1950-1955 Musical Theatre

‘The Book musical’

Shifted musical comedy into dramatic and romantic musicals -with solid story line plots.

The way musicals were written, completely shifted changed from musical comedies/romantic to
deeper subjects.

Most popular stage musicals during this time period:

1. Signing in the rain

2. The King and I
3. West Side Story
4. White Christmas
5. Calamity Jane
6. Guys and Dolls
7. Can – Can
8. The pyjama Game
9. Damn Yankees
10. My Fair Lady

1. Broadway was the centre of American Popular culture. Every new season there was a new
stage musical, and it was a hit in the pop charts. The booming and recovering economy since
the second world war and the vast creative talent such as Rodgers and Hammerstein were in
huge demand.

2. Mary Martin and Ethel Merman were loved actresses by R&H. Example of their fame – Ford
Motor Company commemorated its 15th anniversary by sponsoring a televised revue with
the two actresses. It attracted over 60 million viewers and a live recording had sold over
100,000 copies in just 2 days. The stability of Martin and Merman was often used to secure
ticket sales in shows which is like what we see now – Think stunt casting we see today but
with celebrities. Most recently Cheryl Cole who will appear in 2:22.( I’m not comparing Ethel
and Merman to Cheryl Cole)Stunt casting can ensure a successful run of a musical as it
boosts ticket sells if the audience want to go and see a celebrity in a show. Clearly this was
happening with the use of Ethel and Mary during this time.

3. The R&H formula – focusing on characters and writing music, lyrics and story which permits
the audience to share the characters thoughts and feelings. This we can see hear and feel on
stage, it is drama to the highest scale. The singing acting and dancing is an extension of this,
not an interruption. This notion was introduced in the 1940s and the 1950s explored it.
4. R&H had 4 musicals running at one point – this was considered successful, and they were
the most potent writing duo in the industry. Lyrics usually came first with the duo. Awards:
34 Tony Awards, 15 Academy Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes, two Grammy awards and two
 Emmy awards. In 1998 Rodgers and Hammerstein were cited by the Time Magazine as
among the 20 most influential artists of the 20th century. Hammerstein Lyricist. Rodgers
Composer

Guys and Dolls 1950

Book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows music written by Frank Loesser. This musical comedy
premiered on 46th street Theatre which is now called The Richard Rodgers theatre. November 1950.
It ran for 1200 performances and won the Tony award for Best Musial, had a hit movie adaptation
and numerous of revival performances. The film version starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons,
Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine had the highest box office gross of 1955.

West End: May 1953 at the London Coliseum.

Reviews ‘This is why Broadway was born!’ Newsweek

‘The Beggars Opera of Broadway’ – Kenneth Tynan

Based off Damon Runyon’s short story ‘The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown’ which describes the unlikely
romance between a pure at heart urban missionary and a Broadway gambler. The second romance
of the story is between Nathan Detroit and Miss Adelaide who have been engaged for fourteen
years. This musical is regarded as one of the most well-constructed musicals in Broadway history.

Abe burrows the books co-writer, was a comic book writer who injected comedy into Guys and Dolls,
in a way which preserved the romance between our two couples. Burrows was fitting a story around
Loesser’s completed tunes and lyrics (music) which is the complete opposite to the works of Rodgers
and Hammerstein II. Hammerstein would work on the lyrics for weeks and Rodgers quickly produced
the appropriate music to support the text.

When Burrows and Loesser collaborated once again on ‘How to succeed in Business without really
trying’ (1961) they won the Pulitzer Prize. This allowed to further establish their works as
monumental in Musical theatre history.

Guys and Dolls was written in the post war optimism of the 1950s. American culture was defined by
the American dream and domesticity, accompanied by good morals. We know the typical 1950s
woman – married or yearns to be married like Adelaide does or a mother a housewife. Guys and
Dolls reflected the very strong gender roles present in America at the time.

Frank Loesser was the lyricist and born 1910 so he was very traditional in his views. We can see this
in his writings ‘Luck, Be a lady tonight’ where he writes ‘I know the way you’ve treated other guys
you’ve been with. Luck be a lady with me’. We can also see from the way women are written about –
when Sky bets with Nathan over convincing any woman of his choosing to fly to Havana with him for
dinner. Sky goes for missionary Sarah Brown. Musicals were written under the male gaze and for
male entertainment with the assumption that every woman wanted to be married and be a mother.
Women’s stories were not being written. Women were usually the subordinate party, and this was
the norm for musicals within this decade.

In today’s musical theatre we can see the progression from women being written as a ‘filler’ for
heteronormative relations (serving the male gaze) to women leading the show like we see in six or
heathers. I would argue there is less sexual interest and more fleshed out writing of women today
and of course there would be we are after all, in the third wave of feminism.
 Calamity Jane

Music by: Sammy Frain

Lyrics by: Paul Francis Webster

Adaptation by Phil Park and Ronald Hanmer

Premiered 1961 Fort Worth Texas. Calamity Jane has never made it to Broadway Stages and is a
rarely performed work in the professional realm.

1953 Doris Day, Musical Theatre performer starred in the title film.

Based off a real person – this was a woman who could shoot a rifle, didn’t shy away from drinking
and raised her family after being orphaned by her parents at the tender age of 16. She worked a
cook, nurse, a dance-hall girl, a waitress, an ox farm driver to name a few. Then she joined a scout
group and began dressing like a man. The name calamity means: An event causing great and often
sudden damage or distress: a disaster.

Set in deadwood 1870s, the wild west. Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickock get involved with helping
Henry Miller, the local saloon operator. He is nicknamed ‘Millie’ and promotes a beautiful actress
named Frances Fryer, but Frances is a boy and Millie is caught in a lie. The locals find out and
Calamity travels to Chicago to bring the real performer back to Deadwood. Calamity mistakes
Adelaide, the actresses’ maid as her (Katie Brown) and travels back to Deadwood. Katie confesses on
stage that her identity has been mistaken. The audience give her a chance and she win the hearts of
every man in town, including Calamity’s love interest Danny Gilmartin. Calamity gets over her
jealousy to discover her feelings for Wild Bill.

Notable song which most of us will know is ‘Secret Love’ sang by Doris Day.

This musical film saw a female lead look what was considered ‘masculine’ and is very different to the
American wife standard that we would have seen in American culture at the time and what we see
for example, in ‘Guys and Dolls’.

The film was made a success by Doris Day regardless of the testing subject. This was something new
to the American audience and perhaps therefore it only existed as a film for so long.

Calamity Jane had its British debut in 1974 at the Crucible in Sheffield. Since then, it has been
performed in Coventry, Sunderland Empire 1979, Ashcroft Theatre in Croydon 1979. Leicester
Haymarket 1994. Sadler’s Wells 1996. UK Tour in 2002. With the west end debut in June 2003 at the
Shaftesbury Theatre. Since then, it has been performed at The Wimbledon Theatre and Richmond
Theatre.
Why was calamity Jane not a success? Perhaps it was too out of the ordinary to see a woman
dressed like a man parading around with a rifle? It could have been shocking to audiences and
therefore it failed to take off on stage. Film made it more palatable because Doris Day was feminine
in her nature and the public knew her. The rise in revivals in the UK in the recent years presents us
with the opportunity to show this musical to audiences which don’t shy away from ‘masculine’
women.