father had promised would watch over her. Raoul arrives, wanting to take her to supper, but when he leaves to get his hat, Christine’s “angel”—the Phantom—summons her. She steps through the mirror and travels with “The Phantom of the Opera” (Musical Example 57) far below the opera house, across a lake illuminated by thousands of candles, to his chambers. When she sees a wax figure of herself dressed in a bridal gown, she faints. When she awakens, the Phantom is composing at a pipe organ. While the Phantom is distracted, she yanks the mask away from his face. They are both horrified, but as he calms down, he realizes he should return her to the opera house before the others come searching for her.

Backstage, a stagehand tells the chorus girls frightful tales about the Phantom and a mysterious noose known as the Punjab knot. Meanwhile, the managers are upset by a series of orders from the Phantom. He wants Christine to star and Carlotta to be given a non-singing role. The managers refuse, but as Carlotta sings, she suddenly loses her voice and can only croak, toad-fashion. Even worse, the stagehand’s body is found dangling from the Punjab knot. Pandemonium ensues, and Christine leads Raoul to the rooftop. But the Phantom sees their embrace, and later, when Christine takes the stage, the Phantom sends the chandelier crashing to the ground in front of her as a warning to obey his dictates.

Six months later, Christine and Raoul are engaged, but the betrothal is a secret, since Christine still fears the Phantom. Suddenly, during a New Year’s Masquerade ball, the Phantom appears in a blood-red costume topped by a hideous skull mask. Jeering, he makes his announcement: he has written a new opera—Don Juan Triumphant—and it is now their duty to perform it, or else. Before he vanishes, he yanks the engagement ring off the chain where Christine had hidden it around her neck.

Raoul refuses to believe that the Phantom is supernatural and presses Madame Giry for information. She knows that long ago a Persian monarch enslaved a skilled but deformed conjuror. After he escaped, odd things began happening at the opera house. Now, the invisible Phantom is directing Don Juan from afar. Christine dreads the performance because Raoul sees this as the opportunity to capture the Phantom. During a visit to her father’s grave, she hears her father’s voice intermingled with the Phantom’s—but Raoul has followed, and he sees the Phantom in the process of hypnotizing Christine. Raoul manages to break her trance, so the Phantom swears that he will be avenged on them both.

The night of the performance has arrived, and Piangi, playing Don Juan, steps offstage—and encounters the fatal Punjab noose. But another Don Juan re-emerges from the wings; it is the Phantom, now wooing Christine himself. She is unmoved by his pleas to marry him, and she pulls away his cloak to reveal his identity to the audience. Howling in dismay, he vanishes—but not without Christine, pulling her down to the labyrinth below the stage. Raoul is the first to find them, but, laughing, the Phantom strangles Raoul with the Punjab knot. He tells Christine that she can save Raoul if she agrees to renounce Raoul and to love the Phantom at last. She makes her choice: stepping forward, she kisses the Phantom without hesitation. The Phantom’s thirst for vengeance is quenched, and in his first unselfish act, he lets Raoul and Christine leave. The crowd rushes in, but all that remains of the Phantom is his mask.

Musical Example 58 - Sunset Boulevard - Andrew Lloyd Webber / Don Black and Christopher Hampton, 1993 - “The Lady’s Paying” [Broadway]

Online Plot Summary 40b: Sunset Boulevard

As the curtains open, a crowd of people contemplates a floating body in a swimming pool. A young man steps forward, asking if we want to know what happened here on Sunset Boulevard. To learn the answer, we need to go back in time six months, to 1949 Los Angeles. The young man, Joe Gillis, is a struggling Hollywood screenwriter. In fact, repo men are after his car because he’s behind on his payments. At Sheldrake’s office in the movie studio, Joe hears his latest script disparaged by Sheldrake’s assistant, Betty Schaefer. Betty is aghast when she realizes Joe is present, and she anxiously apologizes. In fact, she thinks an old magazine story of Joe’s—Blind Windows—has the potential to become a good script. He’s not interested but agrees to meet her at Schwab’s Drugstore on Thursday to talk—on the condition that she distracts the repo men.

Despite Betty’s efforts, the finance men soon pursue Joe along Sunset Boulevard. He manages to hide in a vacant garage, but the garage is not completely empty; it houses a pristine and luxurious 1932 Isotta-Fraschini. A voice calls to him from the adjacent mansion, and in front of Joe’s fascinated eyes, an overdressed, middle-aged woman embraces the dead body of a small chimpanzee. The woman has mistaken Joe for a pet mortician, and she orders him out when she realizes her mistake. But he recognizes her as an old-time silent film star, Norma Desmond, and he exclaims, “You used to be big.” Offended, Norma tells him, “I am big—it’s the pictures that got small,” and she recalls how she could mesmerize audiences “With One Look.”

Awakening from her daydream, she again orders him to leave—but then asks him to look at a script she’s written for her return to the screen. Joe tries to assure her that the awful screenplay is a good effort for a beginner (even though her character, Salome, is only sixteen years old). Norma insists that Joe revise it, and she orders her butler, Max, to make up the guestroom over the garage. Max has already done so.

Joe meets Betty at Schwab’s, also finding his friend Artie Green there, who turns out to be Betty’s fiancé. To Betty’s disappointment, Joe doesn’t want to work on a new script; he simply tells her she can do what she wants with it.

Back at Norma’s home, Max scolds Joe for leaving without notice, warning Joe that he must live by the house rules if he wishes to keep this job. A pattern develops: after editing all day, Joe views Norma’s old movies with her in the evenings while she happily anticipates her comeback film.

At last, Norma is ready to send the script to Cecil B. de Mille. Joe wishes her luck, and she’s startled: isn’t he staying? Seeing her genuine panic, Joe relents. He’ll remain until there’s news from Paramount. Soon, the house is overrun by salesmen from a Beverly Hills men’s clothiers. As Norma explains in “The Lady’s Paying” (Musical Example 58), it is her birthday surprise for Joe; she insists that he must look nice for her New Year’s party. He tries to tell her that he always goes to Artie’s gathering, but at last he relents.

New Year’s Eve arrives, and Joe discovers he’s Norma’s only guest. He panics at the realization that Norma is falling for him and he flees. At Artie’s apartment, Betty tells him that Sheldrake is interested in Blind Windows, but she needs Joe’s help with the script. Joe makes a snap decision and telephones Max to ask for his suitcases. To his horror, Joe learns that Norma has found his razor and cut her wrists. He dashes back to the mansion—and the curtain falls as she draws him to her on the couch.

Joe—now a “boy toy,” or a gigolo—is on hand when a call comes from Paramount. Because it was an assistant telephoning, Norma forces herself to wait three days before responding, and then decides to journey to Paramount in person. An old guard at the gate recognizes her, allowing her to enter the studio without an appointment. She makes her way to a busy film shoot, where another old-timer sees her and aims a spotlight at her. In a flash, she is transported back to her glory days. De Mille reminisces with her briefly, then eases her off the set.

Joe runs into Betty and promises to call her about the Blind Windows script. Elsewhere on the lot, Max makes an unpleasant discovery: Paramount called because they want to rent Norma’s car. Norma, in blissful ignorance, begins a vigorous health regimen to get in shape. Joe sneaks out to work on script revisions with Betty, and it isn’t long until Joe and Betty realize that they’ve fallen in love—despite Norma, despite Artie.

When Joe returns to the mansion, Max advises him to be careful. Joe says that the lies must stop, but Max insists that Norma must never know the truth. Joe gradually realizes that Max was formerly the film director Max von Mayerling, who had also been Norma’s first husband. Max has devoted his life to preserving Norma’s illusions, even writing fan mail to her. But events are spinning out of Max’s control.

At last, Norma discovers Betty’s phone number and telephones the younger woman. Joe, though, grabs the phone and insists that Betty come to the mansion. When Betty arrives, Joe parades his pampered existence. Betty is horrified by this side of Joe. It is as if Joe is doing all he can to drive her back to Artie, and he soon succeeds; she leaves in tears. Norma thanks Joe, but he rejects her embrace—and then he tells her the truth about Max’s pretense. When he turns to leave, she angrily insists, “No one ever leaves a star,” and shoots him repeatedly; he falls into her pool. It is soon evident that she’s suffered a complete mental breakdown. She mistakes the photographers’ flashbulbs for movie lighting and cameras, and she descends her staircase, exclaiming that she’s overwhelmed with happiness but ready for her close-up.

  • Citron, Stephen. Sondheim and Lloyd Webber: The New Musical. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  • Filichia, Peter. Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit and the Biggest Flop of the Season, 1959–2009. Milwaukee: Applause Books, 2010.
  • Gaver, Jack.  Curtain Calls.  New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1949.
  • Gioia, Michael. “‘No Selfie For You!’: Madonna Not Invited Backstage at Hamilton Due to Bad Behavior.” Playbill.com. 20 April 2015. < http://www.playbill.com/article/no-selfie-for-you-madonna-not-invited-backstage-at-hamilton-due-to-bad-behavior-com-347167. (Accessed 4 September 2016).
  • Hoge, Warren. “A Major New Role as Theater Mogul for Lloyd Webber.” The New York Times, 10 January 2000.
  • Ilson, Carol. Harold Prince From Pajama Game to Phantom of the Opera. Ann Arbor: U.M.I Research Press, 1989.
  • Leopold, Todd. “Broadway Legend Grabs Phone From Texter, Laments Future.” CNN, 9 July 2015.
  • Leve, James. American Musical Theater. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
  • Mantle, Jonathan. Fanfare: The Unauthorised Biography of Andrew Lloyd Webber. New York: Viking Penguin, 1989.
  • McKnight, Gerald. Andrew Lloyd Webber. New York: St. Martin’s, 1984.
  • McMillin, Scott. The Musical as Drama: A Study of the Principles and Conventions Behind Musical Shows from Kern to Sondheim. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006.
  • Perry, George. The Complete Phantom of the Opera. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1991.
  • _______. Sunset Boulevard from Movie to Musical. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1993.
  • Richmond, Keith. The Musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber. London: Virgin, 1995.  
  • Smith, Cecil. Musical Comedy in America. New York: Theatre Arts Books (Robert M. MacGregor), 1950.
  • Snelson, John. Andrew Lloyd Webber. Yale Broadway Masters, edited by Geoffrey Block. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004.
  • Sternfeld, Jessica. The Megamusical. Profiles in Popular Music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.
  • Steyn, Mark. Broadway Babies Say Goodnight: Musicals Then and Now. New York: Routledge, 1999.
  • Wadsley, Pat. “Video: Marketing Broadway via MTV.” Theatre Crafts 19 (February 1985): 14.
  • Walsh, Michael. Andrew Lloyd Webber, His Life and Works: A Critical Biography. New York: Abrams, 1989.

Chapter 41 – The New Team in Town: Schönberg and Boublil

Musical Example 59 - Les Misérables - Claude-Michel Schönberg / Alain Boublil, 1985 - “Castle on a Cloud” [Broadway]

Online Plot Summary 41a: Les Misérables

Convicted of a petty crime, Jean Valjean is being released after nineteen long years of hard labor. He’s not a free man, as Inspector Javert is quick to clarify: instead, he’s on parole. And, as a parolee, Valjean finds that he is routinely cheated and shunned because he is a former convict. Only the Bishop of Digné treats him with kindness, but Valjean is so embittered that he robs the bishop in the night. When he is caught, an astonishing thing happens: the bishop claims he had given the goods to Valjean. Moreover, he also presses enormous silver candlesticks into Valjean’s hands.

The bishop then tells Valjean that, with the silver, he has bought Valjean’s soul for God, so Valjean takes the gift as a new lease on life. He breaks his parole by fleeing to a remote town, where, over the next eight years, he rises to become a factory owner and even the mayor. His factory foreman relentlessly pursues Fantine, and the other women are jealous that he pays her so much attention. A coworker grabs a note dropped by Fantine, and discovers that it’s from the Thénardiers, innkeepers who are keeping Fantine’s daughter Cosette. The coworkers gloat to learn that unmarried Fantine has a child, telling the foreman that they refuse to work with a woman of such obviously low morals. Angry that she won’t submit to him, the foreman fires her.

To support Cosette, Fantine sells what she can—her locket, her hair—and finally her body. When she fights back against an abusive customer, both Javert and Valjean arrive during her arrest. Valjean realizes she needs medical care, not prison, and sends her to the hospital. Javert does not recognize Valjean—mainly because he believes that a man who has been captured elsewhere is Valjean, and that prisoner is about to stand trial.

Can Valjean allow another man to be imprisoned in his stead? Of course he can’t, so he reveals his identity, then dashes to the hospital where Fantine is dying. Valjean promises to care for Cosette, just as Javert arrives. Javert refuses to believe that Valjean will return after retrieving Cosette, so Valjean uses force to escape. He hurries to the inn where Cosette, abused by the Thénardiers, dreams of a “Castle on a Cloud” (Musical Example 59). The innkeepers insist that Cosette has been expensive to raise; angrily, Valjean throws them money and takes the child.

Ten years elapse while Valjean lives quietly with Cosette in Paris, with Javert still searching for him. The Thénardiers have ended up on the streets with other unhappy Parisian beggars; only the young urchin Gavroche seems lighthearted. Meanwhile, university students are rallying, knowing that when General Lamarque dies, impoverished people will lose their best advocate. The students anticipate a rebellion, but one student, Marius, is distracted by a beautiful girl. He begs Éponine—daughter of the Thénardiers—to locate that mysterious girl again. When the news of the general’s passing arrives, the citizens and students prepare for battle, but even as the rebellion nears, Éponine leads Marius to Cosette’s house. Waiting outside the gate while the lovers converse, Éponine recognizes her own father among a gang of thieves who are about to rob Valjean’s house; she screams to warn the occupants. The alarm makes Valjean worry that Javert is near, so he prepares to flee with Cosette.

The rebels have erected barricades in the streets, and Marius begs Éponine to take a letter to Cosette. She agrees, but hands the letter to Valjean, who thereby discovers that Cosette loves this young man. Meanwhile, Gavroche has caused an uproar. He has identified a spy among the revolutionaries: it is Javert. As Éponine tries to make her way back to the barricades, she is shot, and she dies in Marius’s arms. Valjean is more successful in reaching the barricades, however. He claims he has come to fight, but he is there actually to protect Marius. Valjean, assigned to guard the spy Javert, recognizes that Javert has only been performing his sworn duty. Valjean pretends to execute Javert while allowing the inspector to escape.

The battle ceases at nightfall, and while the students rest, Valjean prays that he will be able to shield Marius successfully. The next day, Gavroche is killed early on, and the other rebels drop one by one. At last, Valjean appears to be the only fighter remaining, so he picks up the wounded Marius and escapes with him down into the sewers of Paris, where he faints from exhaustion. Thénardier lives in this foul environment, plundering bodies when he can. He steals a ring from Marius, but recognizes Valjean and runs away when Valjean returns to consciousness. Valjean picks up Marius but soon runs into Javert. Once again, Valjean begs Javert to let him take his burden to a doctor, vowing to return—and Javert astonishes himself by agreeing. However, Javert is unable to accept that he has betrayed his principles and let a criminal escape; maddened by his confusion, he at last leaps from a bridge.

As Marius recovers, he grieves for his deceased friends, wondering how he survived when others did not. But Marius has joy too; when he is well, he and Cosette will marry. Valjean trusts Marius with his secret—he is a wanted criminal—and he will leave to spare Cosette disgrace. At the wedding, the garishly dressed Thénardiers have crashed the celebration, intending to blackmail Marius because they think his father-in-law is a murderer. Why, Thénardier has a ring from the victim’s body. Marius recognizes the ring as his own and now realizes that it was Valjean who had rescued him. Marius and Cosette rush to Valjean’s side; Valjean tells Cosette about her history while ghosts from the past gather to lead him from the miseries of this world, assuring him that “to love another person is to see the face of God.”

Musical Example 60 - Miss Saigon - Claude-Michel Schönberg / Alain Boublil, 1989 - “I Still Believe”

Online Plot Summary 41b: Miss Saigon

The year is 1975, and the curtain rises on Dreamland, a seedy bar/brothel in Saigon, South Vietnam. It is run by the Engineer, who has a gimmick: each Friday, the hard-drinking American soldiers choose a “Miss Saigon” from among the bikini-clad bargirls; she is raffled off to spend the night with the winner. It is a sordid, desperate place, and Kim’s innocent purity as she works her first night is a painful contrast.

A jaded embassy worker, Chris, has come to Dreamland with his fellow Marine, John. Chris is immediately fascinated by Kim, who wears an ao dai, a modest traditional Vietnamese garment. Chris claps vigorously when Kim’s name is called in the Miss Saigon contest, but to no avail; provocative Gigi receives the most applause. For Gigi, though, the tinfoil crown is meaningless. Like the other bargirls, she hopes that one of the soldiers might be her ticket out of Vietnam. She dreams of what America must be like, so very far from her degrading life of prostitution. Even the Engineer longs for an American visa.

As a gift for his buddy Chris, John pays the Engineer for an evening with Kim. The Engineer sends Chris and Kim to her room. Some time later, Chris awakens, wondering why something special happens now, when an evacuation from Saigon is so near. The next day, Chris asks John for all his accumulated leave so he can stay with Kim. John points out that Saigon is falling apart, but he at last agrees to grant Chris one more day.

Back in Kim’s room, Chris finds several other Vietnamese girls, all singing a gentle tune. Chris asks what it means, and Kim tells him “It’s what all the girls sing at weddings,” adding “They didn’t know what else to sing.” Smiling (but nervous), Chris goes along with their ceremony until the door flies open and in comes Thuy, Kim’s Communist fiancé before her village was destroyed. Now he wants to know why there is an American soldier in her bedroom. The two men brandish guns at each other until Thuy retreats, cursing Kim for dishonoring her family. Kim is in tears, and Chris can only hold her for comfort.

The scene changes to a time three years later. Saigon is now Ho Chi Minh City, and Thuy has risen to power; he wants the Engineer to locate Kim. Kim is still waiting for Chris, telling herself “I Still Believe” (Musical Example 60) that Chris will return for her, but soon a voice from halfway around the world joins her. It is Ellen, whom Chris married after searching fruitlessly for Kim. Ellen knows that Chris hides some secrets, for at night he cries out another woman’s name.

It does not take the Engineer long to find Kim, but she refuses to marry Thuy; she insists that she has a husband and a secret: her two-year-old son, Tam. But this revelation backfires; Thuy threatens to kill the mixed-race child. In desperation, Kim pulls out Chris’s revolver and shoots Thuy. Kim runs with Tam to the Engineer, and when he discovers that Tam’s father was a Marine, the Engineer realizes that here at last could be his ticket to America—so he “becomes” the young citizen’s uncle. As the Engineer arranges for them to escape into Thailand, Kim tenderly assures her small son, “I’d Give My Life For You.”

In 1978, John educates Americans about the hidden victims of war, the Bui-Doi (the “dust of life”). These mixed-race children are shunned by the Vietnamese and their American fathers. John has news for Chris: he has found Kim—and Chris has a son. Chris and Ellen agree to travel to Bangkok, where Kim and the Engineer struggle to survive, working in a seedy nightclub. When Kim hears about Chris’s return, she has no ears for anything else, and doesn’t realize Chris is married. As Kim waits for Chris to arrive, she remembers the horrifying period three years before when she and Chris had been separated. She had fought to find a way inside the American Embassy. Chris, under orders not to leave the grounds, had tried phoning her room over and over. When the Ambassador evacuated by helicopter, Chris was forced to go too, unable to locate Kim amid the uproar.

The Engineer has found out where Chris is staying, and when he tells Kim, she runs to Chris’s hotel—even as John is leading Chris to her room. Kim finds only a strange American woman at the hotel; she thinks this must be John’s wife. Ellen soon realizes that she must be the one to tell Kim about Chris’s marriage. Kim disbelieves Ellen at first, and then insists that Ellen and Chris must take Tam. Ellen refuses, saying that she and Chris will help Kim, but a child’s place is with his mother. At last Kim says that Chris must tell her himself that he refuses to take their son, and she runs home.

Chris and John return to the hotel, having been unable to find Kim, and Ellen tells Chris he must choose between her and Kim. He assures Ellen that his life is now with her. Back at the nightclub, Kim fobs off the Engineer by saying Chris was delighted and will take them all back to the United States. The Engineer allows himself to dwell on “The American Dream,” where he will operate ever-greater scams. Back in her room, Kim explains to her uncomprehending child that she will watch him from above, but in order for Tam to find his place with his father, she must leave. When she hears footsteps approaching, she hands him a toy, then steps behind the bed curtain. The Engineer leads Chris, Ellen, and John into her small room, but moments later a shot rings out, and Kim collapses. Chris cradles her in his arms once more, but it is too late; she is gone.  

  • Behr, Edward. Les Misérables: History in the Making. Updated ed. New York: Arcade Publishing, 1996.
  • Behr, Edward, and Mark Steyn. The Story of Miss Saigon. New York: Arcade Publishing, 1991.
  • Gänzl, Kurt. The Musical: A Concise History. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1997.
  • Gottfried, Martin. More Broadway Musicals Since 1980. New York: Abrams, 1991.
  • Green, Stanley. Broadway Musicals: Show by Show. Third edition. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Publishing, 1990.
  • Miller, Scott. From Assassins to West Side Story: A Director’s Guide to Musical Theatre. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996.
  • _______. Strike Up the Band: A New History of Musical Theatre. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2007.
  • Sternfeld, Jessica. The Megamusical. Profiles in Popular Music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.
  • Steyn, Mark. Broadway Babies Say Goodnight: Musicals Then and Now. New York: Routledge, 1999.
  • Swain, Joseph P.  The Broadway Musical: A Critical and Musical Survey. 2nd ed.  Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002.

Chapter 42 – New Names, New Teams in the 1980s

Musical Example 61 - Chess - Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus / Tim Rice, 1984 - “One Night in Bangkok” [Concept album]

Online Plot Summary 42: Chess

Although the story of Chess went through various permutations in each staging, the essential conflict driving the plot was present in the show’s concept album. That version of the storyline opens in the small Alpine town of Merano, where players and fans gather for the World Chess Championship. The reigning champion is a brash and petulant American, who faces a Russian challenger. Molokov, the Russian’s assistant, or “second,” dismisses the American as a nut, but the Russian thinks that the American’s behavior is carefully calculated.

The Arbiter insists that he will keep an eagle (and impartial) eye on the proceedings, while diplomats comment about the delicate political balance. Many people are more concerned with the many merchandizing opportunities. In an ongoing form of manipulation, the American makes a scene and storms out of the proceedings, leaving his second, Florence, to try to rationalize his insulting behavior. Back in their hotel, the American and Florence have it out; she won’t stand for much more humiliation from him. She’s a Hungarian-born British citizen, smuggled out of Budapest during the infamous 1956 uprising—ruthlessly quelled by the Soviets—and the fate of her father has always been a mystery. Although she is assisting the American, she is on “Nobody’s Side.”

The first match of the championship goes poorly. In fact, they don’t even finish the game, for the American flings the board in the air. Florence meets with Molokov to try to salvage the situation, but he rattles her by implying he knows something about her father; it seems that Molokov is a KGB agent. Florence doesn’t let herself be distracted, however, and suggests that they should arrange a secret meeting between the players to get the championship back on track.

The American and Florence wait for the Russian, who is late. The American uses this as an excuse to march out, but Florence remains behind. When the Russian does arrive, he and Florence gradually realize that they are enjoying the conversation more than they should as opponents. When the American returns and discovers this budding romance, he throws a fit, but Florence smooths things over and gets the players to agree to resume the game.

As the match proceeds, the American plays badly, and he blames Florence. She retorts that she’ll be leaving him after the match is over, no matter who wins. The American is furious, then terrified, at the thought of her departure. All his paranoia about the Soviets emerges, and he blames them for Florence’s lack of sympathy. By accusing her of being a parasite, however, he pushes her too far, and she quits. The American’s game falls apart completely, and the Russian is soon crowned as the new champion. But now the Russian wants to claim political asylum in the West—a blow to Russia’s pride.

A year later, the next Championship is slated for Bangkok, where a new Soviet Union player will challenge the Russian. Bangkok’s atmosphere is very different from the previous Championship, and the American comments on the exotic experience during “One Night in Bangkok” (Musical Example 61). Florence and the Russian have become lovers since his defection, but their relationship has its problems. After all, what is the American doing in Bangkok? They’re not sure. Moreover, there’s the little matter of the Russian’s wife Svetlana; there are reports that the Russian’s family is being punished for his defection. When Florence is alone, she wonders what hope there can be for their future together

The Soviets are backing a new competitor to uphold their national pride, and so to rattle the Russian’s concentration, they announce they’re sending Svetlana to Bangkok in time for the match. The Russian and Florence argue about how much time they should spend together during the Championship. The American, who shows up in the Russian’s room, implies that the Russian’s winning streak must end if he wants to spare Florence from learning some ugly information about her father—that he was a traitor rather than a hero. The Russian accuses the American of colluding with the Soviets. The American denies this charge, but Molokov’s voice is heard, echoing the American.

The American then tries to persuade Florence that if she comes back to him, he will share information about her past. His attempts to manipulate the couple having been thwarted, the American indulges in a healthy bout of self-pity. Are parents responsible for their offspring’s shortcomings? The American certainly thinks so.

The Russian shrugs off all the outside pressures and triumphs over his opponent. Both Florence and Svetlana realize that they have little hold on this man; he in turn resents their efforts to tie him down. By the end, no one is happy. Florence has lost the Russian; Svetlana knows she and her husband will not reconcile; Molokov is worried about his own fate now that the new protégé has failed; and the American wants revenge.

Florence and the Russian still long for each other, yet they know love affairs are much like the limitless number of variations that can take place on the chessboard. Their musings lead them to contemplate the origins of the game many centuries before. Returning to the present, the Russian and Florence know that they are fools to pretend there’s a happy ending in store. As the bittersweet tale comes to a close, the American approaches Florence, telling her he has some news for her . . .

  • Bennetts, Leslie. “Chess’s Backstage Drama.” Vanity Fair (May 1988): 34–50.
  • Citron, Stephen. Sondheim and Lloyd Webber: The New Musical. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  • Filichia, Peter. Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit and the Biggest Flop of the Season, 1959–2009. Milwaukee: Applause Books, 2010.
  • Gottfried, Martin. More Broadway Musicals Since 1980. New York: Abrams, 1991.
  • Greene, Alexis. “Queen of Off Broadway: Lucille Lortel.” In Angels in the American Theater: Patrons, Patronage, and Philanthropy, edited by Robert A. Schanke, 71–87. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2007.
  • Jones, John Bush. Our Musicals, Ourselves: A Social History of the American Musical Theatre. Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 2003.
  • Kaiman, Jonathan. “A Broadway Musical Opens in China.” Los Angeles Times, 16 June 2016.
  • Kislan, Richard. The Musical: A Look at the American Musical Theater. New, revised, expanded edition. New York & London: Applause Books, 1995.
  • Loney, Glenn. “Don’t Cry for Andrew Lloyd Webber.” Opera News 45 (April 4, 1981): 12–14.
  • Mandelbaum, Ken. A Chorus Line and the Musicals of Michael Bennett. New York: St. Martin’s, 1989.
  • ________. Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops. New York: St. Martin’s, 1991.
  • Miller, Scott. Strike Up the Band: A New History of Musical Theatre. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2007.
  • Mordden, Ethan. Better Foot Forward: The History of American Musical Theatre. New York: Grossman Publishers (A Division of the Viking Press), 1976.
  • Morley, Sheridan. Spread a Little Happiness: The First Hundred Years of the British Musical. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1987.
  • Ostrow, Stuart. A Producer’s Broadway Journey. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999.
  • Riedel, Michael. Razzle Dazzle: The Battle for Broadway. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015
  • Suskin, Steven. Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway’s Major Composers. Revised and Expanded Third Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
  • Sykes, Charles. “‘The Lion King’ Musical Breaks Box Office Record with $6.2 Billion Worldwide.” The New York Daily News, 22 September 2014.
  • Taymor, Julie. The Lion King: Pride Rock on Broadway. New York: Disney Editions, 1997.
  • Walsh, Michael. Andrew Lloyd Webber, His Life and Works: A Critical Biography. New York: Abrams, 1989.

Chapter 43 – Stephen Sondheim: Never a Formula

Musical Example 62 - Into the Woods - Stephen Sondheim / Stephen Sondheim, 1987 - “Agony”

Online Plot Summary 43a: Into the Woods

“Once upon a time,” begins the Narrator, “in a far-off kingdom lived a fair maiden, a sad young lad, and a childless baker with his wife.” The Narrator is referring to Cinderella, who wishes to go to the King’s Festival; Jack (and his mother), who wish their cow Milky White would produce milk; and the Baker and his Wife, who wish for a child. The story portrays the fulfillment—and consequences—of those wishes.

Cinderella can go to the festival if she picks a bucketful of lentils out of the fireplace ashes in two hours. Little Red Ridinghood visits the Baker to fill her basket before going to visit her grandmother. Meanwhile, Jack’s Mother announces that they must sell the cow, and Jack must accept no less than five pounds. The Baker and his Wife learn some startling news from the Witch next door: because the Baker’s father had stolen greens (and magic beans) from the Witch’s garden, the Witch had claimed their baby (Rapunzel, the Baker’s sister) and placed a curse on the Baker’s family tree—which is why the Baker and his Wife are barren. But the spell can be reversed, with four items: the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold. The Baker wants to search for the items alone, arguing that the curse is on his house.

Although (with the help of birds) Cinderella completed her nearly impossible task, she doesn’t have the right attire and is left behind when her family leaves for the festival. In the woods, her mother’s ghost tells her to tell a nearby tree what it is she wants—and instantly, a silver gown and golden slippers drop into Cinderella’s arms. Meanwhile, a Mysterious Man in the forest tells a disconsolate Jack that he would be lucky to get a sack of beans for the skeletal animal. Elsewhere, Little Red Ridinghood detours when she meets a lascivious Wolf.

The Baker’s Wife appears, bringing his scarf as an excuse. It’s just as well, because the Baker is already getting the four ingredients confused. They spot Jack and the white cow, and although they have no money, they do have the stolen beans. Jack accepts five beans in exchange for Milky White. Afterward, the Baker worries that they’ve cheated the boy, but his Wife maintains that the beans might be magical.

And what of the Baker’s long-lost sister Rapunzel? The Witch keeps her in a tower with no doors, climbing the girl’s long hair to visit her. A hidden Prince watches and learns the secret approach. The Baker rescues Little Red and her Grandmother, and in thanks for their release, the Baker gets the cape. Jack’s Mother is considerably less happy; she throws the beans away in frustration. The Baker’s Wife, headed home, sees Cinderella hiding from a Prince, although an enormous beanstalk growing in the distance distracts them. The Baker’s Wife notices that Cinderella is wearing slippers “as pure as gold”—but Milky White has wandered off, so the Baker’s Wife hurries to find her.

Jack has returned from the beanstalk, laden with gold. Elsewhere, the Baker’s Wife confesses to her husband that she’s lost the cow. They split up to search, and the Baker’s Wife discovers two Princes, discussing the “Agony” (Musical Example 62) of desiring elusive maidens. One of the women becomes the Baker’s Wife’s new objective: Rapunzel and her “hair as yellow as corn.” Soon the Baker and his Wife have acquired three of the ingredients: the red cape, Milky White (found by the Mysterious Man), and a long hair yanked from Rapunzel. Their joy is short-lived, for Milky White suddenly keels over dead. After burying the cow and quarrelling, the Baker gives the last bean to his wife. He will look for another cow, while she tries to acquire one of Cinderella’s golden shoes.

In the meantime, to forestall any more visits from the Prince, the witch cuts off Rapunzel’s hair and maroons her in a desert. The Prince, while escaping, is blinded by thorns. Red Ridinghood—now wearing a wolf-skin cape—meets Jack, but doesn’t believe his tales; she dares him to go get the golden harp. Cinderella, fleeing the palace on the second night of the Festival, has left a shoe behind (since the Prince had the forethought to spread tacky pitch on the stairs). The Baker’s Wife tries to get Cinderella to accept the last bean in exchange for the other shoe, but Cinderella tosses the bean aside. However, as pursuit nears, Cinderella eagerly trades the shoe for the Wife’s shoes, since they’ll be better for running.

Soon, an enormous thud reverberates all through the woods: the Giant has fallen to his death, since Jack chopped down the beanstalk. And, at last, the four ingredients have been obtained—although the new cow isn’t white, merely coated with flour. But, the Witch orders the couple to unearth Milky White, and the Witch restores her to life. The cow eats the other ingredients so that her milk will become a magic potion—but Milky White still can’t produce milk—because the Witch, who cannot touch the ingredients, had handled Rapunzel’s hair. The Mysterious Man suggests using corn silks instead. The Man is the Baker’s long-lost father, but before they can speak, the older man dies, having at last broken the curse on his household.

With the potion, the Witch’s beauty is restored (at the cost of her powers). The Baker’s Wife becomes pregnant, Jack and his cow are reunited, Cinderella marries her Prince, Rapunzel heals the wounded eyes of her prince with tears, and Cinderella’s evil stepsisters are blinded by birds in punishment for their former cruelty. It seems that a happy (or deserved) ending comes to most of the kingdom’s inhabitants—but they are unaware of a second giant beanstalk beginning to grow.

Soon a big problem arises: the Giant’s widow wants revenge upon Jack. There are other problems as well: the Princes are suffering the “Agony” of seeing new women to pursue. Because the Giantess is nearsighted, the group tosses the Narrator to her when he’s off guard. There are other mishaps: the Steward inadvertently gives Jack’s Mother a fatal blow when trying to keep her quiet, and a hysterical Rapunzel runs into the Giant’s path and is crushed.

After losing Rapunzel, the grieving Witch vows to deliver Jack to the Giant, while the others scatter to find and protect him. Cinderella’s Prince manages to seduce the Baker’s Wife despite the nearby Giant—but a falling tree crushes the Baker’s Wife, still lethargic from her amorous encounter.

When the survivors realize how many have died, they start blaming each other, and the Witch leaves them all behind. The Baker, panicked at raising a child by himself, runs away—but his father’s specter helps him understand that he can’t evade responsibility. The Baker then devises a plan for the survivors, working together, to slay the Giant. Cinderella stays to look after the baby, but when her Prince returns, she tells him his adultery has cost him his marriage. The Baker’s plan works, and gradually, all the characters, living and dead, gather to share their own versions of the “moral of the story.”

Musical Example 63 - Assassins - Stephen Sondheim / Stephen Sondheim, 1990 - “The Ballad of Booth”

 

Online Plot Summary 43b: Assassins

The unlikely story opens in a shooting gallery, where the Proprietor offers guns to various passersby. He suggests that shooting a president can help people achieve their dreams. Leon Czolgosz wanders by, followed by John Hinckley, Charles Guiteau, Giuseppe Zangara, Samuel Byck, Squeaky Fromme, Sara Jane Moore, and the man whom the Proprietor recognizes as “our pioneer,” John Wilkes Booth.

The customers all level their new guns at the targets positioned across the stage, but then an announcer’s voice proclaims President Abraham Lincoln’s arrival. A shot is heard—and a Balladeer begins to sing “The Ballad of Booth” (Musical Example 63), speculating about what might have driven Booth to the drastic act of assassination. Booth interrupts, claiming he had a political justification and denying that he was depressed over poor theatrical reviews or that he simply was insane. At last, though, realizing there is no escape, Booth raises his gun to his head, and another shot is heard. The Balladeer ends by cursing Booth, maintaining that Booth “paved the way for other madmen.”

Many of the assassins-to-be are gathered in a bar, revealing their overwhelming frustrations. Booth is a cynical cheerleader, urging them to become masters of their fate. The scene changes to a 1933 political rally. A radio announcer narrates the events: the gunfire; Roosevelt waving afterward; the wounded mayor. While the shooter, Zangara, is arrested, witnesses eagerly explain to reporters how they “saved Roosevelt.” Zangara claims his action created an equity between the rich and the poor, but no one listens to him, and the lights dim and flicker as the sound of the electric chair closes the scene.

Anarchist Emma Goldman delivers an impassioned speech to a group of workers, among them Czolgosz. Afterward, he says he loves her, but she gently tells him to channel his passion toward fighting for social justice. Elsewhere, Fromme and Moore meet on a park bench. Fromme, smoking marijuana, adores Charles Manson and believes she will be his queen when he becomes king of a new order. Moore, maybe even less rationally, asserts that she works for the FBI (or used to), is a CPA, had five husbands and three children, and has amnesia. One thing the two women have in common is their distrust of the image of Colonel Sanders on Moore’s bucket of chicken; they each pull out a gun and shoot the bucket to smithereens.

Czolgosz, examining a pistol, notes that “it takes a lot of men to make a gun”—miners, millworkers, gunsmiths—while Booth marvels, “and all you have to do is . . . move your little finger and—you can change the world.” Guiteau observes that guns can “remove a scoundrel, unite a party, preserve the Union, promote the sales of my book.” Moore, in contrast, accidentally fires her firearm. The Balladeer then relates Czolgosz’s visit to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Czolgosz patiently waits in the long line to greet President McKinley, then shoots the President at point-blank range.

Leaping forward in time, Byck, wearing a filthy Santa Claus outfit, tape-records messages to Leonard Bernstein. Byck believes Bernstein could save the world if only he would write more love songs. But then Byck angrily accuses Bernstein of ignoring him, just like all the other celebrities to whom Byck has sent communications. Elsewhere, Hinckley and Fromme discuss the people they love, but Fromme feels superior; she knows Manson, whereas Hinckley has never even met Jodie Foster. Hinckley comforts himself by singing to Jodie, while Fromme sings the same tune to “Charlie”; she then mocks Hinckley for his inability to “kill” the photo of President Reagan that keeps reappearing on his wall.

Guiteau gives Moore some shooting tips, and then tries to kiss her, but she resists. Therefore, he assassinates President Garfield. Guiteau is sentenced to hang, but he dances a cakewalk and recites a poem on the steps leading to the gallows.

Fromme and Moore are having a hard time. Not only has Moore brought along her child and the family dog to their intended assassination of President Gerald Ford, but also she has clumsily shot the dog. Ford, perennially caricatured as clumsy during his presidency, collides with Moore and tries to help her collect her dropped bullets. Even at this close range, however, Moore misses her shot, while a defective gun thwarts Fromme’s assassination attempt. Byck, meanwhile, is stirred to action; he intends to hijack a plane, which he will crash into the White House. He sees the killing of President Richard Nixon as the only way to solve America’s problems.

The various assassins defend themselves and their motivations, asking the Balladeer, “Where’s my prize?,” convinced that their actions must have earned them some reward. When the Balladeer tells them that all their assassinations “didn’t mean a nickel,” a rumble of discontent runs through the assembled group. Gradually, they begin to insist there must be something for those who are left behind by the American Dream.

The time has shifted to “November 22, 1963,” when Lee Harvey Oswald is preparing to kill himself in the Texas School Book Depository. Booth interrupts Oswald and startles him by reciting all kinds of intimate details about Oswald’s life. Oswald is outraged when Booth suggests that Oswald’s plan to commit suicide is childish and dumb. “So tell me what I should do!” Oswald shouts, and Booth quietly replies, “You should kill the President of the United States.” Oswald is at first speechless, but the idea that his name will go down in posterity forever for such a bold act begins to appeal to him. Gradually, the other assassins enter and urge him onward, telling him, “Without you we’re a bunch of freaks. With you we’re a force of history.” Voices of other assassins are heard too—those who shot Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert Kennedy, and George Wallace. They tempt Oswald with visions of his power: “You can close the New York Stock Exchange. Shut down the schools in Indonesia,” and they encourage him to think of them as his family. With that, Oswald kneels at the window, points a rifle at the presidential motorcade passing below—and shoots.

As the assassins had predicted, the death of President John F. Kennedy has enormous repercussions. It is the kind of event that makes people remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news, and various citizens share those accounts. The assassins are unmoved; they end the show by declaring again, defiantly, “Everybody’s Got the Right (to be Happy).”

  • Banfield, Stephen. Sondheim’s Broadway Musicals. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993.
  • Bryer, Jackson R., and Richard A. Davison, eds. The Art of the American Musical: Conversations with the Creators. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005.
  • Citron, Stephen. Sondheim and Lloyd Webber: The New Musical. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  • Coleman, Bud. “‘Give Us More to See’: The Visual World of Stephen Sondheim’s Musicals.” In The Oxford Handbook of Sondheim Studies, edited by Robert Gordon, 133–150. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
  • Eisler, Garrett. “‘Nothing More Than Just a Game’: The American Dream Goes Bust in Road Show.” In The Oxford Handbook of Sondheim Studies, edited by Robert Gordon, 165–181. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
  • Flahaven, Sean Patrick. “Starobin talks about Sunday, Assassins.” The Sondheim Review 5, no. 2 (Fall 1998): 21–23.
  • Gordon, Joanne, editor. Stephen Sondheim: A Casebook. New York & London: Garland Publishing, 1997.
  • Gottfried, Martin. Sondheim. New York: Abrams, 1993.
  • Healy, Patrick. “A New Sondheim Musical Based on Buñuel Films.” The New York Times, 13 October 2014.
  • Henderson, Amy, and Dwight Blocker Bowers. Red, Hot, and Blue: A Smithsonian Salute to the American Musical. Washington: The National Portrait Gallery and The National Museum of American History, in association with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996.
  • Hughes, Sarah. “The Tills are Alive . . . Theatres Cash In as Audiences Rediscover Love for Musicals.” The Guardian, 16 July 2016.
  • Jones, John Bush. Our Musicals, Ourselves: A Social History of the American Musical Theatre. Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 2003.
  • Mandelbaum, Ken. Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops. New York: St. Martin’s, 1991.
  • McKinley, Jesse. “Sondheim Sues to Proceed With His Show ‘Gold!’” The New York Times, 5 December 2001.
  • McLaughlin, Robert L. “‘No One is Alone’: Society and Love in the Musicals of Stephen Sondheim.” The Journal of American Drama and Theatre 3, no. 2 (1991): 27–41.
  • Miller, Scott. Deconstructing Harold Hill: An Insider’s Guide to Musical Theatre. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000.
  • _______. From Assassins to West Side Story: A Director’s Guide to Musical Theatre. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996.
  • _______. Rebels with Applause: Broadway’s Groundbreaking Musicals. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2001.
  • Pike, John. “Michael Starobin: A New Dimension for Assassins.” Show Music 7, no. 3 (Fall 1991): 13–17.
  • Secrest, Meryle. Stephen Sondheim: A Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.
  • Sondheim, Stephen. Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981–2011) with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes and Miscellany. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011.
  • Suskin, Steven. Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway’s Major Composers. Revised and expanded third edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
  • Whitfield, Sarah. “Two Different Roads to New Musicals in 2011 London: London Road and Road Show.” Studies in Musical Theatre 5, no. 3 (2011): 305–314.
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Chapter 44 – A Surge of “Soloists”

Musical Example 64 - The Last Five Years - Jason Robert Brown / Jason Robert Brown, 2002 - “Climbing Uphill”

Online Plot Summary 44a: The Last Five Years

Advertisements for the 2002 off-Broadway production of The Last Five Years depicted a couple looking at each other through a plate-glass window. On the glass appeared the show’s title, which—from the young woman’s perspective—is read backward. In a nutshell, the poster’s graphic designer had captured the essence of the story: Cathy the actress looks back in time at her relationship with Jamie the writer, while he progresses forward through their story in the usual chronological order. Therefore, the show opens “at the end,” as Cathy reads the note of departure Jamie has left for her along with his wedding ring. She, grieving, wonders how he can walk away from the promises he had made.

Jamie’s first song is set five years earlier, when he is rejoicing over the “Shiksa Goddess” he has just met. He knows that his relationship with this new girl, Cathy, will break his Jewish mother’s heart, but he is too enraptured to care. Time shifts forward several years to Ohio, where Cathy is performing for the summer. Although she wants to believe that Jamie’s visit will help heal their fracturing marriage, she is outraged when she learns he will not stay long enough even to celebrate her birthday. Interspersed within her song, we overhear Jamie’s phone calls with a prospective literary agent who is interested in his first novel—conversations that had taken place long ago. Jamie’s next song conveys his elation over his career’s rapid progress as well as his excitement that he and Cathy will start living together. During his song, however, a phone call between Cathy and a theatrical agent doesn’t go very well at all.

Cathy sings “I’m a Part of That” as she helps out with one of Jamie’s book-signings; she knows that he shuts out the world (including her) when he’s busy writing, but she lives for the way he smiles when he comes back from “Jamie-Land.” We learn, in “The Schmuel Song,” that Jamie has spent part of his time writing an encouraging fable as a Christmas gift for Cathy, encouraging her to quit her waitressing job and pursue acting wholeheartedly. Cathy’s next song is a letter to Jamie in New York; she has gotten her first summer-stock job in Ohio, and she tries to amuse him with anecdotes about her fellow thespians (and the snake, Wayne).

Jamie, in a small boat, seems to be replying to questions we don’t hear, identifying various landmarks that can be seen from Central Park. He then proposes that Cathy spend “The Next Ten Minutes” with him, and then the ten minutes after that, and onward and onward. Cathy starts to sing, apologizing for the fact that she always seems to run late, but then describes her dreams of a life with Jamie. Then, for the first time, they start to sing in dialogue, responding to each other’s comments and moving on to wedding vows. “The Next Ten Minutes” ends with Cathy posing the questions that Jamie had answered at the start of the duet.

Jamie’s version of the story takes an ominous turn in his next solo, when he describes the pressure he’s feeling by trying to remain faithful to Cathy when so many attractive women are now fawning over him. The focus shifts briefly to Cathy, who sings her audition song beautifully, thereby ensuring that she gets the Ohio summer stock position. She wants Jamie to come celebrate with her, but he is caught up in his writing. Still, he insists to her, “We’re fine, we’re fine, we’re fine.”

Cathy launches into a shaky audition during her next song, “Climbing Uphill” (Musical Example 64), but cuts away twice from the audition melody to describe her struggles to her father and then to a friend. We also hear a little “inner monologue” during the audition, when she is distracted by thoughts about shopping for a couch and how her life with Jamie is going. During Cathy’s song, we overhear a phone call from Jamie, disappointed that he cannot talk her into joining him for a celebration of a glowing book review that The New Yorker is about to publish, and he also gives a reading at a bookstore from his just-published novel.

Four years into their relationship, Jamie’s increasing frustration with Cathy’s lack of support is apparent in “If I Didn’t Believe In You.” She has been giving him the silent treatment, and he feels that she blames him for his success when her career is stalled. In turn, Cathy sings about her happiness that she is about to take her new boyfriend, Jamie, to meet her parents; she describes the hometown she was happy to escape, and how eager she is for what might lie ahead for the two of them.

The audience then sees an unwelcome scene from the future when Jamie has just awakened—but the woman next to him is not Cathy. He dreads going to Ohio, and longs to come back quickly to the woman in his bed, insisting, “Nobody Needs to Know.” The focus shifts to Cathy five years earlier, who is flooded with happiness after their first date and kiss. In a soaring melody, she bids Jamie “Goodbye Until Tomorrow.” Near the end of her song, Jamie finishes writing his note to her, setting his wedding ring next to it. He describes the steps he’s taken to wrap up their relationship, closing the bank account and so forth. At last, he joins her in a final duet—musically together, but half a decade apart in time.

Musical Example 65 - Wicked - Stephen Schwartz / Stephen Schwartz, 2003 - “What is This Feeling?”

Online Plot Summary 44b: Wicked

After L. Frank Baum first envisioned the Land of Oz, many subsequent stories have been set in that magical kingdom. The stage musical Wicked adds its own series of adventures to that legacy, re-employing characters who had been introduced in various earlier formats. Unlike Evita, which opens with mourning over the title character’s passing, Wicked starts with a celebration: the Ozians are ecstatic that the Wicked Witch is dead. But Glinda starts to speculate about why wickedness happens, and the scene flashes back to a romantic interlude between a stranger and Melena and plenty of green elixir. Nine months later, Elphaba is born—and her skin is a vivid green. Frex, Melena’s husband, rejects the baby outright.

Shifting back to the present day, an Ozian asks if Glinda had been friends with Elphaba. Another flashback starts as Glinda tries to explain their relationship, which had begun at Shiz University. Galinda—as she was known then—was the popular coed, while Elphaba’s different skin tone made her an outcast. The woman in charge, Madame Morrible, isn’t too impressed with any of the new students until Elphaba inadvertently reveals magical powers while wrestling her sister Nessarose’s wheelchair away from the headmistress. Recognizing Elphaba’s unusual gifts, Madame Morrible instantly decides to tutor her privately in sorcery, and Elphaba begins to dream about her suddenly bright future. But when her daydream ends, she remembers something horrifying: she and Galinda have just ended up as roommates. They describe their (shared) reaction to that turn of events in “What is This Feeling?” (Musical Example 65).

The dormitory situation is not the only uncomfortable aspect at Shiz University. The Goat who is their history professor, Dr. Dillamond, is under siege because of a growing resistance to Talking Animals. In fact, his own ability to speak is increasingly impaired, so Elphaba thinks they should ask the Wizard for help. But everyone is distracted by the arrival of handsome Fiyero. His “scandalacious” reputation is well merited, as his carefree “Dancing Through Life” attitude confirms. Galinda is immediately intrigued, and she fends off another suitor, Boq, by suggesting that he’d be her hero if he were to look after Nessarose. Nessarose, thinking Boq’s attention is genuine, is thrilled, and grateful to Galinda for urging Boq to talk to her.

Galinda’s motives fool Elphaba, too, when she gives Elphaba an unwanted ugly hat but assures her that it’s the latest fashion. In response to what Elphaba sees as Galinda’s “kindnesses,” she persuades Madame Morrible to take Galinda on as a second private sorcery pupil. Now Galinda is the one surprised by unexpected generosity, and when she sees Elphaba, wearing the ugly hat and dancing alone at a student party, she steps in and dances with her. A new friendship begins to bloom, with Galinda scheming to make Elphaba “Popular.”

Upsetting events are in store, however. During class, Dr. Dillamond is forcibly removed from teaching, and a new professor shows the students a terrified Lion cub, kept in a cage so he will not learn to speak. Outraged, Elphaba showers the room with sparks, and during the confusion, Fiyero grabs the cage to whisk the cub to safety. Elphaba is startled that this shallow student would be so caring, and she starts seeing him in a new light—but believes “I’m Not That Girl” who could attract him.

A welcome distraction arrives: the Wizard wants to meet Elphaba, and she talks Glinda—who had just changed her name to honor the way Dr. Dillamond pronounced it—into travelling with her to the Emerald City. However, the Wizard tricks Elphaba into performing a spell from the magical Grimmerie book that enables the surrounding monkeys to fly, and Madame Morrible reveals that they are meant to be spies for the Wizard. Elphaba refuses to cooperate in this secret campaign against Animals, so the Wizard orders that this “wicked” witch be arrested. Elphaba tries “Defying Gravity,” using the Grimmerie’s levitation spell to escape.

The witch hunt for Elphaba continues throughout Oz, while Glinda announces an engagement to Fiyero (to his surprise) to cheer people up. Elphaba goes home, only to find Nessarose in charge after Flex’s death, keeping Boq a virtual slave. At Nessa’s urging, Elphaba finds a spell that enchants Nessa’s jeweled slippers, enabling her to walk. But Boq still wants to return to Glinda, since he lost his heart to her long ago. Nessa grabs the Grimmerie and accidentally casts a spell that shrinks his heart to nothingness. To save his life, Elphaba turns Boq into tin so he won’t need a heart; he is not grateful.

Elphaba sneaks back to the palace to free the monkeys, but the Wizard wins her over by promising to restore her reputation. However, when she discovers the imprisoned and now-speechless Dr. Dillamond, she rebels, and the Wizard calls for help. When the guards run in, led by Fiyero, he and Elphaba are shocked to see each other. Fiyero quickly distracts the other guards; he also threatens the Wizard into silence, and when Glinda enters, he tells her that he’s leaving with Elphaba. At last he and Elphaba admit their feelings for each other—but then Elphaba senses that Nessarose is in trouble.

By the time Elphaba finds her sister, it’s too late; thanks to a cyclone summoned by Madame Morrible, a falling house has crushed Nessa. Glinda comes to grieve as well, but the former friends start to quarrel. The Palace guards arrive and capture Elphaba, but release her on Fiyero’s orders. When Elphaba then escapes, the guards seize Fiyero instead, and they hang him on a post to torture her destination out of him. Elphaba’s desperate solution is to transform Fiyero into a scarecrow who will feel no pain.

Elphaba heads to Kiamo Ko, Fiyero’s family palace, where she has imprisoned Dorothy for having stolen Nessarose’s shoes. Glinda arrives to warn Elphaba that the Witch Hunters are not far behind, and the two witches acknowledge that each of them—by knowing the other—has been “Changed for Good.” Elphaba orders Glinda to hide when the mob arrives, and Elphaba melts when they have her surrounded, leaving behind her hat and a bottle of green elixir. Glinda recognizes the liquid as the same thing the Wizard always drinks; back in the Emerald City, after he learns that he had fathered Elphaba, Glinda orders him to leave Oz, and she has Madame Morrible imprisoned. And, while the Ozians rejoice over Elphaba’s death, Fiyero knocks on a trapdoor in Kiamo Ko where Elphaba has been hiding. Regretting that they can never return, they quietly leave Oz by climbing through the central Time Clock.

  • “‘Evita’ Scandal in Vienna.” The New York Times, 13 January 1983.
  • “‘Evita’ Star Disfigured During Backstage Plot.” Boca Raton News, 6 May 1982.
  • Cote, David. Wicked: The Grimmerie. New York: Hyperion, 2005.
  • Cox, Gordon. “Broadway Box Office: ‘Wicked’ Hits a Milestone.” Variety.com. 2 May 2016. http://variety.com/2016/legit/news/broadway-sales-wicked-1201764692/. (Accessed 30 July 2016.)
  • De Giere, Carol. Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz from Godspell to Wicked. New York: Applause, 2008.  
  • Filichia, Peter. Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit and the Biggest Flop of the Season, 1959–2009. Milwaukee: Applause Books, 2010.  
  • Isherwood, Charles. “A Place in the Universe for a Daffy Musical: Now. Here. This. at the Vineyard Theater.” The New York Times, 29 March 2012
  • Jones, Chris. “Opera, Legit Giants Sing Chi Love Duet.” Variety 372, no. 9 (12 October 1998): 47–8.           
  • Laird, Paul R. “The Creation of a Broadway Musical: Stephen Schwartz, Winnie Holzman, and Wicked.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Musical, 2nd ed., edited by William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird, 340–352. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
  • _______. Wicked: A Musical Biography. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2011.
  • MacDonald, Laura. “Rent Changing 'Rush' Ticket Policy.” Playbill.com. 10 July 1997. < http://www.playbill.com/article/rent-changing-rush-ticket-policy-com-70938. (Accessed 26 July 2016).           
  • McDonnell, Evelyn, with Katherine Silberger, interviews and text. Rent. New York: Melcher Media, 1997.
  • Miller, Scott. Rebels with Applause: Broadway’s Groundbreaking Musicals. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2001.
  • _______. Strike Up the Band: A New History of Musical Theatre. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2007.
  • O’Haire, Patricia, and Robert Dominguez. “$480 Seats Music to Producers’ Ears.” New York Daily News, Saturday, October 27, 2001.
  • Riedel, Michael. “On Old B’way: It Takes a Thief.” The New York Post, 19 October 2012.
  • _______. Razzle Dazzle: The Battle for Broadway. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015.
  • Schnabl Schweitzer, Carol L. “A Parable, A Pearl, and “Popular”? How the Broadway Musical Wicked—Especially Elphaba’s Character—May Assist Adolescent Girls to Claim Their Uniqueness.” Pastoral Psychology 61 (2012): 499-511.
  • Simonson, Robert, and Kenneth Jones. “Brown’s Last Five Years Removed from Lincoln Center Theater Schedule.” Playbill.com. 25 October 2001. http://www.playbill.com/article/browns-last-five-years-removed-from-lincoln-center-theater-schedule-com-99361. (Accessed 25 July 2016.)
  • Stearns, David Patrick. “The Smart Set.” American Theatre 17, no. 2 (February 2000): 18–21, 76–78.
  • Suskin, Steven. Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway’s Major Composers. Revised and Expanded Third Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
  • Teachout, Terry. “Music: A ‘Musical’ That’s Really an Opera.” The New York Times, 2 January 2000.
  • Wolf, Stacy. Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
  • Wollman, Elizabeth L. The Theater Will Rock: A History of the Rock Musical, from Hair to Hedwig. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2006.
  • Viertel, Jack. The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows are Built. New York: Sarah Crichton Books, 2016.

Chapter 45 – Team Efforts—The 1990s and Beyond

Musical Example 66 - Avenue Q - Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx / Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, 2003 - “I Wish I Could Go Back to College”

Online Plot Summary 45a: Avenue Q

Anyone who has seen episodes of Sesame Street would recognize some of the structural elements of Avenue Q—while anyone who has worried about where his or her life is going will be familiar with the show’s main themes. In fact, the show opens with a video clip that is reminiscent of the cartoons that punctuate the television program. The accompanying song seems at first to be full of cheer, but its lyrics soon paint a darker vision of long hours at work with only a small salary to show for it.

Princeton, a recent college graduate, isn’t sure what he can do with his bachelor’s degree in English, but he’s looking for housing on the first street he can afford, Avenue Q. His potential neighbors have their own worries: Brian is out of work again, and feels he will never reach his goal of being a comedian. His Japanese fiancée Christmas Eve has advanced degrees in social work but no clients in her therapy business. Kate Monster, an aide in a kindergarten class, despairs of finding a boyfriend. Rod—an uptight investment banker—and Nicky—a cheerful slacker—are “Odd Couple” roommates, finding each other’s quirks increasingly irritating. Trekkie Monster spends long hours surfing porn websites. Each person believes “It Sucks to Be Me,” although they collectively decide that their building superintendent Gary Coleman—the former child star who has fallen on hard times—“wins” this particular contest.

Other neighborhood tensions come to light. Nicky tries to reassure Rod that it would be fine for him to come out of the closet, but Rod insists he is not gay. Princeton—laid off before he has even started his first job—decides this setback might allow him to discover his purpose in life (and a Sesame-Street-like voiceover defines the word “purpose”). But, when Princeton asks Kate if she’s related to Trekkie, she accuses him of racism. Soon, though, all the characters have discovered ways in which “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist.”

While Princeton seeks his future path, he meets the Bad Idea Bears, who encourage him to spend all his money by buying beer in bulk. Kate, meanwhile, plans a lesson about the World Wide Web when she is asked to substitute for her boss, Mrs. Thistletwat—although Trekkie insists that “The Internet is for Porn.” Kate is delighted when Princeton gives her a mix-tape and asks her out, but she’s perplexed by the contradictory messages of the songs he’s chosen. On their date, they watch Lucy the Slut perform (whose song ends with repeated declarations of “For me!” that evoke the last section of “Rose’s Turn” in Gypsy).

Fueled by Long Island Iced Teas supplied by the Bad Idea Bears, Princeton and Kate end up in her bedroom, where their night of passion gets noisy (as is the case for Christmas Eve and Brian as well). Rod is thrilled to hear a slumbering Nicky say, “I love you, Rod”—until Rod realizes that he is the one who is asleep. During the night, Princeton gives Kate a lucky penny, but it doesn’t seem so lucky when they oversleep and Kate misses her substitute lesson. When an angry Mrs. Thistletwat accuses all monsters of laziness, Kate quits, and vows to pursue the “Monsterssori” school she wants to establish.

At the wedding of Christmas Eve and Brian, Rod frantically tries to allay suspicion about his sexual preferences by describing “My Girlfriend Who Lives in Canada” (whom no one has ever met). He then throws Nicky out of their apartment for participating in the general speculation. When Kate catches the bridal bouquet, Princeton has a dizzy vision of the word “Purpose” transforming itself into “Propose”—so he quickly tells Kate that they should become “just friends” while he figures out his mission in life. To herself, Kate laments the waste of time when love goes unrequited.

Princeton doesn’t fare well after the break-up, and the Bad Idea Bears offer him a rope (along the lines of Curly’s suggestion in “Pore Jud is Daid”). The neighbors have more success in coaxing Princeton out of his apartment—although he immediately falls into the clutches of Lucy the Slut. Kate is dismayed to see them together, but Christmas Eve suggests that Kate’s anger is the flip side of her love for Princeton. Kate decides to invite Princeton to meet her at the Empire State building that evening, but Lucy tears up the note before Princeton sees it; Lucy, too, is prejudiced against monsters. Meanwhile, Nicky has been couch-surfing but has worn out his welcome, and Gary Coleman explains the meaning of “Schadenfreude” to him—that people take a secret pleasure in seeing the misfortune of others.

Unsurprisingly, Kate waits alone on the Empire State Building’s viewing platform, and finally decides to throw away her ‘gift’ penny from Princeton—and it hits Lucy who is on the street below. Kate visits Princeton in Lucy’s hospital room, but still he is unable to make a commitment to her; outside, Rod can’t accept Nicky’s repeated apologies. Kate, Nicky, and Princeton all wish they could escape life’s messiness by going back to their college years (Musical Example 66).

Then Princeton makes a discovery: when he gives Nicky a quarter, he feels good—so he decides to fundraise for Kate’s monster school. Nicky (reluctantly) makes a donation, and feels so much better that he has an inspiration: he can give the gift of a boyfriend to Rod. Other neighbors donate, too, but even after passing the hat among the audience, only a few dollars have been raised. But Trekkie saves the day: he has invested steadily in porn, and is able to donate ten million dollars. Rod meets Nicky’s gay look-alike, Ricky, and Lucy, who miraculously survived her injury, has been born again as a virgin. Even the Bad Idea Bears have discovered Scientology . . . and although not everything is perfect, the cast console themselves by remembering that all their issues are only “For Now.”

Musical Example 67 - next to normal - Tom Kitt / Brian Yorkey, 2009 - “Make Up Your Mind / Catch Me I’m Falling”

Online Plot Summary 45b: next to normal

All seems so ordinary at first: at 3:30 a.m., Diana is waiting for her teenage son Gabe to get home, and he teases her for worrying. Natalie is studying through the night, unconvinced by her mother Diana’s pep talk. It is also apparent that Diana’s sex-life with her husband Dan has become simply routine. Everyone hustles to get ready for school or work the next morning, but then the first real crack in the family’s “normality” appears: Diana makes sandwiches, but is piling the bread not only on the table but also onto the chair and floor.

The family recognizes the familiar signs: Diana is experiencing a manic episode. At school, Natalie—who looks forward to early admission to Yale—drowns her tensions in Mozart, until she is interrupted by Henry, a classmate who tries to break through her defensive barriers. Dan takes Diana to a psychopharmacologist, Dr. Fine, and during a montage of visits, we learn that Diana suffers from bipolar depression with delusional episodes. (As Dr. Fine dispenses her medications, a background chorus sings, “These are a few of my favorite pills,” riffing on The Sound of Music’s “My Favorite Things”—a small self-referential moment.)

At last Diana confesses to Dr. Fine that she doesn’t feel anything—and he announces that she is “stable.” Henry has made progress with Natalie; at last she kisses him. Diana, seeing the tender moment, recalls her marriage to Dan because of her unexpected pregnancy. She then laments the flatness of her medicated life, singing, “I Miss the Mountains.” Impulsively, she decides to flush her pills—and, for a time, since she seems so happy and industrious, the family is unaware of her action. Dan meets Henry and invites him for dinner, over Natalie’s protests. Still, the meal goes well until Diana produces a birthday cake. Henry asks, “Whose birthday is it?” and Natalie replies, “My brother’s.” Surprised, Henry says, “I didn’t know you had a brother”—and Natalie snaps, “I don’t.”

It is now clear that Gabe is not real; he is the persistent delusion that Diana is loath to shed. He died as an infant, but has continued to grow up in her mind, even though Dan tries to tell her “He’s Not Here.” She defends her decision to go off her medication, telling Dan “You Don’t Know” how deadened but frightened she feels. Dan can’t really understand why he and Natalie aren’t enough for Diana, reminding her “I Am the One” who will keep standing by her; meanwhile, Gabe tries—unsuccessfully—to get his father’s attention. Natalie describes her own situation as “Superboy and the Invisible Girl”; she cannot compete for her mother’s attention against the “perfect” older brother she never knew.

Dan takes Diana to Dr. Madden, whom he says is a “rock star” of psychotherapy. In Diana’s perception, Dr. Madden sometimes transforms into an actual rocker. When Dr. Madden asks about Diana’s son, Gabe angrily declares, “I’m Alive,” especially when Dr. Madden suggests that it’s time to let Gabe go. Natalie, meanwhile, starts experimenting with Diana’s leftover medications. Dr. Madden starts a program of hypnosis therapy, which preoccupies Diana to the extent that she misses Natalie’s winter piano recital. Outraged at her mother’s absence, Natalie has her own breakdown during the performance. Everyone’s feelings come to a head as Dr. Madden urges Diana to “Make Up Your Mind” to move toward recovery; Gabe and the others plead, “Catch Me, I’m Falling” (Musical Example 67).

At last, Diana agrees she is ready to release Gabe, but as she sorts through items from his room, he appears in a tuxedo to dance with her. Gabe points out “There’s a World” where they could go together . . . and after her subsequent suicide attempt, Dr. Madden feels electroconvulsive therapy is necessary. Diana resists the notion, but Dan begs her to try, and she finally agrees.

As Diana starts the series of ECT treatments, Natalie continues her self-medicated downward spiral, collapsing at last in a nightclub. Henry takes Natalie home, just in time for Diana’s return from the hospital. Diana remembers nothing of the house or even who Natalie is. Even though an embarrassed Natalie starts avoiding Henry, he asks her to go to the next school dance (and periodically reminds her that he will be persistent). At home, Dan tries to help Diana regain her memory, but hasn’t felt the time was right to discuss Gabe’s passing. As Diana starts to recall bits and pieces, she feels that something is missing. Gabe remains in the periphery, insisting that he may be gone from her memory but remains in her soul.

Diana goes to Dr. Madden to complain about the unsettled state of her recollections, and he mentions her son—to her shock. At home, with Gabe’s help, she finds his childhood music box, and then she remembers the desperate effort to save their dying baby, wondering “How Could I Ever Forget?” She still can’t think of his name, though, and Dan frantically starts proposing a new medication or ECT regimen. Henry arrives to collect Natalie, but when Diana’s hysteria mounts, she smashes the music box—and Natalie runs back to her room. Both Diana and Natalie wonder why Dan and Henry stay with them, but the two men insist that they have promised to do so. After the crisis, Diana refuses further treatment with Dr. Madden, and sends Natalie to the school dance. Natalie reveals to Henry her deepest fear: that she will end up like Diana. He is unfazed, promising to stand by her.

Diana tells Dan she must leave; she can’t keep relying on him to catch her. Gabe, however, stays behind, pressuring Dan to acknowledge him; Dan at last says Gabriel’s name. Dr. Madden reminds the family that “the price of love is loss, but still we pay; we love anyway.” He suggests a therapist for Dan, and they all believe that, in time, there will be light.

  • “Frank Wildhorn.” Contemporary Musicians, Volume 31. Gale Group, 2001. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: The Gale Group, 2002.
  • Brantley, Ben. “Fragmented Psyches, Uncomfortable Emotions: Sing Out!” The New York Times, 15 April 2009.
  • Brantley, Ben. “There, Amid the Music, A Mind Is on the Edge.” The New York Times, 14 February 2008.
  • Bryer, Jackson R., and Richard A. Davison, eds. The Art of the American Musical: Conversations with the Creators. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005.
  • Carlson, Marvin. The Haunted Stage: The Theatre as Memory Machine. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001.
  • Citron, Stephen. Sondheim and Lloyd Webber: The New Musical. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
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Chapter 46 – Whither Musical Theater?

Musical Example 68 - A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder - Steven Lutvak / Steven Lutvak and Robert L. Freedman, 2013 - “I’ve Decided to Marry You”

Online Plot Summary 46a: A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

Not many musicals open with an Audience Advisory, but, then again, not many shows kill off multiple characters in rapid succession. Viewers who fail to heed the warning to leave will see the main character, Monty Navarro, writing his memoirs in jail while awaiting his probable execution.

The events that led to his incarceration had begun two years earlier, in 1907. The impoverished Monty, recently orphaned, receives a visit from Miss Shingle, who reveals the secret of his birth: his mother Isobel was a D’Ysquith (pronounced DIE-skwith), but had eloped with a Castilian musician and was subsequently disinherited. Miss Shingle urges Monty to seek his rightful place with his family; after all, he’s eighth in line to the earldom of Highhurst, currently held by Lord Adalbert D’Ysquith. Monty is tempted; he loves Sibella Hallward, but although she shares his passion, she won’t marry him because he’s poor. Instead, she’s considering a different suitor, Lionel Holland.

Monty’s first attempts to make contact with his family don’t go too well. He writes to the head of the family’s banking firm, Lord Asquith D’Ysquith, Senior, identifying himself and asking if there is any employment available. However, Asquith D’Ysquith, Junior, sends the unwelcoming reply: Monty’s mother is not recognized by the family and Monty should not contact them again. And, when Monty takes a guided tour of Highhurst Castle, he wanders off the permitted route, and gets kicked out by the Earl himself.

After these setbacks, Monty decides to approach the family clergyman, the Reverend Lord Ezekial D’Ysquith. Ezekial remembers Isobel but doesn’t want to get caught up in family intrigue; instead, he wants to show off his church’s architecture and leads Monty up the bell tower. Thanks to the wind and too much alcohol, the Reverend loses his balance—and Monty, realizing that Ezekial stands between him and the earldom, doesn’t pull him to safety. Ezekial’s fall is family death number one—and Monty now plans to eliminate the other heirs as well.

Monty selects the hostile Asquith D’Ysquith, Junior, as his first deliberate target. When Asquith takes his mistress Miss Barley to a winter resort, Monty tries to poison Asquith. He can’t get close enough—but when the couple go ice-skating, Monty sees his opportunity: he saws a hole in the ice, and thus Asquith is the second family member to die (along with the unfortunate Miss Barley).

Monty’s fortunes take a turn for the better when the grieving Lord Asquith, Senior, apologizes for his son’s harsh letter, offers Monty a job, and treats him with kindness. Sibella is torn; she just accepted Lionel’s proposal. She decides to marry Lionel—but she also maintains her affair with Monty.

Monty’s scheme takes him to the country where his cousin Henry D’Ysquith, a squire, keeps bees on his estate. Henry inadvertently suggests the means of his own death when he tells Monty that bees are attracted to lavender; Monty douses Henry’s beekeeping clothes with lavender oil. Monty then visits the estate, where he meets Henry’s sister Phoebe—and he is able to console her when news comes of her brother’s death from a swarm of bees. Since Sibella is married, Monty starts eyeing Phoebe as a future bride, now that a third D’Ysquith obstacle has been removed.

Monty’s next target is Lady Hyacinth D’Ysquith, who is obsessed with philanthropy. He persuades her to travel to various hazardous destinations—war-torn Egypt, a leper colony—until she disappears when visiting African cannibals. Closer to home, Major Lord Bartholomew D’Ysquith is a body-builder, so Monty engineers a macabre barbell accident. Lady Salome D’Ysquith, on the other hand, is an actress—and a dreadfully bad one. In fact, when Monty substitutes real bullets for the fake ammunition in a prop gun that Lady Salome uses to shoot herself at the end of a play, her audience approves wholeheartedly.

With the D’Ysquith body count up to six, only Monty’s banking boss and the current earl remain in his way. Monty’s problem is that he likes Lord Asquith, Senior—but matters are taken out of his hands when the lord dies of an unexpected heart attack.

Understandably, irritated mourners at the funeral wonder, “Why Are All the D’Ysquiths Dying?” (as does the earl himself). Monty continues his affair with Sibella, but Phoebe suddenly comes to visit, announcing, “I’ve Decided to Marry You” (Musical Example 68). While juggling his involvement with both women, Monty gets bad news: Lady Hyacinth is alive! But not for long: Monty chops away her ship’s gangplank supports, and she drowns when she debarks.

Now engaged, Monty takes Phoebe to Highhurst Castle, but the visit is complicated by Sibella’s presence, and she is upset to learn about the engagement. After much difficulty, Monty poisons the earl’s dessert—but the earl doesn’t eat it. And, when Monty is holding the earl’s army rifle, Monty finds he cannot shoot. But, to Monty’s surprise, the earl suddenly drops dead after taking a drink—and Monty is now the ninth earl. Lord Monty marries Phoebe, but is arrested at their wedding reception for poisoning the previous earl—the one crime he didn’t commit.

Monty’s trial goes very poorly, and, despairing, he writes his memoirs in his cell. He learns that the jail’s custodian, Chauncey, is also a disinherited D’Ysquith. Outside his prison, matters grow increasingly tangled: Phoebe delivers a letter from Sibella, confessing to the murder; Sibella brings a letter from Phoebe, confessing the same thing. Confounded, the authorities decide there is reasonable doubt as to Monty’s guilt, so he is released, apparently to be shared by both women. He forgets his journal in his cell—but in one more stroke of luck, a guard runs out to return it to him. But who poisoned the earl? Miss Shingle—a longtime D’Ysquith servant—lets the audience know that it was she. But, as the curtain lowers, Chauncey reveals that he now has “Poison in My Pocket,” and Monty needs to watch out.

Musical Example 69 - Hamilton - Lin-Manuel Miranda / Lin-Manuel Miranda, 2015 - “Alexander Hamilton”

  • Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/track/4TTV7EcfroSLWzXRY6gLv6
  • Spotify Recording Information: Alexander Hamilton By Leslie Odom Jr., Anthony Ramos, Daveed Diggs, Okieriete Onaodowan, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton, Phillipa Soo, Christopher Jackson

Online Plot Summary 46b: Hamilton

Although Hamilton stretches historical accuracy at times, the musical’s fundamental premise is completely true: Alexander Hamilton came to the northern American colonies to make something of himself—and ended up helping to make something of his new nation as well. His future friends, family, lovers, and enemies introduce him in “Alexander Hamilton” (Musical Example 69), and even “spoil the ending” by alluding to his deadly duel with Aaron Burr. However, most Americans already know that much about Hamilton before they enter the theater; it is the rest of the show that brings him to life.

Hamilton’s first encounter with Burr is revealing; Hamilton is full of nervous chatter, while Burr is close-mouthed and guarded in his responses. Hamilton meets the abolitionist John Laurens, the French aristocrat Lafayette, and the tailor’s apprentice (and spy) Hercules Mulligan. Hamilton dreams of taking “My Shot”—in actual battle and at his place in history; all four men raise a glass to the prospect of revolution as well. The Schuyler sisters are also enjoying New York’s energy, while Hamilton begins debating Loyalists who oppose a rebellion. King George III, ominously, reminds the colonists that he is perfectly capable of  “fighting for their love.” When the revolution begins, the massive British force initially daunts the Continental Army soldiers. Still, Hamilton longs to prove himself in battle, but George Washington wants him as an aide.

In 1780, “A Winter’s Ball” brings Hamilton in contact with the Schuylers, and the attraction is instant—but Angelica, wary of her feelings for Hamilton, introduces him to her sister Eliza. Hamilton and Eliza soon marry; Angelica’s wedding toast hopes they’ll be “Satisfied,” but she already regrets that he is not hers. Hamilton’s friends also toast (and roast) him, but then Burr reveals a secret: he is in love with a British officer’s wife. Rather than take action to win her, though, he explains his “Wait For It” philosophy to Hamilton.

The war is not going well. Hamilton still wants to lead troops, but Washington chooses Charles Lee instead. However, after a disastrous battle, Washington relieves Lee of duty. Hamilton bristles when Lee bad-mouths Washington, but the general orders Hamilton to ignore Lee’s insults. Laurens decides to duel Lee on Hamilton’s behalf, but Washington is angry when he finds out, and he sends Hamilton home to a pregnant Eliza. Hamilton worries about supporting his family, but Eliza believes as long as he’s hers, “That Would Be Enough.”

The tide starts to turn in the battle for independence, thanks to Lafayette (and France’s) support. If the Continental Army can take Yorktown, it would be a critical victory, so Washington gives Hamilton his first command. Still, Washington tries to teach Hamilton the importance of restraint. After the unexpected colonial victory—a “World Turned Upside Down”—King George asks if the Americans really understand “What Comes Next?” (It is, he suggests, much easier to fight than it is to govern.)

Burr and Hamilton each rejoice in their new fatherhood, but Hamilton grieves after learning that Laurens was killed in battle. Time passes, and Burr and Hamilton each build their legal careers. As the struggle to develop the Constitution intensifies, Hamilton writes fifty-one of the essays in the Federalist Papers. When Washington is elected president, he asks Hamilton to serve as Treasury Secretary, to Eliza’s dismay.

Thomas Jefferson arrives home from France, ready to serve as Secretary of State. James Madison wants Jefferson’s help in fighting Hamilton’s financial plan; Madison thinks it gives the government too much power. Hamilton argues with his opponents during various cabinet meetings, while Eliza tries to get him to “Take a Break” and enjoy time with their son Philip. Hamilton corresponds flirtatiously with the now-married Angelica (who is living in England), but when she and Eliza try to persuade him to go on a family vacation, he pleads too much work. Left home alone, Hamilton meets Maria Reynolds, who tells him her husband is abusive. Hamilton gives her financial help, and she thanks him with her body. Soon, her husband blackmails Hamilton, who starts paying for the man’s silence—but he doesn’t break off the affair.

During a private dinner, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison arrive at the Compromise of 1790; Jefferson and Madison will support his financial plan, and Hamilton will support moving the capital to Washington, D.C. Burr wishes he could be in “The Room Where It Happens,” and proceeds to defeat Hamilton’s father-in-law in a senate election.

Another cabinet battle ensues: should the United States aid the French? Hamilton is opposed, and wins this round, so things grow frostier with Jefferson; Jefferson, Burr, and Madison start investigating Hamilton’s financial management. Jefferson soon leaves the cabinet to launch a run for the presidency, while Washington decides not to run, and asks for Hamilton’s help with a farewell address. King George, meanwhile, laughs at the thought of “President John Adams.”

Other crises arise: Hamilton has a public blow-up with Adams, while Jefferson, Madison and Burr discover that Hamilton was not embezzling, but rather paying blackmail. Trying to control the “spin,” Hamilton goes public about the affair by publishing “The Reynolds Pamphlet.” Angry and heartbroken, Eliza burns his letters to her and shuts him out of her life. But worse is to come: when George Eacker denigrates Hamilton, Philip duels with him—and dies as a result. Hamilton and Eliza are devastated, but their shared grief reunites them.

The next presidential election is tied; Hamilton tilts the balance by supporting Jefferson while disparaging Burr. Outraged, Burr challenges Hamilton to a duel. Hamilton says goodbye to a sleepy Eliza, who doesn’t know her husband’s destination. At the dueling ground, Burr fires—and all accompaniment stops. Hamilton thinks about his legacy and those he loves—and then Burr’s bullet finds its target. Burr describes Hamilton’s death, but that is not the end. Eliza lives on, founding an orphanage to honor the orphan she had married, and telling Hamilton’s story for another fifty years.

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