Golden Age of Musical Theatre

The Golden Age of musical theatre was a period of huge productivity that established the book musical as the norm on Broadway. This guide explores the beginnings of the Golden Age and identifies the early seeds for the movement in the late 1920s. It looks at the changes in musical theatre during the Golden Age and identifies influential writing partnerships who changed the face of Broadway forever.

Terminology

• Book musical: a production in which musical numbers and dances are fully integrated into a proper narrative with defined dramatic goals.
• Choreography: the sequence of steps and movements in dance.
• Conditional love song: a song in which two characters sing together, but don’t anticipate (or are totally against) falling in love.
• Tin Pan Alley: the body of composers and publishers who wrote, performed, and produced popular music during the first half of the twentieth century.

Key Dates & Events

• 1943 - Oklahoma! premieres
• 1946 - Annie Get Your Gun and Irving Berlin’s revival
• 1947 - First Tony Awards celebration
• 1947 - Brigadoon, the first major hit of Lerner and Loewe, premieres
• 1948 - Kiss Me, Kate premieres, marking Cole Porter’s return to Broadway
• 1955 - Oklahoma! film is released
• 1956 - My Fair Lady, often thought to be unwritable, premieres
• 1967 - Hair: The American Tribal-Love Rock Musical premieres, a symbol of the end of the Golden Age