I think there's a strong case to be made for Parade, The Producers, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Hairspray, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Light in the Piazza, The Color Purple, and Grey Gardens as classic great American musicals. It all just depends on your criteria for "classic" and "great," which can be measured on a few different rubrics. But to me, any of those structures and scores could have been flown in from an earlier era of musical theater writing.
I've said many times before, I would consider 1996 to around 2008 one of the Golden Ages of musical theater. So all of these musicals, including the glorious Ragtime and Titanic, which Encores! reminded us last season is one of the finest scores, fit my theory. |
