Origins of Musical Theater

The origins of the musical can be traced back to the Operetta, Comedy and Minstrel Shows of the 19th century.

In the early days, musicals did not have fixed scripts and even included elements of acrobatics and circus. Since 1927, when The Show Boat (画舫璇宫) began to focus on the text, the musical began to enter its golden years. Musicals of this period preached optimism and often had a happy comedy ending.

The musical was the most popular form of entertainment and show business in the United States until the 1960s, when rock 'n' roll and television became more popular, and from the 1980s onward, the West End in London, England, saw a boom in musical theater that caught up with Broadway's.

Later on, musicals became the most popular form of entertainment and show business in the United States.

Then came French-language musicals (such as Les Miserables [later adapted into English], Starmania, Clocktower, Romeo and Juliet, The Little Prince, etc.), German-language musicals (such as Elisabeth, Dance of the Vampires, Rebecca, Rudolph, etc.), as well as musicals written in a wide range of other languages.

Expanded information:

Comparison with opera:

The difference between musicals and operas is that musicals often utilize different types of popular music and popular music instrumentation; they allow for dialogue without musical accompaniment; and they do not utilize some of the traditions of operas, for example, there is no distinction between declamations and arias. For example, there is no distinction between declamation and aria, and the singing method is not necessarily American.

But the line of demarcation between musicals and operas is still controversial among scholars. For example, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess has been called an opera, a folk opera, and a musical at the same time. Some musicals such as Les Miserables are accompanied by music from beginning to end, while some light operas such as Carmen have dialog.

Musicals generally have more dancing than operas, and early musicals were even song-and-dance performances without a libretto. Although Richard Wagner, the famous opera composer, had already proposed the total art (Gesamtkunstwerk) in the mid-nineteenth century, arguing that music and theater should be fused into one.

But in Wagner's music drama, music still dominates. In contrast, theater and dance are more important in musicals.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Musical Drama