How has musicals developed?
The argument can be made that musical comedies ( as opposed to musical dramas with serious plots, such as South Pacific, or Sound of Music, both war-oriented) are something of a dumbed-down (democratized) form of opera for the common man, as was the intentions of Richard Rodgers (not Rogers) and Oscar Hammerstein, the latter a former Opera executive. the name means (Hammerstone) Both writers were later, as I have hinted at darkening the palate of the Musical to heavier topics such as those in SP and Sound Of Music. I saw a Road-Company (sorry no steam rollers outside the theatre!) variant of Sound Of Music in l962 or 63, Winter. I went into it only knowing it was supposed to be a (Musical comedy) what”s funny about a famioy onthe lam from the Gestapo! nearest US equivalent would be posthumous Glenn Miller and he was dead!-abd the Miller story was NOT a comedy. I never did like musicals, either film or stage. Theme songs are okay, though. Floreat Anastasia!
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