Musicals 1970 – Museu ?!

MUSICALS 1970

Composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and director Hal Prince refocused the genre in the 1970s by introducing concept musicals – shows built around an idea rather than a traditional plot. Company (1970), Follies (1972) and A Little Night Music (1973) succeeded, while rock musicals quickly faded into the background. The concept musical peaked with A Chorus Line (1974), conceived and directed by Michael Bennett. No, No, Nanette (1973) initiated a slew of popular 1970s revivals, but by decade’s end the battle line was drawn between serious new works (Sweeney Todd) and heavily commercialized British mega-musicals (Evita).

1971 Jesus Christ Superstar. Broadway’s first full-fledged rock opera came from two British newcomers, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and librettist Tim Rice. . began life as a best-selling British studio recording. The intriguing premise was to examine the role popular fame played in Christ’s fate. At times fresh and impertinent, and ponderous at others, JCS was a world away from the rock musicals of the late 1960s. With all dialogue set to music, this work qualified as the first rock opera.
1972 Grease won America’s heart with a 1950s rock n’ roll pastiche score and a hokey story about white trash high school kids finding friendship and romance (“rama lama lama, ka dingy dee ding dong!”) during their senior year. It had enough low comedy, coarse language and general goodwill to entertain millions. After opening to good reviews at the Eden Theatre on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the show soon moved to Broadway, becoming the most commercially successful 1970s rock musical.
1972 Pippin used the story of Charlemagne’s forgotten son as a flimsy excuse to examine jealousy, sex, war, sex, love, sex, life, sex . . . and sex. When composer Stephen Schwartz disagreed with changes made to his score, Fosse barred him from rehearsals and made more changes. Thanks to Fosse’s erotically charged choreography and teasing TV ad, Pippin ran long and toured far. Critics complained about the uneven book, but Ben Vereen scored a personal triumph as the show’s sensuous narrator, and John Rubenstein – who introduced Schwartz’s ballad “Corner of the Sky” – charmed audiences in the title role.
In time, Broadway producers and theatre-goers turned against rock. This may have been at least partly because of personal musical tastes, but mainly because too many rock musicals were amateurish embarrassments. Few rock composers had a clue as to how to write a coherent musical, or how to give a raw idea professional polish. Composer Galt MacDermot had succeeded with Hair and Two Gentlemen of Verona, but his shortcomings as a craftsman became apparent when he penned two expensive disasters that opened within weeks of each other.
Five years after his bitter experience working as lyricist on Do I Hear A Waltz (1965 – 220 performances), Stephen Sondheim returned to Broadway as a composer/lyricist. He formed a creative partnership with producer/director Harold Prince, and the duo saw their innovative concept musicals become the most acclaimed hits of the early 1970s. They worked with a series of librettists on shows built around a “concept” (ie – single life vs. marriage, historic culture clashes, bittersweet reunions, etc.). Through this central issue, each show examined numerous interrelated characters and relationships. Sondheim and Prince were assisted in their first two efforts by choreographer Michael Bennett, who would independently create the most successful concept musical of all.
1975 A chorus line. The concept musical reached its peak with A Chorus Line (1975 – 6,137 performances), the brainchild of Michael Bennett. He had Broadway chorus dancers (known in the business as “gypsies” because they migrate from show to show) share memories while a tape recorder ran. Working with these tapes, Bennett built a libretto with writers Nicholas Dante and James Kirkwood. Concurrently, composer Marvin Hamlisch and lyricist Edward Kleban developed a vibrant score. The concept involved a Broadway chorus audition where a director demands that his dancers share their private memories and inner demons. Some dismissed this as staged group therapy, but most found the results riveting. A Chorus Line glorified the individual fulfillment that can be found in ensemble efforts. When the entire cast sang of being “One” while dancing and singing in rigid group formation, the effect was dazzling. Veteran chorus dancers Donna McKechnie, Carol Bishop and Sammy Williams won Tonys, as did the entire creative team. A Chorus Line’s popularity crossed all lines of age and musical taste, smashing every other long-run record in Broadway history. Many who came of age during its run dubbed it the best musical ever.
1975 Chicago, Fosse’s sexy choreography was also evident in the saga of two 1920s flappers seeking fame through marital homicide. This concept musical cast a cynical, merciless spotlight on social hypocrisy and media-based celebrity. Fosse helped shape the libretto, staged the scenes as a series of vaudeville-style acts. Gwen Verdon (in her final musical role) and Chita Rivera were the stellar killers, and Jerry Orbach played their “razzle dazzle” attorney. The John Kander and Fred Ebb score offered a parade of showstoppers, including “All That Jazz.” One of the most brilliant and biting musicals Broadway would ever produce, Chicago was overshadowed by the success of A Chorus Line (discussed on the next page of this site) and did not win a single Tony. It took a 1996 Broadway revival and a 2002 film version to bring this masterwork the popularity it deserved.
1976 Annie, Both critics and audiences melted for a shamelessly old-fashioned musical inspired by the comic strip Little Orphan Annie. It told how a penniless tyke met and captured the heart of billionaire Daddy Warbucks, finding love, adventure and a loveable mutt named Sandy along the way. Newcomer Andrea McArdle gave a disarming performance as the title orphan in search of “Tomorrow,” and Dorothy Loudon copped the Tony with a hilarious performance as Miss Hannigan, the harried orphanage director who has come to loathe “Little Girls” and wants to enjoy life on “Easy Street.” Composer Charles Strouse, lyricist Martin Charnin and librettist Thomas Meehan made Annie’s success seem deceptively simple, but it was so skillfully written and produced that few could follow in its creative footsteps. This multiple Tony winner became an international sensation, proving that the traditional musical could still win audiences. Annie was the first Broadway musical to gross over $100 million, astounding for a show which opened with orchestra seats at a mere $16. (Note: By the time it closed six years later, the same seats went for $45.)
1978 With Dancin’ Fosse took concept shows a step further and dispensed with a script and original score, building an entire evening of unrelated dance sequences around nothing more than a gifted cast, a title and pre-existing, non-theatrical musical sources like Benny Goodman’s jazz classic “Sing, Sing, Sing.” Alan Jay Lerner wired Fosse, “Congratulations. You finally did it. You got rid of the author, ” but the public and critics adored the results, making this one of Fosse’s most profitable productions. With demanding choreography that small theatre companies and amateurs could never hope to recreate, Dancin’ had almost no life beyond its Broadway run and national tour.
1978 The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas was inspired by the real-life political shenanigans that forced the closing of an infamous bordello. It became lasting hit thanks to Tommy Tune’s energetic staging, a bawdy libretto, and some catchy country-style tunes by Carol Hall. TV ads for the show had to bleep out the word “whore” in the title to meet federal broadcast standards — but as a lyric put it, there was “nuthin’ dirty goin’ on,” and audiences embraced the show.
In musical theatre, revivals had been commonplace ever since the repeated success of the The Black Crook in the late 19th Century. But as an epidemic of nostalgia swept through American culture in the 1970s, theatergoers embraced revivals with unprecedented enthusiasm. Shows and stars of the past appealed to the growing number of older tourists who felt alienated by the cultural changes taking place around them — changes all too apparent in the increasingly harsh environment of midtown Manhattan. The surprise hit that set the nostalgia trend rolling on Broadway was a revival of 1925’s No, No, Nanette (1971 – 861 performances). Ain’t Misbehavin’ (1978 – 1,604 performances) revitalized the revue format with an all-black cast in beguiling vignettes built around songs either written or performed by jazz legend Fats Waller. Created by lyricist/director Richard Maltby, it brought stardom to rotund comedienne Nell Carter. She and Maltby won Tonys, and the show received the the award for Best Musical.

Canvis: It’s not so much that the public disapproved of these well-written but imperfect shows. Most Americans were not paying attention to the musical theatre anymore. Rock and disco were the predominant sounds in popular music, and neither genre had more than a token presence in most Broadway scores. Musicals had become a sort of subculture, and the potential sales for cast albums fell so low that major labels stopped recording them altogether.

[ comencen musicals amb produccions molt cares, com les que farà Hal prince, i shows que semblen tenir més a veure amb l’òpera que amb el jazz, amb Stephen Sondheim i Andrew Lloyd Weber]

1978 Eubie ! Recopila 23 cançons de Eubie Blake amb els germans Hines i grans números. Daddy, Hines bros
1979 Sweeney Todd de Stephen Sondheim. While Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd (1979 – 557 performances) used a conventional plot structure, its operatic score was Sondheim’s most ambitious effort to date. Going further, this blood-soaked tale of an unjustly persecuted man’s all-consuming quest for revenge in Victorian London explored emotional territory no musical had ever touched before. Not since Shakespeare had a poet of the theatre taken such an unflinching look into the darkest corners of the human soul. When Sweeney’s cast pointed at audience members and insisted that they had a murderous hate like Sweeney’s hiding inside them, it was bound to leave many theatergoers uneasy. Tony-winning performances by Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou added to the impact, as did a massive production helmed by Hal Prince. (Prince framed the action in the actual ruins of an old factory, trucked in from Rhode Island.) But this lofty accomplishment came at a crippling price. Despite a healthy run and numerous awards, the show was unable to turn a profit.
1979 By the time it reached Broadway, Evita (1979 – 1,567 performances) was a slick and stylish smash hit, with breakthrough performances by Patti Lupone as Evita and Mandy Patinkin as Che. A disco version of “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” became a hit single – one of the last showtunes to reach the pop charts in any form. Evita was a calculated triumph of stagecraft and technology, undeniably entertaining but in some ways as vapid as any of Ziegfeld’s Follies. Webber and Rice depicted Eva as a whore with flair and ruthless ambition, but gave no clue as to what made her complex character tick. Meaningful or not, people liked it. Running three times longer than Sweeney Todd, it made a massive profit from productions all over the world. With this flashy victory of matter over mind, the mega-musical was born.

FILM 1970

1971 Director Norman Jewisohn filmed Fiddler on the Roof with enough sensitivity to make audiences overlook a butt-numbing three hour running time. Israeli actor Chaim Topol energized the film with a sensitive performance as Tevye, the milkman who sees his traditional Russian Jewish village shaken by the forces of change.
1972 Bob Fosse’s searing version of Cabaret turned a stage hit into a screen classic. The often harsh story of people caught in the political turmoil that gripped Germany in the early 1930s featured memorable performances by Liza Minnelli as amoral vocalist Sally Bowles and Joel Grey as the leering Emcee. Fosse, Minnelli and Grey took home Academy Awards

However, most of this decade’s Hollywood musicals – originals as well as adapted stage works – were mishandled. With millions of dollars poured into poorly produced projects, the early 1970s became the golden age of bad big-budget movie musicals. The commercial failure of several animated musicals, including the enchanting Charlotte’s Web (1973), coupled with the dismantling of the Disney Studio’s animation unit, seemed to spell the end of screen animation of any kind. Attempts to revive the genre drew tepid results until the 1990s, when animation would make an industry-shaking comeback. More on this in the chapters to come. Rock movie musicals had a mixed record in the 1970s. Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) and the Who’s Tommy (1975) appealed to youthful audiences despite overblown productions. Mindless mistakes like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) were dismissed by critics and the public. Hollywood’s most successful original rock musical was The Rose (1979), the story of a Janis Joplin-like rock diva who’s professional success sends her into a self-destructive spiral. Overcoming a melodramatic screenplay, pop diva Bette Midler made a dynamic screen debut.

1975 Despite a poor critical reception, The Rocky Horror Picture Show developed a one-of-a-kind cult following. Teenagers came back to see the film week after week, singing along, talking back to the screen and enacting scenes in costume. The film became a camp classic. Late night screenings for Rocky Horror buffs continued all across America right into the next century.
1977 New York, New York was Martin Scorcese’s attempt to do a dark big-band era musical (excuse me?). While the John Kander & Fred Ebb title tune was a major hit for star Liza Minnelli, the film was a cumbersome bore, made the worse by heavy studio editing. Years later, a home video release restored key footage, making the film easier to follow but still unsatisfying.
1978 Grease. By the late 1970s, the screen musical was considered a dinosaur, but a massive hit proved that the genre had some kick left in it. Grease and its white trash teens coming of age in a 1950s American high school became a world-wide phenomenon. The stage score was augmented by several new songs, including the new interpolated pop hits “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and “You’re the One That I Want.” Where the stage version stressed period spoof, the film stressed the love story involving a mildly rebellious leather jacketed boy and a squeaky-clean “Sandra Dee”-type girl. Ingratiating performances by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John and a spirited production delighted audiences, making the film a pop-culture landmark. Earning $159 million on its initial relesem it became the highest grossing film musical up to that time.
1979 Bob Fosse’s semi-autobiographical All That Jazz (1979) blended fantastic musical sequences with a self-indulgent story. Based on Fosse’s experiences during rehearsals for Chicago and earlier shows, this was the first musical (and with any luck, there will never be another) to include graphic footage of actual open heart surgery.
1979 Milos Forman adapted the radical Broadway hit Hair (1979) into a sometimes intriguing film, capturing the anti-war, pro-hippie spirit of the original show. But most filmgoers were not yet ready to rehash the often painful memories of the 1960s. This movie would not find a following until decades later.