Lecture 6 - Development of the American Musical

We have been talking, and last time I talked about the characteristics of what makes a musical musical and why it is a musical, and how it's different than from other forms of theater. We're going to spend some time now looking at the development of the American musical and exactly that's the reason why we're going to look at. Do this and that is, it is the American musical. This is our contribution to the world of theater. We are the ones who made it exactly how it is invented. It is a little bit we can go into that and get lost in various speculation, but we certainly know that we are the ones who brought together the form. We are the ones who developed this. We are the ones who used it then. And it has become the major staple in the American theater throughout the nineteenth century. Various kinds of musical reviews we talked about musical reviews last time. Musical reviews were extremely popular. One particular form that a musical review took was called a minstrel show. Now, a minstrel show was a form of entertainment which began somewhere late 1830s, 1840s, and it was white entertainers who blocked their faces and then presented material in which they sort of mimicked, especially the African-American slaves that they had seen on the plantations in the South. And using that as a kind of basis, then they developed a whole series of skits. In some cases, songs, music rhythms which they had seen there and it developed into a form with the white entertainer blocking his face and it's called the minstrel show. We eventually find that this develops into forms in which various entertainers write music specifically for the minstrel show and that is one of the most famous of it is the American composer Stephen Foster. And most of the Foster songs that we know today, such as "Oh Susanna," "Oh folks at home," "Beautiful Dreamer," "Camptown Races," "Swanee River," all of those written by Foster, were originally written by him to be sung in the minstrel shows. He was a member of one of the famous minstrel groups of the time and specifically wrote material for his group and for other groups to sing. And even after the Civil War, the minstrel show continued to be popular, and eventually many of the black entertainers found that this became an entry that they could have into show business themselves. And that is, they became then members of minstrel shows. And what we find, it's perhaps one of those moments in which we certainly cannot be proud, and one of those moments of degradation, but one must also realize, and that is that sometimes if the black entertainers were not black enough, then they found it necessary that they had to black their faces in order to be a part of the minstrel show. This was a part of the specific, very definite makeup. And that is, that a minstrel show always consisted of the black face, the white use of the white lips or the red lips, white or red lips. And this very definite makeup then was a part of the minstrel show. And even the black entertainers, when they became part of the minstrel show, continued this. The minstrel shows actually, while sort of faded out somewhere in the earlier part of the century, actually continued, however, right on down to the 1940s in terms of groups touring. They were especially popular in the South. And I grew up in Tennessee. And I can remember when I was a boy in the 1940s, that every two or three summers, I lived on the banks of the Cumberland River. And the Cumberland River flows into the Mississippi. And so what happened would be that there would be a boat which would come up from New Orleans, coming up the Mississippi River, then turn into the Cumberland, come around the Cumberland. And at each of those places they came up the Mississippi, and then in the Cumberland, it would stop at rather large towns. And at that point then... Present the minstrel show. The one I remember was called Silas Green from New Orleans. It would start with a boat docking and a parade of minstrel entertainers moving from the dock on the river side, crossing town to the African American section. They would set up a tent in a vacant lot beside the park and present the minstrel show. These entertainers were all African American and they would present their version of the traditional minstrel show, which had originated in the 1830s and 40s. This show is still being performed, even 100 years later. I mention the minstrel show specifically because it is one of the ways in which the music and rhythms of African heritage became part of American music. During the 19th century, vaudeville and burlesque also developed. In earlier times, burlesque was respectable, but it later became known for its emphasis on sexuality. Vaudeville and burlesque were full of songs and skits, often featuring production numbers. The music in vaudeville included popular songs of the day as well as specially written songs for the shows. This drew upon the various ethnic sounds that were becoming part of mainstream America, incorporating the musical heritage of African, Irish, English, Scottish, and German cultures. This mix of sounds and influences contributed to the development of American popular music. Most people consider the American musical to have started in 1865, although this is a convenient date. The title "The Black Crook" is often associated with the beginning of American musicals, but this was actually a result of pure accident. In New York City, a theater proprietor was preparing to present a melodrama called "The Black Crook." He started having doubts about its profitability, but then another theater proprietor approached him with a ballet group from Paris, as their theater had burned down. The first proprietor saw an opportunity and decided to combine the ballet group with "The Black Crook." He couldn't cancel the original production, so he came up with the idea to integrate the two. Thus, "The Black Crook" became a hybrid show with moments between the two productions. Scenes: the ballet group comes on and they perform well. By the time we get through, this thing has lasted five hours. From seven o'clock in the evening until just after midnight, it turns out to be a hit. It is a surprise to everybody. Now, what one must realize, among other things, is one of the reasons here. One of the reasons why it was possibly a hit is not just the material, but the ballet troupe. This is, remember, 1865. We are now in the middle of the Victorian period, and yes, the United States was, in many ways, as Victorian as England was. We perhaps had a somewhat different way of looking at it, but we certainly, in terms of clothing, women during this period of time, why wore clothes in which almost no part of the body was revealed. The collars came high and so then we came to here and we have the face. The sleeves come along and they come down to here and we have only the hands that can be seen. And of course, when we get down, the skirts go all the way to the ground. And then we have the stockings and we have the shoes. And so we see nothing down there. We have this ballet troupe, however, who are wearing what in ballet terms we call tutus. And that is, these skirts that are around the waist and are rather short. Now, there's no bare flesh involved here because, indeed, the ballet dancers did indeed wear what is comparable to what we call tights, but the limbs were revealed. That is, we could see real, honest, goodness legs down there. You could see real, and these tutu skirts and tutus were also in such a way that the arms were revealed. Well, this immediately began to bring to the stage something that could not be seen otherwise. It became very popular. Also, the other thing was the production. The Black Crook was thoroughly denounced from the pulpit. There is nothing better for theater to sell tickets than to get itself denounced by a religious group and to be denounced from the pulpit. And at which point, it became an instant bestseller. And this is exactly what happened to The Black Crook. Well, The Black Crook not only was successful at that point, it then, remember, this is long before the days of film or television or any other mass kind of communication at this point, then the owners of The Black Crook began to put together several different companies and they fanned out from New York and began to go across the country. They'd go east, they would go west to Pennsylvania and then on into the Midwest and eventually into California. They would go north and go to Boston and other places. They would go south to Philadelphia and on down the various urban cities along the eastern seaboard, presenting performance after performance of The Black Crook. In fact, The Black Crook continued in one production or another well into almost the end of the 19th century. So, for more than 30 years, we find some productions of The Black Crook playing somewhere in this country for a long time. And it kept coming back and playing in New York City, and then it would go out again, it would tour the country. Well, theater people are just like anybody else. And just like contemporary television, what happens in modern-day television when one television show catches on popularity, then next thing you know, the other networks begin to copy it and we have their version of whatever is the popular show of the day. And we have then three, four, five, six clones of the original production which is now very popular. Well, this is exactly, of course, what happens in the theater. The popularity of The Black Crook is recognized and this combination then of play, dialogue, characters, story, music and, in this case, the ballet. And even though it didn't fit together at all, it didn't matter. What did matter was that this then became a form in which other people began then to mix story and songs, characters and bring in a popular dance of the day and begin to develop musicals of one kind or another. And when we find between 1865 and for the next 30 to 40 years, there are a number of productions that develop using this combination, telling a story, having characters combining it with music, song, and dance. We find all of this really begins to come together best right after the turn of the century in an entertainer, composer, writer by the name of George M. Cohan. Now, George M. Cohan had come from a family who were Vaudeville entertainers. In fact, George grew up in a vaudeville and became very early on a member of the Cohan family of vaudeville entertainers. They went from one vaudeville theater to another theater and toured, and thus George grew up as a touring vaudeville entertainer. George, however, had other ideas about what he wanted to do. Finally, all this came together for him in 1905 when he wrote a musical called "Little Johnny Jones". Now, I say, what a musical! I should point out that what George M. Cohan did is he wrote the book, he wrote the lyrics, he wrote the music, he directed it, and he starred in it, along with the other members of his family: his mother, his father, and his sister Josie. So, we find George M. Cohan here, doing it all. He is writing a book, writing a story, writing the music, writing the lyrics, directing it, starring in it, and bringing his family in. It was an enormous success. We also find here that Cohan begins to write then, for the next ten years or so, a whole series of musicals which follow pretty much along the same lines of what he had done in "Little Johnny Jones". That is, writing musicals about somewhat fairly ordinary people people we recognize, people who are ordinary Americans. He was writing about himself, yes, in many cases. In fact, Cohan loved to glorify himself. But he loved also to glorify America, to glorify its people, its spirit, its beliefs. Every musical that he wrote in some way or the other celebrated this country. His family had come from Ireland. He had been born, however, an American, and he was proud of being that. And we find then Cohan writing a whole series of songs, all of which, in some way or the other, celebrate this country and its beliefs. "You're a grand old flag", "Give my regards to Broadway", "45 minutes from Broadway", and what became his own particular song which he wrote, called "Yankee Doodle Dandy". This indeed brings together all of these things that we've been talking about because Cohan now takes his heritage from which he has come, takes the vaudeville from which he grew up in, and knowing what works in vaudeville, he now writes a very specific form. That is a story with songs, with music, and most of all, what he does is he celebrates this country. And this is what specifically then makes it American musical comedy. And what we're going to find is that basically from this point, and that is from the earlier part of the 20th century, down through at least until we arrive at the 1960s, this is what the musical is, what the musical does, over and over again. And that is, it celebrates America. It celebrates and uses our sound, it uses the popular music of the day. And what we begin to find is then that the music of the musical begins to move back and forth. And that is, that which is popular music of the day is the sound of the American musical. The composers who write the musicals of the period are also the same composers who are writing that popular music of the day, and they then incorporate that sound into the American musical. So, this sort of trade-off, this moving back and forth, becomes a very specific source of energy for the American musical. And that is, the composers who write popular music also write the musicals of the day. They feed off each other, they stimulate each other, and the sounds of American music, and that is, those sounds which bring together those various sounds from ethnic heritage, the rhythms and especially the rhythms that we take over and use from the Africans, and we bring these together and we create then a music which is recognizably ours. That which is an American musical, an American sound. And it's that music that is a part of the musical. So, following in the example of George M. Cohan... We find then, very shortly, a whole number of American composers and writers. Now, I will mention Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, and the brothers George and Ira Gershwin. George writing the music and Ira writing the lyrics. Cole Porter also began developing the musical comedy genre, which emphasizes comedy and is light-hearted and full of merriment. In fact, frequently the stories were closed lines, which allowed composers to hang song after song on them. Here, we also find that many African-American writers and entertainers made their entry into the legitimate and professional theatre. We have previously discussed the minstrel show, but now they began to develop and write full-fledged musicals. These musicals incorporated the sounds, rhythms, and dances that they had developed. Some of the major popular dances of the period, such as the black bottom and the Charleston, originated in musicals written by African Americans. These musicals were presented on the New York Broadway stage and toured the country, and the dances were picked up out of the musicals and developed into popular dances of the period. Most frequently, musicals revolve around boy-girl stories. One of them sees the other, they fall in love, and they get together. The story allows the composer and lyric writer to write one marvelous song after another. The musicals of George Gershwin, with his brother Ira, feature numerous iconic songs that have become part of American popular music. The same is true for Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. In 1927, we come to the landmark musical "Show Boat." This production marks a turning point for the genre. The book and lyrics are by Oscar Hammerstein II, who adapted Edna Ferber's popular novel "Showboat" into a musical. Hammerstein wrote the book himself, including the dialogue scenes, following Ferber's storyline. He also wrote the lyrics for all the songs. The music is by Jerome Kern, who had received classical training in Germany but was more interested in writing popular music upon coming to America. Kern brought a sophisticated and educated sense of what a song should be to his music. In his earlier musicals, and particularly in "Showboat," Kern showcased how this knowledge of music could be incorporated into the songs and musical forms he composed. "Showboat" is often considered the first serious musical, even though it was categorized as a musical comedy. It presents a panorama of American life from the 1880s to the 1920s, starting on the levee of the Mississippi River with the showboat that traveled up and down the river, stopping to play at various towns. This connects to what I mentioned earlier about Silas Green from New Orleans. Show Boat would pull up to the levy, but instead of getting off the showboat and then pitching a tent and playing, in this particular case the showboat, the showboat was the theater itself. So this is a musical about a showboat where musicals are presented on stage. However, this is also a story going on and it's set in the South in the 1880s, so therefore it also deals greatly with the racial relations of the period. It shows us the difference between the white entertainers and the Africans who have a life along the Mississippi. It also concerns and has what is called the great miscegenation scene. Miscegenation is the unlawful marriage between races and this was, in most southern states, in fact, in many states in this country, it was against the law until the 1950s, even into the 1960s, for two people from two different races to marry each other. This was miscegenation, and there's the great miscegenation scene in which there is a white entertainer on the showboat who actually is black. She has one drop of African blood in her, and so therefore, under the laws of the South, she was black, even though she is white and even though she has passed for white. And there comes in the moment when the sheriff, who has heard of this, comes in. And at this point, then Julie, who is married to one of the other entertainers, denies that Julie is black and that she is, and says that she is a white entertainer. But the sheriff says, "I don't have evidence, but what I will tell you is, if she is black, you have an unlawful mixing here of black entertainers before a white audience, and this is against the law." And so what we find then at the end of the scene is Julie and her husband leave the showboat. There are also many comic scenes here within the showboat and so that it still continues in the vein of the musicals that have come earlier than this. There is also the romantic relationships that go on between Magnolia, who is the daughter of the owner of the showboat, and the man she falls in love with, Gaylord Ravenel. And we follow their romance and their marriage and their eventual leaving of the showboat and going to Chicago in the teens. And so we have the romance and the marriage and eventually the fact that Gaylord is a gambler and he leaves Magnolia and their infant daughter when he feels he can no longer support them. So we have characters with much greater depth, we have a story with a great deal more complexity than we have had before. We also, of course, have all of this and that is these stories and these characters are given the glorious music of Jerome Kern. And indeed, many of the songs there became a part of the popular pantheon of the day and still continue down to the present day. From Show Boat come such songs as "Make Believe," "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," and of course that quintessential and most famous of all songs from Show Boat, "Ol' Man River." What happens following Show Boat is that Show Boat remains, to some extent, somewhat an isolated example. And while it was enormously popular and it was superbly produced by one of the great showmen of the New York theater, Florence Ziegfeld, and it had a quite respectable run, a hit run in New York, there were productions, touring productions, that went out and it was quite popular across the country. But we find at this point that there are not many other people who are willing to follow and develop the serious form of musical comedy. The next step, perhaps, landmark we want to look at is 1931, the musical Of The I Sing. And in this particular case, music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and the book by two comic writers, George S. Kaufman and Morrie Riskin. Now, Of The I Sing turns out to be what it is, a satire, and it is a satire on our presidential elections. Candidate who perhaps is not the swiftest of characters, but who is certainly good-looking, and whose platform is what could anyone argue with? His platform is love, and so, thus, we find one of the leading songs in the show is "Love is Sweeping the Country," which becomes then one of our well-known songs from Of Thee I Sing, by George and Ira Gershwin. One of the other songs from the show indicates the bandwagon that we are going to be on here, which again has become well-known. "Wintergreen for President" and then, of course, the title song itself, "Of Thee I Sing." However, what makes this a landmark musical is not only that it is a satire on that which is very much an institution, and that is our presidential elections, but this becomes then the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for the best drama of the year. Therefore, Of Thee I Sing is given the Pulitzer Prize as the best drama for that year. This is the first time that a musical has been given this kind of an award, but to show the uncertainty of what this was all about, the committee gave the Pulitzer Prize to Kaufman, Riskin, and Ira Gershwin. They couldn't decide what to do with the music, so therefore, they didn't give a Pulitzer Prize to George Gershwin. They gave it to those who wrote the words. Well, that's the only time that's happened. And there have been a number of musicals which, since 1931, have won Pulitzer Prizes, and in all the cases after that, the composer was certainly included within the group. But what this does is it legitimizes the musical. It makes it legitimate. It gives it then what is one of the prestigious awards in the theater. There's the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, the Pulitzer Prize for drama, various other kinds of prestigious awards. This now puts the musical into that category and gives it then a legitimate status that it had did not have before. The Gershwins go on in 1935 to write another landmark, Porgy and Bess, taken from a novel by DuBose Heyward. DuBose Heyward also works with Ira Gershwin on turning this into... and what is it? Well, this is one of those things. It's one of those works. George Gershwin said he was writing an opera, and he called it a folk opera, and maybe that's what it is. But it also is very much the American music. It is very much the American sound. And yes, it is written like an opera. That is, it is through-composed, so therefore it has all of the things that one thinks of as in an opera. And it does have recitatives. And if you remember, I said a recitative is the sort of sung-spoke song dialogue that we have here. So it does have recitatives. But it was produced in a Broadway musical house to start with. And it does have, whatever they are, songs that became a part of American popular song. And that is just to name a few: "Summertime," "I Love You, Porgy," which has become one of the standards, a favorite for many jazz singers, "A Woman Is a Sometime Thing," "Bess, You Is My Woman," "It Ain't Necessarily So." All of those certainly sound like American popular songs and become a part of American popular songs. So what this is, I don't know that it matters. But it is certainly a part of and comes from the team which created part of American musical theater. Unfortunately, George Gershwin was to die from a brain tumor within two years of finishing Porgy and Bess, and he did not follow on what would have come from his pen. If he had been allowed to go on and develop, we might have seen many more works which might well have changed the course of where American musical theater was going. We also find from the 1920s and 30s the team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. They come together first in the mid-1920s, and they began writing musicals which are pretty much like the other musicals of that day, but they are full of songs. The wonderful, witty. Lyrics of Lorenz Hart and the marvelous music of Richard Rodgers. Starting in the mid-1930s, they began to do some experimenting with the form of what the musical is. In 1936, the musical called "On Your Toes" introduced a ballet as part of the last act. The ballet was called "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue." In this particular case, a ballet troupe performs the ballet as part of the musical itself. It's not totally integrated into the story, and this makes a difference when we get to Oklahoma within a few years. They then introduced serious dance, or one might say artistic dance, in 1936. Dance has always been a part, but it has been more in a popular form. In the 1920s, dances that were in musicals, like the Charleston, became popular dances and part of the dance craze of the American public. But in 1936, they introduced ballet as a part of the musical "On Your Toes." In 1940, they wrote a musical called "Pal Joey." This musical may be one of the great steps forward in many ways. It is very strongly book-centered and full of very specific characters. These characters are delineated in great detail, and we understand them very well as very specific individuals. But what sets it apart from other musicals is that it introduces plain old sex, specifically lust. In "Pal Joey," we introduce an older, rich woman who finds herself attracted to a younger man. She toys with him, and when she no longer finds him attractive or useful, she throws him out. The song he sings in the musical, called "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," had lyrics so suggestive that it was banned from radio for years and could never be played in its unbolded form. There is also another song in the show called "Zip," which is sung by a stripper. The song is about the stripper taking off her clothes, with each zip representing another piece of clothing coming off. However, the lyrics are not what you might think. She refers to Noel Coward, Stravinsky, Schopenhauer, and Rip Van Winkle. This is what she is thinking about as she goes through her strip routine. It's a very funny song. "Pal Joey" was not a hit and was thoroughly denounced by Brooks Atkinson, the leading reviewer of the New York Times at the time. He wrote that one could not draw good water from a foul well and thoroughly disliked the musical. Most other reviewers felt somewhat the same way and it closed rather quickly. Ten years later, a new production of "Pal Joey" was done and, by that point, times had changed after World War II. Many changes and loosening up had occurred, and the musical received a warmer reception. 1930s, when this Pal Joey, the original is 1940. So what we find now is that Pal Joey is proclaimed to be a masterpiece and this same Brooks Atkinson is still writing up for the New York Times. And this time, he recants. He says he is glad he has been given the chance to denounce, or to recant, recant his earlier review. And that he now sees Pal Joey for the masterpiece that it is. And to see it for its integration, its strength of story, its characterizations, and the fitting of song and characters together. This brings us then to 1943, to Oklahoma. Now at this point, Oklahoma is written by book and lyrics, in this case, by Oscar Hammerstein II. Now this is the same Oscar Hammerstein that we had. We go all the way back to 1927, the Oscar Hammerstein who wrote the book and lyrics for Show Boat. So this is what we now have. We have Oscar Hammerstein. Oscar Hammerstein has gone on, has written a number of other works after Show Boat. Most of them have not been successful. And so, in fact, he comes to the writing of this musical with a whole series of failures behind him. We bring together Oscar Hammerstein. We now bring together Richard Rodgers. Now Richard Rodgers is the same Richard Rodgers who had been writing a whole series of extremely successful musicals with Lorenz Hart. Who then, who did indeed write, as I mentioned, On Your Toes and Pal Joey and many other musicals. In addition to that, at this particular time, Hart had become more and more difficult to write with. And when offered the chance to develop Oklahoma, Hart turned it down and said no. He was not interested. It was not a particular kind of musical. The story was not one that interested him. So Richard Rodgers then turned to another person that he had known for quite some time. But with whom he had never written. Oscar Hammerstein. So, using the play by Lynn Riggs, "Paul Green Grow The Lilacs", these two people now began to turn it into a musical. Most people did not hold out any great hopes for the success of this particular musical. And that is Richard Rodgers of winding, with a new partner. And he had never written with anyone else but Lorenz Hart. Oscar Hammerstein had had a whole series of failures behind him. The producing organization, the Theatre Guild, was not having a particular string of successes. And this particular musical did not sound like it was going to be something. A musical life on the Oklahoma Territory right after the turn of the 20th century. This did not sound like what was going to be any kind of a successful musical. It opened then in 1943 with almost no hope of success. And overnight, everything was changed. It was a great success. Most of all, it became a celebration, at a very point in time a celebration of America. We are now in the midst of World War II. It reminded us again of the values that we held. Of what made us Americans. And what our American spirit was. In addition to this, it had, of course, the whole series of marvelous songs. Many of which I've already talked about earlier. It also introduces and brings to the team which staging this particular musical, it brings a ballet choreographer, Agnes DeMille. Now, we've already mentioned earlier that Richard Rodgers had, of course, worked with the ballet and worked with one of the great ballet masters of the period, George Balanchine, when they had written On Your Toes and the ballet Slaughter on Tenth Avenue had been given. Now, however, they bring in Agnes DeMille. And Agnes DeMille decides that they tell her that there is a ballet which comes near the end of the first act. And they said this is going to be a circus ballet. And Agnes listens to all of this and looks to see how these things are developing. And she says no. This is not a circus ballet. What does a circus have to do with pioneer life on the Oklahoma frontier at the turn of the 20th century? This ballet is a ballet about Laurie, about the character Laurie. And it is her dream ballet. It brings to the stage her fears, her fears off. Yes, she is. Going to the Box social with Jud Fry, but she is scared of him. She would wish to go with Curly but she is afraid that if she does, Judd will, in some way or another, attempt to harm Curly. So, in the ballet, what we play out is this dream in which Laurie goes to the Box social with Judd. Curley tries to intervene, and Judd kills Curley. All of this is a dream, but all of this is also told through ballet. It now integrates dance completely into the story itself, and this becomes the last piece that needs to come together to make everything fit. Because, what we now have is a musical in which all of the elements are totally integrated. This becomes what is frequently known and what is called the strong book musical. By strong book, I mean that everything - all the elements: song, music, dialogue, character, dance, and any other element we can come up with - all of these elements now combine to give us a unified whole to develop the story. Everything is there to move the story, develop character, so all of this is now unified around book. It is exactly this idea that is the unified strong book - the development of character, song, music, dance - all of it fitting together. This, for the next 20 years, is the primary form of the American musical. We can also see here that what we have begun to do is take a serious turn. By the time we get to the late 50s and we get to such things as West Side Story, which is the Romeo and Juliet story moved to New York in the 1950s, or Fiddler on the Roof from the early 1960s, which is a story of Jewish persecution in Russia under the Russian Tsar, and the eventual immigration of the Jews from Russia to perhaps America or many other countries: this is no longer comedy; this is now something else. This is now serious. And so, what we find then is that we have begun to move away from the emphasis on comedy. We still have comics; we still have comedy within it, but it is not the totality of what it was in the earlier times. We now have serious subjects here. We then have a total bringing together of all the elements. And for the next 20 years, then, this is what we begin to know as the Golden Age of the American musical. But what we also find is that this still continues to celebrate American life. Oklahoma! - what a celebration of the American frontier in Oklahoma just after the turn of the 20th century. The next musical - Brigadoon, right? Carousel, yes - taken from a Hungarian play, but what do they do? They transport it to New England, right after or at the later end of the 19th century, and develop the American characters of Carousel. South Pacific, yes - it takes place in the South Pacific, and, yes, it is about World War II, but the leading characters are all American soldiers, the American fighting force, and what happens to them in the South Pacific. So what we find here, then, is that we continue to celebrate America, to use American popular music for the composers, to move back and forth. But by the middle of the 1960s, this form of the American musical is in problems. It is in problems just as the American community, the American public, is in problems by the middle of.