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"The Golden Age" Marian Anderson
"Marian Anderson becomes the 1st African American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera, singing the role of Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi's "Un ballo in maschera", which translates in English as "A Masked Ball". -
Elvis Presley
He makes his first T.V. appearance on a broadcast radio show called "Louisiana Hayride". A radio and later television country music show broadcast from Shreveport, Louisiana. It ran from the 1940's into the 1960's and helped launch many artists careers. -
Mr. President (Post Golden Age)
Opening day for this musical began on October 20th 1962 all the way until June 6th 1963 while performing 265 times. The first preview was October 17th 1962 with most being on broadway. The musical is about a made up president and their final days in the white house, describing them retiring and transitioning into civilian lifestyles. -
Blaxploitation Film (A rise in ticket sales)
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song was the first blaxploitation film to be released EVER! A blaxploitation is a genre of African American movies. The movie itself is about a male prostitute who avoids the police and stands up to white authority. The film grossed around 15 million dollars and opened Hollywood to a new audience. -
The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera is now one of the longest running broadway musicals today. Music written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, the most commercially successful producer since the golden ages. The Phantom of the Opera is known as a megamusical, and has been performed over 13,500 times and counting, grossing over 1.3 billion dollars -
1990's renovation and Disney's involvement
Disney helped renovate 42nd street and became a producer of broadway musicals, bringing a new dynamic of musicals attracting new audiences, these musicals were based on films and pop music. Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" ushered in this era of corporate musicals debuting in 1994, as well as "The Lion King" directed and designed by Julie Taymor, others include Aida, Mary Poppins, (2006), and The Little Mermaid (2009). -
Cats final performance
"Cats" produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber was performed its last time on September 10th, 2000 at the Winter Garden Theatre. After running for nearly 18 years and shown over 7,485 times, the musical won 7 tony awards, 3 drama desk awards, and grammy. To this day "Cats" remains the forth longest running broadway show and the 7th longest running West End show. -
Hamilton was released
Based on the 2004 book "Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow, Hamilton is a sung-and-rapped through musical that tells the story of one of our four fathers, Alexander Hamilton. The musical won 8 drama desk awards as well as the Outstanding Musical award. Taking 8 years to put together it was finally released on February 17th 2015. In 2018 Hamilton grossed over 340,322,025 dollars which was more than Mary Poppins, Hairspray & Rent. On top of that 15 million was made from selling merchandise alone. -
Covid-19
The pandemic nearly killed theatre. All theatre revenue fell dramatically in 2019 because of the Covid 19 virus into the years of 2021-2022. AMC alone lost over 4.6 billion dollars in 2022 -
Disney+ and Theatre closings
In the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020 -
Jukebox musicals
In the 2000's the Jukebox musicals became really popular. A jukebox musical is where producers write a story to weave in popular songs or hits. Examples would include Mamma Mia! (2001), Jersey boys (2005), Movin' Out (2002), All Shook Up (2004), Rock of Ages (2006), and American Idiot (2010).