47 Fun And Fabulous Facts About Musicals: You Should Know About!

The history and emergence of musical theatre and Broadway shows are truly incredible.

Musical theatre is a form of art and theatrical production which combines dialogues, singing, dancing, and acting. It is also simply known as a musical.

Musical shows are usually amusing in nature and sentimental for the audiences, capturing various emotions like love, humor, anger, and pathos.

The stories and plots of musicals are generally very simple and distinctive to understand for all audiences. Theatrical or stage productions combine the arts of singing, dancing, acting, and spoken dialogue or sung dialogue which is often interspersed between musical numbers.

Such sung dialogue can be seen in musicals like 'Les Miserables', 'Jersey Boys', 'Hamilton', and 'Jesus Christ Superstar'.

A musical can be presented in large venues like for Broadway theater productions or in the theaters of London’s West End. There are also regional productions and those presented on tours by school children or amateur actors.

'The Phantom of the Opera' from Andrew Lloyd Webber is the longest-running Broadway show in history with over 10,000 shows worldwide!

The origins of musical theatre can be traced back to various forms of musical entertainment like vaudeville, pantomime, comic opera, burlesque, and music halls. Read on for some interesting facts about Broadway musicals. Afterward, also check facts about musical instruments and Matilda the musical facts.

Facts About Musical Theatre

Musical theatre works, also referred to most of the time as musicals, are performed in various countries around the world. Music has been a part of theatric presentations since their origin.

Modern western musical theatre, which is more popularly known as simply 'a musical' today, emerged in the 19th century in Britain, the USA, and many other countries like Germany, France, Austria, Canada, China, Japan, the Philippines, and Australia.

Today, Broadway is an epicenter of musical theatre in the USA which attracts millions of tourists and visitors even to this day, with some of them coming exclusively to watch the musicals. The three main components of a musical are the book, the lyrics, and the music.

The music and lyrics are put together to form the core of the musical, while the book comprises of the plot or play that the musical presents on stage.

There is no particular set length for musicals, as some musicals can run for only a couple hours with just one act, while some musicals can run for several hours and multiple acts with some even running for multiple evenings in a row.

Most commonly, musicals range for a span of 1.5-3 hours which includes two to three acts maximum.

There are several types of musicals, some of which are as follows:

Comic opera: which is also known as light opera. It is a sung dramatic musical, often with a happy ending.

Operetta: is also a type of light opera with light music and plot.

Musical play: plays performed as a musical that are not necessarily comic.

Musical comedy: comedy musical presentation dramas.

Burlesque: consists of comic skits, and sometimes striptease as well.

Music hall: includes a variety of entertainment forms like comedy, special effects, and popular music.

Some musical works can come under more than one type of musicals from these types as well as it need not be restricted to a certain type or genre.

Broadway Basic Facts

Today, Broadway is known worldwide as the heart of New York City’s culture of performing arts. Broadway is a street situated in New York City which starts from lower Manhattan and passes through New York.

It is located between the 41st and 54th streets from 6th Avenue to 9th Avenue. Broadway has about 41 theatres, but only four of them are located on Broadway street. These theatres are some of the largest and have a capacity of 500 people.

Other Broadway theatres are actually located in New York City’s theatre district, which can seat about 100 to 400 people at a time. Interestingly, the theatre district of New York City was one of the first streets in New York which was illuminated by street lights that consisted of white electrical bulbs.

Due to this, the street was named 'The Great White Way' in the 1890s. The first musical comedy which was presented on Broadway was 'The Black Crook' in 1866.

Since then, Broadway has become home to musical theatres. It has staged hundreds of musical comedies since the 1890s and early 1900s.

These musicals presented songs that were written by Tim Pan Alley and George Cohan, who created a very distinct style of music from that of the early styles of Gilbert and Sullivan's works. The shows which found success in New York proceeded to perform musicals all around the country.

The time period between 1943 and 1968, specifically after the release of Broadway's most famous musical 'Oklahoma! ', is said to be the Golden Age of Broadway.

'Oklahoma!'

was a musical that brought radical changes into the musical scene by having a very cohesive plot and songs which furthered and enhanced the plot while inculcating all aspects of musical theatre.

It was also one of the earliest dramas which used the art form of dance to actually further the plot rather than using dance numbers to present women in scanty clothing.

This musical went on to receive a Pulitzer Prize and was declared as a 'blockbuster' at the time, becoming the highest running musical at the time, putting up more than 2000 shows.

Musical Theatre History Facts

The very first musical theatre performance which happened in the USA, even before it was a country, was an English musical named 'Flora' in 1735. Until 1752, New York did not have any significant theatre performances as a form of entertainment.

That was when a British man named William Hallam sent a group of 12 actors to the American colonies and established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia. Some of the plays which this company put on were 'The Merchant of Venice' and 'The Anatomist'.

In around 1753, more acts were introduced by this company in the USA, one of which included a ballad opera named 'The Beggar’s Opera'. In subsequent decades, the presence of theatres and musical theatres grew in the USA and by the 1840s, an American businessman named P.T.

Barnum was operating his own entertainment complex in lower Manhattan.

In 1857, a musical named 'Elves' was one of the first longest-running Broadway musicals, which gave about 50 performances. In 1860, this record was broken by another musical named 'Seven Sisters', which ran in New York for about 253 performances.

In the 1890s and early 1900s, hundreds of musical comedies were presented in Broadway shows, which involved famous composers like John McNally, Gus Edwards, George Cohan, and John Walter Bratton.

This period of musicals continued well into the mid-1900s and gave the world various world-famous musicals like 'Oklahoma', 'My Fair Lady', 'Hair', 'Wicked', 'Phantom of the Opera', and 'Les Miserables'.

Another trend that arose in the 1900s was large corporations like Disney Theatrical Productions adapting a few of Disney’s animated films into musicals. Since then, films like 'Beauty and the Beast', 'The Lion King', and 'Aida' have been adapted into Broadway musicals. The Lion King is the highest-grossing musical in all of Broadway’s history.

Apart from Broadway, which is the heart of the musical theatrical stages, there are many off-Broadway and local and regional theatres that produce small-scale musicals and dramas. It is extremely expensive to produce a musical on Broadway, hence several upcoming musicals in recent years were actually produced in off-Broadway theatres.

Dramas like 'Fun Home' and 'Hamilton' were actually produced off-Broadway before they were launched as a Broadway show.

Speciality Facts About Musicals

Musicals, theatrical presentations, and dramas have been performed in several countries since ancient times. Musicals have their origin in Greek, Roman, and even Oriental and Indian cultures.

Today, one can watch a musical at huge and famous places like New York’s Broadway or London’s West End.

Apart from these, one can also enjoy musicals at small local and regional theatres, community theatres, fringe theatres, off-Broadway, or national and international tours which put on musicals from time to time and are commonly presented by school children and amateur actors.

Many countries apart from the USA and Britain have lively and thriving musical theatre scenes, including countries in continental Europe, Australia, Asia, and Latin America.

One of the main specialties of musicals is that they are always presented in the local language or the language of the majority audience. This makes it easy for everyone to comprehend and enjoy the musical, its plot, and the songs as well.

It is also known that musicals that are produced in Broadway or the West End are always in the English language, even if the musical is adapted from a foreign language.

Another specialty of musicals is the actors who perform in these musical shows. Apart from acting, these performers need to be trained in singing and dancing which needs a lot of practice and hard work.

A person who is equally talented and accomplished in all of these three skills is often referred to as a 'triple threat' in the musical scene.

The Origins Of Musicals

One prehistoric cave painting found in Ariege, France depicts a person who appears to be wearing a mask and dancing while playing a musical bow-like instrument. This cave painting is said to be the oldest documented evidence of musical history, which probably dates back to the Stone Age.

Many historians believe that the rise of musical theatre started in ancient Greece, more than 2500 years ago. It is believed that ancient Greeks held musical and dance performances in open-air amphitheaters and even staged tragic and comic dramas which included musical scores.

Playwrights like Aeschylus and Sophocles also composed their own music around the fifth century BCE to accompany the plays.

This was when music, seen as a means of entertainment, was on the rise. Soon after, Romans also followed the Greek culture and made their own songs and dances in a play, which were supported by orchestra music.

Romans improvised the effects used in the dramatic representation of musicals which can be seen even today in modern musicals and dramas.

The medieval period saw the rise of entertainers who performed comedy roles and music while traveling to different places. During the 12th and 13th centuries, religious chants and services were often preached and conveyed to the masses in the form of musical theatrical presentations.

In Europe during the Renaissance period, a comic musical presentation called 'Commedia del l’arte' was on the rise in which people dressed as clowns, performed to local stories, and gave dramatic musical and dance performances to entertain the people.

The 16th century saw the rise of opera, in which the performers used songs and orchestral music to tell various stories. Operas were performed in a wide variety of genres, which included tragedy, comedy, and romance.

Opera became very popular in European countries like Great Britain, France, and Germany.

Operas further evolved into various types like spoofing operas and comic operas. Musical theatre, as it is popular today, draws its inspiration mainly from opera and several other musical forms of entertainment like vaudeville, melodrama, American burlesque, and British music hall.

The Most Popular Musicals

'The Phantom of the Opera' has had the most number of performances while 'The Lion King' is the highest-grossing, most successful Broadway show of all time.

Some of the most popular and highly loved Broadway shows are 'The Sound of Music', 'My Fair Lady', 'West Side Story', 'The Fiddler on the Roof', 'Rent', 'The Producers', 'Wicked', 'Hair', 'Les Miserables', 'The Fantasticks', and the very recently released 'Hamilton'.

The Broadway League is responsible for collecting gross data, and they started calculating this data after 1984. Accurate data before 1984 is not available, hence the list of the top 5 most popular Broadway musicals after 1984 is as follows:

'The Lion King' generated a gross amount of $1.6 billion. It was first staged in 1997 and is still being presented today. 'The Lion King' has been performed 9195 times and is being continued still.

The Broadway musical 'Wicked' was first performed in 2003. This musical has generated more than $1.3 billion by putting up about 6278 shows, which are still being staged on Broadway.

'The Phantom of the Opera' is known as the longest-running Broadway musical to date as it has been performed more than 13,260 times! The musical first aired in 1988 and is continued to be performed to this day, being one of the most popular Broadway musicals of all time.

This musical generated a gross value of more than $1.2 billion.

'Chicago' was a musical that was first performed in 1975 and was staged for two years, closing in 1977. This musical was staged again in 1996 and is being performed to this day. 'Chicago' the musical has put on more than 930 shows which have produced a gross value of $656 million.

'The Book of Mormon' was first staged in 2011 and continues to be performed to this day. The musical has racked up more than 3640 shows throughout all these years, generating a Broadway gross value of $644 million.

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