Musical Theatre and Comedy
The American and British musical owes a tremendous debt to Gilbert and Sullivan, who introduced innovations in content and form that directly influenced the development of musical theatre through the 20th century. According to theatre historian John Bush Jones, Gilbert and Sullivan were "the primary progenitors of the twentieth century American musical" in which book, music and lyrics combine to form an integrated whole, and they demonstrated "that musicals can address contemporary social and political issues without sacrificing entertainment value".
Gilbert's complex rhyme schemes and satirical lyrics served as a model for Edwardian musical comedy writers such as Adrian Ross and Owen Hall, and for such 20th century Broadway lyricists as P. G. Wodehouse, Cole Porter, Ira Gershwin, Yip Harburg, Lorenz Hart, Oscar Hammerstein II and Sheldon Harnick. Even some of the plot elements from G&S operas entered subsequent musicals; for example, 1937's Me and My Girl features a portrait gallery of ancestors that, like the portraits in Ruddigore, come alive to remind their descendant of his duty. Johnny Mercer said, "We all come from Gilbert." Alan Jay Lerner wrote that Gilbert "raised lyric writing from a serviceable craft to a legitimate popular art form," and, despite professing not to be a Gilbert fan, Stephen Sondheim wrote "Please Hello" for Pacific Overtures (1976), a song that has been called "an homage" to Gilbert. Yip Harburg said, "Perhaps my first great literary idol was W. S. Gilbert. ... Gilbert's satirical quality entranced us – his use of rhyme and meter, his light touch, the marvelous way his words blended with Sullivan's music. A revelation!"
Sullivan was also admired and copied by early composers such as Ivan Caryll, Lionel Monckton, Victor Herbert, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Ivor Novello, and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Noël Coward wrote:
| “ | I was born into a generation that still took light music seriously. The lyrics and melodies of Gilbert and Sullivan were hummed and strummed into my consciousness at an early age. My father sang them, my mother played them, my nurse, Emma, breathed them through her teeth while she was washing me, dressing me and undressing me and putting me to bed. My aunts and uncles, who were legion, sang them singly and in unison at the slightest provocation.... | ” |
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—Introduction to The Noël Coward Song Book |
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According to theatre historian John Kenrick, H.M.S. Pinafore, in particular, "became an international sensation, reshaping the commercial theater in both England and the United States." Adaptations of The Mikado, Pinafore and The Gondoliers have played on Broadway or the West End, including The Hot Mikado (1939; Hot Mikado played in the West End in 1995), George S. Kaufman's 1945 Hollywood Pinafore, the 1975 animated film Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done and, more recently,Gondoliers (2001; a Mafia-themed adaptation) and Pinafore Swing (2004), each of which was first produced at the Watermill Theatre, in which the actors also served as the orchestra, playing the musical instruments. Shows that use G&S songs to tell the story of the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership include a 1938 Broadway show, Knights of Song, and a 1975 West End show called Tarantara! Tarantara! Many other musicals parody or pastiche Pinafore in particular.
However, the influence of Gilbert and Sullivan on goes beyond musical theatre to comedy in general. Professor Carolyn Williams notes: "The influence of Gilbert and Sullivan – their wit and sense of irony, the send ups of politics and contemporary culture – goes beyond musical theater to comedy in general. Allusions to their work have made their way into our own popular culture". According to Gilbert and Sullivan expert and enthusiast Ian Bradley:
| “ | The musical is not, of course, the only cultural form to show the influence of G&S. Even more direct heirs are those witty and satirical songwriters found on both sides of the Atlantic in the twentieth century like Michael Flanders and Donald Swann in the United Kingdom and Tom Lehrer in the United States. The influence of Gilbert is discernible in a vein of British comedy that runs through John Betjeman's verse via Monty Python and Private Eye to... television series like Yes, Minister... where the emphasis is on wit, irony, and poking fun at the establishment from within it in a way which manages to be both disrespectful of authority and yet cosily comfortable and urbane. | ” |
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—Oh Joy! Oh Rapture! The Enduring Phenomenon of Gilbert and Sullivan |
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Read more about this topic: Cultural Influence Of Gilbert And Sullivan
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