Have you been keeping up with Broadway, West End, and local productions in Seattle? Over the past few years, I have noticed a trend of what I call historical theater, theater about historical events or people. It seems that every other musical involves a long-dead queen, king, or president, and I wanted to explore why. What makes a historical musical successful? What elements make historical musicals easier to make, and what elements make them more difficult?
Historical theater is not a new phenomenon. Historical theater, and historical musical theater, have been prevalent throughout musical history. Aside from musicals, the historical play was one of Shakespeare’s specialties. He wrote 10 historical plays, many of which were about past royalty. The topic has continued to be popular in more recent decades as well. In 1964, Funny Girl debuted on Broadway, which tells the story of famous actress Fanny Brice. Les Misérables hit the stage in 1980. Most recently, the last ten years have given us Hamilton (2016) and Come From Away (2017), along with others.
While historical themes have been central in storytelling for centuries, I’ve noticed a recent spike in historical musicals. One of the most successful being Six, which debuted in the West End in 2019. In recent years, Suffs, Cake the Musical, Titanique, and MJ have all taken stage on the West End and/or Broadway. Why?
Success behind recent historical musicals such as Hamilton, Les Mis, and Six have encouraged playwrights to share their own take of historical events through the stage as well. It might be my own biases, but I can see the influence of Hamilton and Six in these newer shows.
The automatic recognition historical musicals receive is likely a driving force behind their popularity. Adapting a well-known historical figure, story, or even time to a musical will automatically get some interest because people already know and are invested in part of your story. For example, when I first heard of Cake the Musical, a musical about Marie Antoinette, I was interested to hear what the musical’s take would be on such an iconic figure. If Cake was about original characters in today’s day and age, I wouldn’t have had that automatic interest. Using well-known stories for musical material is not unique to historical musicals. Almost all the musicals I know are based on a book, movie, or fairy tale that came before it. Using a story that already exists alleviates the work it takes to start a production from scratch. Musicals about history have the additional potential to challenge our assumptions about what we know and shine light on new ideas and interpretations of reality. Six, for example, spends most of the musical portraying the six wives of Henry VIII competing against each other in a singing competition for who had the worst time with him. Near the end of the story, however, the characters question the concept of doing “trauma Olympics” and even pointing out the fact that the musical, and most historical accounts, define these women by their experiences with Henry VIII, and not by their own lives.
The fact that musicals offer certain (and sometimes new) perspectives on history can be a double-edged sword. It is impossible for a musical to tell the entire story of history, or even an entire section of it. Because of this, the playwright must choose which facts to share and cut, just like many other forms of talking about or learning history. There is always something left out of the frame, and therefore a risk of selling a false or misleading narrative. Shakespeare’s historical plays, for example, can be viewed with some skepticism because of Shakespeare’s professional relationships with various royalty, likely influencing how the story was told and who was a “hero” or a “villain”.
Although using historical material can make for a recognizable story or comment on historiography itself, it still has some pitfalls. Historical musicals must be able to balance accuracy, political awareness, and entertainment in order to be successful. While musicals don’t have to be 100% accurate, they must have a certain degree of accuracy to the events they are based on in order to be a ‘historical musical’. Otherwise, it’s historical fiction. A musical also has to be somewhat sensitive to what the audience finds acceptable. This ‘political correctness’ element is not necessarily a bad thing or an obstacle to good storytelling. It is important for a musical’s success that it does not glorify events or actions that are nowadays frowned upon, as this interpretation may be harmful to their audiences. Entertainment, however, is the bottom line. A historical musical can have some inaccuracies, and even some questionable political statements, but if it doesn’t flow well, move people, or give them a laugh, it won’t be a hit.
Hamilton, a musical telling the story of the founding father Alexander Hamilton, is an example of a musical that manages to balance the three very well. Although the musical leaves out a few historical figures, and has a few minor inaccuracies, it is largely accurate. Hamilton is entertaining, thanks to the interesting real-life events and emotions that were pulled from history paired with the quality music. Hamilton also has comedic characters, like King George, which further adds to its entertainment. Hamilton also puts in an effort to be culturally conscious by highlighting well-developed females characters’ impact on politics and pointing out Hamilton’s efforts against slavery. Although a highly celebrated musical, Hamilton’s efforts to balance these three main elements can still be criticized. The play The Haunting of Lin Manuel Miranda criticizes Miranda (the creator of Hamilton) for ignoring atrocities committed by some of the characters to maintain his vision of their honorability, especially George Washington.
A musical that hasn’t gotten as much praise for its balance of accuracy, entertainment, and acceptability is Suffs, a musical about the suffragette movement, focusing on the life of Alice Paul. Suffs puts so much care into being politically palatable that it misses out on the other elements. A significant part of the plot focuses on the racism and competing interests within the suffragette movement, specifically in the last few years before the 19th amendment was established. This is obviously a hefty and nuanced topic politically that still has effects on today’s politics. The off-Broadway review by Maya Phillips in the New York Times describes it as, “a show too scared to miss anything that it becomes bloated with information.” It’s edited Broadway run, got better reception from the times, although the protagonist is still being described as “robotic” by Jesse Green. Musicals don’t reach Broadway by accident, however, and Suffs has gotten its fair share of praise, even winning a Tony for best original score and best book.
These elements seem somewhat unique to historical musicals. Aside from the obvious fact that a fictional musical doesn’t have to be historically accurate, there is also less pressure to be accurate from a social justice standpoint. If the playwright of a fictional musical doesn’t want to deal with topics like racism or sexism, they can simply leave it out of their story. If the playwright of a historical musical wants to do the same, they run the risk of sweeping a significant portion of the real story under the rug and coming off as if they do not care about nor understand such issues. With this in mind, it can be extra difficult to create a moving and entertaining story.
Overall, historical musicals can seem like a pre-written story, but they pose an extra challenge for their creators. When done poorly, a historical musical can feel like watching a sung-through textbook reading. At their best, historical musicals can make us rethink how we tell the story of the past itself, which is worth taking.
Leave a Reply