History of Musical Theater

Paper Summary:

This paper explores some of America's most important musical styles, which were usually found outside of the concert hall and represented such genres as comic opera, operetta, and other types musical revues. It looks at how these were usually located in the major cities like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and San Francisco. This paper provides a brief discussion of the history of these musical styles.

From the Paper:

"The "Great Depression" years, circa 1929 to 1940, created a huge impact on American music, for some long-existing institutions were forced to close their doors due to financial difficulties. The genre of the musical revue was also affected because of nationwide radio broadcasts that severely limited the number of people that attended live musical performances. As an example, "between 1929 and 1934, about 70 percent of all musicians in the United States were unemployed" (Crawford, 2001, 590). Thus, with the advent of radio and later television, the true musical revue and its related genres were doomed, and in light of today's technology have never fully recovered."

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