Musical Documentaries - Broadway: The American Musical

PBS, 2004
Hosted by Julie Andrews
Directed by Michael Kandor
Music by Irving Berlin, George M. Cohan, and others

Tonight, we're going to launch a new occasional series. Documentaries and musicals have exploded in popularity in the last decade. People have increasingly turned to non-fiction programming on YouTube and elsewhere for news and information, while the song and dance on shows like America's Got Talent and Dancing With the Stars have reintroduced many viewers to live musical performance. That revival was just beginning when this miniseries covering the history of the stage musical was a major event on PBS in 2004. Is it as entertaining as many of the shows it discusses? Let's join Julie Andrews onstage at the Shubert and New Amsterdam Theaters in New York to find out...

The Story: Julie Andrews hosts six hour-long documentaries covering the history of the American stage musical, featuring interviews with either historians, people who lived through the era (or who knew people who did), and current stage and musical stars. The episodes are peppered with archival footage, stills of shows, song recordings, Tony Awards performances, and in the first three episodes, current stage stars acting as the "voices" of the stars of the early part of the 20th century.

Give My Regards To Broadway: 1893-1927 - We learn about Times Square's humble beginnings as the tenderloin Longacre Square, archetypal Broadway producer Florenz Ziegfeld and his famous Follies reviews, nervy writer/director/dancer George M. Cohan bringing a truly American sound to the New York stage, Jewish comedienne Fanny Brice, African-American comedian Bert Williams and the early experiences of minorities on Broadway, the Actors Equity strike of 1919, how World War I effected Broadway, and the creation of the first truly integrated musical, Show Boat.

Syncopated City: 1919-1933 - Spread from coast to coast by radio, talking movies, and syndicated news columns, New York's fascinating rhythms captured the heart of America like never before or since with flappers like Marilyn Miller who could look sweet and dance hot, blacks pushing for more of a presence in Shuffle Along, the success of jazzy young songwriters like Rodgers and Hart and the Gershwin brothers, writers and journalists like Walter Winchell creating a new, slangy American vernacular, Cinderella tales of pretty young girls who meet the millionaire of their dreams, and flashy singers like blackface-wearing Al Jolson and comedian Eddie Cantor. It all came crashing down in the early 30's, thanks to the one-two-three punch of vaudeville winding down, talkies causing talent to head west to LA, and the onset of the Depression.

I Got Plenty O' Nuthin: 1929-1942 - The Depression effected millions around the globe, and it hit Broadway especially hard. The difficult times created shows and talents that could never have come out more flush eras, including brassy singer Ethel Merman, bluesy Ethel Waters, and dancers Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. Hit shows included George Gershwin's ambitious folk opera Porgy & Bess, the the political satire Of Thee I Sing (which became the first musical to win a Pulitzer), and revues with a social conscious with songs like "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" and "Supper Time," the glamorous comedies of wealthy songwriter Cole Porter, and "Cradle Will Rock," an opera developed by the Federal Theater that was so politically charged, director Orson Welles and producer John Houseman had to have the cast perform it in the seats and boxes of the theater, because the government wouldn't let them onstage. Irving Berlin returns with the all-soldier revue "This Is the Army" as the US enters World War II.

Oh What a Beautiful Mornin': 1942-1960 - Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein were looking for new writing partners just as the US became involved in World War II. They turned the dramatic play Green Grow the Lilacs into the dramatic musical Oklahoma!, and turned Broadway on its ear. Oklahoma! was not only the biggest stage hit of the war years, but proved once and for all that the book of a musical could function as more than waits between songs. Their work inspired not only a new generation of songwriters like Frank Loesser, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Jules Styne, and Leonard Bernstein, but brought out some of Irving Berlin's best work in Annie Get Your Gun and encouraged Cole Porter to revive his career with Kiss Me Kate.

Tradition: 1957-1979 - Rodgers and Hammestein were hardly the only songwriters whose work enlivened the Golden Age of the American Musical. Starting with the darkly romantic smash West Side Story, Stephan Sondheim wrote shows like A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Pacific Overtures, and Sweeney Todd that pushed the boundaries of what the musical could do. Songwriters Kander and Ebb and director Harold Prince turned the decadent Caberet and cynical Chicago into brazen commentaries on American life in the mid-20th century. Even as Jerry Herman wrote music for effervescent and brash comedies like Mame and Hello Dolly!, the US was being rocked by cultural upheavals, including New Yorkers leaving a crumbling city for the suburbs, rock music replacing the Broadway sound in the hearts of many young people, and the Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movement causing a vast generation gap. Shows with up-to-date rock scores like Hair and Grease sought to recapture the imagination of the younger generation, while Jerome Robbins' Fiddler on the Roof and Bob Fosse's shows like Pippin introduced the musical to darker, more integrated dance routines.

Putting It Together: 1980-2004 - After years of decline, New York roared back to life as British producer Cameron Macintosh brought a series of massive London and Paris stage hits to the US. Miss Saigon, Cats, Sunset Boulevard, Les Miserables, and The Phantom of the Opera delighted audiences with their spectacle, larger-than-life plots, and gorgeous music. Stephan Sondheim brought out his final shows in the 80's and early 90's, including Sunday In the Park With George, the fairy-tale fantasy Into the Woods, and the daring off-Broadway revue Assassins.

The AIDS crisis of the 1980's cut a large swath through the Broadway community, killing many promising talents, even as the first show about a gay couple, La Cage Aux Folles, debuted. The success of the Disney company with their animated musicals in the 90's inspired them to bring these shows to the stage, beginning with Beauty and the Beast. Their restoration of the New Amsterdam Theater encouraged Times Square to finally clean up its act. Even as Broadway sees a revival with hits like the historical drama Ragtime and the comedy The Producers, the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 suddenly makes all Americans understand just how important Broadway and its productions are to the country's mindset.

The Song and Dance: What I love about this is the sheer amount of archival footage and interviews. Many of these people, especially in the first three episodes, are no longer with us, making the interviews doubly important. Those first three episodes in particular cover parts of history that don't often turn up elsewhere, like the treatment of early minority performers like Bert Williams, the 1919 Actors' Equity strike, and discussions of performers like Brice and Miller who aren't as well-known today. Some of that footage was hard to find until the rise of YouTube and other internet video streaming sites.

What I Don't Like: As comprehensive as this is, I wish it had gone even further into its subject. I would have liked to have heard more about the American operettas of the 10's and 20's and how they helped shape the modern integrated musical, for instance, or about German songwriter Kurt Weill, whose groundbreaking work included the 40's hits Lady In the Dark and One Touch of Venus. I also wish they'd found better footage - some of it was grainy or washed out, or just not in good shape, even for later shows.

Wish PBS would consider updating this. I'd love to see another segment covering more recent musicals, discusing the rise of hits like Hamilton, Into the Heights, Memphis, Dear Evan Hansen, Kinky Boots, Matilda, Fun House, Next to Normal, Come From Away, and even Disney's Frozen and stage version of Newsies.

The Big Finale: Even with the above caveats, what they do include is absolutely fascinating. If you love musicals, especially stage musical, and want to learn more about their history, this is a great place to start.

Home Media: Wildly out-of-print and unavailable for streaming at present - the Blu-Ray is slightly cheaper than the insanely expensive DVD set. Your best bet may be to look for this one used, like I did.

Blu-Ray