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Joshua Vega
English 200
Professor Bonca
15 December 2014
The Flirtatious Relationship of Rock n Roll and Musical Theatre
Musical theatre has been a part of American culture since the 1860s, with The Black
Crook considered by historians to be the first musical premiering in New York on
September 12, 1866. Rock n roll has been a part of American culture since at least the 1950s,
which saw the rise of acts like Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and
Little Richard, among many others. At first, it seemed these two art forms were worlds apart
from each other, with musicals belonging to the adult crowd and the more dignified, and rock
and roll belonging to the rebellious teenage counterculture. Then, in 1960, something almost
inexplicable happened: the two art forms mixed for the first time when the musical Bye Bye
Birdie produced and conceived by Edward Padula with book by Michael Stewart, lyrics by
Lee Adams, and music by Charles Strouse opened on Broadway. While not utilizing a full
rock score, the musical satirized teen romance and the rock generation with an Elvis-esque rock
singer named Conrad Birdie. In the past fifty years, the worlds of musical theatre and rock music
have become increasingly integrated, with the birth of the rock musical in the 1960s, the
popularization of operatic and theatrical rock by musicians such as Queen and The Who, and
Broadway adaptations of famous rock albums and songs from The Whos Tommy to Rock Of
Ages to Green Days American Idiot.

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After the initial success of Bye Bye Birdie between 1960 and 1961, Broadway saw its first
full rock score in Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical. The musical, which featured a
book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot, initially
opened off-Broadway in 1967, transferring to Broadway the following year. The musical
presented the lives of the hippy counterculture through a tribe living in New York, protesting
the Vietnam War, taking recreational drugs, and practicing free love. While controversial when it
premiered, the musical was not only the first to use a rock score, but was also significant for
being one of the earliest uses of a racially integrated cast, full nudity, and audience on-stage
interaction in a Broadway production. Hairs significance went beyond musical theatre, as it
spawned hit songs such as Aquarius, Hair, Good Morning Starshine, and Let the Sunshine
In. Despite being initially (and intentionally) ignored by critics, the original production ran on
Broadway for four years and played Londons West End for approximately the same amount of
time. Since then, it has seen several special concerts, revivals, and international productions.
With the success of the radically new Hair, it became clear that theatre was beginning to change.
In 1970, two young men from the United Kingdom named Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd
Webber composed one of the first true rock operas when they first released Jesus Christ
Superstar, which was initially released as a double LP rock album, as no theatre producer would
touch the work to due its controversial subject matter. The rock opera, which takes an alternative
look at the Gospel of Jesus and the figure of Judas Iscariot, was a moderate success in England,
and a Billboard number one album in the United States. This lead to a Broadway production the
following year and feature film adaptation in 1973. Since then, the rock opera has been revived
in England, Broadway, on tour, in concert, and regional productions almost non-stop, including a

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groundbreaking arena rock tour between 2011 and 2013. Rice and Lloyd Webber repeated this
success with their second rock opera, Evita, based on the life of Argentinian first lady Eva Pern.
Rock musicals continued to sweep musical theatre through the 1970s, but began to
decline in the 1980s, with only a few significant successes such as Little Shop of Horrors and
Chess. In the 1990s, however, came a resurgence, aided by the rise of punk rock and grunge. In
1996, Rent with book, music, and lyrics by Jonathan Larson opened on Broadway (just
three months after Larsons untimely death), and it quickly became one of the most significant
musicals of all time. A New York-set modernized adaptation of Giacomo Puccinis opera La
Bohme, Rent dealt with rising issues of the time, mainly the AIDS epidemic, which was largely
mysterious and was not well understood at the time of Rents composition. Larsons rock opera
ran on Broadway for twelve years, and currently holds the significant title of the tenth longestrunning musical in Broadway history.
Riding the hard rock wave of musical theatre following Rent, a new concert-style musical
entitled Hedwig and the Angry Inch opened off-Broadway in 1998, created by John Cameron
Mitchell with songs by Stephen Trask. The show, which presents an abstract concert performed
by East German transgender rock singer Hedwig and her band The Angry Inch, became a cult hit
in its own right. It was adapted by John Cameron Mitchell as a film in 2001, and premiered in an
all new production on Broadway in 2014, starring Neil Patrick Harris in the title role, for which
he won a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. Rock musicals continued to enjoy
significant success into the new millennium with Elton John and Tim Rices Aida, Spring
Awakening, Memphis, Bloody Blood Andrew Jackson, and Heathers: The Musical.

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The relationship between rock music and musical theatre is anything but one-sided. Pete
Townshend, guitarist and songwriter of English progressive rock band The Who, serves as a
prime example of the other side of the relationship. In 1966, Townshend composed one of the
first progressive rock songs a nine minute mini-rock-opera entitled A Quick One, While Hes
Away. The song, composed in six movements, was the first of its kind, telling a complete story
in nine minutes. A Quick One, While Hes Away served as the predecessor to an even more
ambitious project from The Who, the double LP rock opera album Tommy. Released in 1969
(about a year-and-a-half before Jesus Christ Superstar), Tommy told the story of a deaf, dumb,
and blind boy, following him through his life after a traumatic event causes his ailments. The
album was a rousing success that eventually led to orchestral concerts, a 1975 feature film
adaption, and a Broadway musical production in 1993.
The 1970s saw an influx of theatrically inspired progressive rock music. The Who
continued to release rock opera concept albums, the most significant of which was
Quadrophenia. In 1975, English rock band Queen released the Freddie Mercury composition,
Bohemian Rhapsody. The song quickly became a hit among fans and radio stations, despite its
length of nearly six minutes and its use of six distinct sections, constantly changing style, tempo,
and key signatures. In 1977, glam rock singer Meat Loaf released the song Paradise By the
Dashboard Light, composed by Jim Steinman. In the 1980s, the rock opera started to die down,
with few exceptions, such as Styxs Kilroy Was Here, which, while a commercial success,
received mixed to negative critical response.

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Jump forward to 2003, Oakland, California: almost a decade after the breakthrough
success of the album Dookie, American punk band Green Day sits in a studio after all the master
recordings for their upcoming album Cigarettes and Valentines have been stolen. After a period
of thought, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong decided that the band could do better. They began to
write new material, including thirty-second songs that the started to string together, when they
found their answer: Green Day was going to record a rock opera for the new millennium. The
result was 2004s American Idiot, which introduced a whole new generation to the rock opera
format. Five years later, Green Day followed up the album with their second rock opera, 21st
Century Breakdown. Both albums won the Grammy Award for Rock Album of the Year, and it
was official: Green Day had made the rock opera cool again, and Broadway was quick to notice.
After some time, rock music and musical theatre were not content with merely emulating
each others musical styles, but instead started to use cover versions to tell stories. Begging in the
1990s, jukebox musicals became a hot ticket for musical theatre, with musicals like The Buddy
Holly Story, Mamma Mia! (featuring the music of ABBA), Footloose (an adaptation of the 1984
film featuring songs from the original motion picture soundtrack), All Shook Up (a musical
adaptation of Shakespeares Twelfth Night featuring songs performed by Elvis Presley), Jersey
Boys (a biographical musical featuring the music of Franky Valli and the Four Seasons), and
Rock Of Ages (a musical comedy featuring the music of 1980s hair and glam metal bands). At
times, these musicals were considered to be lacking of artistry, usually utilizing particularly loose
stories, but this has not always been the case. Mamma Mia! opened on Broadway in 2001 and is
still currently running, making it the ninth longest running musical in Broadway history, and the
longest running jukebox musical. Jersey Boys has seen similar success, and was better received

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by critics when it opened in 2005 (it, too, is till running, making it the thirteenth longest running
show and second longest running jukebox musical on Broadway).
In addition to jukebox musicals, a few rock albums have been adapted for Broadway
themselves. 1993 saw the Broadway premiere of The Whos Tommy, which ran through June 17,
1995 and featured a new song composed by Townshend entitled I Believe My Own Eyes. In a
similar fashion, Green Days American Idiot opened on Broadway on April 20, 2010, closing a
year later on April 24, 2011. The innovative stage adaptation included songs from 21st Century
Breakdown, non-album b-sides, and a never-before-heard love song When Its Time, originally
composed by Armstrong around the time of the American Idiot album sessions for his thengirlfriend, now wife. The song added a touching and quiet love scene to the otherwise loud and
hard-hitting show. This, along with the Broadway debut of Billie Joe Armstrong as St. Jimmy,
helped to make the musical a success both on Broadway and on tour.
Rock n roll and musical theatre have long been considered an odd couple. As time
passes, the union becomes a little bit more standard, as more and more rock musicals are being
produced year after year. From the rock musicals humbly subdued beginnings in 1960s Bye Bye
Birdie, all the way through 2010s Green Days American Idiot and beyond, it is clear that the
flirtatious relationship of rock music and musical theatre is growing more and more serious. One
thing is for sure: rock and roll is here (in New York) to stay.