SUBURBAN THEATER
599
The Upper Middle Musical Play
In the musical forms, the suburban transformations are just as
evident, though still more in process. The gags-and-girls extravaganza,
which featured popular songs, nude groupings, and (like the farce to
which it is so similar) burlesque skits, has vanished altogether, while
the satirical revue (the musical parallel to the satirical comedy) has
been exiled to nightclubs and off-Broadway. Impatient with "vul–
garity" and "college humor"-the favorite dismissive epithets for
these highly entertaining forms--the audience now flocks to the quasi–
serious musical play, introduced in the 'forties with
Lady in the Dark
and 0
klahoma.
Dominated in its early years, and even now to a lesser degree,
by Rodgers and Hammerstein, the musical play was traditionally a
romance enacted in an exotic setting (Polynesia, the Wild West,
Siam), and filled with cheery songs, wholesome dances, and occasional
tributes to The American Way of Life, while its major contribution
was an added emphasis on plot and theme, achieved through the
adaptation of light works. Many of the musicals being produced to–
day, however, are a good deal more serious than the light-hearted
creations of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The romantic plot of
South
Pacific
might have included, buried somewhere beneath its manifold
love songs and production numbers, a timid and irrelevant plea for
racial tolerance. Now, as the musical slowly converts from an exotic
romance to a problem play in contemporary dress, the entire work
is loaded with "sincerity" and "significance." Social phenomena like
juvenile delinquency
(West Side Story),
prostitution (
New Girl in
Town),
extra-marital adventure
(Most Happy Fella),
and the pa–
rental selfishness of stage mothers (
Gypsy)
are the new themes of a
form which labors to edify as well as to entertain.
The new musicals, in other words, are being constructed around
somewhat sturdier scaffoldings. Richard Rodgers still writes tuneful,
sentimental songs, but Leonard Bernstein and Frank Loesser are
working with symphonic and operatic modes; Agnes De Mille's danc–
ers are still kicking their heels over their heads, but the new chore–
ographer-directors (Jerome Robbins, Michael Kidd, Bob Fosse) are
introducing longer, more esoteric ballets, which often carry much
of the plot; Mary Martin and Ethel Merman still draw large audi–
ences, but now they are required to emote as well as sing, while
