MUSICAL THEATRE

IN CONTEXT
 The 1960’s

A Fantastick Decade?
Hair!
“No matter the reaction to the content . . . I suspect the
form will be important to the history of the American
musical” O’Connor, J (1968).

Your analysis:
• Cultural
• Political
• Social
 1967 (off-Broadway) 1986 (transfer) with book and lyrics by
James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot

Tackled issues relevant to the Hippy counterculture

Vietnam, pacifism and patriotism, race, sexuality and sexual

freedom, use of mind-expanding drugs, environmentalism and
religion… wow!

HAIR
Hugely successful Broadway, London and global runs
 Hair…
…used music based on the psychedelic style of Jimi
Hendrix and the Grateful Dead rather than Show Tunes

…contained lyrics that were often rhyme-less, nonsense

words or lists

…employed chanting and repetition to evoke a hypnotic

atmosphere

…is openly proselytistic, preaching the gospel according

to Hippy Counterculture
 Colored Spade
Donna
Be-In

Walking In Space

Good Morning Starshine

The Flesh Failures (Let The Sunshine In)
 What was going on?
First Moon
Perceived
Did this result in shows
threat of
Vietnam War Landing Sexual
Liberation
Communism
featuring a Race
Space Liberated
Hendrix, Black
The
Not exactly…
Woman protesting against War
Cold War
Beatles,
Woodstock
Civil Rights
Act 1964
against theCrisis
Bay of Pigs
Communists while
Cuban Missile
The Pill
smoking a Spliff
Counterculture in her hi-tech
Chemical
Experimentation Feminism
Spaceship?
Anti-War
Hippy
Movement Movement Stonewall
Riots
The Bay of Pigs
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-
history/the-bay-of-pigs-invasion-begins

Cuban Missile Crisis

http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-
History/Cuban-Missile-Crisis.aspx
 Stonewall Riots
• Could be seen as the beginning of the LGBT movement in the US!

• On 28th June 1969, in at Stonewall Inn (a gay bar in Greenwich Village)

a group of gay customers, after harassment by police, took a stand and
a riot broke out.

• At the time, there were not many places where people could be openly
gay. New York had laws prohibiting homosexuality in public, and private
businesses and gay establishments were regularly raided and shut
down.

• The riots inspired LGBT people throughout the country to organize in

support of gay rights, and within two years after the riots, gay rights
groups had been started in nearly every major city in the United
States.
Counterculture
• Counterculture of the 1960s, refers to an anti-establishment cultural
phenomenon that developed first in the US & UK.

• As the 1960s progressed, widespread social tensions developed

concerning other issues, human sexuality, women's rights and
experimentation with drugs.

• New cultural forms and subculture developed, which celebrated

experimentation, bohemianism, and other alternative lifestyles such
as Hippies.

• Due to the relaxation on censorship and bands such as the Beatles,

creativity thrived and helped to define the counterculture
movement.
The Pill and Sexual Revolution.

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/peopl
eevents/e_revolution.html
Vietnam War
• The struggles began with communists fighting French
colonial power in the 1940s did not end until they seized
Saigon and control of the whole country in 1975.

• The "Vietnam War”; coined by Americans, refers to the

US military intervention from 1965 to 1973.
 The Fantasticks (1960)

Much More

A moving tale of young lovers who become

Metaphor
disillusioned, only to discover a more
mature, meaningful love. No advanced
Plantor
technology a Radish
spaceships…

They Were You

 Oliver! (1960)

Boy For Sale

A moving taleWhere
of a young (19th Century) lad
Is Love?
who falls into bad company, only to be
rescued by a woman who sacrifices herself
I’d Do
for him. StillAnything
no Feminism…

It’s a Fine Life (Reprise)

Reviewing the Situation (Reprise)

 Half a Sixpence (1963)

Half A Sixpence

A moving tale of two (Edwardian) childhood

She’sseparated
sweethearts, Too Far Above
by anMe
unexpected
inheritance but finally reunited when Kipps
discovers that money
Flash, can’t
Bang, buy happiness. No
Wallop!
Communist takeover and threat of nuclear
war…
I Know What I Am

Finale
 Hello Dolly (1964)

It Takes a Woman

A moving tale of a (19th Century)

matchmaking widow Motherhood
who finally remarries
when her dead husband sends her a sign
that it’sItOK to do
Only so. No
Takes Black Women,
A Moment
though Stereotypical Jewish Women (played
by stars who reinforce the stereotype) are
Before The Parade
OK… Passes By

Finale
 Funny Girl (1964)

I’m The Greatest Star

A moving tale
I Want ToofBea Seen
youngWith
(well,
Youshe was young
Tonight
in 1912) woman who finds fame but, sadly, not
enduring love (same star; same stereotype).
You Are Woman, I Am Man
No Gay Liberation…

Don’t Rain On My Parade

 Fiddler on the Roof (1964)

Matchmaker
Apologies for the glitch…
We’re all Ok now…
normal
service will
A moving be aresumed
If IofWere
tale as
A Richpatriarch
Jewish Man
come to terms with the modern (1905) world
soon
trying to as

possible… I blame
and its effect on his Yenta…
Toorthodoxy.
Life shelovecan be
No free
and sexual experimentation…
infuriating…
Sunrise, Sunset
 Cabaret (1966)

Perfectly Marvellous

It Couldn’t Please Me More

A moving tale of a young writer and a would-
be singerTomorrow
who fall inBelongs
and outTo of Me
love against
the background of the rise of the Third Reich
in 1931. Hey, look!
If You Politics.
Could How does the
See Her
show reference 1960’s issues by using a
1920’s
What political
Would Yousituation?
Do?

Auf Wiedersehen
 Summary
A decade unfolds with many new and
vibrant ideas…
... society is rapidly changing…

… yet most shows refuse to reflect this.

Nostalgia is still good business… until…

wait for next week!
 Goodbye!

Goodbye!

Happy
Holiday’s!