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Silence. A house once filled with echoing laughter and thudding footsteps had succumbed
to the nature of a broken home. Gone were the comforting sounds of the bustling household, and
Following my oldest brother’s departure for college and my parents’ separation shortly
after, I was desperate to fill the new void in my life. Mustering strength in a time of emotional
common people defy all odds, and better yet, they do it through intricate song and dance
I was exposed to musical theatre from a young age. My mom, a musical fanatic herself,
would sing songs from George M! and Lil’ Abner, as I danced in the living room. While driving
in the car, our playlist included songs from of The Broadway Kids and Sirius XM’s Broadway
station. Meanwhile, I spent my time screaming “Tomorrow” from Annie at the top of my lungs
while I coaxed our poor dog to play along. My brothers emerged unscathed from the years of
Broadway exposure, but musicals quickly captured my heart. When the footsteps had
Flash forward seven years. Feet propped up and head dangling off my bed, I am flipping
through pages of a book I received for Christmas, The Secret Life of the American Musical by
Jack Viertel, and a particular question jumps out at me: “If Shakespeare is England’s national
theater, aren’t Broadway musicals ours?” Viertel’s thought provided an excellent source of
inspiration.
Musicals were my personal source of solace, but it never occurred to me to view musical
theatre as an American art form. If Broadway is in fact our “national theatre”, then what
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element of the American musical binds the nation together? For over a century, musicals have
mirrored the changing ideas and social structures of society in the United States. American
people return to the stage time and again in search of reflection, discovery, and escape. Just as a
little girl relied on musicals to carry her through a difficult time, the American people have
always looked to the Broadway stage to find excitement and solace. This thought-process is what
ultimately led me to my question: How has the development of the Broadway musical come to
Millions of feet pound against the glistening pavement. In the same direction, hundreds
of heads bob up and down as they move forward like fish swimming upstream. The Manhattan
skyline stretches out before them, but the grey and tan tones are bland in comparison to the
golden marquee that appears to be the main point of destination. Horns blare and people shout,
while the crowd continues in the direction of the sign. As they near, the image becomes more
clear. There is a black silhouette of man pointing up at the sky, creating the fifth point to a star
shape. Bright lights outline the marquee, attracting growing numbers of people. A mob begins to
form in preparation for what many consider to be the “hottest ticket on Broadway”. This is the
Richard Rogers Theatre on West 46th Street in New York City, home to Hamilton: An American
Musical.
Hamilton, the smash hit creation of Lin Manuel Miranda, opened on Broadway in August
2015 (Paulson). Although it opened fairly recently, the musical plays an imperative role in the
shaping of American musical theatre. Lin Manuel Miranda’s production tells the story of
Alexander Hamilton with a modern twist; nearly the entire cast is made up of African-American
and Latino actors who tell the story through rap music. The musical combines elements of the
American Dream while incorporating political statements and social issues present in modern
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society. It is the perfect mix of classic American theatre that embodies a patriotic zest and
reflections on modern society, which make Hamilton’s run on Broadway the perfect success
story (Umehira).
The show attained great popularity, in part, from characters and storylines that relate to
throughout the show. Meanwhile, the Black, Latino, and Asian American actors that share the
stage lead audiences to view America as a nation of immigrants (Perez). Renee Elise Goldberry,
the African-American actress who originated the role of Angelica Schuyler, stated, “We have the
opportunity to reclaim a history that some of us don't necessarily think is our own” (Paulson).
Hamilton transformed from a simple idea into a revolutionary representation of current American
Students and history teachers are especially finding the show material to be relevant. In
in introduction to the cast of Hamilton at the 2016 Tony Awards, former president Barack
Obama stated that the show had become, “not only a smash hit, but a civics lesson our kids can't
get enough of … where rap is the language of revolution, and hip hop its urgent soundtrack”
(McGorman). Across the country, teachers are integrating Hamilton songs into lesson plans. At
the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York, an elective course for juniors and seniors on
the musical was added to the school’s curriculum. A high school teacher from the Bronx noticed
that students were singing songs from Hamilton the way they would sing Drake or Adele
(Schonfeld). According to the news stations KQED, “Hamilton is especially galvanizing for the
students who believe that stories about 18th century America are distant and irrelevant, as it
shows the Founding Fathers were real humans with real feeling and real flaws, rather than
bloodless, two-dimensional cutouts who devoted their lives to abstract principles” (Robinson).
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In an interview with Stephanie Carson, theatre director at the youth company Poison
Apple Productions in Martinez, Carson spoke of Hamilton’s role in the context of the entirety of
American musical history. Carson explained, “I would argue that Hamilton, is perhaps, the first
musical to draw in such a wide range of audience members. People who have never set foot in a
theatre before are flocking to see this show, which I believe is a great testimony to the show’s
draw to American people.” Carson continued to explain that although unique in its casting
choices and musical style, Hamilton is not the first Broadway show to showcase patriotic spirit
and tie in national popular culture. Hamilton, however revolutionary, follows in the footsteps of
American musicals that pushed boundaries and attracted audiences within their own time
periods. In order to understand the creation of Hamilton, one must understand the development
of American musical theatre and its relation to the American people on a larger scale.
Early musical theatre developed at the turn of the twentieth century, largely thanks to the
influx of immigrants to the United States. In the 1890s, immigrants from around the world
traveled to the great ports of America, like New York City, in search of success. As they
developed their own neighborhoods and ethnic enclaves, many new arrivals took advantage of
the stage to offer ethnic comedy, dance, and song to their fellow immigrants as a much-needed
escape from the hardships of daily life (Cantu). The theaters would shortly move uptown from
the peddler’s markets to the newly coined Times Square in the early 1900s, and it is here that the
Broadway business began to boom. Working within the theatre industry (which at the time
included vaudeville, variety stages, minstrel shows, and musical reviews) only required talent
and drive rather than education, wealth, or family prestige. The idea that a “nobody could
become a somebody” is what attracted immigrants to the Broadway stage. Performers dreamed
of climbing their way up the ladder of show business and appearing in a Broadway musical,
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believing that it meant not only acceptance as an artist, but also as an American. Many
vaudeville artists would become some of the most successful and patriotic Americans by way of
Broadway, representing ultimate fulfillment of “the American Dream” (Kantor). The idea that
anyone could make it big in America launched the development of early musicals, and also
provided inspiration for future shows throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
While the stage brought together a variety of cultures, individual shows united the nation
through common themes of American patriotism and aspirations. Oklahoma! by Rodgers and
Broadway in 1943. Many theatre historians claim that it changed the course of American musical
theatre, and signified the beginnings of the “serious musical”, where the subject served a stronger
purpose than the songs. More importantly, the subject matter connected to the American people
in a personnel way (Rich). Oklahoma!’s subject matter involved a love story set on the backdrop
of the American West, and became a classic example of a show that touched on American values
and assets. In The Secret Life of an American Musical, Viertel describes the social context
behind Oklahoma!:
It placed its rather romantic story against the context of impending statehood. It asked
audiences to consider courtship (and marriage, and the inevitable next generation) in the
was joined to responsibility to the land, to fellow feeling and patriotism, to an implied
new landscape for the musical theater, because in some profound way it was about the
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Oklahoma! was set at the end of the nineteenth century, but it appealed to the modern
audience at the time of its release in the 1940s. The musical opens with a middle-aged woman
churning butter in a barnyard, soon joined by a handsome farmhand who sings about the
beautiful morning (Hirst). Literally called “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,” the song transports
audience members to a time and place that was “so splendid in its simple beauty and virtue that it
was worth defending: it was America” (Viertel 28). In 1943, the Second World War was raging
in Europe and the Pacific, while American soldiers fought for liberty in the face of tyranny.
Despite being set in a different period, Oklahoma! appealed to audiences of the time because it
Long after the cast of Oklahoma! took its final bow, Broadway continued to showcase
musicals that touched on the American dream. West Side Story, which premiered on Broadway in
1957, narrated the love story of two teenagers that originated from rival gangs (the Puerto Rican
Sharks and white ethnic Jets) in New York City’s Upper West Side. The show, especially its
iconic song “America” elaborated upon the struggles that Puerto Rican immigrants faced in a
country dominated by whites, and expressed their desires to find a place within American society
(“West Side Story”). Further down the line, a show called Little Shop of Horrors (1982)
premiered on Broadway. This show expressed what the American dream means to the white
middle class of the early 1960s. The female protagonist, Audrey, sings about her dream of life in
the lower middle class with a matchbox house, chain link fence, and green lawn (Viertel 11).
More recently, In the Heights also by Hamilton’s Lin Manuel Miranda, ran on Broadway from
2008-2011. It is a more modern tale of American aspirations. Premised around the intersecting
lives of Latino immigrants and their children in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New
York City, the show deals with the desire for adults to make better lives for their children
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through the use of hip hop, salsa, and rap music to tell the story (Morris). Although theses three
shows were vastly different, they share the common theme of American people envisioning a
Musicals have experienced constant growth and development over the past century, but
one aspect of the American musical has always remained the same: reflection of social and
cultural issues within society (Rich). Monica Maddern, who taught music for twenty years and
has performed and studied professional musicals since the age of 18, talked about the influence
of society on musical theatre. “Musicals reflect society and history. Society reacts to situations,
but musicals react to society,” she shared. The ability to relate, according to Maddern, is what
makes the American musical so long lasting. Thus, musical theatre developed a formula for
success through the use of romance joined with current social issues, politics, and place.
Musicals of the 1920s for instance, reflected a nation that was rapidly modernizing. Jazz
music deriving from Harlem and popular dances of the twenties, like the Charleston (considered
cutting edge at the time) began to appear on stage (Maslon). Meanwhile, the language of
everyday people (slang, jargon, phrases from advertisements, radio, and the newspaper) was
being incorporated into the lyrics of shows (Viertel 22). Less than a decade later, the stock
market crash of 1929 ushered in a new wave of theatre that reflected an America plagued with
low spirits and unemployment. During this time, millions of unemployed Americans sought
relief from the government, including 20,000 theatre artists (Mordden 52). It was difficult to
keep theaters open for obvious financial reasons, and show subject matter turned towards the
Depression, union solidarity, and policies of the New Deal. Musical comedies that temporarily
relieved audiences of their troubles still had a presence on stage, but there was a significant
increase in shows with a strong sense of social criticism and political satire (Kantor).
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The Cradle Will Rock, produced by the Works Progress Administration in 1937, is the
perfect example of social change being reflected on stage. Introduced by President Franklin
Roosevelt, The Works Progress Administration was his response to the national unemployment
crisis. Under the program, 40,000 artists across the country were employed through music, art,
writing, and theatre projects. The Cradle Will Rock by Marc Blitzstein was a contemporary folk
opera set against the backdrop of a steel strike. While aggressive labor action spread across the
country, the show preached an extremely left-leaning, pro-labor message, which upset many
conservative members of Congress (Kenney). They attempted to cut funding for the show.
Worried the production would cause damage to the Works Progress Administration, federal
authorities shut the production down. The actors, however, were eager to preach their pro-labor
message to an audience, and performed the show 20 blocks across town in another theater. From
the seats in the audience actors voiced their parts, despite being warned that the show should not
continue (Trumble).
Following the Second World War, musicals that emerged mirrored post-war American
culture. The separate branches of escapism and social criticism that were the focus of Depression
Era shows, transitioned into an era of optimistic productions with an American spirit (Mordenn
78). During this time, Rodgers and Hammerstein established themselves as a successful writing
team and created musicals that reflected American ideals of the 1940s and 1950s. Many of their
shows (Oklahoma!, South Pacific, and the King and I for example) dealt with the eradication of
racial, ethnic, and cultural prejudices and the promotion of a more tolerant society (Kenney).
However, the plucky, optimism that dominated Rodger’s and Hammerstein musicals of the mid-
twentieth century, despite great success, was relatively short lived. As the country approached
the dawning of the 1960s, political topics including civil rights, the Vietnam War, and John F.
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Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 caused Americans to disregard the “naïve optimism that had
fueled the spirit of Broadway musicals” since the end of World War Two (Viertel 16).
Throughout the 1960s and 70s, Broadway struggled to adapt to the powerful culture shocks of
the era and break free from conventional musicals. It entered a period of provocative reinvention,
focused on social change and dominated by the musical genre of Rock and Roll. Hair, which
opened on Broadway in 1968, exemplified political unrest taking center stage. Directly from
Greenwich Village and with no specific plot, the musical represented America’s counterculture
movement and addressed hot topics like drugs, the Vietnam War, civil rights, space expedition,
and sex (Maslon). Broadway had opened its gates to a new generation of composers, writers, and
lyricists that responded to the end of postwar self-satisfaction and the beginning of a new age of
anxiety (Viertel 9). For the next several decades, the provocative showcases of political unrest
transitioned into blander musicals, often in the form of revivals or new works based on films.
Never the less, they continued to find inspiration from the nation’s social and political climate,
Musical theatre, throughout the twentieth century, embodied and developed into a truly
American art form. The form of entertainment blended together a collection of cultures, stories,
people, and ideas, while inviting Americans to escape their troubles of the outside world. When
necessary, musical theatre was also informative of changing times and served the purpose of
making bold statements. The stage bound people together through shared feelings of American
dreams, patriotism, and sociocultural unrest within society. Today, musical theatre continues to
break down barriers and draw in audiences. From vaudeville to Oklahoma! to Hamilton, musical
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Works Cited
Electronic
Cantu, Maya. “Broadway Musicals and the American Dream.” Bennington College Fall 2016
musicals-and-the-american-dream/.
Hirst, David. “The American Musical and the American Dream: from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim | New
www.cambridge.org/core/journals/new-theatre-quarterly/article/the-american-musical-and-the-
american-dream-from-show-boat-to-sondheim/E6B39C442E29031AD62FFF56AD0141BA.
Kantor, Michael, director. Broadway The American Musical Episode One: Give My Regards to
Broadway (1893-1927). Broadway the America Musical, Ghost Light Films, THIRTEEN, NHK,
www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/about/.
Kenney, Kaleigh M. Life-Like: American Society and the Early to Mid-Twentieth Century Musical .
The Research and Scholarship Symposium, 2016, Life-Like: American Society and the Early to
digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/research_scholarship_symposium/2016/podium_presentations/
Maslon, Laurence. “Elements of the Musical.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 1 Oct. 2012,
www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/essays/elements-of-the-musical/.
McGorman, Laura. “What Hamilton and Data Visualizations Have in Common.” Economic &
visualizations-have-common.
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Morris, Catherine A. “‘In The Heights’ Channels the American Dream | Arts.” The Harvard Crimson,
Paulson, Michael. “'Hamilton' Heads to Broadway in a Hip-Hop Retelling.” The New York Times, The
broadway-in-a-hip-hop-retelling.html?_r=0.
Paulson, Michael. “In the Heights: 'Hamilton' Reaches Top Tier at Broadway Box Office.” The New
artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/09/08/hamilton-with-higher-prices-would-make-a-treasury-
secretary-proud/.
Perez, Adam, et al. “Hamilton Broadway: History and Diversity.” Time, Time, 15 Dec. 2015,
time.com/4149415/hamilton-broadway-diversity/.
Rich, Frank. “A MUSICAL THEATER BREAKTHROUGH.” The New York Times, The New York
breakthrough.html.
Robinson, Ken. “How Teachers Are Using 'Hamilton' the Musical in the Classroom.” KQED, 14 Mar.
2016, www.kqed.org/mindshift/44137/how-teachers-are-using-hamilton-the-musical-in-the-
classroom.
Schonfeld, Zach. “'Hamilton,' the Biggest Thing on Broadway, Is Being Taught in Classrooms All
broadway-being-taught-classrooms-all-over-424212.html.
Trumble , Eric W. “The Federal Theatre Project.” The Federal Theatre Project, Northern Virginia
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Umehira, Kylie. “All Hammed Up: How Hamilton: An American Musical Addresses Post-Racial
Beliefs.” Boston University Arts & Sciences Writing Program, Boston University,
www.bu.edu/writingprogram/journal/issue-9/umehira/.
story/.
Primary
Mordden, Ethan. Anything Goes: a History of American Musical Theatre. Oxford University Press,
2015.
Viertel, Jack. Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows Are Built. Sarah Crichton
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