Oklahoma ! By Rodgers And Hammerstein Analysis

In the 1940’s, a musical called “Oklahoma!” by Rodgers and Hammerstein became revolutionary and really successful. Oklahoma was the first musical where songs were truly combined in to the shows narrative structure (Introduction to Musical Theatre ) which allowed to tell the story more powerfully using the elements whereas in the past, there was more focus on the songs and comedic aspects. The success of Oklahoma made Rodgers and Hammerstein really popular and they made other musicals such as “The King & I” and “South Pacific” which both of them were very successful. Musicals like “Annie Get Your gun” and “Kate Kiss Me” were based off from the famous musical, Oklahoma which meant that they contained the characteristics of Oklahoma which was …show more content…
The Broadway in this era realized that the musical themselves can address the social and political issues present. A new genre of rock and roll music became part of the Broadway musical theatre and this started with the musical called “Hair”. The musical had the theme of anti-Vietnam war which was depicted through the songs and the musical contained profanity, portrayal of illegal drugs, nude scenes and depiction of homosexuality which brought up lots of controversy and feedback from the audience. Not only did the musical bring up a lot of controversy but the musical reflected the use of drug usage and the racial problems that was present in America during that era. It took 7 years for rock and roll to come back to the Broadway musical theatre and musicals like “Godspell” and “The Rocky Horror Show” were produced which the genre itself rapidly became really popular after these musicals with rock and roll element came out. Although the genre of rock and roll was popular, the popularity started decreasing in the late 1970’s through the 1980’s. Some of the musicals in this decade had more of an opera concept than musicals which meant that they has little dialogue in acting and a lot of the plot and character conveying was depicted through the music. As the Broadway musical became more popular and expanded, more and more …show more content…
Musicals like “The Phantom of the Opera” were really popular amongst the audience and the musical currently has the most number of performances amongst all of the Broadway musicals which shows how favored The Phantom of the Opera is until this day. Another thing that occurred in this era was that film and book adaptations were beginning to be more common. In the 1990’s, Broadway and the Walt Disney Company made an alliance to adapt and recreate films Disney created to musicals and the “Lion King” stood out the most out of all the adaptations. The Lion King, directed by Julie Tamor is the 4th longest running musical and it is the highest grossing musical even beating The Phantom of the Opera. Other musicals adapted from the Disney movies include “Beauty and the Best, Aladdin, Marry Poppins etc. To attract the younger audiences, a musical called Rent was produced which got a lot of popularity and success from the younger audiences, which lead to interesting and unusual musicals. The development of Broadway musicals was incredible in the 20th century as people were able to gain a lot of entertainment and excitement from new genres and adaptations from musicals which is why the 20th century was the golden era of musicals.
The development of Broadway musicals during the 20th century reflected the social