Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Are We Living in a New Golden Age of Musical Theatre?
Playbill: Somehow, when we weren't looking, it became cool to be a musical theatre fan. No longer relegated to a “niche market,” musical theatre has captured the national spotlight in recent years. Movie musicals are now a staple of Hollywood's peak holiday release season—with Into the Woods debuting Christmas Day of 2014 and Les Misérables garnering unprecedented attention for live singing on Christmas 2012. The 85th Academy Awards included a 12-minute tribute to movie musicals, in honor of the 10th anniversary of Chicago, which ushered in a resurgence of the bygone art form.
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The new golden age of theatre is a term that has been getting thrown around a lot in the past year, thanks mostly in part to Hamilton's massive crossover success, managing to hit both the niche broadway community and the world at large with it's hip-hop beats and social awareness. This article makes the statement that it is now cool to be a musical theatre fan, and as far as I'm concerned, it might be a little early to make that statement. Liking hamilton makes you someone who enjoys something a lot of people enjoy, which doesn't pertain to musical theatre as a whole, even now. Granted, the TV musical is becoming the newest fad, but part of what makes those appealing to audience members is that they are not frequent, so that when they do air, it's an event. If it wasn't rare, there's a real chance people would stop caring, much like they did for Broadway for the better part of the 2000s. The article features quotes from a lot of people in the field saying Broadway is coming back, but I think the real evidence will be when people that aren't in the field don't say Broadway is back, but that Broadway is here. If it's coming back, it's coming form somewhere. If it's here, it's here.
I'm so incredibly thankful to be living in this era, if it really does happen to be the "golden age of musical theatre, part deux". I've personally seen some amazing developments in our art form in the past couple of years alone, based almost entirely on the sheer amount of exposure that we've gotten recently. I'm incredibly thankful for massive commercial musicals like HAMILTON. I'm also incredibly thankful for the small off-broadway theatre's that makes these musicals happen before they make it to Broadway (cough cough NYTW, The Public). I'm also incredibly grateful that my degree might not go to waste as more people flock to NYC to see musical theatre. Overall, I'm really looking forward to a future in which i'm hopeful that seeing shows is as common as going to the movie theatre, as these shows begin to initiate this massive cultural shift.
I completely agree with nearly all of this article. One of the main questions I have though is where does this golden age start? One could argue for Broadway musicals that there were many turning points. If you watch the documentary, “Broadway: The American Musical”, you can see which shows may have truly started this golden age, but I don’t think it is just one. If someone came up to me on the street and asked though, I would probably say “The Lion King”. The sheer artistry and production value that went into that show and the integration of the corporation was the foundation of most Broadway musicals today. Even “Hamilton” has roots back to these types of shows. The idea of a blockbuster is truly important to this golden age of musicals, even if there are some critical gaps in the production, the feeling that it creates is what drives innovation.
As always, thank god for Hamilton. I have definitely seen musical theatre grow in popularity among my mom-theatre friends over the past few years, but Hamilton is the peak. When Hamilton's album was released, both My Shot and Alexander Hamilton were on the "Viral Hits" playlist on Spotify the next week, and the thumbnail photo for the playlist was a photo from Hamilton. I am not sure if this is the "Golden Age" of musical theatre, but I definitely prefer that statement to "Theatre is dying." When I first saw this article (two minutes ago), I did not really agree, but as I sit here writing this comment and pondering, theatre has been getting so much more recognition lately. We have made a lot of progress. We have NBC Live musicals. We have major motion picture musicals like Into the Woods and Les Mis. We have Hamilton. People are recognizing how great theatre is.
I believe we are living in a musical theatre golden age. Musical theatre is definitely changing and becoming more diverse. Hamilton has a huge affect on that right now. Hamilton is completely different than anything else ever on Broadway except In The Heights. The fact that it is basically a rap opera is incredible to think about. Hamilton has greatly expanded the theatre community because of its appeal to a completely new audience. Hip hop and rap fans plus history fans are interested in Hamilton and going out to buy tickets or try and win the lottery. Social media has been a huge part of Hamilton’s success because people are talking about it on every social media platform and Lin-Manuel Miranda is very big on twitter. Social media is able to show what the show is about as much as possible without actually seeing the show to all of the people that live far away from Broadway or cannot get a ticket to the show because they are so hard to get. It makes me so happy to see non-theatre people interested in Hamilton and singing a Broadway soundtrack more than pop hits on the radio.
It is no secret that Musicals are more prevalent right now. I know people who didn’t even know what a musical was talking about Hamilton. I do not think Hamilton is the only reason people today are talking musicals but it has helped. As someone so entrenched in the theater world it is hard to tell if Musical are reaching people less entrenched. According to this article, theater is really broadening. It is becoming more accessible with movies and TV specials. You do not have to spend $100 in NYC to see a musical, you can sit at your computer and watch stuff on youtube or on your tv. As people become more exposed to musicals on TV and movies, maybe this will give them a desire to see live theater. I am not saying everyone should go see 10 Broadway shows, but maybe go see a musical at your local theater or see a tour when it comes to town. Broadway Musicals are becoming more accessible to the public, but the public needs to become more accessible to broadway musicals.
I think that this article brings up some really interesting points. I feel like I am biased to answer the question, “Are we in a golden age of theatre?” with a yes. Of course, this also comes from a place of hopeful optimism inside of me. I think, though, that if we aren’t entering a golden phase, then we are entering a new, unnamed phase that has not yet been explored. As the article goes more in depth to, with the new technology and forms of theatre, it is being revived into a more mainstream thing to like. I think that it is interesting, and merited, how playbill includes movie musicals and live televised broadcasts in its definition of theatre. Even though these peices don’t fit into the traditional sense of theatre, they still open door to new audiences that would not normally get exposed to this world.
I can definitely say that in the past few years, musical theatre has been becoming such a popular topic. I think I notice it more now because of all the hype from the Hamilton Empire and all the new Musicals coming out and enchanting audiences from all walks of life. I believe "the musical" has gone from being something you never mentioned to your non-theatre friends, but now, it is just like saying movie or tv show. This is definitely because of musical theatre's genre bending abilities. Even Hamilton, a Broadway Musical, got on the top charts for hip-hop and rap. It just goes to show how close all art mediums actually are, with how easily it is to blend them together. This "Golden Age" of Musical Theatre is going to do a lot of good in showing the kind of response and the effect that musical theatre can get.
I don’t know that we’re quite at a “platinum” age for musical theatre but I think we’re well on our way. The interesting thing is that musical theatre isn’t the only entertainment industry starting to flex its muscles in new and beautiful ways. TV shows which, despite record number of cable cutters, have all of a sudden taken a wild turn to attention to detail and epic scale rather than the frankly lazy patterns it had fallen into with shows simply trying to replicate the classic “friends” or “I love lucy” format without innovation. Just like Disney turned around with their acquisition of Pixar and the release of Toy Story, and the return to quality over quantity so is TV and so is musical theatre. The next step for musical theatre however is pretty obviously to break down the barriers of cost and distance to bring that art to the people who have come to expect these high standards of production.
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