WHAT MUSICAL ARE YOU QUIZ
characteristically sentimental and amusing in nature, with a simple but distinctive plot, and offering music, dancing, and dialogue. OriginThe antecedents of the musical can be traced to a number of 19th-century forms of entertainment including the music hall, comic opera, burlesque, vaudeville, variety shows, pantomime, and the minstrel show. These early entertainments blended the traditions of French ballet, acrobatics, and dramatic interludes. In September 1866 the first musical comedy, The Black Crook, opened in New York City. It was later described as a combination of French Romantic ballet and German melodrama, and it attracted patrons of opera and serious drama, as well as those of burlesque shows. In the late 1890s the British showman and entrepreneur George Edwardes brought his London Gaiety Girls to New York City, calling his production musical comedy to distinguish it from his previous burlesques.
The genre took a new turn with the 1927 production of Show Boat (music by Kern, book and lyrics by Hammerstein); it was the first musical to provide a cohesive plot and initiate the use of music that was integral to the narrative, a practice that did not fully take hold until the 1940s. Based on the novel of the same name by Edna Ferber, the musical presents a serious drama based on American themes, such as racial prejudice, incorporating music that is derived from American folk melodies and spirituals. Among its notable songs is the classic “Ol’ Man River,” the best-known rendition of which is by actor and singer Paul Robeson.
