Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue , acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos , love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals .
162-616: Craig Lucas (born April 30, 1951) is an American playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, musical actor, and film director. Born on April 30, 1951, he was found abandoned in a car in Atlanta, Georgia. Lucas was adopted when he was eight months old by a conservative Pennsylvania couple. His father was an FBI agent; his mother was a painter. She was born Jewish but suppressed the identity, which Lucas relates in his storytelling. He graduated in 1969 from Conestoga High School in Berwyn, Pennsylvania. In
324-526: A garden gnome . Years pass, and Amélie becomes bored with her quiet life and distant father, and she decides to leave home. Five years later, she is a waitress at a café in Montmartre ("Times Are Hard for Dreamers"). She has a quiet, happy life, and spends her time with her three co-workers: Suzanne, the café's owner and a past circus performer, Georgette, a hypochondriac , and Gina. Some of Amélie's regular customers include Gina's ex-boyfriend Joseph, Hipolito,
486-413: A Kiss . They also collaborated for the feature film Longtime Companion (1990), the 1992 film adaptation of Prelude to a Kiss with Alec Baldwin and Meg Ryan , and the 1995 film version of Reckless with Mia Farrow and Mary-Louise Parker . Following his early work on romantic comedies, Lucas began to write more serious works about AIDS, including The Singing Forest (not to be confused with
648-557: A Little Christmas", "I Am What I Am", "Mame", "The Best of Times", "Before the Parade Passes By", "Put On Your Sunday Clothes", "It Only Takes a Moment", "Bosom Buddies" and "I Won't Send Roses", recorded by such artists as Louis Armstrong , Eydie Gormé , Barbra Streisand , Petula Clark and Bernadette Peters. Herman's songbook has been the subject of two popular musical revues, Jerry's Girls (Broadway, 1985) and Showtune (off-Broadway, 2003). The musical started to diverge from
810-412: A UK tour. Directed by Michael Fentiman , the production is noted for using the actor-muso approach, where the actors themselves provides the musical accompaniment. Fentiman and his creative team worked with original collaborators Messé, Tysen, and Lucas to amend the show, making changes such as splitting it into two acts separated by an intermission, the reinstitution of songs from out-of-town tryouts, and
972-493: A bone. He invites her into his apartment, where he spends all of his time painting copies of Renoir's " Luncheon of the Boating Party ". He is never able to capture the expression on the face of one of the figures, a lonely woman ("The Girl With The Glass") whose situation Amélie projects herself onto. Dufayel corrects Amélie's incorrect information; the former tenant is actually named Bretodeau, not Bredoteau. Dominique Bretodeau
1134-579: A book musical are its music , lyrics and book . The book or script of a musical refers to the story, character development and dramatic structure, including the spoken dialogue and stage directions, but it can also refer to the dialogue and lyrics together, which are sometimes referred to as the libretto (Italian for "small book"). The music and lyrics together form the score of a musical and include songs, incidental music and musical scenes, which are "theatrical sequence[s] set to music, often combining song with spoken dialogue." The interpretation of
1296-455: A career-ending injury. Amélie observes them all without ever making a deep connection or revealing anything about herself. Every night Amélie goes home alone, following the same routine ("The Commute Home"), spying on her neighbors with a small telescope and watching TV. At the same time, another Parisian loner, Nino Quincampoix, goes from metro station to metro station collecting the torn halves of photographs discarded at photobooths. He sings of
1458-510: A completely new genre – the musical play as distinguished from musical comedy. Now ... everything else was subservient to that play. Now ... came complete integration of song, humor and production numbers into a single and inextricable artistic entity." As the Great Depression set in during the post-Broadway national tour of Show Boat , the public turned back to mostly light, escapist song-and-dance entertainment. Audiences on both sides of
1620-420: A convent. Amélie gets an idea. Disguised as a nun, Amélie visits the sex shop where Nino works. While a coworker goes to find him in another room, Amélie tries to sort out what she wants from this stranger ("Sister's Pickle"). At the last minute, she flees, terrified to connect with this man who intrigues her; she keeps the album. Based on how his coworker describes her, Nino realizes that the woman with his album
1782-414: A cranky grocer, Colignon, who constantly abuses his assistant, Lucien, a mentally-ill young man that has an obsession with fruit ("Three Figs"). Colignon tells Amélie to confer with his mother on the other side of town. At the train station, Amélie spots a man her age, Nino, who she is attracted to. However, the train arrives before she can introduce herself to him. At Colignon's mother's home, Amélie learns
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#17330854797201944-489: A cryptic message. Focusing back on her anonymous good deeds, she then composes a letter to Gina in the voice of Gina's deceased husband and posts it with a cover letter from the postal service, claiming to have unearthed the letter from a crash in the Andes. In it, Gina's ex-husband declares his undying love and confesses to having made a mistake running away with his secretary ("Window Seat"). With this letter, Gina gains closure and
2106-408: A different metro station and he takes note of the mysterious box she holds, but runs off in pursuit of someone he thinks he recognizes. Travelling from one end of Paris to another in pursuit of Dominique Bredoteau, Amélie has no luck. On the second-floor landing to her apartment, she meets a neighbor, Julien Dufayel, who suffers from a rare bone disease causing him to avoid contact for fear of breaking
2268-511: A few exceptions, compared with London runs, until the 1920s. Gilbert and Sullivan were widely pirated and also were imitated in New York by productions such as Reginald De Koven 's Robin Hood (1891) and John Philip Sousa 's El Capitan (1896). A Trip to Coontown (1898) was the first musical comedy entirely produced and performed by African Americans on Broadway (largely inspired by the routines of
2430-402: A few players . Rock musicals usually employ a small group of mostly rock instruments, and some musicals may call for only a piano or two instruments. The music in musicals uses a range of "styles and influences including operetta , classical techniques, folk music , jazz [and] local or historical styles [that] are appropriate to the setting." Musicals may begin with an overture played by
2592-476: A film starring Matthew Perry and Hilary Swank , in 2007. Lucas's play Prayer for My Enemy premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in December 2008. The production was directed by Lucas's frequent collaborator Bartlett Sher and featured Victoria Clark , Michele Pawk and Jonathan Groff . The play ran from November 14 (previews) through December 21. In June 2013, Melbourne 's Regent Theatre hosted
2754-641: A five-minute song than are spoken in a five-minute block of dialogue. Therefore, there is less time to develop drama in a musical than in a straight play of equivalent length, since a musical usually devotes more time to music than to dialogue. Within the compressed nature of a musical, the writers must develop the characters and the plot. The material presented in a musical may be original, or it may be adapted from novels ( Wicked and Man of La Mancha ), plays ( Hello, Dolly! and Carousel ), classic legends ( Camelot ), historical events ( Evita and Hamilton ) or films ( The Producers and Billy Elliot ). On
2916-444: A heart defect, leading the parents to homeschool her away from the outside world ("World's Best Papa"). They give her a goldfish, Fluffy, to keep as a friend. One day during a geometry lesson, Amélie gets distracted by Fluffy, causing Amandine to scold her ("World's Best Friend"). Amandine's irritating neuroticism causes Fluffy to become suicidal, leading him to jump out of his bowl; when chaos ensues as Raphael and Amandine attempt to get
3078-506: A limited engagement on May 18 to June 3, 2018. The musical then opened for a limited engagement at Morinomiya Piloti Hall , Osaka , on June 7 to June 10. Direction was by Akiko Kodama with choreography by Kuroda Eriko and Nishikawa Taku. The production used a new staging by Yagi Emiko and was translated into Japanese by Shigai Tsu. The cast for the Japanese production included Watanabe Mayu as Amélie and Atsuhi Ota as Nino. The musical, under
3240-512: A love relationship sanctioned and restricted by Protestant ideals of marriage; that a married couple should make a moral home with children away from the city in a suburb or small town; that the woman's function was as homemaker and mother; and that Americans incorporate an independent and pioneering spirit or that their success is self-made. The 1950s were crucial to the development of the American musical. Damon Runyon 's eclectic characters were at
3402-508: A man who appears over and over again, expressionless. Nino appears and explains the meaning of the photos to the company ("When the Booth Goes Bright"). Amélie watches him from the distance, and Dufayel, seeing her attraction to him, encourages her to give the album back and meet Nino. Amélie seeks out his place of work, a sex shop, and goes dressed as a nun. While she waits for Nino, the other employees mock him, unknowingly painting him as
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#17330854797203564-502: A musical adaptation of Oscar Wilde 's 1895 hit The Importance of Being Earnest . West Side Story (1957) transported Romeo and Juliet to modern day New York City and converted the feuding Montague and Capulet families into opposing ethnic gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. The book was adapted by Arthur Laurents , with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by newcomer Stephen Sondheim . It
3726-416: A musical generally became more expensive. Shuffle Along (1921), an all-African American show, was a hit on Broadway. A new generation of composers of operettas also emerged in the 1920s, such as Rudolf Friml and Sigmund Romberg , to create a series of popular Broadway hits. In London, writer-stars such as Ivor Novello and Noël Coward became popular, but the primacy of British musical theatre from
3888-497: A musical is the responsibility of its creative team, which includes a director, a musical director, usually a choreographer and sometimes an orchestrator . A musical's production is also creatively characterized by technical aspects, such as set design , costumes , stage properties (props) , lighting and sound . The creative team, designs and interpretations generally change from the original production to succeeding productions. Some production elements, however, may be retained from
4050-462: A musical style more aptly suited to twentieth-century society and its vernacular idiom. It was from America that the more direct style emerged, and in America that it was able to flourish in a developing society less hidebound by nineteenth-century tradition." In France, comédie musicale was written between in the early decades of the century for such stars as Yvonne Printemps . Progressing far beyond
4212-535: A new Broadway record. In Britain, Me and My Girl ran for 1,646 performances. Still, a few creative teams began to build on Show Boat ' s innovations. Of Thee I Sing (1931), a political satire by the Gershwins, was the first musical awarded the Pulitzer Prize . As Thousands Cheer (1933), a revue by Irving Berlin and Moss Hart in which each song or sketch was based on a newspaper headline, marked
4374-460: A number of blockbusters, like Fiddler on the Roof (1964; 3,242 performances), Hello, Dolly! (1964; 2,844 performances), Funny Girl (1964; 1,348 performances) and Man of La Mancha (1965; 2,328 performances), and some more risqué pieces like Cabaret , before ending with the emergence of the rock musical . In Britain, Oliver! (1960) ran for 2,618 performances, but the long-run champion of
4536-416: A perfect match for Amélie. However, when he arrives, Amélie runs away ("Sister's Pickle"). He chases her but she escapes and reflects on her childhood, remembering how her mother told her never to get too close to anyone ("Halfway"). Amélie then calls Nino, but refuses to give him her identity, instead sending him a photo of her in another disguise and a riddle to solve. At the café, Amélie secretly instigates
4698-416: A poet, and Philomene, an air hostess. ("The Commute") On the night of Princess Diana 's death, Amélie discovers a box of childhood treasures belonging to the man who used to own her apartment ("The Bottle Drops"). She is determined to find the owner and anonymously deliver the box to him, and if the owner is touched by her gesture, she resolves that she will become an anonymous do-gooder. She first meets with
4860-405: A portrait of Amélie. He urges her to open the door for Nino or she'll never find love. She obeys. Very gingerly, Nino and Amélie approach one another and kiss ("Halfway–Reprise"). Saying she has a surprise, Amélie takes Nino to a photobooth that is out of order. A repairman shows up and it is the man in all of the photos, test runs to check that the booth works properly; Nino thanks Amélie for solving
5022-529: A quote from one of Hipolito's poems on walls around Paris—Amélie notices the flyers and runs home, sending Nino another photo and instructions to meet her at the Montmartre Carousel. Amélie constructs an elaborate trail to lead Nino to the album ("Blue Arrow Suite") and watches him follow it. When he finds the album, she calls out to him, asking about the man in the photo-booth. However, Nino is more interested in seeing her face, and she agrees to meet him at
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5184-517: A river ... with lots of obstacles and mishaps along the way". As transportation improved, poverty in London and New York diminished, and street lighting made for safer travel at night, the number of patrons for the growing number of theatres increased enormously. Plays ran longer, leading to better profits and improved production values, and men began to bring their families to the theatre. The first musical theatre piece to exceed 500 consecutive performances
5346-490: A romantic encounter between Joseph and Georgette. She also writes a letter in the voice of Gina's ex-husband, telling Gina that he greatly regrets eloping with his secretary; this final letter gives her the closure she needed to move on from mourning ("Window Seat"). Her father then turns up, telling Amélie about the missing gnome and how he has been getting anonymous postcards detailing the gnome's travels ("There's No Place Like Gnome"). The travels encouraged Raphael to step out of
5508-547: A run of 931 performances. Gilbert and Sullivan's influence on later musical theatre was profound, creating examples of how to "integrate" musicals so that the lyrics and dialogue advanced a coherent story. Their works were admired and copied by early authors and composers of musicals in Britain and America. A Trip to Chinatown (1891) was Broadway's long-run champion (until Irene in 1919), running for 657 performances, but New York runs continued to be relatively short, with
5670-540: A series of 2.5D musicals based on popular anime and manga comics has developed in recent decades. Shorter or simplified "junior" versions of many musicals are available for schools and youth groups, and very short works created or adapted for performance by children are sometimes called minimusicals . The antecedents of musical theatre in Europe can be traced back to the theatre of ancient Greece , where music and dance were included in stage comedies and tragedies during
5832-540: A series of successful Broadway shows, including On Your Toes (1936, with Ray Bolger , the first Broadway musical to make dramatic use of classical dance), Babes in Arms (1937) and The Boys from Syracuse (1938). Porter added Du Barry Was a Lady (1939). The longest-running piece of musical theatre of the 1930s in the US was Hellzapoppin (1938), a revue with audience participation, which played for 1,404 performances, setting
5994-616: A shrine for his wife's ashes, including a garden gnome that reminds him of her ("Post Mortem"). When she turns seventeen, young Amélie leaves home. Five years after that, Amélie is a waitress at the Two Windmills Café in Montmartre ("The Sound of Going Round in Circles"). The staff and customers are all caught in a routine of dissatisfaction: Hipolito, an unpublished novelist; Georgette, a lonely tobacconist who suffers from hypochondria ; Gina,
6156-576: A sign, Amélie continues her good-doing, taking a blind beggar on a tour of the streets of Paris, describing his surroundings in detail. ("Tour de France"). Later that night, Amélie has a strange dream where she imagines her lavish funeral in the style of Princess Diana's, where she is serenaded by Elton John and dubbed 'Godmother of the Unloved' – someone who gives herself to help others despite not being able to find her own love ("Goodbye Amélie"). Amélie suddenly realizes she hasn't helped her father and visits him
6318-757: A story-telling device in On Your Toes in 1936, which was followed by Agnes de Mille 's ballet and choreography in Oklahoma! . After Abbott collaborated with Jerome Robbins in On the Town and other shows, Robbins combined the roles of director and choreographer, emphasizing the story-telling power of dance in West Side Story , A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) and Fiddler on
6480-444: A trip like he's always wanted to or visit her but he dismisses the idea, saying that he's better off in his backyard taking care of the gnome ("Backyard"). When he leaves, she steals the gnome and gives it to Philomene at a metro station where Amélie once again sees Nino. Late for his train, he leaves behind a photo album; she finds it and takes it to Dufayel. The two peruse the pages—so many faces of people who tore their photos in two,
6642-525: A unique picture: a portrait of her. As she goes inside, Nino shows up outside her door and begs a conflicted Amélie to let him inside and stop running from him ("Stay"). She is convinced to let Nino inside when Dufayel, through the apartment's window, shows Amélie his painting and insists that she'll regret not trying a relationship with Nino. She opens the door and tells Nino she wants to be with him. He tells her he loves her, even if she cannot love him back ("Halfway (Reprise)"). They kiss and Amélie takes him to
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6804-449: A waitress who obsessively rereads love letters from her late husband who abandoned her for his secretary (the two flying off to South America only to be killed in a plane crash); Joseph, a plumber who is stalking Gina after one failed date a year earlier; Philomene, an airline stewardess who leaves her cat with Amélie while she's away; and Suzanne, the proprietress who previously worked as a trapeze artist until her partner dropped her, causing
6966-504: A world-famous do-gooder who also dies too young. Inside Westminster Abbey , Elton John sings a song in praise of the newly martyred Amélie ("Goodbye, Amélie"). Amélie and Nino are sitting on a train; they sing of their love for each other, but do not know the other one is but a few feet away ("Half Asleep"). At a stop, Nino stands up to leave; Amélie spots him and hides. Amélie visits her father; his shrine to Amandine has grown in size, obsessively tended to. She tries to get Raphael to go on
7128-591: Is based on its first preview. Changes to the plot were implemented in 2019 with the development of the UK production; the revisions are now what is licensed via Concord Theatricals and are therefore described here. The musical opens with an introduction of young Amélie and her family ("Times Are Hard For Dreamers (Prologue)"). Young Amélie is born to germaphobe father, Raphael, and to neurotic mother, Amandine, and she feels isolated and emotionally distant from her parents. She takes solace in her telescope, which she uses to view
7290-571: Is by Jussi Vahvaselkä. Amelie is played by Marketta Tikkanen, and Nino by Mikael Saari. The musical was scheduled to have its Australian premiere at Darlinghurst Theatre in Sydney, New South Wales. It was originally to preview from the 2nd of July and open on the 10th. The production was postponed due to the Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the performing arts and, to date, has not been revived. The director of
7452-411: Is deeply flawed. Joseph and Georgette emerge from the loo, disheveled. Amélie travels around Paris, spray-painting quotes from Hipolito's unpublished works and reflecting on her journey thus far ("Times Are Hard For Dreamers"). Later that night, Hipolito sees a quote from his unpublished work and swells with pride ("Writing On The Wall"). As she watches from a distance, Amélie finds one of Nino's flyers and
7614-509: Is finally able to move on. Through Amélie, Georgette and Joseph find themselves alone in the loo and begin to fall in love. At the same time, Nino is plastering Paris with leaflets of Amélie's face in the Zorro mask with the header "Have you seen this woman?". Knowing exactly the game she's playing, he wonders out loud how he's falling for someone who doesn't want to be found ("Thin Air"). Raphael shows up at
7776-451: Is frequently longer than the second. The first act generally introduces nearly all of the characters and most of the music and often ends with the introduction of a dramatic conflict or plot complication while the second act may introduce a few new songs but usually contains reprises of important musical themes and resolves the conflict or complication. A book musical is usually built around four to six main theme tunes that are reprised later in
7938-646: Is no longer in the bathroom. Back home, Dufayel asks about Nino; Amélie snaps at him, telling him to mind his own business and to paint his own painting rather than obsessively copy Renoir's. In response, he tells her to "live [her] own life instead of the lives of others." Alone, she promises to leave Paris to live in further isolation. Nino shows up at her door and though she doesn't want him to leave, she doesn't want to let him in either. He begs her to stop suppressing her feelings and to let him inside ("Stay"). Dufayel calls, telling her to look out of her window; he shows her that he had finally painted an original work of art:
8100-477: Is often difficult to distinguish among the various kinds of musical theatre, including "musical play", "musical comedy", "operetta" and "light opera". Like opera, the singing in musical theatre is generally accompanied by an instrumental ensemble called a pit orchestra , located in a lowered area in front of the stage. While opera typically uses a conventional symphony orchestra , musicals are generally orchestrated for ensembles ranging from 27 players down to only
8262-467: Is on his way home when a payphone rings. He answers and Amélie, disguising her voice from the nearby Two Windmills Café, instructs him to look down. He does, seeing his own childhood treasure and feeling a flood of memories ("How To Tell Time"). He stumbles into the café and tries to tell the denizens about his miracle; on an impulse, he calls his ex-wife and begs for a chance to see her and their son again. She agrees. Before leaving, Bretodeau kisses Amélie on
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#17330854797208424-440: Is outraged. She sends Nino another message to meet her at 5 pm at the Montmartre Carousel with another riddle. When Nino shows up, he is met with a series of blue arrows guiding him upwards to a telescope on the top of the hill ("Blue Arrow Suite"). Through the telescope, he sees Amélie returning his album to the basket on his bicycle; by the time he races back down, she is gone. A payphone rings. He answers and Amélie tells him that
8586-464: Is primarily a singer and only secondarily an actor (and rarely needs to dance), a musical theatre performer is often an actor first but must also be a singer and dancer. Someone who is equally accomplished at all three is referred to as a "triple threat". Composers of music for musicals often consider the vocal demands of roles with musical theatre performers in mind. Today, large theatres that stage musicals generally use microphones and amplification of
8748-413: Is the same woman from the metro that he is in love with. Dufayel asks Amélie why she didn't speak to Nino; dismissing him, she thinks back to a geometry lesson her mother taught her as a child, a metaphor for how true connection with others is impossible ("Halfway"). She is determined to find some way to break out of her isolation. She sends a letter to Nino with a photograph of herself dressed as Zorro and
8910-632: The Roaring Twenties , borrowing from vaudeville, music hall and other light entertainments, tended to emphasize big dance routines and popular songs at the expense of plot. Typical of the decade were lighthearted productions like Sally ; Lady, Be Good ; No, No, Nanette ; Oh, Kay! ; and Funny Face . Despite forgettable stories, these musicals featured stars such as Marilyn Miller and Fred Astaire and produced dozens of enduring popular songs by Kern, George and Ira Gershwin , Irving Berlin , Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hart . Popular music
9072-465: The Seine , leaving her alone. Feeling bad, Amandine takes Amélie to Notre Dame to make up for what happened, and Amandine prays for guidance on how to deal with Amélie and hopes for a son ("World's Best Mom"). When they leave the cathedral, Amandine is crushed and killed by a suicidal tourist who leapt from the top of it. The death hits Raphael hard, and he builds a shrine in their home to Amandine, complete with
9234-487: The Tudor period that involved music, dancing, singing and acting, often with expensive costumes and a complex stage design . These developed into sung plays that are recognizable as English operas, the first usually being thought of as The Siege of Rhodes (1656). In France, meanwhile, Molière turned several of his farcical comedies into musical entertainments with songs (music provided by Jean-Baptiste Lully ) and dance in
9396-709: The Walter Kerr Theatre , before opening April 3, 2017. It closed after 83 performances on May 21, 2017. A substantially transformed production, with new orchestrations, an expanded repertoire of songs, and new staging in the actor/muso style, opened on the West End in December 2019, at the Other Palace . Critics praised its improvements on the Broadway version, with The Guardian describing it as "a triumph of adaptation" "high on imagination", while The Daily Telegraph lauded
9558-629: The West End for a limited run at the Criterion Theatre , with its first performance on the 20th May 2021. The majority of the original London cast reprised their respective roles, including Brisson and Jared as Amélie and Nino respectively. The musical will have its premiere in Finland in Turku City Theatre on 13 September 2019. Director and choreographer of the show is Reija Wäre, musical staging
9720-547: The minstrel shows ), followed by ragtime -tinged shows. Hundreds of musical comedies were staged on Broadway in the 1890s and early 20th century, composed of songs written in New York's Tin Pan Alley , including those by George M. Cohan , who worked to create an American style distinct from the Gilbert and Sullivan works. The most successful New York shows were often followed by extensive national tours. Meanwhile, musicals took over
9882-399: The revues and other frothy entertainments of the early 20th century and led to such groundbreaking works as Show Boat (1927), Of Thee I Sing (1931) and Oklahoma! (1943). Some of the most famous musicals through the decades that followed include My Fair Lady (1956), The Fantasticks (1960), Hair (1967), A Chorus Line (1975), Les Misérables (1985), The Phantom of
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#173308547972010044-536: The "Golden Age" of American musical theatre. Americana was displayed on Broadway during the "Golden Age", as the wartime cycle of shows began to arrive. An example of this is On the Town (1944), written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green , composed by Leonard Bernstein and choreographed by Jerome Robbins . The story is set during wartime and concerns three sailors who are on a 24-hour shore leave in New York City, during which each falls in love. The show also gives
10206-399: The "wonderful, wistful evening" it made. It was nominated for three awards at the 2020 Laurence Olivier Awards : Best New Musical , Best Original Score or New Orchestrations, and Best Actress in a Musical (for Audrey Brisson as Amélie). Daniel Messé (of Hem ) wrote the lyrics with Nathan Tysen , Craig Lucas wrote the book, and Messé wrote the music in the adaptation of the movie for
10368-618: The 1850s to the 1870s and Johann Strauss II in the 1870s and 1880s. Offenbach's fertile melodies, combined with his librettists' witty satire, formed a model for the musical theatre that followed. Adaptations of the French operettas (played in mostly bad, risqué translations), musical burlesques , music hall, pantomime and burletta dominated the London musical stage into the 1870s. In America, mid-19th century musical theatre entertainments included crude variety revue , which eventually developed into vaudeville , minstrel shows , which soon crossed
10530-504: The 1910s, the team of P. G. Wodehouse , Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern , following in the footsteps of Gilbert and Sullivan , created the " Princess Theatre shows" and paved the way for Kern's later work by showing that a musical could combine light, popular entertainment with continuity between its story and songs. Historian Gerald Bordman wrote: These shows built and polished the mold from which almost all later major musical comedies evolved. ... The characters and situations were, within
10692-503: The 1960s and 1970s, Lucas became interested in the political left and discovered an attraction toward men. He is openly gay, and recalls that his coming out made it possible for him to develop as a playwright and as a person. In 1973, Lucas left Boston University with a Bachelor of Arts in theatre and creative writing. His mentor Anne Sexton urged him to move to New York City to become a playwright. He worked in many day jobs while performing in Broadway musicals including Shenandoah , On
10854-491: The 19th century through 1920 was gradually replaced by American innovation, especially after World War I, as Kern and other Tin Pan Alley composers began to bring new musical styles such as ragtime and jazz to the theatres, and the Shubert Brothers took control of the Broadway theatres. Musical theatre writer Andrew Lamb notes, "The operatic and theatrical styles of nineteenth-century social structures were replaced by
11016-412: The 19th century, such as music hall , melodrama and burletta , which were popularized partly because most London theatres were licensed only as music halls and not allowed to present plays without music. Colonial America did not have a significant theatre presence until 1752, when London entrepreneur William Hallam sent a company of actors to the colonies managed by his brother Lewis . In New York in
11178-519: The 19th century, with many structural elements established by the light opera works of Jacques Offenbach in France, Gilbert and Sullivan in Britain and the works of Harrigan and Hart in America. These were followed by Edwardian musical comedies , which emerged in Britain, and the musical theatre works of American creators like George M. Cohan at the turn of the 20th century. The Princess Theatre musicals (1915–1918) were artistic steps forward beyond
11340-810: The 5th century BCE. The music from the ancient forms is lost, however, and they had little influence on later development of musical theatre. In the 12th and 13th centuries, religious dramas taught the liturgy . Groups of actors would use outdoor Pageant wagons (stages on wheels) to tell each part of the story. Poetic forms sometimes alternated with the prose dialogues, and liturgical chants gave way to new melodies. The European Renaissance saw older forms evolve into two antecedents of musical theatre: commedia dell'arte , where raucous clowns improvised familiar stories, and later, opera buffa . In England, Elizabethan and Jacobean plays frequently included music, and short musical plays began to be included in an evenings' dramatic entertainments. Court masques developed during
11502-613: The Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles. It transferred to Broadway, starting previews on March 9, 2017 and closing on May 21, 2017, after 27 previews and 56 regular performances. In 2001 Lucas received an Obie Award for his direction of Harry Kondoleon 's Saved or Destroyed at the Rattlestick Theater. He won the 2003 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay for The Secret Lives of Dentists . His Small Tragedy
11664-545: The Angry Inch and other shows in recent decades. Parade is a sensitive exploration of both anti-Semitism and historical American racism, and Ragtime similarly explores the experience of immigrants and minorities in America. After the success of Hair , rock musicals flourished in the 1970s, with Jesus Christ Superstar , Godspell , The Rocky Horror Show , Evita and Two Gentlemen of Verona . Some of those began as " concept albums " which were then adapted to
11826-712: The Arts , and the Pew Charitable Trusts . He has received the Tony Award nomination for the books of: An American in Paris (2015), Light in the Piazza (2005), Prelude to a Kiss, and Paradise Square (2022). He was nominated for the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Prelude to a Kiss . Musical theater Although music has been a part of dramatic presentations since ancient times, modern Western musical theatre emerged during
11988-666: The Atlantic had little money to spend on entertainment, and only a few stage shows anywhere exceeded a run of 500 performances during the decade. The revue The Band Wagon (1931) starred dancing partners Fred Astaire and his sister Adele , while Porter's Anything Goes (1934) confirmed Ethel Merman 's position as the First Lady of musical theatre, a title she maintained for many years. Coward and Novello continued to deliver old fashioned, sentimental musicals, such as The Dancing Years , while Rodgers and Hart returned from Hollywood to create
12150-425: The Atlantic to Britain, and Victorian burlesque, first popularized in the US by British troupes. A hugely successful musical entertainment that premiered in New York in 1866, The Black Crook , combined dance and some original music that helped to tell the story. The spectacular production, famous for its skimpy costumes, ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and
12312-738: The English-speaking stage by competition from the ubiquitous Edwardian musical comedies, operettas returned to London and Broadway in 1907 with The Merry Widow , and adaptations of continental operettas became direct competitors with musicals. Franz Lehár and Oscar Straus composed new operettas that were popular in English until World War I. In America, Victor Herbert produced a string of enduring operettas including The Fortune Teller (1898), Babes in Toyland (1903), Mlle. Modiste (1905), The Red Mill (1906) and Naughty Marietta (1910). In
12474-574: The Golden Age, automotive companies and other large corporations began to hire Broadway talent to write corporate musicals , private shows only seen by their employees or customers. The 1950s ended with Rodgers and Hammerstein 's last hit, The Sound of Music , which also became another hit for Mary Martin. It ran for 1,443 performances and shared the Tony Award for Best Musical. Together with its extremely successful 1965 film version , it has become one of
12636-569: The London stage in the Gay Nineties , led by producer George Edwardes , who perceived that audiences wanted a new alternative to the Savoy -style comic operas and their intellectual, political, absurdist satire. He experimented with a modern-dress, family-friendly musical theatre style, with breezy, popular songs, snappy, romantic banter, and stylish spectacle at the Gaiety and his other theatres. These drew on
12798-551: The Mountains (1,352 performances) and especially Chu Chin Chow . Its run of 2,238 performances was more than twice as long as any previous musical, setting a record that stood for nearly forty years. Even a revival of The Beggar's Opera held the stage for 1,463 performances. Revues like The Bing Boys Are Here in Britain, and those of Florenz Ziegfeld and his imitators in America, were also extraordinarily popular. The musicals of
12960-608: The Opera (1986), Rent (1996), Wicked (2003) and Hamilton (2015). Musicals are performed around the world. They may be presented in large venues, such as big-budget Broadway or West End productions in New York City or London. Alternatively, musicals may be staged in smaller venues, such as off-Broadway , off-off-Broadway , regional theatre , fringe theatre , or community theatre productions, or on tour . Musicals are often presented by amateur and school groups in churches, schools and other performance spaces. In addition to
13122-647: The Post was the first show to call itself a "musical comedy." In 1874, Evangeline or The Belle of Arcadia , by Edward E. Rice and J. Cheever Goodwin , based loosely on Longfellow’s Evangeline , with an original American story and music, opened successfully in New York and was revived in Boston, New York, and in repeated tours. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 ( The Mulligan Guard Picnic ) and 1885. These musical comedies featured characters and situations taken from
13284-575: The Roof (1964). Bob Fosse choreographed for Abbott in The Pajama Game (1956) and Damn Yankees (1957), injecting playful sexuality into those hits. He was later the director-choreographer for Sweet Charity (1968), Pippin (1972) and Chicago (1975). Other notable director-choreographers have included Gower Champion , Tommy Tune , Michael Bennett , Gillian Lynne and Susan Stroman . Prominent directors have included Hal Prince , who also got his start with Abbott, and Trevor Nunn . During
13446-459: The Shrew for Kiss Me, Kate (1948, 1,077 performances). The American musicals overwhelmed the old-fashioned British Coward/Novello-style shows, one of the last big successes of which was Novello's Perchance to Dream (1945, 1,021 performances). The formula for the Golden Age musicals reflected one or more of four widely held perceptions of the "American dream": That stability and worth derives from
13608-491: The Times Square area until the 1920s and 1930s. New York runs lagged far behind those in London, but Laura Keene 's "musical burletta" Seven Sisters (1860) shattered previous New York musical theatre record, with a run of 253 performances. Around 1850, the French composer Hervé was experimenting with a form of comic musical theatre he called opérette . The best known composers of operetta were Jacques Offenbach from
13770-709: The Twentieth Century , Rex , and Sweeney Todd . Stephen Sondheim later told him he was a better writer than actor. Lucas met Norman René in 1979. Their first collaboration was Marry Me a Little in 1981. The two wrote a script incorporating songs that had been written for but discarded from Stephen Sondheim musicals, and René also directed. They followed this with the plays Missing Persons (1981) and Blue Window (1984); Three Postcards (1987), an original musical by Lucas and Craig Carnelia ; and another play, Reckless (1983). In 1990, they had their biggest commercial and critical success with Prelude to
13932-470: The United States and Britain, there are vibrant musical theatre scenes in continental Europe, Asia, Australasia, Canada and Latin America. Since the 20th century, the "book musical" has been defined as a musical play where songs and dances are fully integrated into a well-made story with serious dramatic goals and which is able to evoke genuine emotions other than laughter. The three main components of
14094-430: The West End in the 21st century have been presented in one act. Moments of greatest dramatic intensity in a book musical are often performed in song. Proverbially, "when the emotion becomes too strong for speech, you sing; when it becomes too strong for song, you dance." In a book musical, a song is ideally crafted to suit the character (or characters) and their situation within the story; although there have been times in
14256-507: The actors' singing voices in a way that would generally be disapproved of in an operatic context. Some works, including those by George Gershwin , Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim , have been made into both musical theatre and operatic productions. Similarly, some older operettas or light operas (such as The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan ) have been produced in modern adaptations that treat them as musicals. For some works, production styles are almost as important as
14418-422: The apartment before they did. At a metro station, Amélie and Nino bump into each other and briefly interact as Nino retrieves a photostrip from the bottom of her shoe, puzzling her; their hearts beat loudly for each other, but Amélie is late for her train. Collignon's parents tell Amélie that the person who lived in the apartment before them was named Dominique Bredoteau. Returning home, Amélie meets Nino once more at
14580-527: The bathroom. Frustrated, tired, and hurt, Nino leaves, and Gina chases after him. Amélie comes out from hiding and Joseph convinces her that Nino left with Gina; she runs out, heartbroken, and Georgette breaks up with Joseph. Gina returns with Nino who thinks Amélie is still in the bathroom. The ladies interrogate him to make sure he is a suitable suitor for Amélie ("A Better Haircut"). After admitting his love for her and his belief that she truly understands him, they give him Amélie's home address, confessing that she
14742-446: The box and return it. If he is grateful, she will devote her life to being a do-gooder; if not, so be it. Amélie visits the local grocer, Collignon, whose innocent and simple-minded assistant Lucien sings to the produce ("Three Figs"). Somehow, Amélie has gotten the idea that the box might belong to Collignon, who lived in the apartment before her, but it is not his. He suggests that Amélie visit his parents who might remember who lived in
14904-568: The box, tells her that Bredoteau is the incorrect name. The man was really called Bretodeau. Dufayel then shows Amélie his recreation of the painting The Luncheon of the Boating Party , remarking on Amélie's isolation ("The Girl with the Glass"). Amélie discovers Bretodeau in the phonebook and calls him from a payphone, telling him where he can pick up the box ("How To Tell Time"). When Bretodeau finds it, he reflects on his childhood and decides to call his ex-wife and arrange to meet their son. Taking it as
15066-547: The café on Tuesday. Tuesday arrives and Nino is late for the meeting, prompting Amélie to imagine an elaborate story to his reasoning ("The Late Nino Quincampoix"). Meanwhile, Georgette is overwhelmed by Joseph's clingy nature. Nino shows up, but when he recognizes Amélie, she finds herself nervous and runs from him. Hurt and tired, Nino leaves, but the girls in the café go after him just as Amélie reconsiders and returns. Asking of Nino's whereabouts, Joseph lies and says he went off with Gina. Heartbroken, Amélie returns home. Outside
15228-454: The café with a series of postcards he has received from around the globe—written by the gnome ("There's No Place Like Gnome"). Amélie assures him of his worries and tells him to embrace the change while introducing him to Suzanne. Collignon comes in with Lucien; Amélie, unable to stomach the cruelty he shows his assistant, feeds him a fig tart, causing him to hallucinate a nightmare. He profusely apologizes to Lucien for his abuse and admits that he
15390-409: The café, Gina, Georgette and Suzanne demand to know Nino's intentions with Amélie ("A Better Haircut"). Nino says he is honestly in love with her, and needs to know how she feels for him. Touched, Georgette gives him Amélie's address. At home, Dufayel tries to talk to Amélie, but she angrily tells him to stay out of her business, not stopping to hear that he has finally gotten out of his rut and painted
15552-466: The characters express their ideas. It defied musical conventions by raising its first act curtain not on a bevy of chorus girls, but rather on a woman churning butter, with an off-stage voice singing the opening lines of Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' unaccompanied. It drew rave reviews, set off a box-office frenzy and received a Pulitzer Prize . Brooks Atkinson wrote in The New York Times that
15714-546: The comparatively frivolous musicals and sentimental operettas of the decade, Broadway's Show Boat (1927) represented an even more complete integration of book and score than the Princess Theatre musicals, with dramatic themes told through the music, dialogue, setting and movement. This was accomplished by combining the lyricism of Kern's music with the skillful libretto of Oscar Hammerstein II . One historian wrote, "Here we come to
15876-503: The continent, singspiel , comédie en vaudeville , opéra comique , zarzuela and other forms of light musical entertainment were emerging. The Beggar's Opera was the first recorded long-running play of any kind, running for 62 successive performances in 1728. It would take almost a century afterwards before any play broke 100 performances, but the record soon reached 150 in the late 1820s. Other musical theatre forms developed in England by
16038-452: The controversy surrounding it, ran for 108 performances. Rodgers and Hart's I'd Rather Be Right (1937) was a political satire with George M. Cohan as President Franklin D. Roosevelt , and Kurt Weill 's Knickerbocker Holiday depicted New York City's early history while good-naturedly satirizing Roosevelt's good intentions. The motion picture mounted a challenge to the stage. Silent films had presented only limited competition, but by
16200-543: The core of Frank Loesser 's and Abe Burrows ' Guys and Dolls , (1950, 1,200 performances); and the Gold Rush was the setting for Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe 's Paint Your Wagon (1951). The relatively brief seven-month run of that show did not discourage Lerner and Loewe from collaborating again, this time on My Fair Lady (1956), an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw 's Pygmalion starring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews , which at 2,717 performances held
16362-494: The decade was The Black and White Minstrel Show (1962), which played for 4,344 performances. Two men had considerable impact on musical theatre history beginning in this decade: Stephen Sondheim and Jerry Herman . The first project for which Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics was A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962, 964 performances), with a book based on the works of Plautus by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart , starring Zero Mostel . Sondheim moved
16524-403: The earlier musical forms of comic opera and operetta. The Geisha (1896) was one of the most successful in the 1890s, running for more than two years and achieving great international success. The Belle of New York (1898) became the first American musical to run for over a year in London. The British musical comedy Florodora (1899) was a popular success on both sides of the Atlantic, as
16686-409: The end of the 1920s, films like The Jazz Singer could be presented with synchronized sound. "Talkie" films at low prices effectively killed off vaudeville by the early 1930s. Despite the economic woes of the 1930s and the competition from film, the musical survived. In fact, it continued to evolve thematically beyond the gags and showgirls musicals of the Gay Nineties and Roaring Twenties and
16848-533: The end of the Golden Age, several shows tackled Jewish subjects and issues, such as Fiddler on the Roof , Milk and Honey , Blitz! and later Rags . The original concept that became West Side Story was set in the Lower East Side during Easter-Passover celebrations; the rival gangs were to be Jewish and Italian Catholic . The creative team later decided that the Polish (white) vs. Puerto Rican conflict
17010-409: The everyday life of New York's lower classes. They starred high quality singers ( Lillian Russell , Vivienne Segal and Fay Templeton ) instead of the ladies of questionable repute who had starred in earlier musical forms. In 1879, The Brook by Nate Salsbury was another national success with contemporary American dance styles and an American story about "members of an acting company taking a trip down
17172-548: The film of the same name ) and The Dying Gaul , the latter of which was made into a film that Lucas also directed. Lucas also wrote the book for the musical The Light in the Piazza , and directed the world premiere at the Intiman Theater in Seattle. The Lincoln Center production, directed by Bartlett Sher , garnered him a Tony Award nomination. Lucas has also directed plays such as Loot . He directed Birds of America ,
17334-438: The first Broadway show in which an African-American, Ethel Waters , starred alongside white actors. Waters' numbers included " Supper Time ", a woman's lament for her husband who has been lynched. The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess (1935) featured an all African-American cast and blended operatic, folk and jazz idioms. The Cradle Will Rock (1937), directed by Orson Welles , was a highly political pro- union piece that, despite
17496-411: The fish back in its bowl, they decide that it has to go, and Amélie is forced to release him into a nearby canal. Later on, Amandine and Amélie go to Notre Dame Cathedral , where they pray for a baby brother ("World's Best Mama"). On their way out, a Canadian tourist hurls himself off a parapet in the cathedral, killing Amandine when he lands on her. A funeral is held and shortly after, and Raphael makes
17658-402: The forgotten stories in the snapshots, implying a similar proclivity for observation ("When The Booth Goes Bright"). Alone in her apartment, Amélie sees the news of Lady Diana's death in a car crash in Paris. She drops her perfume bottle, which dislodges a tile at the edge of the room, revealing a small metal box filled with a child's treasures ("The Bottle Drops"). Amélie vows to find the owner of
17820-515: The founding of the state of Israel, and continuing with the blockbuster hits Hello, Dolly! (1964, 2,844 performances), Mame (1966, 1,508 performances), and La Cage aux Folles (1983, 1,761 performances). Even his less successful shows like Dear World (1969) and Mack and Mabel (1974) have had memorable scores ( Mack and Mabel was later reworked into a London hit). Writing both words and music, many of Herman's show tunes have become popular standards, including " Hello, Dolly! ", "We Need
17982-399: The halves now joined again in this album. The two take notice of one face that appears repeatedly, taken in every photobooth in Paris, and wonder who it could be. In the back of the book is a name and address: Nino Quincampoix. Dufayel picks up on the idea that Amélie may have feelings for the owner of the album and tells her to return the album and befriend him, or else she's better off joining
18144-399: The head in a rush of elation and thanks everyone for his good fortune. Amélie has found her mission. She leaves work early and looks for someone else to help. She grabs a dyspeptic blind beggar and takes him on a tour of Montmarte, describing his surroundings to him ("Tour de France"). Elated by her success, Amélie returns home to watch the funeral of Princess Diana on TV, imagining herself as
18306-472: The history of the musical (e.g. from the 1890s to the 1920s) when this integration between music and story has been tenuous. As The New York Times critic Ben Brantley described the ideal of song in theatre when reviewing the 2008 revival of Gypsy : "There is no separation at all between song and character, which is what happens in those uncommon moments when musicals reach upward to achieve their ideal reasons to be." Typically, many fewer words are sung in
18468-409: The house to look for him, and Amélie uses the opportunity to get him to relax and embrace the change, while introducing him to Suzanne, who he falls for. Meanwhile, Nino has been searching Paris for Amélie, and handing out posters with her photo on them to anyone he sees, wondering how he's fallen for someone who doesn't want to be found ("Thin Air"). While doing another of her good deeds—spray painting
18630-518: The impression of a country with an uncertain future, as the sailors and their women also have. Irving Berlin used sharpshooter Annie Oakley 's career as a basis for his Annie Get Your Gun (1946, 1,147 performances); Burton Lane , E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy combined political satire with Irish whimsy for their fantasy Finian's Rainbow (1947, 725 performances); and Cole Porter found inspiration in William Shakespeare 's The Taming of
18792-447: The interplay of lyrics and music in his shows. Some of Sondheim's notable innovations include a show presented in reverse ( Merrily We Roll Along ) and the above-mentioned Anyone Can Whistle , in which the first act ends with the cast informing the audience that they are mad. Jerry Herman played a significant role in American musical theatre, beginning with his first Broadway production, Milk and Honey (1961, 563 performances), about
18954-548: The late 17th century. These influenced a brief period of English opera by composers such as John Blow and Henry Purcell . From the 18th century, the most popular forms of musical theatre in Britain were ballad operas , like John Gay 's The Beggar's Opera , that included lyrics written to the tunes of popular songs of the day (often spoofing opera), and later pantomime , which developed from commedia dell'arte, and comic opera with mostly romantic plot lines, like Michael Balfe 's The Bohemian Girl (1845). Meanwhile, on
19116-402: The limitations of musical comedy license, believable and the humor came from the situations or the nature of the characters. Kern's exquisitely flowing melodies were employed to further the action or develop characterization. ... [Edwardian] musical comedy was often guilty of inserting songs in a hit-or-miss fashion. The Princess Theatre musicals brought about a change in approach. P. G. Wodehouse,
19278-500: The long-run record for many years. Popular Hollywood films were made of all of these musicals. Two hits by British creators in this decade were The Boy Friend (1954), which ran for 2,078 performances in London and marked Andrews' American debut, and Salad Days (1954), which broke the British long-run record with a run of 2,283 performances. Another record was set by The Threepenny Opera , which ran for 2,707 performances, becoming
19440-531: The longest-running off-Broadway musical until The Fantasticks . The production also broke ground by showing that musicals could be profitable off-Broadway in a small-scale, small orchestra format. This was confirmed in 1959 when a revival of Jerome Kern and P. G. Wodehouse 's Leave It to Jane ran for more than two years. The 1959–1960 off-Broadway season included a dozen musicals and revues including Little Mary Sunshine , The Fantasticks and Ernest in Love ,
19602-556: The man in the photo album who keeps reappearing is a ghost. Despite her attempts to keep the game going, Nino pleads that they meet in person or else he is hanging up. She says to meet him the following Tuesday at 2 pm at the Two Windmills Café. At the appointed time, Nino is late. Amélie worries about what might've happened to him, her imagined scenario spiraling out of control ("The Late Nino Quincampoix"). Nino does show up, and when he does, she tries to hide. When he asks about her masked photo, she denies her identity, but ultimately runs to
19764-445: The most observant, literate and witty lyricist of his day, and the team of Bolton, Wodehouse and Kern had an influence felt to this day. The theatre-going public needed escapist entertainment during the dark times of World War I , and they flocked to the theatre. The 1919 hit musical Irene ran for 670 performances, a Broadway record that held until 1938. The British theatre public supported far longer runs like that of The Maid of
19926-567: The most popular musicals in history. In 1960, The Fantasticks was first produced off-Broadway. This intimate allegorical show would quietly run for over 40 years at the Sullivan Street Theatre in Greenwich Village , becoming by far the longest-running musical in history. Its authors produced other innovative works in the 1960s, such as Celebration and I Do! I Do! , the first two-character Broadway musical. The 1960s would see
20088-423: The music for a story about Rose Thompson Hovick , the mother of the titular stripper Gypsy Rose Lee . Although directors and choreographers have had a major influence on musical theatre style since at least the 19th century, George Abbott and his collaborators and successors took a central role in integrating movement and dance fully into musical theatre productions in the Golden Age. Abbott introduced ballet as
20250-480: The musical beyond its concentration on the romantic plots typical of earlier eras; his work tended to be darker, exploring the grittier sides of life both present and past. Other early Sondheim works include Anyone Can Whistle (1964, which ran only nine performances, despite having stars Lee Remick and Angela Lansbury ), and the successful Company (1970), Follies (1971) and A Little Night Music (1973). Later, Sondheim found inspiration in unlikely sources:
20412-501: The mystery. As they take photos in the newly fixed booth, Amélie and Nino reflect on their newfound happiness and wonder what the future holds for them. A last bit of narration reveals that Raphael finally sets off on an international trip–with Suzanne. The company reminds Amélie and Nino and themselves that everyone and everything is connected in ways we do not know. The future may be unclear, but they will face it together ("Where Do We Go From Here?"). An original Broadway cast recording of
20574-418: The necessary encouragement for other gifted writers to create musical plays of their own". The two collaborators created an extraordinary collection of some of musical theatre's best loved and most enduring classics, including Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951) and The Sound of Music (1959). Some of these musicals treat more serious subject matter than most earlier shows:
20736-404: The next day and tries to convince him to leave home ("Backyard"). He refuses, saying he can't leave the garden gnome, so Amélie secretly steals it as she leaves. On her way home, she spots Nino again at the train station, where he drops a photo album on the ground that Amélie takes. Amélie explores the album with Dufayel, and finds it is full of photo-booth photographs, one of which is a picture of
20898-746: The opening of Japan to Western trade for Pacific Overtures (1976), a legendary murderous barber seeking revenge in the Industrial Age of London for Sweeney Todd (1979), the paintings of Georges Seurat for Sunday in the Park with George (1984), fairy tales for Into the Woods (1987), and a collection of presidential assassins in Assassins (1990). While some critics have argued that some of Sondheim's musicals lack commercial appeal, others have praised their lyrical sophistication and musical complexity, as well as
21060-498: The orchestra that "weav[es] together excerpts of the score's famous melodies." There are various Eastern traditions of theatre that include music, such as Chinese opera , Taiwanese opera , Japanese Noh and Indian musical theatre , including Sanskrit drama , Indian classical dance , Parsi theatre and Yakshagana . India has, since the 20th century, produced numerous musical films, referred to as " Bollywood " musicals, and in Japan
21222-459: The original production, for example, Bob Fosse 's choreography in Chicago . There is no fixed length for a musical. While it can range from a short one-act entertainment to several acts and several hours in length (or even a multi-evening presentation), most musicals range from one and a half to three hours. Musicals are usually presented in two acts, with one short intermission , and the first act
21384-643: The other hand, many successful musical theatre works have been adapted for musical films , such as West Side Story , My Fair Lady , The Sound of Music , Oliver! and Chicago . Musical theatre is closely related to the theatrical form of opera, but the two are usually distinguished by weighing a number of factors. First, musicals generally have a greater focus on spoken dialogue. Some musicals, however, are entirely accompanied and sung-through, while some operas, such as Die Zauberflöte , and most operettas , have some unaccompanied dialogue. Second, musicals usually include more dancing as an essential part of
21546-768: The photo booth, where she shows him the answer to the mystery of the man in the album: he's the repairman who takes a photo after fixing the booth, to check if it works properly. They go into the photo booth, taking pictures together, and reflecting on their newfound happiness and wondering what will happen next ("Where Do We Go From Here?"). The story of Amélie is narrated by all of the people in her life. They tell us how every moment of our lives and everyone we meet are connected in ways we may not know or understand ("The Flight Of The Blue Fly"). Born to two neurotic and self-centered parents— Raphael and Amandine—young Amélie doesn't learn how to love. One day during her monthly medical exam, her heart beats wildly and Raphael misdiagnoses her with
21708-758: The relatively narrow confines of the 1950s. Rock music would be used in several Broadway musicals, beginning with Hair , which featured not only rock music but also nudity and controversial opinions about the Vietnam War , race relations and other social issues. After Show Boat and Porgy and Bess , and as the struggle in America and elsewhere for minorities' civil rights progressed, Hammerstein, Harold Arlen , Yip Harburg and others were emboldened to write more musicals and operas that aimed to normalize societal toleration of minorities and urged racial harmony. Early Golden Age works that focused on racial tolerance included Finian's Rainbow and South Pacific . Towards
21870-474: The reshuffling of scenes. The final book is what is now licensed through Concord Theatricals . The original Watermill cast included Audrey Brisson as Amélie and Chris Jared as Nino. Danny Mac later joined the cast as Nino. The production made its London debut at The Other Palace during the Christmas season, from 29 November 2019 until 1 February 2020. The entire UK tour cast (with the exception of Mac, who
22032-451: The revolution begun by Show Boat , by tightly integrating all the aspects of musical theatre, with a cohesive plot, songs that furthered the action of the story, and featured dream ballets and other dances that advanced the plot and developed the characters, rather than using dance as an excuse to parade scantily clad women across the stage. Rodgers and Hammerstein hired ballet choreographer Agnes de Mille , who used everyday motions to help
22194-582: The role of Amélie. The cast for the Los Angeles and Broadway productions includes Adam Chanler-Berat, Manoel Felciano , and Tony Sheldon. The musical opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre on March 9, 2017, in previews, officially on April 3. Direction is by Pam MacKinnon with musical staging and choreography by Sam Pinkleton . Puppet design is by Amanda Villalobos. The show closed on May 21, 2017, after 27 previews and 56 regular performances. The musical opened at The Galaxy Theater in Tokyo , Japan for
22356-487: The same time, Stephen Sondheim found success with some of his musicals, as mentioned above. Am%C3%A9lie (musical) Amélie is a musical based on the 2001 romantic comedy film of the same name with music by Daniel Messé , lyrics by Messé and Nathan Tysen and a book by Craig Lucas . The musical premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in September 2015. The musical began previews on Broadway on March 9, 2017 at
22518-415: The sentimental romance of operetta, adding technical expertise and the fast-paced staging and naturalistic dialogue style led by director George Abbott . The 1940s began with more hits from Porter, Irving Berlin , Rodgers and Hart, Weill and Gershwin, some with runs over 500 performances as the economy rebounded, but artistic change was in the air. Rodgers and Hammerstein 's Oklahoma! (1943) completed
22680-507: The show was originally slated to be Shaun Rennie. This production was to have the same actor-musician casting approach as the 2019 UK production. It was announced that a Dutch-language version of the musical will be performed as a national tour in the Netherlands in 2021 and 2022. This version of the musical will be produced by Morssinkhof Terra Theatrical and feature Dutch actress Christanne de Bruijn as Amélie. NOTE: The Broadway synopsis
22842-420: The show's opening number changed the history of musical theatre: "After a verse like that, sung to a buoyant melody, the banalities of the old musical stage became intolerable." It was the first "blockbuster" Broadway show, running a total of 2,212 performances, and was made into a hit film. It remains one of the most frequently produced of the team's projects. William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird wrote that this
23004-407: The show, although it sometimes consists of a series of songs not directly musically related. Spoken dialogue is generally interspersed between musical numbers, although "sung dialogue" or recitative may be used, especially in so-called " sung-through " musicals such as Jesus Christ Superstar , Falsettos , Les Misérables , Evita and Hamilton . Several shorter musicals on Broadway and in
23166-476: The stage, most notably Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita . Others had no dialogue or were otherwise reminiscent of opera, with dramatic, emotional themes; these sometimes started as concept albums and were referred to as rock operas . Shows like Raisin , Dreamgirls , Purlie and The Wiz brought a significant African-American influence to Broadway. More varied musical genres and styles were incorporated into musicals both on and especially off-Broadway. At
23328-536: The stage. Amélie had its premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. The musical was directed by Pam MacKinnon and starred Samantha Barks in the titular role of Amélie, with scenic and costume design by David Zinn, lighting design by Jane Cox and Mark Barton and projections by Peter Nigrini . The musical opened at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in a pre-Broadway engagement, running from December 4, 2016 to January 15, 2017 with Phillipa Soo taking over
23490-402: The standard for what was considered a successful show. These shows were designed for family audiences, a marked contrast from the risqué burlesques, bawdy music hall shows and French operettas that sometimes drew a crowd seeking less wholesome entertainment. Only a few 19th-century musical pieces exceeded the run of The Mikado , such as Dorothy , which opened in 1886 and set a new record with
23652-515: The storytelling, particularly by the principal performers as well as the chorus. Third, musicals often use various genres of popular music or at least popular singing and musical styles. Finally, musicals usually avoid certain operatic conventions. In particular, a musical is almost always performed in the language of its audience. Musicals produced on Broadway or in the West End, for instance, are invariably sung in English, even if they were originally written in another language. While an opera singer
23814-623: The summer of 1753, they performed ballad-operas, such as The Beggar's Opera , and ballad-farces. By the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. Other early musical theatre in America consisted of British forms, such as burletta and pantomime, but what a piece was called did not necessarily define what it was. The 1852 Broadway extravaganza The Magic Deer advertised itself as "A Serio Comico Tragico Operatical Historical Extravaganzical Burletical Tale of Enchantment." Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown from around 1850 and did not arrive in
23976-403: The surname of the box's owner: Bredoteau. When Amélie returns home Nino spots her on the street, noticing how pretty she is and finds himself intrigued with the box. Time passes, and Amélie's search for Bredoteau isn't working out. One day, she speaks to her neighbor, Julien Dufayel—an artist who suffers from a brittle bone disease, giving him the nickname 'The Glass Man'—and, possibly recognizing
24138-891: The title "Die fabelhafte Welt der Amélie" (The Fabulous World of Amélie) had its European premiere in Germany in February 2019 at the Werk7 Theater in Munich produced by Uschi Neuss and Joop Van Den Ende. On the 13th of November 2018 It was announced that Sandra Leitner would star as Amélie in the German production. The musical premiered in the United Kingdom at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury, where it ran from 11 April to 18 May 2019, before embarking on
24300-674: The traditions of comic opera and used elements of burlesque and of the Harrigan and Hart pieces. He replaced the bawdy women of burlesque with his "respectable" corps of Gaiety Girls to complete the musical and visual fun. The success of the first of these, In Town (1892) and A Gaiety Girl (1893) set the style for the next three decades. The plots were generally light, romantic "poor maiden loves aristocrat and wins him against all odds" shows, with music by Ivan Caryll , Sidney Jones and Lionel Monckton . These shows were immediately widely copied in America, and Edwardian musical comedy swept away
24462-614: The universe from afar. Her only contact with her parents comes in the form of a monthly health check-up from her father. One day, Amélie gets so excited to see him that her heart races and Raphael misdiagnoses her with a heart condition ("World's Best Dad"). Her parents, paranoid, begin to homeschool Amélie and cut off all of her contact with the outside world. In a lesson with Amandine one day, Amélie imagines her goldfish, Fluffy, coming alive and speaking to her ("World's Best Friend"). When Amélie allows Fluffy to jump into her drinking glass, her parents panic and force Amélie to release Fluffy into
24624-449: The villain in Oklahoma! is a suspected murderer and psychopath; Carousel deals with spousal abuse, thievery, suicide and the afterlife; South Pacific explores miscegenation even more thoroughly than Show Boat ; the hero of The King and I dies onstage; and the backdrop of The Sound of Music is the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938 . The show's creativity stimulated Rodgers and Hammerstein's contemporaries and ushered in
24786-464: The work's musical or dramatic content in defining into which art form the piece falls. Sondheim said, "I really think that when something plays Broadway it's a musical, and when it plays in an opera house it's opera. That's it. It's the terrain, the countryside, the expectations of the audience that make it one thing or another." There remains an overlap in form between lighter operatic forms and more musically complex or ambitious musicals. In practice, it
24948-591: The world premiere (and Broadway try-out) of King Kong , for which Lucas has provided the book with a score by Marius de Vries . As of 2014, Lucas is no longer involved with this musical. Amélie , a musical based on the award-winning film of 2001, premiered at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre (Berkeley, California) In September 2015, with a book by Lucas, music by Daniel Messé (of Hem ), lyrics by Nathan Tysen and Messé, and directed by Pam MacKinnon . The production had its pre-Broadway engagement at
25110-420: Was A Chinese Honeymoon (1901), which ran for a record-setting 1,074 performances in London and 376 in New York. After the turn of the 20th century, Seymour Hicks joined forces with Edwardes and American producer Charles Frohman to create another decade of popular shows. Other enduring Edwardian musical comedy hits included The Arcadians (1909) and The Quaker Girl (1910). Virtually eliminated from
25272-420: Was a "show, that, like Show Boat , became a milestone, so that later historians writing about important moments in twentieth-century theatre would begin to identify eras according to their relationship to Oklahoma! ". "After Oklahoma! , Rodgers and Hammerstein were the most important contributors to the musical-play form... The examples they set in creating vital plays, often rich with social thought, provided
25434-760: Was awarded an Obie as Best American Play in 2004. Lucas's other awards include the Excellence in Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters ; the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award ; and Outer Critics Circle , L.A. Drama Critics Circle, Drama-Logue and Lambda Literary Awards . Fellowships include those from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations , the National Endowment for
25596-468: Was dominated by musical theatre standards, such as " Fascinating Rhythm ", " Tea for Two " and " Someone to Watch Over Me ". Many shows were revues , series of sketches and songs with little or no connection between them. The best-known of these were the annual Ziegfeld Follies , spectacular song-and-dance revues on Broadway featuring extravagant sets, elaborate costumes and beautiful chorus girls. These spectacles also raised production values, and mounting
25758-577: Was fresher. Tolerance as an important theme in musicals has continued in recent decades. The final expression of West Side Story left a message of racial tolerance. By the end of the 1960s, musicals became racially integrated, with black and white cast members even covering each other's roles, as they did in Hair . Homosexuality has also been explored in musicals, starting with Hair , and even more overtly in La Cage aux Folles , Falsettos , Rent , Hedwig and
25920-452: Was praised by critics for its innovations in music and choreography but was less commercially successful than the same year's The Music Man , written and composed by Meredith Willson , which won the Tony Award for Best Musical that year. West Side Story would get a film adaptation in 1961, which proved successful both critically and commercially. Laurents and Sondheim teamed up again for Gypsy (1959), with Jule Styne providing
26082-412: Was replaced by Jared) reprised their respective roles in the London run. The show was favourably reviewed. The show was nominated for 3 Laurence Olivier Awards , including Best New Musical and Best Actress in a Musical for Brisson, in the 2020 ceremony . The show's album was also nominated for Best Musical Theater Album in the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2021. The production transferred to
26244-477: Was the French operetta The Chimes of Normandy in 1878 (705 performances). English comic opera adopted many of the successful ideas of European operetta, none more successfully than the series of more than a dozen long-running Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas, including H.M.S. Pinafore (1878) and The Mikado (1885). These were sensations on both sides of the Atlantic and in Australia and helped to raise
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