An Exclusive from INSIDE Magazine
Do you know the first-time rock ’n’ roll was on Broadway?
Easy. Mott the Hoople played six shows in the Uris (now The Gershwin) Theatre May 7-11, 1974. Queen opened.
The first time rock ’n’ roll was on Broadway? As a musical style considered wholly legit by theater audiences and professionals? Presented in its raw glory with no attempt to make it fit Broadway’s pre-existing pigeonholes? Less easy.
You already know the happy ending. Broadway and rock have been carrying on together for years now. Proof of that is Stereophonic, presented in Morsani Hall April 28-May 3. The show received a record-setting 13 Tony® nominations and won five, including best play. And what is the play about? It’s about a rock band writing and recording rock songs for a rock album, all while struggling with sudden success and rocky romances.
Initially, rock just wasn’t on Broadway’s radar. The 1960 musical Bye Bye Birdie spoofed the hubbub surrounding Elvis Presley’s conscription. The songs, though, are Broadway fare, with only a couple of numbers sung by Conrad Birdie, the musical’s ersatz Elvis, featuring slightly more audible guitar parts. No big beat. No hillbilly bop. Will Broadway forever be clapping on the one and the three?
Rock and Broadway kept to their own sides of the street for most of the rest of the 1960s. The culture around them was changing significantly, though, in ways that would affect the arts as well as pretty much everything else.
Enter Hair. Subtitled “The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical,” Hair gave Broadway many gifts that Broadway may not have known it wanted: nudity, profanity, frank talk about sex, drugs and race. It also ran for 1,750 performances, and Broadway always wants that.
Musically, Hair used elements of rock, but the overall effect leaned more toward Broadway. Broadway audiences trended older than did rock fans, and since Hair already was pushing loads of hot buttons, nightly blasts of heavy metal thunder weren’t the ticket to success.
Even so, Hair announced that Broadway was ready for new ideas. One of those came from, and introduced the world to, a couple of unknown but ambitious Brits – Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. They recorded their rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, with working rock musicians.
With the album serving as a template, Jesus Christ Superstar brought stinging guitars and pummeling rhythms to the Broadway stage.
By the end of the decade, Broadway was playing host to, well, not the Fab Four but an “incredible simulation.” Beatlemania was basically a glorified tribute act, but it brought crowds in until the real Beatles sued it back to the stone age. Rock of Ages waxed nostalgic for ‘80s Sunset Strip metal complete with big hair and tight spandex.
The Who’s Tommy was a critical favorite and is set to tour this year. Green Day’s politically charged American Idiot album became a hit as well, further burnishing the bond between the Great White Way and rock’s Great Unwashed.
Stereophonic might be another step on the integration of rock and Broadway, as it’s a drama about the interpersonal relationships of the members of its unnamed band. The focus isn’t on the music. Perhaps it’s Broadway’s first rock non-musical.
Audiences will hear pieces of songs as the band records, re-records and fights over them. What they won’t hear are lyrics telling tales or dropping hints as to where the story is going.
Stereophonic is about dreams coming true. Put another way, it’s about dreams coming true and what happens because they did.
Meanwhile, Broadway and rock work will continue their fruitful collaborations, at least until every performer of any note has a jukebox musical in production.
FURTHER LISTENING: BROADWAY ROCK
This playlist features songs from Broadway musicals sung by the cast, Broadway show songs covered by rock performers, even a couple of show tunes repurposed as rock ‘n’ roll. Some of this is quite dark and a few dirty words might have snuck through, so proceed with reasonable amounts of caution depending on your sensitivity level. As Lou Reed once sang: “Life in the theater is certainly fraught with many spills and chills.” Preach, Lou.