The Broadway Melody of 1991

The Will Rogers Follies was Tune’s most opulent show, far different from the sleek, stylized minimalism of his recent musicals, with a score by Cy Coleman (music) and Betty Comden and Adolph Green (lyrics), and a book by Peter Stone, by this time a frequent Tune collaborator. The story of Will Rogers, the beloved, Oklahoma-born star of radio, vaudeville, and films, and one of the most popular headliners of the Ziegfeld Follies, was told as a series of routines played out on the stage of the Follies. This look back at a bygone theatrical era played to Tune’s strengths, and his staging recalled show business antecedents from the stage and screen updated with present-day flourishes. Tune’s staging feats were even more impressive because they were performed on a grand staircase that covered the entire expanse of the stage. The Will Rogers Follies opened during a moment of resurgent patriotism in the wake of the success of Operation Desert Storm. Following a decade in which British hits like Cats, Les Misérables, and The Phantom of the Opera dominated the Broadway musical, an air of jingoism and a determination to reclaim Broadway for American musicals hovered over the success of The Will Rogers Follies in 1991.

‘Back to child, back to husband’: Containing transgressive mothers in Into the Woods

Traditional American musicals have often portrayed women in conventional, domestic roles like wives and mothers. Sondheim and Lapine’s Into the Woods (1987) abounds with maternal figures who, at first, appear musically and lyrically complex. The musical’s mothers transgress the confines of housekeeping and childrearing to pursue sexual fantasies, provide for and protect their children and explore their personal and emotional bonds. However, the actions of such transgressive mothers, including the Baker’s Wife, Jack’s Mother and the Witch, are narratively renounced, their agency contained and their stories cut short with fatal punishments. In contrast, Cinderella, the epitome of the pure good woman, prevails as the solitary mother figure of the show’s concluding family. This article argues that despite its overtures towards something more complex, Into the Woods’ depiction of motherhood merely reinforces reductive, patriarchal genre standards.

The Invention of the Satiric Musical

This chapter recounts the history of the musical satire and how it has found its place in American theatre. It also considers how elements of this genre are to be found in the musical adaptation of Chicago. In doing so, the chapter shows that the English-speaking musical has been critical of the establishment and its protocols right from the start, not least in its protection of minorities. From its first century (starting roughly in the 1860s) songs from American musicals were the national melody and seemed perfectly innocuous at first glance. Yet, as the chapter shows, there was an underlying subversive character interwoven into the genre, and Watkins’ Chicago was no different.

The King and I: Another Orientalia in Commercial Theatre?

One of the most popular American musicals, The King and I has always been, and probably will forever be, banned in Thailand. Its current Broadway production, ironically, petitioned to premiere in Thailand and, without hesitation, was immediately turned down by the Royal Thai Government. Instead, it was developed in Australia and moved to Broadway where it received critical as well as commercial success.