A very interesting topic. When I was a child, Broadway musicals were definitely mainstream, thanks to the Lerner and Loewe/Rodgers and Hammerstein tunes becoming pop standards, and Ed Sullivan regularly presenting excerpts from the latest Broadway shows to prime time television audiences (back when those audiences had only five or six channels at the most from which to choose).
My thought is that the change started in the 1970s. A string of mostly dreadful movies (A Little Night Music, Song of Norway, At Long Last Love, Mame, et al.) turned middle America away from musicals, while Broadway and its audiences were transformed by daring, innovative works like A CHORUS LINE. |
