Golden Age Music
Golden Age
The meat and potatoes of American Musical Theater; the Golden Age. Where to even begin breaking down this genre is a challenge in and of itself. But I guess I’ll go through and break it down chronologically for you. Again, my opinion, there are a lot of them out there.
OKLAHOMA!
There it is folks. The beginning of the Golden Age of American Musical theatre. Rodgers and Hammerstein took the ground work laid by many many before them (and they themselves), most notably SHOW BOAT (two words) and the rest is history. From this point forward music, story, dance would become more and more and more integrated and important to storytelling. Thus musical theatre as we know it exists. Go find some good books on the Golden Age:
BYE BYE BIRDIE
The Golden Age lasted from roughly 1943 with OKLAHOMA! and ended with BYE BYE BIRDIE in 1960. At least that’s my timeline for it. BYE BYE BIRDIE brought in Rock ’n Roll for the first time to the American Stage. There is definitely a lot of overlap between Golden Age and what came before and after it, nothing has clean clear lines, but I think that’s a good solid time frame to consider when looking through this music when searching for songs for your book.
Let’s Break it down by decade:
These are VERY select lists, there are a ton of shows from this time period, lots of lesser known shows have really great music in them, find some hidden gems, do some listening!
1940s:
Carousel Waltz - The John Wilson Orchestra
Shows:
Ray Bolger singing Once in Love with Amy
OKLAHOMA! (1943)
ON THE TOWN (1944)
BLOOMER GIRL (1944)
CAROUSEL (1945)
ANNIE GET YOUR GUN (1946)
ST. LOUIS WOMAN (1946)
BEGGAR’S HOLIDAY (1946)
STREET SCENE (1947)
FINIAN’S RAINBOW (1947)
BRIGADOON (1947)
ALLEGRO (1947)
KISS ME, KATE (1948)
WHERE’S CHARLEY? (1948)
GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1949)
Writers:
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Cole Porter
Irving Berlin
Leonard Bernstein (happy 100th Lenny)
Betty Comden & Adolph Green
Lerner & Loewe
Frank Loesser
West Side Story - Dance at the Gym
1950s
Shows:
GUYS AND DOLLS (1950)
CALL ME MADAM (1950)
THE KING AND I (1951)
WONDERFUL TOWN (1953)
ME AND JULIET (1953)
THE THREEPENNY OPERA (1954)
THE PAGAMA GAME (1954)
DAMN YANKEES (1955)
MY FAIR LADY (1956)
THE MOST HAPPY FELLA (1956)
BELLS ARE RINGING (1956)
WEST SIDE STORY (1957)
THE MUSIC MAN (1957)
FLOWER DRUM SONG (1958)
THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1959)
FIORELLO! (1959)
GYPSY (1959)
Writers:
Frank Loesser
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Jule Styne
Leonard Bernstein
Betty Comden & Adolph Green
Richard Adler & Jerry Ross
Lerner & Loewe
Meredith Wilson
1960 and beyond
I know I stated above that I consider the Golden Age to be “over” at this point, but I’m a liar. It clearly continues but a transition period begins on Broadway with BYE BYE BIRDIE and culminates with HAIR in 1967 That will be next weeks blog. But some shows that happened in the 1960s that would be considered GOLDEN AGE are:
CAMELOT (1960)
MILK AND HONEY (1961)
HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING (1961)
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM (1962)
SHE LOVES ME (1963)
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (1964)
…You get the picture… it keeps going.
Head over to the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, go upstairs, wear something comfy and start listening to recordings. Walk out of the library with a stack of photocopied music (copiers downstairs). A lot of the material from this time period can be reimagined and have new life brought to it. Bring some songs to your coach and find a new way to present it, something that works for you.
There really is no way to go wrong when picking Golden Age music. But if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask or leave a comment below.
Sneak peak!
So I'm currently working on creating an interactive time line listing every Broadway musical in timeline form. Clicking on a musical will bring up it's opening and closing dates (also boxed in the timeline) as well as a brief synopsis and the original Playbill. This thing is gonna take me a hella long time to finish. But I think it could be really neat when it's all said and done. I've started in the 1940s. Once I get through the 40s I'll go live with it and continually add as I have free time. But here is a sneak peak below. You're welcome. I'm pretty great. I know.
