| In this article we're going to present a | | | | 1900s, composers like George M. Cohan and |
| brief history of musical theater from its | | | | Victor Herbert gave musicals a new sound and |
| early beginnings right up to the present | | | | style that is still popular to this very day. |
| day.Musicals actually started with the | | | | This style was then updated by composers |
| ancient Greeks who put on plays with songs. | | | | such as Jerome Kern, Guy Boulton and P.G. |
| While they weren't called musicals at the | | | | Wodehouse.By the 1930s the American musical |
| time, that is indeed what they were. The | | | | had reached popularity the like of which it |
| music was crude by today's standards and the | | | | had never seen before, with composers such as |
| stories were not very well done, again by | | | | Rogers and Hart and Cole Porter dominating |
| today's standards, but this was the early | | | | the era.By the 40s and 50s we were treated to |
| beginning of what was to become the modern | | | | some of the greatest musicals in what was |
| musical.In the 1700s there were many stage | | | | called the modern era. These musicals |
| entertainments, though again they were not | | | | included such classics as Oklahoma, Annie Get |
| called musicals. The first English language | | | | Your Gun, Kiss Me Kate, The King and I, My |
| work that had any lasting value was The | | | | Fair Lady, and the list goes on for miles.In |
| Beggar's Opera which was done in 1728. It | | | | the 1960s we saw such great musicals like |
| was a satirical spoof of the times. This was | | | | Hello Dolly, Fiddler On The Roof, and Hair, |
| typical of the type of entertainment one | | | | which was the first musical in the United |
| would find up until the 1800's.Musicals, as | | | | States to feature nude actors.By the 1970s |
| we know them today, started in the 1800s with | | | | musical theater had become pretty extravagant |
| the French and Viennese Operettas. The works | | | | with the advances in technology and design. |
| of Offenbach and Strauss were the first | | | | The 70s brought us such great shows as A |
| musicals to achieve international | | | | Little Night Music, A Chorus Line, No No |
| popularity.The contemporary Broadway musical, | | | | Nanette, Sweeney Todd and Evita.But the hits |
| as we know it today, took its form from these | | | | kept coming and would continue to come, many |
| operettas and was done in what we call | | | | from Britain. In the 80s we saw such great |
| Minstrel Shows. These eventually gave way to | | | | shows like Cats, Les Miserables and Phantom |
| a new form of musical known as Vaudeville.It | | | | Of The Opera.In the 25 years since, literally |
| wasn't until 1860 with the success of The | | | | hundreds of musicals have hit the stage. |
| Black Crook that the American musical really | | | | Some great, some not so great. But what was |
| began to take off. During this time we were | | | | once a humble beginning is now one of the |
| treated to the great works of Gilbert and | | | | major forms of entertainment, not only in the |
| Sullivan from 1871 to 1896.During the early | | | | United States but all across the world. |