The musical is a musical stage work in which songs, music, dialogues and choreography are intertwined in an amazing way. This is a relatively young musical genre, which was greatly influenced by operetta, burlesque, vaudeville, etc. Due to its entertainment, the musical is considered one of the most commercial theater genres, and because of the complexity of the staging process, much more money is spent on it.
The story of the emergence of a new musical genre
The starting point of this genre is considered to be 1866, when the first musical “Black Crook” was staged on the Broadway stage, in which melodrama, romantic ballet and other genres were intertwined. Since that time, the list of musicals has been constantly replenished with new performances. From the above it follows that America is the birthplace of this genre. At the beginning of the 19th century, American composers J. Kern, J. Gershwin, Col Porter gave the musical genre a truly American coloring: notes of jazz were seen in the rhythms of melodies, libretto became more complex, American turns appeared in the lyrics, etc. In 1932, the case reached the highest awards. George Gershwin was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the musical “I Sing About You” . The most famous performances included in the list of musicals are, of course, West Side Story (composer L. Bernstein) based on the Shakespearean tragedy Romeo and Juliet and Jesus Christ the Superstar to music by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. This talented composer also He is the author of other no less, and maybe more famous musicals: “Cats” and “Phantom of the Opera”.
Best Musicals: AFI List
In 2006, the American Film Institute published a list of the best American musicals in the last 100 years. We present to your attention this list:
- “42nd Street” - (1933).
- The Cylinder (1935).
- “The Floating Theater” (1936).
- “The Wizard of Oz” (1939).
- “Yankee Doodle Dandy” (1942).
- “Will you meet me in St. Louis?” (1944).
- “Dismissal to the city” (1949).
- “An American in Paris” (1951).
- “Singing in the Rain” (1952).
- “Theater Wagon” (1953).
- “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” (1954).
- “Guys and Pupae” (1955).
- “The King and Me” (1956).
- West Side Story (1961).
- “My Fair Lady” (1964).
- “Sounds of music” (1965).
- The Funny Girl (1968).
- “Cabaret” (1972).
- “All That Jazz” (1979).
- “Beauty and the Beast” (1991).
Despite the fact that, according to many, the golden age of musicals is left behind, over the past 13 years, many great films in this genre have been shot in Hollywood. Here is a list of musicals that are considered the best in the 21st century.
- “Dancing in the Dark” (2000).
- The Moulin Rouge (2001).
- “Chicago (2002).
- The Phantom of the Opera (2004).
- “Bohemia” (2005).
- Enchanted (2007).
- “Mamma Miya” (2008).
- Burlesque (2010).
- “Les Miserables” (2012).
- “The Goddess” (2013).
French musicals: a list of the best performances
Until 1958 , the musical was considered exclusively an American genre, but this year in London, the performance “Les Miserables” based on the works of the French writer V. Hugo was triumphant. The author of the music was Claude Michel Schonberg. Another work of this composer “Miss Saigon” based on the opera “Madame Butterfly” was a success on the Paris scene. The list of musicals by French composers includes productions of Starmania-Starmania (Michel Berger), Romeo and Juliet (Gerard Presgürvik), Notre Dame de Paris (Riccardo Cochcante), Mozart (Kunze and Levay), etc.
Russian musicals
The most popular musical in Russia over the years has been and remains the beautiful rock opera Juno and Avos. This is perhaps the most powerful work of composer A. Rybnikov. Today, the best Russian musicals are considered “Nord-Ost”, “Metro”, in recent years, the works of Notre Dame de Paris, Chicago, Cats, etc. translated into Russian have been staged on the Russian stage.