The Greateat Classical Musicals of all Time

Back in the day, the style of music in musical theatre was basically the same style as the popular music of the day. But as popular music has moved on, musical theatre hasn't felt the need to catch up. There have been lots of exceptions, obviously, what with rock musicals and jukebox musicals and hip-hop musicals, but musical theatre as a musical style kinda settled into itself and didn't move with the times. So yeah, a lot of musicals are going to sound dated if they don't purposefully set out to align themselves with contemporary tastes.

Which is a perfect example of irony, as they specifically made up their own slang rather than using existing 1950s slang to prevent it from aging as quickly.

That's been exactly my thought too, though for me it doesn't make the classics appear dated but the new-ish musicals that stick with the classic sound of the 50's or - for me even more obvious - with the sound of the big belt pop operas of the 80's à la Les Miserables. Sure once in a while a truly outstanding song comes along but overall I'm pretty tired of the samey ballads. My problem with Stephen Ward wasn't so much the music though (it was kinda fitting for the 60's setting)  but the awful book.

It seems that whenever musicals -do- actually move with the times and manage to create the sound of contemporary mainstream music like Rent in the 90s and now Hamilton, they do make a huge impact and actually reach a younger audience. I dread a bunch of sub-par hip hop Hamilton-copycat musicals at the moment, but I think there's plenty of contemporary music going around that could and should be used.

I'd also like to note that those musicals who reach the mainstream like Rent and Hamilton have pretty clever lyrics with some lovely messages like "No day but today" or "I'm not gonna throw away my shot" which elevates them (IMHO) above the endless deluge of sappy love songs. During the last weeks I've been struggling with some issues at work that gnawed at my confidence and really brought my mood down and I found that I kept singing  "If mountains were easy to climb" since I had been listening to the Mrs Henderson CD quite a bit and I found the lyrics really inspiring and uplifting at that point.

And who knows, once young people "discover" musicals, they might start appreciating older sounds too for what they were/are just as people often discover jazz or swing or even classical music only at a riper rage. Me, I've only started appreciating operas when I turned the corner of 40 and I'm now trying to catch up and work my way through the opera canon (and still plenty to go!)  So why shouldn't teenagers weaned on Rent in the 90's not start taking an interest in the classics now they are reaching middle-age?

That's a great story. I think the reason it takes clever musicals to be musical watersheds is that audiences are exposed to a greater amount of media and are getting more sophisticated. Young audiences in particular can smell phoniness a mile away. So pushing the boundaries of musical theatre, folding in popular genres, and expanding beyond traditional audiences means not relying on the conventional suspensions of disbelief that frequent audiences get used to.

Oh good, viserys got what I was scrabbling for, and explained it so much more eloquently and beautifully. It's not so much that the old musicals date (as you all say, good music is good music is good music) as it is the newer musicals that emulate the classic style immediately sound more dated than a musical that goes "NAH I'M GONNA DO *THIS* INSTEAD".