This project investigates how the American musical reflected and engaged with key economic, social and political events and trends in order to sustain itself as a profitable, commercial form, from the late 1950s through to the late 1980s. Beginning with an examination of West Side Story (1957) as a reaction to a changing post-war American society and an entertainment industry in transition, this project positions the musical as an enduring form of popular culture which found continual success by embedding itself in the conditions of its production. The Civil Rights movement, Vietnam War, feminism and globalization are just some of the issues and events which the Broadway musical engaged with to create emotional moments for audiences to experience. This project explores the complexities of these relationships between the musical and its social and political context, to suggest it was by pursuing and navigating the events and issues dominating the United States in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s that the musical was able to maintain its commerciality, continuing to be manufactured for consumption today. Drawing on analysis of songs, libretti, media coverage and advertising, each chapter in this thesis contextualizes a set of landmark musicals within a particular social or political issue to ask how authors, producers and audiences sustained this commercial form. It will conclude with a discussion of the British invasion of Broadway, in particular of the last major musical of the invasion period, Miss Saigon (1991). With its opening and immediate success, the making and marketing of the Broadway musical had clearly shifted into being a global rather than exclusively American commercial venture.

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This thesis considers the discrete, historically-specific theatrical and musical sub-genre of ‘Rock Opera’ as a lens through which to examine the cultural, political and social changes that are widely assumed to have characterised ‘The Sixties’ in Britain. The musical and dramatic texts, creation and production of Hair (1967), Tommy (1969), Godspell (1971), Jesus Christ Superstar (1970) and other neglected ‘Rock Operas’ of the period are analysed. Their great popularity with ‘mainstream’ audiences is considered and contrasted with the overwhelmingly negative and often internally contradictory reaction towards them from the English ‘counter-culture’. This examination offers new insights into both the ‘counter-culture’ and the ‘mainstream’ against which it claimed to define and differentiate itself. The four ‘Rock Operas’, two of which are based upon Christian scriptures, are considered as narratives of spiritual quest. The relationship between the often controversial quests for re-defined forms of faith and the apparently precipitous ‘secularization’ and ‘de-Christianization’ of British society during the 1960s and 1970s is considered. The thesis therefore analyses the ‘Rock Operas’ as significant, enlightening prisms through which to view many of the profound societal debates – over ‘faith’ and ‘belief’ in the widest senses, sexuality, the Vietnam war, generational conflict, drugs and ‘spiritual enlightenment’, and race – which were, to some considerable extent, elevated onto the national, political agenda by the activities of the broadly-defined ‘counter-culture’. It considers subsequent representations of the ‘counter-culture’ as the root of a contested but enduring popular legacy of ‘The Sixties' as a period of profound cultural change.

Placing the musical theatre in the context of its most recent developments, between 1957 and 1989, the study begins by aiming to define the term, 'musical theatre',and notes the lack of serious critical attention paid to it. In the succeeding four chapters, the author constructs a basic model for critical analysis of musicals, rooted firmly in dramatic principles, not musical ones. He also examines: a) the inherent expressive qualities of its four basic media and their dramatic functions; b) the traditions and conventions which have developed to give theatrical life and dramatic significance to the form; c) questions of style as related to the musical,and, most importantly; d) the principles and process of synthesis,which, he argues, creates a new language of the musical and gives it its place as art. In the second part of the thesis, the author examines shows from the set period in relation to the four variables of his analytical model: i) the ideas artists want to express ii) the discovered devices of creation iii) the mechanics of presentation iv) public and critical response. By this means he explores the expressive range of the musical's recent history and its potential which continues to attract artists and audiences alike.

Cette thèse porte sur la comédie musicale américaine des décennies 1940 et 1950 à Broadway, illustrée par le répertoire du compositeur Leonard Bernstein. L'enjeu est d'analyser les différents mécanismes internes et externes de création des œuvres de cette époque. La comédie musicale étant un genre vivant à la croisée du théâtre, de la musique et de la danse, nous avons choisi de l'étudier selon plusieurs démarches : historique, structurelle, et typologique. D'un point de vue méthodologique, cette thèse s'appuie notamment sur l'analyse narrative et musicale de 156 musicals, et des trois comédies musicales de L. Bernstein en particulier. Dans un premier temps, la thèse se concentre sur la comédie musicale à Broadway dans les décennies 1940 et 1950, en explicitant les marqueurs historiques, narratifs, musicaux et chorégraphiques du genre. Dans un second temps, la thèse analyse le répertoire des musicals de L. Bernstein dans sa globalité, en interrogeant d'une part le style de l'artiste, et d'autre part la cohérence des œuvres entre elles et avec les canons mis en évidence dans la partie précédente. Enfin, l'étude de la comédie musicale On the Town (1944) explicite la genèse de l'œuvre, ses caractéristiques musicales et chorégraphiques, et la réception publique et critique du spectacle. / This dissertation deals with the American Broadway musical during the 1940's and the 1950's, illustrated by Leonard Bernstein's works. Our concern is to study the various internal and external processes of creation of these pieces during this period. As the Broadway musical is a lively genre overlaying theatre, music and dance, we chose to study it through multiple angles: through its history, its structure and its typology. From a methodological point of view, this dissertation will rely on the narrative and musical analysis of 156 musicals, and especially three of L. Bernstein's musicals. First this dissertation will focus on Broadway's musicals during the 1940's and the 1950's, and will clarify the genre's historical, narrative, musical and choreographic markers. Secondly we will study L. Bernstein's own musicals. We will make explicit the composer's style, and put to test the consistency of his works amongst themselves and with the genre's canons. Last but not least, our analysis of the musical On the Town (1944) we will highlight the show's genesis, its musical and choreographic markers, and its public and critical reception.