From FOLLIES to HAMILTON: The Evolution of Broadway
Broadway didn't become Broadway overnight.
Over more than a century, musical theater has constantly reinvented itself, evolving from elegant operettas and lavish revues to jazz-age spectacles, serious book musicals, dance-driven productions, counterculture experiments, mega-musicals, Disney adaptations, popcorn musicals, and today's jukebox shows.
In this episode, we'll trace the major trends that shaped Broadway history, explore why audiences embraced them, and look at how each era changed what musical theater could be. Along the way, we'll visit some of the greatest successes, a few spectacular failures, and one trend that never actually happened.
Whether you're a lifelong theater fan or someone who only knows Broadway through Hamilton, Phantom, Cats, or The Lion King, this is a fast-paced journey through more than a hundred years of musical theater history.
As always, one chapter is completely fake. See if you can spot it before the reveal.
🎭 Featured Topics:
• Operettas
• Follies & Revues
• The Jazz Age
• Book Musicals
• Dance Spectacles
• Dark & Serious Broadway
• Counterculture Musicals
• Mega-Musicals
• Disney-fication
• Popcorn Musicals
• Jukebox Musicals
• Broadway's Biggest Flops
Which Broadway era would you most like to experience in person? Also, what's your favorite show (and yes, Broadway Tours count.) Leave a message in the comments. Mine is BOM.
#Broadway #MusicalTheatre #Hamilton #PhantomOfTheOpera #Cats #TheLionKing #BroadwayHistory #TheatreHistory #musicals
Ggreg's List Episode 025
www.ggregslist.com
00:00 - Introduction: Welcome, this is my labor of love
00:18 - Prologue - Overview of Broadway and the flux capacitor takes is back to the 1880s
01:41 - Operettas - High Class theatre for Gilbert and Sullivan
03:15 - Follies and Revues - Ziegfeld (singing, dancing, no story)
05:59 - The Jazz Age - Broadway finds its mojo
07:32 - Book Musicals - Rodgers & Hammerstein put a story to the music
10:08 - Dance Spectacles - Story, singing, and amazing dancing
11:48 - Dark & Serious - A trip to the theatre might require emotion and thinking
14:24 - Counter Culture - Theatre rocks out and starts to test boundaries
16:16 - Sequel Fever - Broadway makes musicals based on the sequels to hit movies, ignoring the originals.
18:50 - Mega Musicals - Broadway decided to go big or go home.
21:41 - Disney-fication - Mickey and the gang take over Broadway and make bank
23:43 - Popcorn Musicals - Shows based on movies, with songs and dancing!
25:42 - Jukebox Musicals - Songs from your favorite musician, but with a Broadway show built around them.
27:29 - Epilogue - The outliers, the flops, etc.
29:32 - Song preview: Thank You, Places (about that moment before you walk onstage)