Rock musical

A rock musical is a musical theatre work with rock music. The genre of rock musical may overlap somewhat with album musicals, concept albums and song cycles, as they sometimes tell a story through the rock music, and some album musicals and concept albums become rock musicals. Notable examples of rock musicals include "Hair", "Grease", "Rent" and "Spring Awakening". The Who's "Tommy" and other so-called rock operas are sometimes presented on stage as a musical.

History

The rock musical became an important part of the musical theatre scene in the late 1960s with the hit show "Hair". Styled "The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical," the anti-war free-love hippie-themed, nude-scened "Hair" premiered in 1967 as the first production staged at the Public Theatre. It moved to Broadway in October 1968. [ [http://www.musicals101.com/1960bway3.htm Kenrick, John, "Rock: 'The Age of Aquarius'" article at the Musicals101 website] ] "Your Own Thing" also opened in 1968 and featured a gender-switching version of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. However, the first musical to hint at what was to come had been the final edition of the Ziegfeld Follies in 1957. [Wollman, Elizabeth Lara, "The Theatre Will Rock: A History of the Rock Musical from Hair to Hedwig" (University of Michigan Press, 2006), p.14] This production featured one rock and roll number, "The Juvenile Delinquent." The song was performed by fifty year-old Billy DeWolfe. This was followed by another precursor to the rock musical, "Bye Bye Birdie" (1960)." [Not coincidentally, Ann Margaret, who starred in the movie version of "Bye Bye Birdie", later starred in the movie version of "Tommy"] Although rock and roll would have to wait for seven more years before returning to Broadway, these early, tentative infusions of rock into musical theatre paved the way for "Hair" and its progeny. [Everett, William A. and Paul R. Laird, "The Cambridge Companion to the Musical" (2002) Cambridge University Press, pp. 231-33 ISBN 0521796393.]

"Jesus Christ Superstar", composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, began as an album musical in 1970 and is sometimes categorized as a Rock Opera. The money made from album sales was used to fund the subsequent stage production in late 1971. [ [http://www.musicals101.com/1970bway1.htm Kenrick, John, "The 1970s: Part I - Rock Musicals" article at the Musicals101 website] ] The musical "Godspell" (1971), had similar religious themes (albeit with a less controversial treatment) and pop/rock influences.

The genre continued to develop and gain popularity through the 1970s with shows such as "Grease" and "Pippin". Some rock musicals have no dialogue or are otherwise reminiscent of opera, with dramatic, emotional themes, and may be styled "rock operas". In addition, the rock musical moved in other directions with shows like "The Wiz", "Raisin", "Dreamgirls" and "Purlie", which were heavily influenced by R&B and soul music, and with the jukebox musicals, such as "Mamma Mia!" and "Jersey Boys", that feature the songs of a particular band or performer.

The rock musical saw a decline in popularity through the 1980s. Except for a few outposts of rock, like "Little Shop of Horrors" (1982) and "Chess" (1986), audience tastes turned to shows with European pop scores, like "Les Miserables" and "The Phantom of the Opera", as well as to more nostalgic fare. However, the rock musical achieved a renaissance in the 1990s, due in no small part to the popularity of Jonathan Larson's Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical "Rent" (1996). This was followed by Off-Broadway rock musicals like "" (1997) and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" (1998), John Cameron Mitchell's Off-Broadway show about a transgendered rocker. [ [http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ft20060309a2.html Brasor, Philip, "A thumbnail history of the rock musical, March 9, 2006] ]

The rock musical has seen a resurgence in the late 1990s and the 2000s, with shows by composers like Elton John ("Aida", 1998), and Stephen Schwartz ("Wicked", 2003), as well as a number of successful jukebox musicals with rock scores. The most recent major original rock musical productions are Duncan Sheik's 2007 Tony Award winner, "Spring Awakening" and "Passing Strange" and "In the Heights", which opened in 2008.

ee also

* List of rock musicals
* Rock opera

References

External links

* [http://www.donlinke.com/musicals/ Original rock musicals and/or operas on the Internet]