More than a Musical

The last third of the twentieth century played a big role in transforming the musical theater into something more- a director's theater. American blockbusters of the era were almost all the products of directors who had risen from the ranks of choreographers: Fiddler on the Roof, Jerome Robins; Hello Dolly! and 42nd Street, Gower Champion; A Chorus Line, Michael Bennet. These shows excluded a new sense of what was physically possible on the musical stage. They were shaped by directors who saw performance and spectatorship through the lens of dance. Their approach to dancing may have differed. But they were driven by a common ideal in which Broadway show might now be more integrated through its movement and visual design than through its scripted material.

Follies is a concept musical, a show whose music, lyrics, dance, stage movement, and dialogue are woven through each other in the creation of a tapestry-like theme (rather than in the support of a plot). This has been a conscious development in a line of musicals that began with West Side Story.