BWW Reviews: THE STORY OF MUSICALS, BBC Four, January 2012

Amy Hanson

BBC Four’s The Story of Musicals ran in three parts over recent weeks and was an enjoyable, if occasionally closed-minded, trip into the world of the West End.  Covering the "rise of the British musical", it takes us from the poor state of musical theatre in the UK after World War 2 right up to the successes of the present day.  Narrated by Imelda Staunton and backed up by archive footage, the show featured contributions from many big names, including performers such as Sheila Hancock, Elaine Paige and Michael Ball, plus creative team members like Cameron Mackintosh, Tim Rice and Charles Hart.

The first episode started with the arrival of US smash Oklahoma, highlighting the differences between an inventive Broadway and a London theatre scene still stuck in pre-war nostalgia.  It covered British shows such as The Boy Friend (see a clip here), Oliver! and Half a Sixpence up to the famous partnership of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice and the emergence of the concept album in musical theatre.

Interviews were very insightful on shows that have perhaps received less attention than later successes, from the working methods of Lionel Bart, the writer of great British musicals, who could not read music (see a clip of Twang here), to James Rado, one of the creators of Hair, admitting that he took influence from Joan Littlewood’s Oh What a Lovely War in creating the show that coupled a powerful anti-war message with clever and experimental theatrical techniques.

Episode two focused on the British megamusicals of the 1980s, with the expected big hits of Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables and Starlight Express (remind yourself of the skating stars here and here).  Some of these shows ran for such a long time, and, in a few cases, are still running now, that it is easy to forget just how creative and important they were.    

We heard much of designers and choreographers having to deal with roller-skating actors, dancing cats and putting outer space on a London stage to make bold visual theatre that was accessible to the new West End audience of tourists from all over the globe.  In between these, it was nice that the rather heart-warming tale of Blood Brothers was included (see some excerpts here), with its humble origins as a play for schools and Willy Russell’s reluctance to bring the popular touring show back to London contrasted with its position nowadays as the third longest running show in the West End.

The third episode took us from the celebrity casting of Aspects of Love (see the wondrous Mr Ball in action here) through to the present day, covering topics such as a perceived backlash against UK transfers to Broadway, celebrity casting and jukebox musicals.  It highlighted controversies such as the protested casting of Jonathan Pryce in the Broadway transfer of Miss Saigon (some clips from the show here) and the huge public backlash against Jerry Springer: The Opera.

While both of these resulted in a lot of attention for their respective productions, much of this episode focused on the ways producers have been getting new audiences interested in musical theatre, from casting via reality television to adapting big name movies.

While The Story of Musicals acts as a great reminder that aficionados of British theatre have much of which to be proud, it does somewhat overemphasise the claim that “without the British, there would be no Broadway”. 

Some anecdotes make the fascinating case of just how things have changed over the years, from Sandy Wilson’s tale of being thrown out of the theatre in New York, literally, so huge changes could be made to The Boy Friend, to Lloyd Webber megamusicals being replicated exactly around the world. 

Yet to ignore Broadway’s own successes in favour of shameless patriotic triumphalism seems rather childish.  It seems narrow-minded too, in light of the international nature of so many of the shows featured, such as Les Miserables (see the latest clips from the show here), The Lion King and Mamma Mia! 

It was delightful to see that the show did not simply focus on the expected big successes, but also included a few notable flops and more obscure choices.  Indeed, it was a shock to see the likes of Twang and Time, but useful to highlight why some musicals succeeded and others, despite big name creative partnerships and huge budgets, never reached the same dizzying heights. 

Still, a lot of screen time was given to the big celebrity names of musical theatre, making the show at times feel like a strange romantic comedy between a young writer named Tim and a composer named Andrew, accompanied by many shots of the two in some fantastically 70s fashions and talking heads chronicling the ins and outs of their relationship. 

While the big stories of each production are usually covered, seasoned fans of musical theatre will smirk along at some of the omissions.   Some of the analysis was a bit trite, for example, the section on Chess suggested it had flopped on Broadway due to the Cold War coming to an end, but there was no mention of the hatchet job that had been done to completely wreck the book on its New York transfer. (Check out some of the reviews here.)

In some sections, critical reaction is seen to be the main way of judging whether or not a show has merit – Phantom of the Opera’s reviews being quoted as examples of its success, where it is implied that poor reviews were the reason for Aspects of Love’s Broadway closure. 

Yet, when discussing other shows such as Les Miserables and We Will Rock You, much fuss is made of how bad initial reviews were and how that had little effect on the long term fortunes of these productions.  It seems a strange shift in tone to go from dismissing critical opinion as not being integral to the success of a musical to suggesting that winning the hearts and minds of the critics is one of the greatest achievements a show can have. 

Another problematic implication saw the show suggesting that the other hallmark of a great musical was to transfer to great success on Broadway, implying that was surely the pinnacle of theatre in one breath while trying to trumpet the West End’s importance in the next.  For a theatre scene that the show describes as one of the cultural epicentres of the world, these seem to demonstrate a rather telling lack of self-confidence.

It is undoubtedly pleasant to see musical theatre getting some time and promotion like this, even if on a minor channel.  The fact that both “Les Mis” and “Starlight Express” both trended in the UK on Twitter for a time during and after the second episode shows that the appetite certainly exists for television of this ilk.  Perhaps most tellingly, the final montage of current West End shows reminded me of musicals I have been meaning to see for a while and encouraged me to start planning my next trip to London’s theatres. 

Did you watch the series? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below!

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