Musical Theater
- Barnum London production opened at the London Palladium on June 11 and ran for 655 performances
- Bring Back Birdie Broadway production
- Cats (Andrew Lloyd Webber) – London production opened at the New London Theatre on May 11 and ran for 8949 performances
- Dreamgirls Broadway production opened on December 20 at the Imperial Theatre and ran for 1522 performances
- March of the Falsettoes off-Broadway production
- Merrily We Roll Along – Broadway production opened at the Alvin Theatre on November 16 and ran for 16 performances
- The Pirates of Penzance Broadway revival
- Song and Dance London production
- Woman of the Year Broadway production opened at the Palace Theatre on March 29 and ran for 770 performances
Read more about this topic: 1981 In Music
Famous quotes containing the words musical and/or theater:
“Sometimes a musical phrase would perfectly sum up
The mood of a moment. One of those lovelorn sonatas
For wind instruments was riding past on a solemn white horse.
Everybody wondered who the new arrival was.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“It is not enough to demand insight and informative images of reality from the theater. Our theater must stimulate a desire for understanding, a delight in changing reality. Our audience must experience not only the ways to free Prometheus, but be schooled in the very desire to free him. Theater must teach all the pleasures and joys of discovery, all the feelings of triumph associated with liberation.”
—Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)