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History of the Broadway Musical #1
Make Believe: The Broadway Musical in the 1920s
The 1920s represented a turning point in the history of the Broadway musical, breaking with the vaudeville traditions of the early twentieth century to anticipate the more complex, sophisticated musicals of today. Composers Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, and their contemporaries revitalized the musical with the sound of jazz and other new influences. Productions became more elaborate, with dazzling sets, tumultuous choreography, and staging tricks, all woven into tightly constructed story lines. These dramatic changes of the 1920s ushered in the "golden age" of the American musical theater.
Ethan Mordden captures the excitement and the atmosphere of Broadway during the 1920s in Make Believe . In captivating, lively prose, Mordden describes in superb detail the stars, the songs, the jokes--the sheer fun of this era. Here are shows great, interesting, or even bizarre-- Sally , The Student Prince, Rose-Marie, Lady, Be Good!, No, No, Nannette, Rainbow, Good News!, Ziegfeld Follies, The "Coconuts", The 5 Oclock Girl, Blossom Time, Whoopee . Early on, the charisma of entertainers such as the bragging Al Jolson ("You ain't heard nothin' yet!"), the bewitching Marilyn Miller, the madly prancing Eddie Cantor, the unpredictable Gertrude Lawrence, and the indescribable Marx Brothers were the essential element in a hit musical. But, as Mordden demonstrates, the stars lost power and the authors took control, as shows like Desert Song , Peggy-Ann, Strike Up the Band, and Sweet Adeline reinvented the old forms. The musical became more "adult," too, baiting the censor in the
lyrics of Lorenz Hart, Cole Porter, and B. G. DeSylva. And Broadway became more racially integrated, with "blackface" acts dying out while all-black musicals such as Shuffle Along and the Blackbirds shows enjoyed mainstream success.
Make Believe reaches its climax with Morddens' deep look at Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's 1927 masterpiece, Show Boat . With its intricate story line spanning four decades, its gala interracial cast, its stunning physical production, its powerful score including "Ol' Man River," "Bill," "Mis'ry's Comin' Aroun'," "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," "Life on the Wicked Stage," and "Why Do I Love You?," Show Boat was the first American musical universally hailed as a classic. Fusing the decade's developments into one epic show, Kern and Hammerstein created something at once timeless and contemporary, the ultimate twenties show but, as producer Florenz Ziegfeld called it on the posters, "the all American musical comedy."
Ethan Mordden captures the excitement and the atmosphere of Broadway during the 1920s in Make Believe . In captivating, lively prose, Mordden describes in superb detail the stars, the songs, the jokes--the sheer fun of this era. Here are shows great, interesting, or even bizarre-- Sally , The Student Prince, Rose-Marie, Lady, Be Good!, No, No, Nannette, Rainbow, Good News!, Ziegfeld Follies, The "Coconuts", The 5 Oclock Girl, Blossom Time, Whoopee . Early on, the charisma of entertainers such as the bragging Al Jolson ("You ain't heard nothin' yet!"), the bewitching Marilyn Miller, the madly prancing Eddie Cantor, the unpredictable Gertrude Lawrence, and the indescribable Marx Brothers were the essential element in a hit musical. But, as Mordden demonstrates, the stars lost power and the authors took control, as shows like Desert Song , Peggy-Ann, Strike Up the Band, and Sweet Adeline reinvented the old forms. The musical became more "adult," too, baiting the censor in the
lyrics of Lorenz Hart, Cole Porter, and B. G. DeSylva. And Broadway became more racially integrated, with "blackface" acts dying out while all-black musicals such as Shuffle Along and the Blackbirds shows enjoyed mainstream success.
Make Believe reaches its climax with Morddens' deep look at Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's 1927 masterpiece, Show Boat . With its intricate story line spanning four decades, its gala interracial cast, its stunning physical production, its powerful score including "Ol' Man River," "Bill," "Mis'ry's Comin' Aroun'," "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," "Life on the Wicked Stage," and "Why Do I Love You?," Show Boat was the first American musical universally hailed as a classic. Fusing the decade's developments into one epic show, Kern and Hammerstein created something at once timeless and contemporary, the ultimate twenties show but, as producer Florenz Ziegfeld called it on the posters, "the all American musical comedy."
272 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 5, 2020
(Book #10 of 2020)
Mordden is the critical voice who whispers the loudest in my ear, and I'm happy to be doing a reread of his seven-volume History of the American Musical Theatre. Mordden's style is erudite and chatty; he is ready both with highbrow references to Grand Opera and gossipy anecdotes about Mary Martin. His books critically consider art and its cultural context, throwing in a hearty dose of his own opinion and limited engagement with outside texts. In other words, we are dealing with a Public Intellectual. You either like this sort of thing, or you don't: reader, I do.
In Make Believe, Mordden is our guide through a general survey of the Broadway scene in the 1920s, with the artform-shattering Show Boat as our destination. Along the way he looks at how musical comedy, operetta, and revue innovated and intersected, sometimes achieving, sometimes failing, and frequently just seeming extremely weird. He shares what it might have felt like to sit in the theater and watch Marilyn Miller, Sophie Tucker, and Helen Ford, the luminous personalities of the day. He delves into the ways that American Music - jazz, blues, and the sounds of the Lower East Side - was starting to sit, uneasily, alongside the theater's more stately and high-brow sounds; related, he speaks (incompletely, but well enough) about how Black and Jewish artists and musicians were alternatingly assimilated to and excluded from this process. And this all builds, yes, to Show Boat, in Mordden's not-quite-but-almost "great man theory" (or at the very least, great show theory) of this history - Mordden spends plenty of time and foreshadowing on the show and its creators, but he is just as interested in the social, cultural, and economic forces which enabled the innovations and created receptive audiences ready for something like Show Boat, the shot heard 'round the world, the show that begat Oklahoma! (that begat Gypsy, that begat Company).
I have to admit, I'm suspicious of this "great shows" argument, but in a way that makes me excited to watch him develop this idea over the remaining volumes - anyway, isn't that the fun of a book like this? Watch this space for my thoughts on the upcoming volumes, Sing For Your Supper and Beautiful Mornin', taking in the landscape of the 1930s and 1940s.
Mordden is the critical voice who whispers the loudest in my ear, and I'm happy to be doing a reread of his seven-volume History of the American Musical Theatre. Mordden's style is erudite and chatty; he is ready both with highbrow references to Grand Opera and gossipy anecdotes about Mary Martin. His books critically consider art and its cultural context, throwing in a hearty dose of his own opinion and limited engagement with outside texts. In other words, we are dealing with a Public Intellectual. You either like this sort of thing, or you don't: reader, I do.
In Make Believe, Mordden is our guide through a general survey of the Broadway scene in the 1920s, with the artform-shattering Show Boat as our destination. Along the way he looks at how musical comedy, operetta, and revue innovated and intersected, sometimes achieving, sometimes failing, and frequently just seeming extremely weird. He shares what it might have felt like to sit in the theater and watch Marilyn Miller, Sophie Tucker, and Helen Ford, the luminous personalities of the day. He delves into the ways that American Music - jazz, blues, and the sounds of the Lower East Side - was starting to sit, uneasily, alongside the theater's more stately and high-brow sounds; related, he speaks (incompletely, but well enough) about how Black and Jewish artists and musicians were alternatingly assimilated to and excluded from this process. And this all builds, yes, to Show Boat, in Mordden's not-quite-but-almost "great man theory" (or at the very least, great show theory) of this history - Mordden spends plenty of time and foreshadowing on the show and its creators, but he is just as interested in the social, cultural, and economic forces which enabled the innovations and created receptive audiences ready for something like Show Boat, the shot heard 'round the world, the show that begat Oklahoma! (that begat Gypsy, that begat Company).
I have to admit, I'm suspicious of this "great shows" argument, but in a way that makes me excited to watch him develop this idea over the remaining volumes - anyway, isn't that the fun of a book like this? Watch this space for my thoughts on the upcoming volumes, Sing For Your Supper and Beautiful Mornin', taking in the landscape of the 1930s and 1940s.
September 26, 2017
The 1920's was the Jazz Age, The New Woman, and the beginning of the New Entertainment Age-movies, radio, magazines and on Broadway were new composers, writers, stars that began the modern age of musicals.
This was the high point of operetta(Rose Maria, the Desert Song), the follies, scandals, reviews, the comic stars, the road shows, the fading of old composers and the rise of new, the producers and out of this whirlwind comes the first great musical-Show Boat by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II in December 1927.
At the end of the book, we learn of damage done to Broadway by the Great Depression, Hollywood hiring away talent and attendant was down. But coming into 1930's Broadway was about come into a period of growth.
Fans of the Broadway musical will love this book and the others that follow the decade's 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's.
This was the high point of operetta(Rose Maria, the Desert Song), the follies, scandals, reviews, the comic stars, the road shows, the fading of old composers and the rise of new, the producers and out of this whirlwind comes the first great musical-Show Boat by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II in December 1927.
At the end of the book, we learn of damage done to Broadway by the Great Depression, Hollywood hiring away talent and attendant was down. But coming into 1930's Broadway was about come into a period of growth.
Fans of the Broadway musical will love this book and the others that follow the decade's 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's.
May 10, 2024
Where some missives on the theatre can feel like textbooks, this is more conversational. Mordden is an opinionated old queen which can be both funny and a bit eye rolling. Sometimes on the same page.
March 10, 2009
I read this book once and really want a copy for my library - it is a great history of American Musical Theatre - and the start of a great series by the same author!
March 30, 2015
This is my second time reading this series of books and they are well worth a second look.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews