Musicals

Understanding Musicals

Musicals are a major part of popular music culture, influenced deeply by a diversity of music genres from pop to rock, and classical to jazz.

Broad Understanding of Musicals

  • Musicals are a form of theatre that combines music, songs, spoken dialogue, and dance.
  • The story and the emotional content, humour, pathos, love, anger are communicated through the words, music, movement and other technical aspects as an integrated whole.
  • There are different forms of musicals including book musical, revue musical and rock/pop musical.

Early Musicals

  • Early musicals were often inspired by popular music of the time and show music has often informed popular music.
  • Opera, operetta, comic operas and the variety shows of the time were precursors to musical theatre.

Influential Musicians in Musicals

  • Key figures in the development of the modern musical include Rodgers and Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim.
  • More contemporary influential figures include Andrew Lloyd Webber and Claude-Michel Schönberg.

Elements of Musicals

  • In musicals, songs often serve particular functions, and there are often standard types of musical numbers within a musical.
  • An overture will encompass tunes that will be heard later in the show, while the underscore provides background music.
  • The book contains the script, including all dialogue and stage directions.

Functions of Songs in Musicals

  • Songs can be used for a variety of purposes: moving the plot forward, representing character’s inner emotions (soliloquy), social commentary, or providing an entertaining interlude.

Significance of Musicals

  • Musicals also often reflect the times they are written in - for example, much of the music of West Side Story is inspired by jazz and also features more complex dissonances not often heard in earlier musicals.
  • Musicals can have a significant impact on popular music. Many songs from musicals have become popular hits in their own right.

Modern Musicals

  • There’s notable crossover between popular music and musicals today. Successful artists like Elton John (The Lion King) and Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) have written music for hugely successful musicals.