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Acting Presidents pp 119–154Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Musical Presidents

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Part of the book series: The Evolving American Presidency Series ((EAP))

Abstract

According to Raymond Knapp, “the American musical is one of three distinctively American and widely influential art forms that took shape in the first half of the twentieth century,” the others being jazz and film.1 Of course, there had been musical productions in America well before then. The first was probably Flora in 1735, but it was a ballad opera imported from England. After the colonies became an independent nation, burlesques, consisting of parodies of well-known plays or famous performers, became popular. These too originated abroad, as did extravaganzas and spectacles popularized in the midnineteenth century. The first extravaganza written by Americans, The Black Crook, proved the most successful of its time. During the second half of the nineteenth century, foreign operettas by such notables as Offenbach and Gilbert and Sullivan were introduced, leading to American written productions beginning in the 1880s.2

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Notes

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Authors
  1. Bruce E. Altschuler
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© 2010 Bruce E. Altschuler

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Altschuler, B.E. (2010). Musical Presidents. In: Acting Presidents. The Evolving American Presidency Series. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230115316_5

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