A few Fridays ago, we talked about 5 classic plays that have stood the test of time and remain as entertaining and relevant as ever. When I tried to make a list of just 5 classic musicals, I came up with about 50, So, instead, I decided to cut off the time period to just the 1950s - we can always look at other decades another time. As it is, I can think another 10 shows from that period that also have staying power and influence the genre still.
5. Damn Yankees (1955): The very definition of musical comedy, I named this one as a reminder that a novel-based musical can be clever and timely and be about an unlikely topic. In this case, baseball... a sport... it makes me feel like a jock. It also brought the world such classics as "(You Gotta Have) Heart" and "Whatever Lola Wants," and a great - if extra and nonsensical - dance number, "Who's Got the Pain?" And special thanks to Bob and Gwen! Firmly rooted in its own time - was it the Rent of its day? - it still holds up.
4. Guys and Dolls (1951): It's hard to imagine a Broadway musical list of any nature that doesn't include this Frank Loesser gem. Very much of its time - ballet sequences (production numbers of yore), a romantic couple, a B-plot comic couple, larger than life characters, and a twisty plot that ends up with everything just as it should be - Guys and Dolls is the cream of that classic crop. This masterpiece had brilliant performances of Grade-A material and a practically perfect score. Decades from now, this will still be produced and revered.
3. My Fair Lady (1956): One of the great musical partnerships of all-time, Lerner and Loewe, created one of Broadway's longest-running and oft-produced shows. Though the book is pretty much Pygmalion verbatim, the Shaw classic seems even better with the addition of musical numbers. And what a doozy of a song list! It boasts such timeless songs as "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?", "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face", "The Rain in Spain", "Get Me to the Church in Time", "On the Street Where You Live" and "I Could Have Danced All Night."
2. South Pacific (1950): The writing team of Rodgers and Hammerstein is synonymous with ground-breaking musical theater. Sure, their 40s show, Oklahoma! is credited with advancing the art form, but I think South Pacific is their biggest achievement. Exotic locales, a tribute to the heroes of World War II, an epic love story, and a controversial social message combine to make this one a cut above the rest. Is it any wonder it won the Pulitzer Prize For Drama? The ballad, "Some Enchanted Evening," is top tier, and you can't beat such show-stoppers as "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair" and "There Is Nothing Like a Dame." But it's "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" that remains as relevant today as it was nearly 75 years ago.
1. West Side Story (1957): Perhaps one of the biggest leaps forward in the genre in the Golden Age, is Jerome Robbins and Leonard Bernstein's masterpiece based on Romeo and Juliet, a timeless classic in its own right. With racism, gang violence, and social injustice at the forefront, the team further pushed the envelop with a completely danced overture/prologue, gritty realism and violent murder as hallmarks of the production. Its influence is still felt today. Oh, and it introduced a young hot shot lyricist named Stephen Sondheim to the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment