Opera Meets Broadway (America 250)

Besides jazz, the other lasting cultural contribution America has made to humanity is its own unique take on musical theater. Its evolution stems from a tradition that did not immediately center the operatic voice, such as the popularity of ballad operas in the wake of the popularity of The Beggar's Opera in the 18^th century and the traveling frontier and minstrel shows of the 19^th century. With the success in 1866 of The Black Crook we see a new type of theater : a five-and-a-half-hour spectacular that combined elements of opera, popular salon songs, burlesque, and impressive set designs. While that is generally considered the first Broadway musical, it took another sixty years and the advent of popular operetta, ragtime, evolving dance styles, radio and recording technology, and the developing social conscience reflected in the movements for women's suffrage and civil rights for African Americans before we come to Showboat, which tells the story of that then-recent history, and is the first musical from which we can draw a straight line to the musicals written and produced today. Showboat celebrates its centenary in 2027, and we see in the past century the ways American musical theater has kept its roots in classical music in the works of Gershwin, Rodgers, Bernstein, Sondheim and others, and is still evident even in recent works. We'll explore that journey in this week's episode of America 250.