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tiny hints of what we call a modern musical can be traced back to Ancient greek theater but its is very different for what we know today -
playwrights like shakespeare and Moliere started to rise. Commedia dell'arte became a popular form of theater so singing and music would be added to get attention of street walkers, but Dancing and choreography were still not there yet so it was still not like the modern musical -
The modern musical took much influences form french and and viennese operettas such as works by Jacques Offenbach and Johann Strauss II, But the first Modern Musical as we know was The Black Crook by Charles M. Barras and Georges Jacobi . It had its original song to help to the story of the show . -
Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow had a big impact on broadway but in the 1910s composers like Jerome Kern, Guy Boulton and P.G. Wodehouse changed the game . later Florenz Ziegfeld introduced his Follies.
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the 20´s is the time where many composers made there debuts including Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, the Gershwins. dure this time Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote the show Showboat (1927) the most lasting hit of the 1920s. -
the 30´s and 40´s did not have many show because of the depression and not many people were people to spend money but a popular show was The Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing (1931) was the first musical ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma also came out around this time. -
Composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and director Hal Prince sifted to rock by introducing concept musicals – shows built around an idea rather than a traditional plot. shows like Company , Follies and A Little Night Music became popular during this time -
shows known as mega musicals became popular these include shows like Cats, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon
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we are finale at the modern times , shows , like The Producers, Urinetown, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Hairspray and hamilton these shows would either focus on comedy or historical events
