The Structural Transformation of American Musical Theatre
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B u I L BroaDway the structural transformation of american I musical theatre N G ALANNA Browdy professor stephen scott, thesis adviser barnard college, columbia university senior thesis in anthropology 25 april 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I fell in love with American musical theatre while riding in a Toyota Camry. On weekend trips to the library, my grandmother would buckle me in and play Broadway’s best and most classic soundtracks: The Music Man, Gypsy, West Side Story, and, of course, Oklahoma!. We’d get to the library, she’d still be humming, and I’d head straight to the audio-visual section to pick out another album that I could bring home and listen to for hours. I’ve always felt a connection to the stage and the reciprocal dialogue it fosters with its audience, existent in both the theatre and at home. So, when it came time to choose a thesis topic, it made perfect sense to conduct research and analysis on something that never felt like just a finite two-plus hour experience. There’s something culturally significant to be said about this art form and the way it engages and collaborates with its specific public. Writing this thesis has not only been immensely fun and challenging for me, but also an important reawakening of a critical part of my identity. I feel so grateful for this opportunity. Thank you to Professor Scott, an encouraging and introspective adviser, whose guidance and courses over the past few years have profoundly influenced my time at Barnard. I extend infinite amounts of gratitude to Professor Muir and the rest of the Barnard Anthropology department for providing me with thoughtful instruction and nuanced perspectives over the past four years. To Cameron Fegers, my intellectual spirit guide – your drive and passion for academia inspires me, and our friendship is pretty great, too. I’m equally thankful for my brilliant friends that teach me something new (and feminist and literary and political and artistic) every single day. To my family who has supported my theatre habit for over 22 years and who has also just endlessly supported me – thank you. Lastly, I express so much gratitude to my grandmother Beverly Jacobs who trusted me to care for and love what she cares for and loves. I aspire to live life with the same romance, attentiveness, and tenacity that you do. I ABSTRACT We normally look to the Golden Age of American Musical Theatre as a key moment in the making of Broadway, but when we do so we overlook a set of equally critical transformative processes that happened in the years following. During the Golden Age’s 25 year period, the musical found its legitimacy, introducing more audacious subject matter and thoughtful social commentary to the stage. But, as the musical evolved into a globally recognized art form, a duality emerged: artistry in a show was critical, but so was sacrificing certain artistic aspects in order to entertain a broader audience. Through this development, the stage was set for a gradual shift from luxury to mass appeal, artistry to generality. This shift occurred within specific social and urban transformations that have, together, come to shape what we think of as Broadway today. Supported by theoretical background and framed within explicit pieces of evidence and pivotal events, this thesis analyzes the popularization of the Broadway audience and stage. How did the two distinct but intertwined processes of gentrification and massification work together to develop American Musical Theatre as a genre, an institution, and a commercial industry? II TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................................... I ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................ II OVERTURE: ON BROADWAY ............................................................................................................... 1 SETTING THE STAGE – HISTORICAL AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ......................... 6 STYLE ....................................................................................................................................................... 7 EXPRESSION OF AMERICAN SOCIETY IDEALS ............................................................................. 9 “BROADWAY IS MORE THAN JUST A STREET” – GENTRIFICATION, MASSIFICATION, AND POPULARIZATION ............................................... 12 GENTRIFICATION ................................................................................................................................ 12 MASSIFICATION .................................................................................................................................. 14 POPULARIZATION ............................................................................................................................... 16 ACT I: GENTRIFICATION – THE WORST BLOCK IN TOWN ...................................................... 18 A NEW TIMES SQUARE ...................................................................................................................... 19 HOME RENOVATION .......................................................................................................................... 20 ACT II: MASSIFICATION – “APPLAUSE, APPLAUSE!” ................................................................. 23 CAST ALBUMS AND NATIONAL EXPOSURE ................................................................................ 24 MASS MEDIA AND HOLLYWOOD FOR BROADWAY .................................................................. 26 THE 21ST ANNUAL TONY AWARDS ................................................................................................. 28 ACT III: POPULARIZATION – TASTE AND THE THEATRICAL MASS .................................... 33 SHIFT IN TASTE: BOURDIEU ............................................................................................................. 34 A MASS THEATRICAL PUBLIC AND INSTITUTION: WARNER AND BALME ......................... 36 FINALE: TODAY’S THEATRE .............................................................................................................. 39 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................................................... 41 III OVERTURE: ON BROADWAY Today’s thriving Broadway theatre and its vivacious Times Square home are considered by most to be a central component of New York City’s identity. But ironically, the first time the importance of this relationship became clear occurred in a moment when Broadway went dark. Between September 18 and October 13 in 1975, nine musical theatres closed down following a strike by workers affiliated with Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians. For 25 days, musicians laid down their horns, actors took leave from their “eight-day-a-week” home, stage managers put their headsets on the shelf, and theatre house managers kept the front doors locked shut. For 25 days, the growl of Times Square, usually overflowing with confused tourists and eccentric street performers, was dulled to a soft roar. For 25 days, no tickets were sold, no seats were filled, and no money was made. The broader consequences of Broadway’s nearly four-week break and what kind of economic rupture such a halt would create were unknown at the time. And so, the League of New York Theatres and Producers (now known as The Broadway League) used the strike as an opportune time to seek answers. They commissioned Mathtech, a technical research and consulting firm, to produce the first systematic investigation of theatre’s indirect economic contribution to New York City and beyond. In this moment of vulnerability, Broadway bared all. Two years later, on February 22, 1977, the Impact of the Broadway Theatre on the Economy of New York City report was published. The results showed “beyond reasonable doubt” (1977: 40) that theatre’s contribution to the municipal economy extended beyond the neighborhood of Manhattan: Broadway existed as a driving force for the city’s economy and as such its success was paramount. By examining not only the financial statistics of the theatre and its producers but also the effects on surrounding industries, the report on the 1974-75 season 1 confirmed the mutual dependency of Broadway theatres and their audiences. For instance, while weekly gross before the strike averaged at $1,085,000 for all productions (musical and non- musical), during the strike this number fell to $229,500, and in the weeks immediately following the strike rose back up to $1,047,500. When the attendance for musical productions was zero, attendance for non-musicals only rose from 27,500 to 31,000 per week, and total combined attendance fell by 70 percent. Further, the report calculated that the industry directly contributed $43 million to New York City’s economy and no less than $5.7 million in tax payments. The report is significant not only because it illuminated Broadway’s economic viability, but also because it qualified the theatre’s transformation into a consumable commercial product. This thesis examines the structural transformation of New York theatre into the world- renowned popularized art form known simply as “Broadway.” It draws on the sociological concepts of gentrification, the physical revitalization of Theatre District, and massification, the use of mass media to make theatre accessible beyond the stage, to illustrate