Rock musical
Encyclopedia
A rock musical is a musical theatre
work with rock music
. The genre of rock musical may overlap somewhat with album musicals
, concept album
s and song cycle
s, as they sometimes tell a story through the rock music, and some album musicals and concept albums become rock musicals. Notable examples of rock musicals include Hair
, Grease
, Rent
, Spring Awakening
, and Next to Normal. The Who
's Tommy
and other so-called rock opera
s are sometimes presented on stage as a musical.
. Styled "The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical," the anti-war free-love hippie
-themed, nude-scened Hair premiered in 1967 as the first production staged at the Public Theatre. It moved to Broadway
in October 1968. Your Own Thing
also opened in 1968 and featured a gender-switching version of William Shakespeare
's Twelfth Night. However, the first musical to hint at what was to come had been the final edition of the Ziegfeld Follies
in 1957. This production featured one rock and roll
number, "The Juvenile Delinquent." The song was performed by fifty year-old Billy DeWolfe. This was followed by another precursor to the rock musical, Bye Bye Birdie (1960)." Although rock and roll would have to wait for seven more years before returning to Broadway, these early, tentative infusions of rock into musical theatre paved the way for Hair and its progeny.
Jesus Christ Superstar
, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber
and Tim Rice
, began as an album musical
in 1970. The money made from album sales was used to fund the subsequent stage production in late 1971. This show and some other rock musicals that have no dialogue or are otherwise reminiscent of opera, with dramatic, emotional themes, are sometimes styled "rock opera
s". The musical Godspell
(1971), had similar religious themes (albeit with a less controversial treatment) and pop/rock influences. The genre continued to develop through the 1970s with shows such as Grease
and Pippin
. The rock musical soon moved in other directions with shows like The Wiz
, Raisin
, Dreamgirls and Purlie
, which were heavily influenced by R&B and soul music
.
The rock musical saw a decline in popularity through the 1980s. Except for a few outposts of rock, like Little Shop of Horrors
(1982) and Chess
(1986), audience tastes turned to shows with European pop scores, like Les Misérables
and The Phantom of the Opera
, as well as to more nostalgic fare. However, the rock musical achieved a renaissance in the 1990s, due in no small part to the popularity of Jonathan Larson
's Tony- and Pulitzer Prize
-winning rock musical Rent
(1996). This was followed by Off-Broadway
rock musicals like Bat Boy: The Musical
(1997) and Hedwig and the Angry Inch
(1998), John Cameron Mitchell
's Off-Broadway show about a transgendered rocker. The end of the 1980s saw the beginning of a new form, jukebox musical
s, such as Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story, Mamma Mia!
and Jersey Boys
, which feature the songs of a popular band, performer or genre.
The rock musical has seen a resurgence in the late 1990s and the 2000s, with shows by composers like Elton John
(Aida
, 1998), as well as a number of successful jukebox musical
s with rock scores. Recent major original rock musical productions include Duncan Sheik
's 2007 Tony Award
winner, Spring Awakening, Passing Strange
(2008), Rock of Ages
and Next to Normal (both 2009), and American Idiot
(2010).
of The New York Times
pointed out that all four of the musicals nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical
that year could be described as rock musicals. He analyzed the history and future of rock on Broadway:
Pareles commented, "rock has been transformed from nemesis to novelty to mainstay. ... Broadway productions can’t match the visceral impact – starting with volume – of a rock concert. (They try to make up for it with enthusiasm and slicker dancing.)" Another problem for rock musicals is that rock shows "still leave theatergoers complaining that the characters are hollow. ... [However,] Broadway does provide current rock two major incentives. As the artistic unit of the album has been shattered, down to a handful of shuffled MP3’s, musical theater offers a refuge for songwriters who want to tell longer stories, the way the songwriter Stew
did in his autobiographical rock musical Passing Strange
." Pareles also noted, "Broadway may be the final place in America, if not the known universe, where rock still registers as rebellious. In the decorous little jewel boxes that are Broadway’s theaters, raunch seems raunchier, and rock musicals flaunt four-letter words and lascivious simulations. ... There are, of course, commercial incentives. Broadway’s unbudgingly middle-aged audience is currently a generation that grew up on rock and R&B and generally feels more comfortable taking reserved seats in small theaters than plunging into the scrum of a standing-room club audience, or dealing with a rowdy arena mob."
Pareles attributed some of the new acceptance of rock as theatre to American Idol
and its ilk, noting that some of the show's stars have moved to theatre. Also, "Rock’s old protestations of authenticity (versus Broadway contrivance) have been crumbling. As if glam rock in the ’70s and music video in the ’80s weren’t obvious enough in presenting rock as theater, pop’s video-era arena spectacles use the same technology as Las Vegas revues and Broadway shows." Another driver of rock's acceptance is its own entry into middle age, Pareles said, noting that "as rock’s history stretches out ever longer ... it offers just as much room for ... the familiarity and nostalgia that keep the jukebox musical
s running. Still, Pareles concluded, "the last, crucial thrill of a rock performance – the unpredictability – stays just beyond Broadway’s reach. Two nights after the official opening of American Idiot, Green Day
itself played an unannounced encore. The show had poured on its razzle-dazzle. .... But Green Day set off pandemonium. ... Green Day’s members may not be able to act or execute choreography ... but they also hold rock’s wild card: the potential, realized or not, for spontaneity."
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
work with rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
. The genre of rock musical may overlap somewhat with album musicals
Album musical
An album musical is a type of recording that sounds like an original cast album but is created specifically for the recording medium and is complete entertainment product in itself, rather than just promoting or reflecting an existing or planned musical theatre production or revue...
, concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
s and song cycle
Song cycle
A song cycle is a group of songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a single entity. As a rule, all of the songs are by the same composer and often use words from the same poet or lyricist. Unification can be achieved by a narrative or a persona common to the songs, or even, as in Schumann's...
s, as they sometimes tell a story through the rock music, and some album musicals and concept albums become rock musicals. Notable examples of rock musicals include Hair
Hair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...
, Grease
Grease (musical)
Grease is a 1971 musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The musical is named for the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as the greasers. The musical, set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School , follows ten working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of love,...
, Rent
Rent (musical)
Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...
, Spring Awakening
Spring Awakening
Spring Awakening is a rock musical adaptation of the controversial 1892 German play of the same title by Frank Wedekind. It features music by Duncan Sheik and a book and lyrics by Steven Sater. Set in late-19th century Germany, it concerns teenagers who are discovering the inner and outer tumult of...
, and Next to Normal. The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
's Tommy
Tommy (rock opera)
Tommy is the fourth album by English rock band The Who, released by Track Records and Polydor Records in the United Kingdom and Decca Records/MCA in the United States. A double album telling a loose story about a "deaf, dumb and blind boy" who becomes the leader of a messianic movement, Tommy was...
and other so-called rock opera
Rock opera
A rock opera is a work of rock music that presents a storyline told over multiple parts, songs or sections in the manner of opera. A rock opera differs from a conventional rock album, which usually includes songs that are not unified by a common theme or narrative. More recent developments include...
s are sometimes presented on stage as a musical.
History
The rock musical became an important part of the musical theatre scene in the late 1960s with the hit show HairHair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...
. Styled "The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical," the anti-war free-love hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
-themed, nude-scened Hair premiered in 1967 as the first production staged at the Public Theatre. It moved to Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in October 1968. Your Own Thing
Your Own Thing
Your Own Thing is a rock-styled musical comedy loosely based on Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. It premiered off-Broadway in early 1968. The music and lyrics are by Hal Hester and Danny Apolinar with the book adaptation by Donald Driver, who also directed the original production...
also opened in 1968 and featured a gender-switching version of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's Twelfth Night. However, the first musical to hint at what was to come had been the final edition of the Ziegfeld Follies
Ziegfeld Follies
The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
in 1957. This production featured one rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
number, "The Juvenile Delinquent." The song was performed by fifty year-old Billy DeWolfe. This was followed by another precursor to the rock musical, Bye Bye Birdie (1960)." Although rock and roll would have to wait for seven more years before returning to Broadway, these early, tentative infusions of rock into musical theatre paved the way for Hair and its progeny.
Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical started off as a rock opera concept recording before its first staging on Broadway in 1971...
, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
and Tim Rice
Tim Rice
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...
, began as an album musical
Album musical
An album musical is a type of recording that sounds like an original cast album but is created specifically for the recording medium and is complete entertainment product in itself, rather than just promoting or reflecting an existing or planned musical theatre production or revue...
in 1970. The money made from album sales was used to fund the subsequent stage production in late 1971. This show and some other rock musicals that have no dialogue or are otherwise reminiscent of opera, with dramatic, emotional themes, are sometimes styled "rock opera
Rock opera
A rock opera is a work of rock music that presents a storyline told over multiple parts, songs or sections in the manner of opera. A rock opera differs from a conventional rock album, which usually includes songs that are not unified by a common theme or narrative. More recent developments include...
s". The musical Godspell
Godspell
Godspell is a musical by Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak. It opened off Broadway on May 17, 1971, and has played in various touring companies and revivals many times since, including a 2011 revival now playing on Broadway...
(1971), had similar religious themes (albeit with a less controversial treatment) and pop/rock influences. The genre continued to develop through the 1970s with shows such as Grease
Grease (musical)
Grease is a 1971 musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The musical is named for the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as the greasers. The musical, set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School , follows ten working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of love,...
and Pippin
Pippin (musical)
Pippin is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Roger O. Hirson. Bob Fosse, who directed the original Broadway production, also contributed to the libretto...
. The rock musical soon moved in other directions with shows like The Wiz
The Wiz
The Wiz: The Super Soul Musical "Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is a musical with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls and book by William F. Brown. It is a retelling of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the context of African American culture. It opened on October 21, 1974 at the Morris A...
, Raisin
Raisin (musical)
Raisin is a musical theatre adaptation of the Lorraine Hansberry play A Raisin in the Sun, with songs by Judd Woldin and Robert Brittan, and a book by Robert Nemiroff and Charlotte Zaltzberg....
, Dreamgirls and Purlie
Purlie
Purlie is a musical with a book by Ossie Davis, Philip Rose, and Peter Udell, lyrics by Udell, and music by Gary Geld. It is based on Davis' 1961 play Purlie Victorious, which was later made into the 1963 film Gone Are the Days! and which included all of the original Broadway cast, including Ruby...
, which were heavily influenced by R&B and soul music
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
.
The rock musical saw a decline in popularity through the 1980s. Except for a few outposts of rock, like Little Shop of Horrors
Little Shop of Horrors (musical)
Little Shop of Horrors is a rock musical, by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman, about a hapless florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on human blood. The musical is based on the low-budget 1960 black comedy film The Little Shop of Horrors, directed by Roger Corman...
(1982) and Chess
Chess (musical)
Chess is a musical with music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, formerly of ABBA, and with lyrics by Tim Rice. The story involves a romantic triangle between two top players, an American and a Russian, in a world chess championship, and a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other;...
(1986), audience tastes turned to shows with European pop scores, like Les Misérables
Les Misérables (musical)
Les Misérables , colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz , is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg, based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo....
and The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical)
The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux.The music was composed by Lloyd Webber, and most lyrics were written by Charles Hart, with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. Alan Jay Lerner was an early collaborator,...
, as well as to more nostalgic fare. However, the rock musical achieved a renaissance in the 1990s, due in no small part to the popularity of Jonathan Larson
Jonathan Larson
Jonathan Larson was an American composer and playwright noted for the serious social issues of multiculturalism, addiction, and homophobia explored in his work. Typical examples of his use of these themes are found in his works, Rent and tick, tick... BOOM!...
's Tony- and Pulitzer Prize
1996 Pulitzer Prize
-Journalism awards:* Beat reporting:** Bob Keeler of Newsday, Long Island, New York. For his detailed portrait of a progressive local Catholic parish and its parishioners.* Spot News Reporting:...
-winning rock musical Rent
Rent (musical)
Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...
(1996). This was followed by Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
rock musicals like Bat Boy: The Musical
Bat Boy: The Musical
Bat Boy: The Musical is a musical with a book by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming and music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe, based on a June 23, 1992 Weekly World News story about a half-boy, half-bat, dubbed "Bat Boy", found living in a cave....
(1997) and Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (musical)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a rock musical about a fictional rock and roll band fronted by an East German transgender singer. The text is by John Cameron Mitchell, and the music and lyrics are by Stephen Trask. The musical premiered in 1998 and has been performed throughout the world in hundreds...
(1998), John Cameron Mitchell
John Cameron Mitchell
John Cameron Mitchell is an American writer, actor, and director. He is best known for his motion pictures Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Shortbus and Rabbit Hole.- Early life:...
's Off-Broadway show about a transgendered rocker. The end of the 1980s saw the beginning of a new form, jukebox musical
Jukebox musical
A jukebox musical is a stage or film musical that uses previously released popular songs as its musical score. Usually the songs have in common a connection with a particular popular musician or group — either because they were written by, or for, the artists in question, or were at least...
s, such as Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story, Mamma Mia!
Mamma Mia!
Mamma Mia! is a stage musical written by British playwright Catherine Johnson, based on the songs of ABBA, composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, former members of the band. Although the title of the musical is taken from the group's 1975 chart-topper "Mamma Mia", the plot is fictional, not...
and Jersey Boys
Jersey Boys
Jersey Boys is a jukebox musical with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe and book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. It is a documentary-style musical, based on one of the most successful 1960s rock 'n roll groups, the Four Seasons...
, which feature the songs of a popular band, performer or genre.
The rock musical has seen a resurgence in the late 1990s and the 2000s, with shows by composers like Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
(Aida
Aida (musical)
Aida is a musical with music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice, and book by Linda Woolverton, Robert Falls, and David Henry Hwang, and produced by Walt Disney Theatrical....
, 1998), as well as a number of successful jukebox musical
Jukebox musical
A jukebox musical is a stage or film musical that uses previously released popular songs as its musical score. Usually the songs have in common a connection with a particular popular musician or group — either because they were written by, or for, the artists in question, or were at least...
s with rock scores. Recent major original rock musical productions include Duncan Sheik
Duncan Sheik
Duncan Scott Sheik is an American singer-songwriter and composer. Sheik initially found success as a singer, most notably for his 1996 debut single "Barely Breathing". He later expanded his work to include compositions for motion pictures and the Broadway stage, leading him to involvement in the...
's 2007 Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
winner, Spring Awakening, Passing Strange
Passing Strange
Passing Strange is a rock musical about a young African American's artistic journey of self-discovery in Europe, drawing on heavy elements of existentialism, metafictional comedy, and the Künstlerroman. The musical's lyrics and book are by Stew with music and orchestrations by Heidi Rodewald and Stew...
(2008), Rock of Ages
Rock of Ages (musical)
Rock of Ages is a rock/jukebox musical, with a book by Chris D'Arienzo, built around classic rock hits from the 1980s, especially from the famous glam metal bands of the decade. The musical features songs from Styx, Journey, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Steve Perry, Poison and Asia, among...
and Next to Normal (both 2009), and American Idiot
American Idiot
American Idiot is the seventh studio album by the American punk rock band Green Day. It was released on September 21, 2004 through Reprise Records and was produced by longtime collaborator Rob Cavallo. In mid-2003, the band began recording songs for an album entitled Cigarettes and Valentines...
(2010).
Analysis
In 2010, critic Jon ParelesJon Pareles
Jon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s an associate...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
pointed out that all four of the musicals nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical
Tony Award for Best Musical
This is a list of winners and nominations for the Tony Award for Best Musical, first awarded in 1949. This award is presented to the producers of the musical.-1940s:* 1949: Kiss Me, Kate – Music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Samuel and Bella Spewack...
that year could be described as rock musicals. He analyzed the history and future of rock on Broadway:
Rock’s takeover of Broadway was not the revolution that had been feared – or anticipated – ever since Hair ... Broadway held out for many years as a bastion against youth culture. ... Rock’s Broadway invasion has been, instead, a lengthy campaign of attrition, via demographics, shifting tastes and musicians’ ambitions. Every few years another production [was] touted as finally bringing full-fledged rock to musical theater: Rent, Hedwig and the Angry InchHedwig and the Angry InchHedwig and the Angry Inch may refer to:* Hedwig and the Angry Inch * Hedwig and the Angry Inch...
... Spring Awakening. Very gradually rock musicians have stopped treating Broadway as an adversary – or a punch line. And for fans it has become one more entertainment option, as prices for arena shows reach Broadway levels.
Pareles commented, "rock has been transformed from nemesis to novelty to mainstay. ... Broadway productions can’t match the visceral impact – starting with volume – of a rock concert. (They try to make up for it with enthusiasm and slicker dancing.)" Another problem for rock musicals is that rock shows "still leave theatergoers complaining that the characters are hollow. ... [However,] Broadway does provide current rock two major incentives. As the artistic unit of the album has been shattered, down to a handful of shuffled MP3’s, musical theater offers a refuge for songwriters who want to tell longer stories, the way the songwriter Stew
Stew (musician)
Mark Stewart , known by his stage name Stew, is a singer/songwriter/playwright from Los Angeles. In the early 1990s, he formed a band called The Negro Problem and later went on to release albums under his own name...
did in his autobiographical rock musical Passing Strange
Passing Strange
Passing Strange is a rock musical about a young African American's artistic journey of self-discovery in Europe, drawing on heavy elements of existentialism, metafictional comedy, and the Künstlerroman. The musical's lyrics and book are by Stew with music and orchestrations by Heidi Rodewald and Stew...
." Pareles also noted, "Broadway may be the final place in America, if not the known universe, where rock still registers as rebellious. In the decorous little jewel boxes that are Broadway’s theaters, raunch seems raunchier, and rock musicals flaunt four-letter words and lascivious simulations. ... There are, of course, commercial incentives. Broadway’s unbudgingly middle-aged audience is currently a generation that grew up on rock and R&B and generally feels more comfortable taking reserved seats in small theaters than plunging into the scrum of a standing-room club audience, or dealing with a rowdy arena mob."
Pareles attributed some of the new acceptance of rock as theatre to American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
and its ilk, noting that some of the show's stars have moved to theatre. Also, "Rock’s old protestations of authenticity (versus Broadway contrivance) have been crumbling. As if glam rock in the ’70s and music video in the ’80s weren’t obvious enough in presenting rock as theater, pop’s video-era arena spectacles use the same technology as Las Vegas revues and Broadway shows." Another driver of rock's acceptance is its own entry into middle age, Pareles said, noting that "as rock’s history stretches out ever longer ... it offers just as much room for ... the familiarity and nostalgia that keep the jukebox musical
Jukebox musical
A jukebox musical is a stage or film musical that uses previously released popular songs as its musical score. Usually the songs have in common a connection with a particular popular musician or group — either because they were written by, or for, the artists in question, or were at least...
s running. Still, Pareles concluded, "the last, crucial thrill of a rock performance – the unpredictability – stays just beyond Broadway’s reach. Two nights after the official opening of American Idiot, Green Day
Green Day
Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool...
itself played an unannounced encore. The show had poured on its razzle-dazzle. .... But Green Day set off pandemonium. ... Green Day’s members may not be able to act or execute choreography ... but they also hold rock’s wild card: the potential, realized or not, for spontaneity."
Further reading
- Wollman, Elizabeth L. The Theater Will Rock: A History of the Rock Musical, from Hair to Hedwig, University of Michigan Press (2006) ISBN 0-472-11576-1
- Warfield, Scott. "From Hair to Rent: Is 'Rock' a Four-Letter Word on Broadway?," The Cambridge Companion to the Musical, rev. sec. ed., William Everett and Paul Laird, eds., Cambridge University Press (2008) ISBN 0521796393