Broadway, the Golden Years
Jun. 27th, 2006 12:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancerjodiI just finished reading Broadway, the Golden Years which touches on the great choreographer/directors from 1940 to the present: Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, Gower Champion, Michael Bennett, Tommy Tune and those dancing in the present.
It did take me a while to get through this book given the detail that the author gets into with each dancer's life (not to mention its not all that well written, and per someone on amazon.com, apparently a lot of his facts are off), though it was still quite enjoyable. Though I know a lot of music from popular musicals through my dance experience I oftentimes don't know what show its from, what the storyline was, or who the choreographer was. The book describes the birth of the role of choreographer/director and how dance moved from a burlesque/Ziegfeld 'sexy girls with long legs' capacity to a central element in storytelling and feeling of shows.
Reading this book did serve to point out what a truly incestuous world it is (or was) on Broadway. I think I've gained new appreciation for my favorite musicals, songs and dance styles through getting a bit more understanding of where the choreographer/directors were coming from.
The author closes the book with some pondering on where the Broadway musical has been, where it is now, and where it may go. He notes that production costs have increased 350-400% while ticket prices have increased only 80%. Even still, tickets are expensive and the theater has become something for the middle/upper class which was not the case in its early heyday. Given high production costs, few new works are presented and what you'll see on Broadway are a whole lot of revivals. The author also points to a younger crowd that's less interested in musical theater and more interested in rock and roll, movies and TV than in generations past.
However, he points to some things that seem to indicate growth and continued interests. Various theaters are being built and renovated around 42nd Street in NYC and recent new shows with choreographer/directors have had great success. He adds that theaters are developing outside of NYC in other metropolitan areas, and that perhaps what's happening is not a decline in interest overall, but a spreading out of it - not necessarily a bad thing.
As far as dancers go, he notes that more and more shows on Broadway have a dance focus, and credits recent Fosse based musicals Chicago, Cabaret and Fosse for bringing renewed interest to dance and its role in the musical. This has all made me wonder, does the interest in this kind of raunchy, vaudevillian Broadway echo changing attitudes in people away from the old shows that were way more conservative (and often with small town and/or patriotic themes)?
Its definitely encouraging, and it is interesting to think of this thing that I've just be doing for my entire life in more historical and sociological terms.
It did take me a while to get through this book given the detail that the author gets into with each dancer's life (not to mention its not all that well written, and per someone on amazon.com, apparently a lot of his facts are off), though it was still quite enjoyable. Though I know a lot of music from popular musicals through my dance experience I oftentimes don't know what show its from, what the storyline was, or who the choreographer was. The book describes the birth of the role of choreographer/director and how dance moved from a burlesque/Ziegfeld 'sexy girls with long legs' capacity to a central element in storytelling and feeling of shows.
Reading this book did serve to point out what a truly incestuous world it is (or was) on Broadway. I think I've gained new appreciation for my favorite musicals, songs and dance styles through getting a bit more understanding of where the choreographer/directors were coming from.
The author closes the book with some pondering on where the Broadway musical has been, where it is now, and where it may go. He notes that production costs have increased 350-400% while ticket prices have increased only 80%. Even still, tickets are expensive and the theater has become something for the middle/upper class which was not the case in its early heyday. Given high production costs, few new works are presented and what you'll see on Broadway are a whole lot of revivals. The author also points to a younger crowd that's less interested in musical theater and more interested in rock and roll, movies and TV than in generations past.
However, he points to some things that seem to indicate growth and continued interests. Various theaters are being built and renovated around 42nd Street in NYC and recent new shows with choreographer/directors have had great success. He adds that theaters are developing outside of NYC in other metropolitan areas, and that perhaps what's happening is not a decline in interest overall, but a spreading out of it - not necessarily a bad thing.
As far as dancers go, he notes that more and more shows on Broadway have a dance focus, and credits recent Fosse based musicals Chicago, Cabaret and Fosse for bringing renewed interest to dance and its role in the musical. This has all made me wonder, does the interest in this kind of raunchy, vaudevillian Broadway echo changing attitudes in people away from the old shows that were way more conservative (and often with small town and/or patriotic themes)?
Its definitely encouraging, and it is interesting to think of this thing that I've just be doing for my entire life in more historical and sociological terms.
