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Terminology

Musical Theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals.

Rock Musical and Rock Opera

A rock musical is a musical theatre work with rock music. The genre of rock musical may overlap somewhat with album musicals, concept albums and song cycles, as they sometimes tell a story through the rock music, and some album musicals and concept albums become rock musicals. Rock operas are sung-through productions with rock music scores and, like operas, have no spoken dialogue; all lines are sung.

Township Musical

"Township musical" is a term used to refer to a uniquely South African form of musical melodrama which evolved in the black urban townships of South Africa. In apartheid-era South Africa, the term "township" denoted a place that was anything but pastoral or idyllic. The townships were blacks-only suburbs, with shanties and cinder-block homes among the better-constructed residences, situated near large cities like Johannesburg. There were schools and churches, but very little in the way of organized entertainment. The form utilizes stock township characters and situations and melodramatic and moralizing plots in which good, sympathetic characters suffer as a result of the pressures of urban life and the machinations of evil urban characters, but ultimately triumph.

For more information, see Township musical.

Jukebox Musical

A jukebox musical is a stage musical or musical film in which a majority of the songs are well-known popular music songs, rather than original music. Some jukebox musicals use a wide variety of songs, while others confine themselves to songs performed by one singer or band, or written by one songwriter.

Introduction

Producers

Musicals have been a staple offering in the entertainment industry in South Africa and also a popular choice for schools, student productions and amateur dramatic societies. This discussion considers the production of musicals by professional theatre companies in South Africa.

African Consolidated Theatres

State-funded productions by the Performing Arts Councils (1961-1990s)

(CAPAB, NAPAC, PACT, PACOFS)

Independent producers during the Apartheid era

Brickhill-Burke

Bertha Egnos

Des and Dawn Lindberg/CAT Productions

Union of South African Artists

Dissolution of the Arts Councils

Cape Town Opera

Playhouse Company

Post-Apartheid era

KickstArt

Eric Abraham/Fugard Theatre

Packed House Productions

Johannesburg Civic Theatre

Richard Loring

Hazel Feldman/Showtime Management

American musicals in South Africa

While the key elements of musical theatre (spoken dialogue, song and dance) are rooted in the theatre of ancient Greece, the origins of the modern musical in the 20th century lie in operetta and music hall. From these emerged an evolved, increasingly-popular art form that was pioneered largely by American composer/lyricists like Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, brothers George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, and Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1943, Rodgers and Hammerstein collaborated for the first time with Oklahoma!, producing a piece of theatre that was to shape the nature of musicals for decades to come. This work is widely considered to be the first modern musical, primarily because of the musical's focus on character, plot and drama over novelty acts, speciality acts and witty songs - the conventions of earlier musical entertainments.

Details of known productions of American musicals in South Africa are included below.

Rodgers and Hammerstein

Composer Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and lyrics Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960) are arguably the most significant creators of musical theatre in the 20th century. Their eleven collaborations over nearly two decades (alongside their work with other collaborators) produced some of the most successful and popular works in the musical theatre canon. Many of these have been staged in South Africa (and are still popular choices for amateur companies and schools). Works staged in South Africa include:

Carousel

Cinderella

Oklahoma!

South Pacific

The King and I

The Sound of Music

Productions of work from their other collaborations:

Show Boat (Hammerstein and Kern)

The Desert Song (Hammerstein, Romberg, Harbach and Mandel)

The New Moon (Hammerstein, Romberg, Mandel and Schwab)

Lerner and Loewe

The work of lyricist/librettist Alan Jay Lerner (1918-1986) and German-born composer Frederick Loewe (1901-1988) has also proved popular across South Africa. Of their nine collaborations (between 1942 and 1974), five productions have been staged in South Africa:

Brigadoon

Camelot

Gigi

My Fair Lady

Paint Your Wagon

Kander and Ebb

Composer John Kander (1927-) and lyricist Fred Ebb (1928-2004) collaborated from 1962 until Ebb's death in 2004, and produced 15 musicals together. Their works staged in South Africa include:

Cabaret

Chicago

Jerry Herman

Hello, Dolly!

Jerry's Girls

La Cage aux Folles

Mame

Stephen Sondheim

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

A Little Night Music

Into the Woods

Side by Side by Sondheim

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

West Side Story

Alan Menken

Little Shop of Horrors

Sister Act

The Little Mermaid

Other productions

A Chorus Line

Annie

Annie Get Your Gun

Crazy for You

Fiddler on the Roof

Grease

Kiss Me, Kate

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Sweet Charity

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

Tomfoolery

Nunsense

Rent

Spring Awakening

March of the Falsettos/Falsettoland

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown/Snoopy!!!

Singin' in the Rain

British Musicals in South Africa

Noel Coward

Bitter Sweet

Oh Coward!

Cowardy Custard

Ivor Novello

Perchance to Dream

The Dancing Years

King's Rhapsody

Lionel Bart

Lock Up Your Daughters

Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be

Oliver!

Andrew Lloyd Webber

British-born Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948-) is one of the most successful composers of musical theatre in the 20th century. His works have been popular in South Africa and have been regularly performed by professional companies and amateur theatre groups across South Africa. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was first presented in South Africa in 1974, just a short while after the production debuted in London. Tim Rice, the librettist, played the role of 'Pharoah' during a short run in 1975. It has been produced many times since. His second major success, Jesus Christ Superstar, premiered in 1971, but was banned in South Africa as it was considered blasphemous. The work was subsequently unbanned and first staged in South Africa in 1991. Performances during the run of the first production in Cape Town in 1993 were disrupted by protesters who objected to the show's portrayal of Jesus. Evita was first staged in South Africa in 1981, and has also been staged several times since. Although first staged in London in 1981, Cats was first presented in South Africa 20 years later. Several members of the South African cast subsequently toured the production internationally. Other works by Andrew Lloyd Webber staged in South Africa include Sunset Boulevard, The Boys in the Photograph, Aspects of Love and The Phantom of the Opera.