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History Of Broadway
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Published: September 25, 2006
Bright lights, intricate costumes, flying actors on bungee cords — the producers of Tarzan: the Broadway Musical certainly know how to create a spectacle! Currently in its fourth month on Broadway, Tarzan's budget totals an extravagant $15 to $20 million, making it one of the most expensive Broadway shows in history.
Despite 21st Century Broadway's love affair with big productions like Tarzan, New York's famed theatre district grew from humble roots. When the New York drama scene first emerged, plays were inexpensive forms of entertainment performed in small theaters. One of the city's first playhouses, the Park Theater, was completed in 1810. Its success was followed by The Bowery, built in 1821, and shortly afterward by other theaters entering the rapidly developing industry.
The first ever Broadway musical was staged in 1866 at Niblo's Garden and produced by manager, William Wheatley. Wheatley's production, The Black Crook, was intended as a conventional melodrama until a ballet troupe from Paris stopped by looking for work. The Academy of Music had imported the dancers to New York to perform, but the Academy building burned to the ground before the show could begin. Wheatley decided to combine the theatrical plot of The Black Crook with the dancers and an orchestra, and the first American musical was born. It ran for 16 weeks and grossed over $1 million — an enormous profit in 1866.
The popularity of The Black Crook was succeeded by a long lull in musicals. The Broadway theater district continued to grow, but playhouses and Vaudeville largely dominated audience attentions. Though artists such as Irving Berlin got their first taste of musical writing in the 1910s, Broadway did not begin to boom until the 1920s, when the U.S. economy was prosperous and the population of big cities was rapidly expanding.
If there was one landmark show of the 1920s, it was Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern's Show Boat. Premiering in 1927, Show Boat is considered by many to be the first musical in which song lyrics advanced the plot of the drama and helped to develop its characters. Show Boat's most famous songs, such as Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man were inseparable from the story, while many other 1920s shows used music for its own sake. Show Boat marked a crucial first success for lyricist Hammerstein, who would later team up with Richard Rogers to form one of the most celebrated duos in Broadway history.
Though hit hard by the depression in the 1930s, Broadway survived through the talents of several key playwrights, such as Eugene O'Neill. O'Neill won three Pulitzer Prizes for drama by 1928 and continued to produce some of his most celebrated works into the late 1930s and 1940s.
Drama also was increasingly being adapted into films, such as Phillip Barry's 1939 play, The Philadelphia Story, written exclusively to return Katharine Hepburn to the Broadway stage. Throughout the Depression and World War II, plays tended more toward realism, an attribute which slowly found its way into musicals as well.
A second flourishing of musicals began in 1943 when Rogers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! hit the Broadway stage. Oklahoma! was followed by other Rogers & Hammerstein staples such as South Pacific, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1950 and The Sound of Music in 1959. Rogers & Hammerstein took on several controversial themes in the course of their musicals, among them race and interracial relationships, wartime culture and politics, and gender roles.
The socially critical slant to musicals continued to expand into shows like Hair, 1967, the mother of all hippie musicals, and the still-popular Rent, 1996, which deals with AIDS and homosexuality. Some shows, such as A Chorus Line, also took issue with the competitiveness of stage performance itself, criticizing the entertainment industry.
Today, Broadway is still bright and vibrant as ever, with shows like Tarzan enthralling audiences of all ages. With its long history, New York theater will remain influential into 2007 and beyond.
Sources:
Hannah, Alison. The History of Theater on Broadway and Broadway's Impact on America available at http://www.mapsites.net/gotham01/webpages/alisonha nnah/broadwayhistory.html, last accessed September 23, 2006.
Hillman, Bill. Disney's Tarzan on Broadway: Preview Notes available at http://www.erbzine.com/mag16/1675.html, last accessed September 23, 2006.
Rusie, Robert. The Great White Way available at http://www.talkinbroadway.com/bway101/1.html, 1999.
— Give My Regards to Broadway available at http://www.talkinbroadway.com/bway101/2.html, last accessed September 23, 2006.
— The American Theater available at http://www.talkinbroadway.com/bway101/4th.html, last accessed September 23, 2006.
— The Great Depression available at http://www.talkinbroadway.com/bway101/5.html, last accessed September 23, 2006.
— A Bright, Golden Haze available at http://www.talkinbroadway.com/bway101/6.html, last accessed September 23, 2006.
The Pulitzer Prize Winners: Drama available at http://www.pulitzer.org/cgi-bin/catquery.cgi?type= w&category=Drama&FormsButton5=Retrieve, last accessed September 23, 2006.
Despite 21st Century Broadway's love affair with big productions like Tarzan, New York's famed theatre district grew from humble roots. When the New York drama scene first emerged, plays were inexpensive forms of entertainment performed in small theaters. One of the city's first playhouses, the Park Theater, was completed in 1810. Its success was followed by The Bowery, built in 1821, and shortly afterward by other theaters entering the rapidly developing industry.
The first ever Broadway musical was staged in 1866 at Niblo's Garden and produced by manager, William Wheatley. Wheatley's production, The Black Crook, was intended as a conventional melodrama until a ballet troupe from Paris stopped by looking for work. The Academy of Music had imported the dancers to New York to perform, but the Academy building burned to the ground before the show could begin. Wheatley decided to combine the theatrical plot of The Black Crook with the dancers and an orchestra, and the first American musical was born. It ran for 16 weeks and grossed over $1 million — an enormous profit in 1866.
The popularity of The Black Crook was succeeded by a long lull in musicals. The Broadway theater district continued to grow, but playhouses and Vaudeville largely dominated audience attentions. Though artists such as Irving Berlin got their first taste of musical writing in the 1910s, Broadway did not begin to boom until the 1920s, when the U.S. economy was prosperous and the population of big cities was rapidly expanding.
If there was one landmark show of the 1920s, it was Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern's Show Boat. Premiering in 1927, Show Boat is considered by many to be the first musical in which song lyrics advanced the plot of the drama and helped to develop its characters. Show Boat's most famous songs, such as Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man were inseparable from the story, while many other 1920s shows used music for its own sake. Show Boat marked a crucial first success for lyricist Hammerstein, who would later team up with Richard Rogers to form one of the most celebrated duos in Broadway history.
Though hit hard by the depression in the 1930s, Broadway survived through the talents of several key playwrights, such as Eugene O'Neill. O'Neill won three Pulitzer Prizes for drama by 1928 and continued to produce some of his most celebrated works into the late 1930s and 1940s.
Drama also was increasingly being adapted into films, such as Phillip Barry's 1939 play, The Philadelphia Story, written exclusively to return Katharine Hepburn to the Broadway stage. Throughout the Depression and World War II, plays tended more toward realism, an attribute which slowly found its way into musicals as well.
A second flourishing of musicals began in 1943 when Rogers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! hit the Broadway stage. Oklahoma! was followed by other Rogers & Hammerstein staples such as South Pacific, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1950 and The Sound of Music in 1959. Rogers & Hammerstein took on several controversial themes in the course of their musicals, among them race and interracial relationships, wartime culture and politics, and gender roles.
The socially critical slant to musicals continued to expand into shows like Hair, 1967, the mother of all hippie musicals, and the still-popular Rent, 1996, which deals with AIDS and homosexuality. Some shows, such as A Chorus Line, also took issue with the competitiveness of stage performance itself, criticizing the entertainment industry.
Today, Broadway is still bright and vibrant as ever, with shows like Tarzan enthralling audiences of all ages. With its long history, New York theater will remain influential into 2007 and beyond.
Sources:
Hannah, Alison. The History of Theater on Broadway and Broadway's Impact on America available at http://www.mapsites.net/gotham01/webpages/alisonha nnah/broadwayhistory.html, last accessed September 23, 2006.
Hillman, Bill. Disney's Tarzan on Broadway: Preview Notes available at http://www.erbzine.com/mag16/1675.html, last accessed September 23, 2006.
Rusie, Robert. The Great White Way available at http://www.talkinbroadway.com/bway101/1.html, 1999.
— Give My Regards to Broadway available at http://www.talkinbroadway.com/bway101/2.html, last accessed September 23, 2006.
— The American Theater available at http://www.talkinbroadway.com/bway101/4th.html, last accessed September 23, 2006.
— The Great Depression available at http://www.talkinbroadway.com/bway101/5.html, last accessed September 23, 2006.
— A Bright, Golden Haze available at http://www.talkinbroadway.com/bway101/6.html, last accessed September 23, 2006.
The Pulitzer Prize Winners: Drama available at http://www.pulitzer.org/cgi-bin/catquery.cgi?type= w&category=Drama&FormsButton5=Retrieve, last accessed September 23, 2006.
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