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Beautiful Mornin': The Broadway Musical in the 1940's
by Ethan Mordden
New York, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999
Ethan Mordden, who has previously written about Broadway musicals of the 1920's and 1950's, turns his attention to those of the 1940's in Beautiful Mornin'.
During the 1930's, the depression economics, Mordden tells us, "had all but banned the daring or even mildly unusual show," and the number of new shows each year had dropped from about forty-five in the 1920's to about fifteen by 1940. Morever, some of the Broadway talent had left New York for the movie musicals in Hollywood.
The 1940's was the beginning of a Golden Age of the American musical. "Before, [the musical] was fit but primitive; it is now rich, sophisticated. It has status, a powerful economic base, and is becoming globally important . . .. It is culturally secure, and that makes it experimental, bold."
Composer Richard Rogers and librettist-lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II were the team most responsible for the innovations in the musicals of the 1940's. Oklahoma, Carousel, and South Pacific with their strong character and atmosphere did not adhere to the forumlas of the old musical shows. Mordden explains how they differed, and how they influenced subsequent shows.
The book is arranged in chapters by subject matter rather than by chronological order. Kurt Weill wrote music for such a variety of shows in the 1940's that he is discussed in several of the chapters.
One chapter discusses the cast album, one of the significant new developments of the decade. Mordden's analysis of Kiss Me, Kate, appearing in that chapter, is especially insightful, pointing out that the strengths of the show successfully detract attention from the weaknesses.
Among the other shows discussed at some length are On The Town and Annie, Get Your Gun.
The book is well written, interesting reading for the devotee of the musical theatre. More general readers might not appreciate the wealth of detail.
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Beautiful Mornin': The Broadway Musical in the 1940s
at Barnes and Noble