CHAPTER 1 Background Tpoint he popular belief is that the mid-20th century represented the high- of the Broadway musical, as well as the movie musical. How- ever, the history of the movie musical is much broader than that. As we shall see, although those classic midcentury movies are still well known today and the nature of movie musicals has diversified, particularly since the 1960s, the musical is alive and well into the 21st century. As one might reasonably imagine, the history of movie musicals is intimately tied with the history of the stage musical. Therefore, let us examine the history of both genres and their intersections to gain a more thorough appreciation of how the movie musical developed and contin- ues to be an important part of popular culture. The history of the popular stage musical can be traced back to the early 18th-century Britain and John Gay’s work The Beggar’s Opera. This piece included tunes that were already part of the British popular culture of the day and was framed around a story that resonated among common people. In its use of popular melodies and characters that were not gods, goddesses, prominent historical figures, or literary characters from the upper class, The Beggar’s Opera represented an important landmark in the development of popular musical theater. Minstrelsy developed in the 19th century in the United States. Although blackface minstrel shows were based on stereotypes of African Americans and racist humor and were basically plotless, they introduced styles and forms at least tangentially connected to African American music. This helped broaden the scope of what audiences might reasonably expect in musical theater, particularly in the United States. Although operettas from the British duo of W. S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan and vari- ous other European composers were popular in the United States in the
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