The first American Musical the brief version

One of the classes I teach is Introduction to theatre. So a few quick notes on what is considered the first American musical.

First, musicals as we know them today have evolved over a couple hundred years. They are not the off-spring of operas. Actually, operas are the off-spring of classical theatre. Musicals are related to European operettas.

This is not going to be an academic piece...just a few notes.

First, my definition of a musical is a story with spoken dialogue with singing and dancing. Oftentimes using a chorus.

With that in mind...it was late summer of 1866 when William Wheatley was producing a convoluted melodrama by Charles Barras. Not far away, a Parisian ballet company was readying their own show when a fire destroyed their theatre. The ballet company's manager came to Wheatley and the two decided to collaborate.

Barras wasn't happy with this arrangement, but Wheatley appealled to the man's greed and $1500 shut the guy up.

The production was called The Black Crook. The story was based on a Germany tale where a crook-backed man makes a deal with the devil to live one more year if he provides the devil with a fresh soul each year. This first person he tries to send to the Devil is Rudolphe. Rudolphe saves a dove who turns out to be a fairy queen who helps him get away. There is a minor love story involved and in the end the bad guy is sent to the devil, Rudolphe gets the girl and everyone is happy. Not a great storyline, but oh well.

The production opened on Sept. 12, 1866 at Niblo's Garden. A theatre seating 3,200 people. Now imagine if you will, this play being performed when every so often a 100 fleshy, under-dressed ballerinas dance across the stage to songs like the March of the Amazons or You Naughty Naughty Men. This was at a time when women covered everything and these dancers were in flesh-colored tights. For shame! And no one even cared that the show ran for a butt-numbing 5-1/2 hours.

The play was decried from puplits and newspaper editorials, but that just made people want to see it more. It was a smash success grossing over a million dollars and running for 475 performances, an unheard of number considering that a good run was about 15 performances. The show was revived 8 times on Broadway and various tours popped up across the country.

A few years prior to the success of the Black Crook another similar play hit the stage, but no remaining copies of it remain that I am aware of and it didn't have the staying power of the Black Crook.

So what made this so successful? The war. Women had been working in the hospitals, running businesses and working the war effort. No longer did they feel restricted to their homes. They had tasted freedom and weren't going to give it up. Also the Civil War forced the railroad system to improve and after the war, the railways continued to run more efficiently moving people and productions.

Personally, I think the scandal of under-dressed women on stage was a huge draw. Women dressed in pants and tights -feminine legs- something that hadn't been seen before. And that was a highly intoxicating drug.