Not long ago there was an essay in the Wall Street Journal, by drama critic Terry Teachout, about the inevitable decline of the American musical. I had some Thoughts.
The WSJ is notoriously conservative in its opinions. Pretty much every time I’ve read something about culture in the WSJ, it’s very nostalgic and ‘oh how much better things were in the old days.’ This particular piece was very much in that vein.
Now, there is nothing wrong with nostalgia. But it’s the kind of filter that can make a person simply refuse to appreciate the New.
The essay in question doesn’t address that; it’s centered on musicals as produced in American high schools. The titles most-produced are increasingly shows based on popular books or movies, not productions originally written for the stage, unless it’s a ‘jukebox’ musical like Mamma Mia.
My feeling is that if you are trying to introduce young people to a complex art form, it is a good idea to do so via material with which they are already familiar. And which is not so jarringly out-of-time that they can’t relate to it.
Teachout refers to a monthly magazine for theater students and teachers called Dramatics. (I think I’d love to read that regularly.) Dramatics states that nearly 50 million people go to see high-school musical productions each year. For a lot of those people, it may be the first time they see a musical on stage; it may also be the last. My sister and I were in a production of ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ (not on the Dramatics list for 2019-2020!) when we were teenagers; I don’t suppose many people in those audiences ever went to see a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta again. And ‘Pirates’ is funny.
Musicals that are not funny; or that don’t have a dozen very singable, kicky songs; or that deal with subject matter that is unpleasant or controversial: today’s schools are well-advised to avoid. No high school needs controversy.
Does Teachout think Hamilton - with its mind-blowing popular success - is not the artistic equivalent of, say, Show Boat? More appositely: which is more appropriately staged by high-school students?
A quote from the essay: “it would seem that the great musicals of the past - the classic shows from ‘Oklahoma!’ to ‘Fiddler [on the Roof]’ that defined the genre - are unknown to the rising generation of Americans. If so, then it’s surely only a matter of time before they will cease to be revived.”
Here’s the thing, though. A lot of those classic shows either deal with controversial subject matter, or their themes are so dark and discouraging that frankly I think high-school theater organizers are right to avoid them. Show Boat is about racism. Oklahoma! is about cowboys who can’t keep their hands to themselves (not to mention: I am a Hugh Jackman fan, but I ran away from the film of his production on Broadway HD because it was so corny I couldn’t stand it. And I am 55, not 15). Carousel is about a girl who falls in love with an abusive guy who gets killed because of his own bad decisions, leaving her as a single mother to be chastised for the rest of her life by the judgmental community she does not have the resources to get away from. The King & I is, again, about racism - plus slavery, plus punishing love with death. South Pacific: more racism, plus abuse of women by the American armed forces.
I’m not saying racism is a theme to be avoided with high-schoolers, but maybe don’t engage with it via material that is frankly dated and not very much fun. Can those shows be produced in a way that is age-appropriate, a bit more fleet-footed, and funnier? Absolutely.
Does a high-school drama department have the resources to re-write a classic American musical? Probably not.
Some of the shows Teachout wishes were still in rotation include Bye Bye Birdie; The Music Man, which is great fun as a film (Robert Preston 4-EVA); and Guys and Dolls, which is an all-time favorite of mine.
I’ve only ever seen a TV adaptation of Bye Bye Birdie, which was partially redeemed by Vanessa Williams in an excellent performance. The plot was kind of hair-raising; the songs are not nearly as good as those in ‘Grease;’ and it’s loaded with problematic characterizations. The Music Man: huge cast, high budget, difficult songs (with two exceptions), historical setting to which many modern students cannot be expected to relate. Guys and Dolls: the story is about gamblers who have a bet on whether one of them can bag a certain young lady; meanwhile, one has been dating a burlesque dancer for years, promising to marry her and never delivering. It’s actually (much as I love it) a snapshot of toxic masculinity. “Marry the man today and change his ways tomorrow:” this is not good messaging for teenagers.
As noted above, a stage musical is a complex art form. If you want to engage young people with such a thing, you have to give them a big, unobstructed doorway to it. If teenagers have fun putting on a show, they are highly likely to want to do it again. Or to go out looking for other shows to enjoy as spectators. With the existence of Broadway HD and Marquee and other streaming services, a lot more kids have access to American theater now than ever before. How many will see Hamilton on Disney+ and go looking for more like it?
In ‘the good old days,’ very few people had access to staged entertainment. Now a whole lot of people do. One accessible, familiar production on a high-school stage can be a gateway to decades of engagement with the art form. If that production is based on a campy old TV show (The Addams Family), so what?
I, personally, believe that someone who has a great time doing ‘The Addams Family’ may well discover ‘The Music Man.’ How is that a bad outcome for the American musical?
p.s. I was in a production of ‘Carousel’ in college, and I had a great time, but mostly because my boyfriend was in it too and I got to take home one of the plywood carousel horses after we wrapped. The storyline gives me a rage.