0:00:05 > 0:00:07It's a cold winter evening
0:00:07 > 0:00:09in London's West End.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13But just as in New York and major cities across the world,
0:00:13 > 0:00:18it's full of theatre-goers coming to see hit musicals.
0:00:22 > 0:00:27Well over 2,000 people are going to be filling this theatre tonight
0:00:27 > 0:00:30with the expectation of seeing a fantastic show.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33And the show has been really carefully put together
0:00:33 > 0:00:36and tooled right the way down to the smallest detail,
0:00:36 > 0:00:37the smallest single dance move,
0:00:37 > 0:00:41with the express intention of blowing the crowd away.
0:00:41 > 0:00:46# Tell them how I'm Defying gravity... #
0:00:46 > 0:00:50Excuse the pun, but there's a bit of magic behind Wicked.
0:00:50 > 0:00:52- It really has got... Hasn't it, though?- Yeah.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55- It's something special. - It feels like a real event.
0:00:55 > 0:00:56When you come and see the show,
0:00:56 > 0:00:59the set comes out into the audience,
0:00:59 > 0:01:01the music is so beautiful, the orchestrations are amazing,
0:01:01 > 0:01:06and then you add costumes and amazing lighting design.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11And musical theatre continues to innovate.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14Hamilton, a show that mixes American history with hip-hop,
0:01:14 > 0:01:17has taken Broadway by storm.
0:01:17 > 0:01:18# Time to take a shot
0:01:18 > 0:01:20# And I am not throwing away my
0:01:20 > 0:01:22# Not throwing away my
0:01:22 > 0:01:24# Shot! #
0:01:24 > 0:01:26In this final episode,
0:01:26 > 0:01:29I'll explore the great shows of OUR lifetime.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31MUSIC: Work Song from Les Miserables
0:01:31 > 0:01:34An era in which musicals have matched big emotions
0:01:34 > 0:01:37with spectacular staging.
0:01:37 > 0:01:43# I had a dream my life would be... #
0:01:43 > 0:01:48'I'll see how musical theatre confronted the tragedy of AIDS.'
0:01:48 > 0:01:53# Five hundred, twenty-five thousand Six hundred minutes
0:01:53 > 0:01:55# How do you measure
0:01:55 > 0:01:58# Measure a year? #
0:01:58 > 0:02:03And how it's taken a satirical look at our modern lifestyles.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06# The internet is really, really great
0:02:06 > 0:02:08# For porn! #
0:02:08 > 0:02:12I'm going to show you why today musical theatre really is
0:02:12 > 0:02:14the greatest show on earth.
0:02:14 > 0:02:21# La vie boheme La vie boheme
0:02:21 > 0:02:25- # Everyone out of the mainstream - La vie boheme
0:02:25 > 0:02:28- # Is anyone in the mainstream? - La vie boheme... #
0:02:32 > 0:02:37Musicals were enjoying a new golden age in the 1960s.
0:02:37 > 0:02:42But they weren't exactly down with the kids.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44Musical theatre struggled to keep up with
0:02:44 > 0:02:47the pace of change in popular culture.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52Sure, musical theatre was sophisticated and ambitious.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55But it was something your parents went to.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59The songs, the stories - well, they weren't very cool.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02But then it's as if musical theatre got it.
0:03:04 > 0:03:06Had a revelation.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11What the kids wanted was rock.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15# I got my hair, I got my head
0:03:15 > 0:03:16# I got my brains, I got my ears
0:03:16 > 0:03:19# I got my eyes, I got my nose I got my mouth
0:03:19 > 0:03:20# I got my teeth... #
0:03:20 > 0:03:24Rock musicals were born out of the counterculture revolution.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28They sounded like Woodstock. They looked like Haight-Ashbury.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31# Every time I look at you I don't understand
0:03:31 > 0:03:35# Why you let the things you did get so out of hand
0:03:35 > 0:03:38# You'd have managed better if you'd had it planned
0:03:38 > 0:03:41# Why'd you choose such a backward time and such a strange land?
0:03:41 > 0:03:45# If you'd come today you would have reached a whole nation
0:03:45 > 0:03:48# Israel in 4BC had no mass communication... #
0:03:48 > 0:03:50# Don't you get me wrong... #
0:03:50 > 0:03:53Set to the contemporary wail of rock guitars,
0:03:53 > 0:03:57these shows and their characters were straight out of a hippie world.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59# This is the dawning of the Age... #
0:03:59 > 0:04:03Hair brought with it transgressive ideas about sexuality and drugs,
0:04:03 > 0:04:07ushered in by the end of theatre censorship in Britain.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09# Aquarius... #
0:04:09 > 0:04:12But these were powerful shows with big ideas
0:04:12 > 0:04:15and more attitude than had been seen on stage before.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19But what if you liked your rock'n'roll a bit more...camp?
0:04:20 > 0:04:23In 1973, a group of performers
0:04:23 > 0:04:26who'd been doing the rounds with musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar
0:04:26 > 0:04:28gathered together for a new show.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32It was written and composed by Herod's understudy,
0:04:32 > 0:04:36and was a bit of a change from their previous, more godly work.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40I'm cold, I'm wet, and I'm just plain scared.
0:04:40 > 0:04:42I'm here, Janet. There's nothing to worry about.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44Brad, I wanna go.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47# How'd you do? I
0:04:47 > 0:04:49# See you met my
0:04:49 > 0:04:53# Faithful handyman
0:04:53 > 0:04:55# He's a little brought down because
0:04:55 > 0:04:57# When you knocked
0:04:57 > 0:05:00# He thought you were the candy man
0:05:00 > 0:05:02Didn't you, Freaky?
0:05:02 > 0:05:04# Don't get strung out
0:05:04 > 0:05:06# By the way I look
0:05:06 > 0:05:10# Don't judge a book by its cover
0:05:10 > 0:05:14# I'm not much of a man by the light of day
0:05:14 > 0:05:18# But by night I'm one hell of a lover
0:05:18 > 0:05:22# I'm just a sweet transvestite
0:05:22 > 0:05:26# From transsexual
0:05:26 > 0:05:31# Transylvania, uh-huh... #
0:05:31 > 0:05:36The Rocky Horror Show is a tribute to old sci-fi and horror B movies.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38# You look like you're both pretty groovy... #
0:05:38 > 0:05:40Written by Richard O'Brien,
0:05:40 > 0:05:45it tells the story of boring Brad and his straightlaced fiancee Janet,
0:05:45 > 0:05:48who stumble across the home of cross-dressing mad scientist
0:05:48 > 0:05:50Dr Frank-N-Furter.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53# Uh, could we use your phone?
0:05:53 > 0:05:56# We're both in a bit of a hurry
0:05:56 > 0:05:57Right!
0:05:57 > 0:05:59# We'll just say where we are
0:05:59 > 0:06:01# Then we'll get back to the car
0:06:01 > 0:06:04# We don't want to be any worry
0:06:04 > 0:06:08# So you got caught with a flat
0:06:08 > 0:06:10# Well, how 'bout that?
0:06:10 > 0:06:14# Well, babies, don't you panic
0:06:14 > 0:06:18# By the light of the night It'll all seem all right
0:06:18 > 0:06:22# I'll get you a Satanic mechanic... #
0:06:22 > 0:06:26Rocky Horror flung its mascara and suspenders
0:06:26 > 0:06:28in the face of mainstream shows,
0:06:28 > 0:06:32audaciously challenging how sexuality was represented on stage.
0:06:32 > 0:06:34# Uh-huh
0:06:34 > 0:06:35Hey! Hit it!
0:06:35 > 0:06:39# I'm just a sweet transvestite
0:06:39 > 0:06:43# From transsexual
0:06:43 > 0:06:50# Transylvania, ah-ah. #
0:06:50 > 0:06:55The staging and costuming looked like cabaret and burlesque,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58but the music drew on Richard O'Brien's nostalgia
0:06:58 > 0:07:00for the sounds he grew up with.
0:07:00 > 0:07:01# Be it... #
0:07:01 > 0:07:05There was one or two of the actors that had no idea of the genre.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07And I used to say, when you're acting,
0:07:07 > 0:07:09it's just B-movie acting,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12and when you're singing it's your rock'n'roll dreams come true.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14But these were rock'n'roll numbers
0:07:14 > 0:07:17that drew you in to the characters.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19Halfway through the first act
0:07:19 > 0:07:23comes a classic musical theatre "I Want" song.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27# I was feeling done in
0:07:27 > 0:07:31# Couldn't win
0:07:31 > 0:07:35# I'd only ever kissed before
0:07:37 > 0:07:40# I thought there's no use getting
0:07:40 > 0:07:43# Into heavy petting
0:07:43 > 0:07:46# It only leads to trouble
0:07:46 > 0:07:51# And seat-wetting
0:07:52 > 0:07:55# Now all I want to know
0:07:55 > 0:07:57# Is how to go
0:07:57 > 0:08:03# I've tasted blood and I want more
0:08:03 > 0:08:07# I'll put up no resistance
0:08:07 > 0:08:10# I want to stay the distance
0:08:10 > 0:08:12# I've got an itch to scratch
0:08:12 > 0:08:15# I need assistance
0:08:15 > 0:08:18# Touch-a-touch-a-touch-a-touch me
0:08:18 > 0:08:21# I wanna be dirty
0:08:21 > 0:08:24# Thrill me, chill me, fulfil me
0:08:24 > 0:08:27# Creature of the night. #
0:08:31 > 0:08:35Poor sexually frustrated Janet, full of inner turmoil,
0:08:35 > 0:08:38finally gets to explode all this lust out,
0:08:38 > 0:08:40at Rocky, of all people,
0:08:40 > 0:08:43the guy that Frank-N-Furter has just created for himself.
0:08:43 > 0:08:45It's one of the beauties of this show
0:08:45 > 0:08:47that the songs are very simple,
0:08:47 > 0:08:49but it's a kind of deceptive simplicity to them.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51This one is really in two halves.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54The first half is quite kind of tragic in a way.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56It's minor key...
0:08:58 > 0:09:03..which reminds me, actually, of Leader of the Pack, Shangri-Las.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07Which feels tragic, and feels '50s, and feels quite innocent as well.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14# Then if anything...grows
0:09:14 > 0:09:16# When you pose
0:09:16 > 0:09:23# I'll oil you up and rub you down
0:09:23 > 0:09:26# And that's just one small fraction
0:09:26 > 0:09:29# Of the main attraction
0:09:29 > 0:09:32# You need a friendly hand
0:09:32 > 0:09:34# And I need action... #
0:09:36 > 0:09:40Then it goes into the main chorus, which is anything but innocent,
0:09:40 > 0:09:43and I love the fact that you can actually hear the...
0:09:47 > 0:09:50You can hear that '50s plucked guitar.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53It's party time. It's very innocent, it's very fun and full of joy,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56and the lyrics are absolutely filthy.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59# Touch-a-touch-a-touch-a-touch me
0:09:59 > 0:10:02# I wanna be dirty
0:10:02 > 0:10:04# Thrill me, chill me, fulfil me
0:10:04 > 0:10:07# Creature of the night. #
0:10:07 > 0:10:09And that's one of the beauties of it -
0:10:09 > 0:10:14that you get this lovely sense of a kind of retro predictability
0:10:14 > 0:10:18about the music, and yet absolutely bang-up-to-date filth
0:10:18 > 0:10:23thrown across it in a really joyous and celebratory way.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26# Touch-a-touch-a-touch-a-touch me
0:10:26 > 0:10:28# I wanna be dirty
0:10:28 > 0:10:31# Thrill me, chill me, fulfil me
0:10:31 > 0:10:34# Creature of the night
0:10:34 > 0:10:37# Creature of the night
0:10:37 > 0:10:39# Creature of the night
0:10:39 > 0:10:42# Creature of the night! #
0:10:43 > 0:10:48Rocky Horror stood in stark contrast to many of its contemporaries,
0:10:48 > 0:10:49and still does.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53It scorned the perceived pomposity of its fellow rock musicals
0:10:53 > 0:10:56and thoroughly embraced camp.
0:10:56 > 0:10:58With its retro sound and edgy looks,
0:10:58 > 0:11:02Rocky Horror was pure glam rock for the stage.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07Rocky's cult sensibilities gave it a devoted fanbase
0:11:07 > 0:11:10of stalwarts and misfits for seven years
0:11:10 > 0:11:13without troubling the big shows of the West End.
0:11:13 > 0:11:18And Broadway just didn't get the show's quirky glam-rock shtick.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21Mainstream audiences weren't quite ready
0:11:21 > 0:11:24to be dragged so far into left-field.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28MUSIC: The Time Warp from The Rocky Horror Show
0:11:28 > 0:11:31But the rock musical had made its mark.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34- # Jesus Christ... # - It soon became clear
0:11:34 > 0:11:35that Jesus Christ Superstar
0:11:35 > 0:11:39was a successful evolution of musical theatre,
0:11:39 > 0:11:41more akin to opera than Oklahoma.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43# Jesus Christ... #
0:11:43 > 0:11:44And the duo behind the hit,
0:11:44 > 0:11:47composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Tim Rice,
0:11:47 > 0:11:51had found a clever way to secure an audience.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54Because of its subject,
0:11:54 > 0:11:57no theatre had initially wanted to touch Superstar.
0:11:57 > 0:12:02So the duo decided to release the songs as a kind of concept album.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06Only after storming to number one in the American charts
0:12:06 > 0:12:08did it become a stage show.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11So they decided to road-test their latest idea
0:12:11 > 0:12:14in exactly the same way.
0:12:14 > 0:12:20Nothing says "1970s" quite as much as a concept double album.
0:12:20 > 0:12:22It's straight out of the annals of prog rock.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28MUSIC: Oh What a Circus from Evita
0:12:34 > 0:12:38# Oh, what a circus Oh, what a show
0:12:38 > 0:12:41# Argentina has gone to town... #
0:12:41 > 0:12:44Like Jesus Christ Superstar before it,
0:12:44 > 0:12:46Evita is sung through.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48There are no lines of dialogue between the songs,
0:12:48 > 0:12:50as people would have come to expect.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53It harks back rather to grand opera,
0:12:53 > 0:12:56in which every element of the story has to be sung.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01# ..of the misery right... #
0:13:01 > 0:13:05Evita tells the story of politician Eva Peron
0:13:05 > 0:13:10and her rise to the top of Argentinian society in the 1940s.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12A glamorous but controversial figure,
0:13:12 > 0:13:17she was, on the face of it, an unusual subject for a musical.
0:13:17 > 0:13:20# It's quite a sunset
0:13:20 > 0:13:22# And good for the country... #
0:13:22 > 0:13:25But that wasn't the only unconventional aspect.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29Tim Rice chose to have the show narrated by Che Guevara,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32played on stage by David Essex.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36# But who is this Santa Evita?
0:13:36 > 0:13:40# Why all this howling, hysterical sorrow?
0:13:40 > 0:13:44# What kind of goddess has lived among us...? #
0:13:44 > 0:13:47When Evita eventually emerged,
0:13:47 > 0:13:50we were told that it was a rotten idea
0:13:50 > 0:13:52because nobody knew the story.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55But with Superstar we were told the reverse before it became a hit -
0:13:55 > 0:13:59we were told it's a rotten idea because everybody knows the story.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03So...it was a strange idea, a bit off the wall,
0:14:03 > 0:14:05but it was something I really wanted to do,
0:14:05 > 0:14:07and the more I researched Eva Peron -
0:14:07 > 0:14:09which I did for about a year -
0:14:09 > 0:14:13the more I thought, this is a great character who could work in theatre,
0:14:13 > 0:14:16was very glamorous... We didn't glamorise her, she was glamorous -
0:14:16 > 0:14:18that's half the point of the story.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22And it seemed to me something that would give us a shot
0:14:22 > 0:14:24of not being one-hit wonders.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27What was it persuaded Andrew to do Evita?
0:14:27 > 0:14:30Given that he wasn't convinced when you met him.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33It was clearly a very dramatic subject,
0:14:33 > 0:14:36and it was...an almost melodramatic subject.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39And it was something that he could use all his forces,
0:14:39 > 0:14:42all his great skill as an arranger, orchestrator,
0:14:42 > 0:14:44as well as a basic rock feel.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47It's not quite as out-and-out rock as Superstar,
0:14:47 > 0:14:51but it has a terrific contemporary base,
0:14:51 > 0:14:54or music that was contemporary at the time,
0:14:54 > 0:14:56plus it has Latin American elements,
0:14:56 > 0:14:58so I think when he got down to it,
0:14:58 > 0:15:02he thought, yes, this is something I can really work on.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05MUSIC: Don't Cry For Me Argentina from Evita
0:15:09 > 0:15:11# It won't be easy
0:15:11 > 0:15:15# You'll think it's strange
0:15:15 > 0:15:19# When I try to explain how I feel... #
0:15:19 > 0:15:23Evita's signature song is Don't Cry For Me Argentina.
0:15:23 > 0:15:28Released as a single, it went to number one in 1976,
0:15:28 > 0:15:30before the show had opened.
0:15:31 > 0:15:35# All he will see is a girl he once knew
0:15:35 > 0:15:38# Although she's dressed up... #
0:15:38 > 0:15:41On the radio, it seemed like a simple, heartfelt ballad.
0:15:41 > 0:15:43But in the context of the musical,
0:15:43 > 0:15:46it was something much more sophisticated.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50# I had to let it happen
0:15:50 > 0:15:54# I had to change
0:15:54 > 0:15:58# Couldn't stay all my life down at heel
0:15:58 > 0:16:05# Looking out of the window Staying out of the sun
0:16:05 > 0:16:09# So I chose freedom
0:16:09 > 0:16:14# Running around trying everything new
0:16:14 > 0:16:18# But nothing impressed me at all
0:16:18 > 0:16:24# I never expected it to... #
0:16:24 > 0:16:26Massive moment.
0:16:26 > 0:16:28A passionate plea.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31She's behind the mics, she's in front of thousands of people,
0:16:31 > 0:16:34she is begging for their love.
0:16:34 > 0:16:35But...
0:16:35 > 0:16:38there's a lot more going on with this song than we're hearing.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42Remember, we've had a whole first act to get to know Eva
0:16:42 > 0:16:44and get to know how she got to this point.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47So, now, we're watching her like a hawk
0:16:47 > 0:16:50to see how she handles this.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54# And as for fortune
0:16:54 > 0:16:57# And as for fame
0:16:57 > 0:17:01# I never invited them in
0:17:01 > 0:17:08# Though it seemed to the world they were all I desired
0:17:08 > 0:17:12# They are illusions
0:17:12 > 0:17:17# They are not the solutions they promised to be
0:17:17 > 0:17:22# The answer was here all the time
0:17:22 > 0:17:28# I love you and hope you love me... #
0:17:28 > 0:17:33"And as for fortune, and as for fame, I never invited them in."
0:17:33 > 0:17:36That is a barefaced lie.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39And we know it is! We've watched the whole of the first half,
0:17:39 > 0:17:41in which she not only invites in fame and fortune,
0:17:41 > 0:17:43she's hungry for it.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45Now we understand why at the very beginning of the show,
0:17:45 > 0:17:47the character Che Guevara,
0:17:47 > 0:17:50who is a very cynical observer all the way through the show,
0:17:50 > 0:17:53sings that tune with different words.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57# Oh, what a circus Oh, what a show... # - same tune.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59So what we have here
0:17:59 > 0:18:02is something called contrafacta, ladies and gentlemen,
0:18:02 > 0:18:05which is basically where a song is repeated
0:18:05 > 0:18:07but with a completely different spin,
0:18:07 > 0:18:09sometimes with different harmonies,
0:18:09 > 0:18:13but it's doing the same job, but for a different reason.
0:18:14 > 0:18:19# Don't cry for me, Argentina
0:18:19 > 0:18:24# The truth is I never left you
0:18:24 > 0:18:29# All through my wild days My mad existence
0:18:29 > 0:18:32# I kept my promise
0:18:32 > 0:18:35# Don't keep your distance... #
0:18:39 > 0:18:44# Salve Regina... #
0:18:44 > 0:18:47The opening night of Evita made its lead, Elaine Page,
0:18:47 > 0:18:49an instant star.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53Lloyd Webber's sophisticated blend
0:18:53 > 0:18:55of rock, lighter pop and classical music
0:18:55 > 0:18:59was a formula with truly international and lasting appeal
0:18:59 > 0:19:03that transcended his unusual source material.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07Lloyd Webber now began an unprecedented run of success.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12# You may meet him in a by-street
0:19:12 > 0:19:14# You may see him in a square
0:19:14 > 0:19:16# But when the crime's discovered
0:19:16 > 0:19:19# Then Macavity's...
0:19:19 > 0:19:21# Macavity's... #
0:19:21 > 0:19:25In 1981, he unveiled Cats,
0:19:25 > 0:19:27adapted from TS Eliot's poems,
0:19:27 > 0:19:30featuring dancers dressed as felines
0:19:30 > 0:19:33performing in an oversized junkyard.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37# But when the crime's discovered Then Macavity's not there! #
0:19:41 > 0:19:43Then came Starlight Express,
0:19:43 > 0:19:47a state-of-the-art '80s sound-and-vision extravaganza
0:19:47 > 0:19:50based around a story about racing trains,
0:19:50 > 0:19:54performed at high speed on roller skates.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00MUSIC: Phantom of the Opera
0:20:00 > 0:20:04And in 1986, the curtain rose on The Phantom of the Opera,
0:20:04 > 0:20:07adapted from the French novel about a mysterious masked figure
0:20:07 > 0:20:09obsessed with a beautiful soprano -
0:20:09 > 0:20:12and it runs to this day.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18These new Lloyd Webber shows boasted spectacular staging,
0:20:18 > 0:20:21ensuring they were memorable visually as well as musically.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25A key collaborator on both Starlight and Cats
0:20:25 > 0:20:27was designer John Napier.
0:20:30 > 0:20:35I don't do, you know, sort of velvet sofas and French windows.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38And the potted palm.
0:20:38 > 0:20:43I hate to use the word "scenery".
0:20:43 > 0:20:46I mean, I don't like scenery.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50I find it... It kind of has an artifice to it,
0:20:50 > 0:20:54and what I think Cats did was take away...
0:20:56 > 0:21:02..the kind of conventional idea of what a musical was, could be.
0:21:02 > 0:21:08I was presented with an open-staged space.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11Not very conventional for a musical in the first place.
0:21:11 > 0:21:16And then I treated it as a wasteland, as a dump.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18Not very musical!
0:21:18 > 0:21:21Cos you gave them multiple levels to work on,
0:21:21 > 0:21:24- and multiple homes, I noticed, within that dump.- Yeah.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28And therefore you could have cats hanging around,
0:21:28 > 0:21:32or appearing out of a tunnel, and next to a person.
0:21:32 > 0:21:37And my thing, I think, because of being a sculptor initially,
0:21:37 > 0:21:40I have a very peculiar brain.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43And sometimes if you use something that's abstract,
0:21:43 > 0:21:46- you can actually tell the story better...- Yeah.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49..because the way you light it, the costumes...
0:21:49 > 0:21:52Everything is giving you the domestic detail.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56And you can make it simple, and you can make it epic.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02With Cats, Lloyd Webber's brand of sung-through operatics
0:22:02 > 0:22:04and Napier's style of epic staging
0:22:04 > 0:22:08combined to create a new global phenomenon.
0:22:08 > 0:22:10The mega-musical.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13MUSIC: Prologue: Work Song
0:22:14 > 0:22:19And in 1985, Napier's talents were once more to the fore
0:22:19 > 0:22:22when the longest-running mega-musical of all opened.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24Les Miserables.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27A highlight of the show
0:22:27 > 0:22:31sees the entire set transformed before the audience's eyes -
0:22:31 > 0:22:34a spectacle that's central to the story.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36# Look down, look down... #
0:22:36 > 0:22:39It's really abstract objects in space
0:22:39 > 0:22:41coming together and tipping,
0:22:41 > 0:22:44and then coming together and joining,
0:22:44 > 0:22:46and there in front of your eyes
0:22:46 > 0:22:51is a barricade bigger than anything you've ever expected it to be,
0:22:51 > 0:22:53in seven seconds.
0:22:53 > 0:22:57Because the music allows for seven seconds.
0:22:57 > 0:22:59And it would be really boring
0:22:59 > 0:23:01if it went on for longer than seven seconds!
0:23:01 > 0:23:04But it's the music that drives the moment.
0:23:04 > 0:23:09Therefore what you're doing mustn't interrupt.
0:23:09 > 0:23:14It must enhance the motion of the play,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17- or the narrative, or the song. - Right.
0:23:17 > 0:23:22You know, so you can have things that are spectacular,
0:23:22 > 0:23:23but they can only be there
0:23:23 > 0:23:27if the need at that moment is for them to be spectacular.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32Les Miserables began as a French adaptation of a Victor Hugo novel
0:23:32 > 0:23:37by lyricists Alan Boublil and composer Claude-Michel Schonberg.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41It's the story of a failed rebellion in 19th century Paris.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44THEY SING IN FRENCH
0:23:47 > 0:23:48The team behind Cats -
0:23:48 > 0:23:52producer Cameron Mackintosh and director Trevor Nunn
0:23:52 > 0:23:54with John Caird and the Royal Shakespeare Company -
0:23:54 > 0:23:56reworked the show for a West End audience,
0:23:56 > 0:24:00adding new songs with English lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer,
0:24:00 > 0:24:01and fleshing out the story.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03# ..you're another day older
0:24:05 > 0:24:08# And that's all you can say for the life of the poor
0:24:08 > 0:24:10# It's a struggle, it's a war
0:24:10 > 0:24:11# And there's nothing that anyone's giving
0:24:11 > 0:24:14# One more day, standing about What is it for?
0:24:14 > 0:24:17# One day less to be living... #
0:24:17 > 0:24:21When Les Miserables opened, the critics hated it.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24One newspaper described it as the reduction of a literary mountain
0:24:24 > 0:24:26to a dramatic molehill.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29It became known in the trade as The Glums.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31But the show had the last laugh,
0:24:31 > 0:24:35because audiences took it to their hearts, and the rest is history.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38Better than any musical for years,
0:24:38 > 0:24:42Les Miserables had unleashed high emotion.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44MUSIC: Empty Chairs At Empty Tables
0:24:48 > 0:24:51# There's a grief that can't be spoken
0:24:54 > 0:24:57# There's a pain goes on and on
0:24:58 > 0:25:02# Empty chairs at empty tables
0:25:02 > 0:25:07# Now my friends are dead and gone
0:25:08 > 0:25:11# Here they talked of revolution
0:25:13 > 0:25:17# Here it was they lit the flame
0:25:17 > 0:25:21# Here they sang about tomorrow
0:25:21 > 0:25:27# And tomorrow never came... #
0:25:31 > 0:25:35The young student, Marius, one of the leads in the show,
0:25:35 > 0:25:39has survived the barricades almost alone.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42He's watched all the rest of his friends die,
0:25:42 > 0:25:43as have we.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47And now he's populating these empty chairs and empty tables
0:25:47 > 0:25:50and feeling the loss of them.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54And we're going through it with him in this extraordinary song
0:25:54 > 0:25:57which allows for an outburst of emotion
0:25:57 > 0:26:00almost as great as the emotion of seeing them killed.
0:26:00 > 0:26:05We feel his grief absolutely burst out of him through this number.
0:26:05 > 0:26:07We're basically travelling with him
0:26:07 > 0:26:10through something which is a very modern phenomenon,
0:26:10 > 0:26:12which this number manages to sum up, I think,
0:26:12 > 0:26:14which is survivor guilt.
0:26:16 > 0:26:21# From the table in the corner
0:26:21 > 0:26:26# They could see a world reborn
0:26:26 > 0:26:30# And they rose with voices ringing
0:26:30 > 0:26:34# And I can hear them now
0:26:34 > 0:26:40# The very words that they had sung
0:26:40 > 0:26:45# Became their last communion
0:26:46 > 0:26:50# On the lonely barricade
0:26:50 > 0:26:52# At dawn... #
0:26:56 > 0:27:00Boublil and Schonberg are drawing on a very French tradition
0:27:00 > 0:27:03of the passionate balladeer -
0:27:03 > 0:27:05think Edith Piaf, think Charles Aznavour.
0:27:05 > 0:27:09That feeling of an eruption of emotion
0:27:09 > 0:27:11almost bigger than the singer can handle.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15And the journey this song and the performer have to go through
0:27:15 > 0:27:17is absolutely massive. They start very small,
0:27:17 > 0:27:20they built right, right up to these enormous outbursts,
0:27:20 > 0:27:24and then back down again to something very small.
0:27:24 > 0:27:29This, I think, is the reason why Les Miserables was so successful,
0:27:29 > 0:27:34was because that outburst of passion is very unBritish,
0:27:34 > 0:27:37and audiences weren't used to being able to sit in a theatre
0:27:37 > 0:27:39and feel almost viscerally
0:27:39 > 0:27:42the sense of loss of those young men
0:27:42 > 0:27:45and the grief that Marius feels.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48Not for years had an audience sat there
0:27:48 > 0:27:52and been so overwhelmed by passion.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55# Oh, my friends, my friends forgive me
0:27:57 > 0:28:02# That I live and you are gone
0:28:02 > 0:28:06# There's a grief that can't be spoken
0:28:06 > 0:28:12# There's a pain goes on and on
0:28:12 > 0:28:16# Phantom faces at the window
0:28:16 > 0:28:21# Phantom shadows on the floor
0:28:21 > 0:28:24# Empty chairs at empty tables
0:28:24 > 0:28:30# Where my friends will meet no more
0:28:30 > 0:28:35# Oh, my friends, my friends
0:28:35 > 0:28:38# Don't ask me
0:28:38 > 0:28:43# What your sacrifice was for
0:28:43 > 0:28:47# Empty chairs at empty tables
0:28:47 > 0:28:52# Where my friends will sing
0:28:54 > 0:29:03# No more. #
0:29:16 > 0:29:20In 1989, Boublil and Schonberg followed up Les Mis
0:29:20 > 0:29:21with Miss Saigon.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24Inspired by Puccini's opera Madam Butterfly
0:29:24 > 0:29:26and set in Vietnam,
0:29:26 > 0:29:29it boasted more breathtaking sets by John Napier
0:29:29 > 0:29:32and went on to enjoy huge success.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35PROPELLORS WHIRRING
0:29:39 > 0:29:43But the fate of two other new shows was a reminder
0:29:43 > 0:29:44of just how hard it was
0:29:44 > 0:29:47to make these lavish and complex productions work.
0:29:51 > 0:29:54In 1988, Chess opened on Broadway.
0:29:56 > 0:30:00Written by Tim Rice with Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of Abba,
0:30:00 > 0:30:02this story of a Cold War love triangle
0:30:02 > 0:30:05had been a glittering success in the West End.
0:30:05 > 0:30:09But it closed in New York after barely three months.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13And that same year saw Carrie: The Musical.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16Adapted from the Stephen King horror novel,
0:30:16 > 0:30:18it was co-produced by the RSC,
0:30:18 > 0:30:22seeking to repeat their success with Cats and Les Mis.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25They're calling it the costliest flop ever on the New York stage.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28I'm talking about the Royal Shakespeare Company's production
0:30:28 > 0:30:30of the musical Carrie, which has been cancelled
0:30:30 > 0:30:32just five days after its Broadway debut.
0:30:32 > 0:30:34Just about all the critics attacked Carrie,
0:30:34 > 0:30:38but that of the New York Times was considered the death sentence.
0:30:38 > 0:30:40Their critic, Frank Rich, described it as "a wreck...
0:30:40 > 0:30:42"with faceless bubblegum music."
0:30:42 > 0:30:46The show's director, Terry Hands, claimed audience approval,
0:30:46 > 0:30:48but the damage had been done.
0:30:48 > 0:30:50# I'm Carrie
0:30:50 > 0:30:54# I am a song of endless wonder
0:30:54 > 0:30:56# That no-one will claim... #
0:30:56 > 0:30:59We were one of the producers of Carrie, so I remember it well.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02When you're rehearsing a musical - it's true for a play, too -
0:31:02 > 0:31:06you completely isolate yourself from the world,
0:31:06 > 0:31:09and it isn't until you then take it out into the world
0:31:09 > 0:31:12that the world says to you, "Are you crazy?!"
0:31:12 > 0:31:14Which is what happened on Carrie.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17People said to me, "Are you crazy? You're doing a musical
0:31:17 > 0:31:19"about a high school and they're all dressed as gladiators!
0:31:19 > 0:31:21"What the hell is going on in this show?"
0:31:21 > 0:31:25Um...it was a good question, and I didn't have an answer.
0:31:26 > 0:31:30Carrie lost its backers millions of dollars.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33Staging a mega-musical was a gamble
0:31:33 > 0:31:35that took creative courage
0:31:35 > 0:31:38and very deep pockets.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43But one of the defining shows of the following decade
0:31:43 > 0:31:47would emerge from altogether more humble beginnings.
0:31:47 > 0:31:50In the early 1990s, Jonathan Larson,
0:31:50 > 0:31:53a young New York-based composer,
0:31:53 > 0:31:55began workshopping an off-Broadway production
0:31:55 > 0:31:58inspired by his own experiences of
0:31:58 > 0:32:01being a cash-strapped musician in Manhattan.
0:32:02 > 0:32:04Rent is set here,
0:32:04 > 0:32:07amongst the residents of New York's East Village,
0:32:07 > 0:32:09which in the 1980s and early '90s
0:32:09 > 0:32:11was the bohemian epicentre of the city.
0:32:11 > 0:32:16But Larson was drawing on another tale of bohemian life -
0:32:16 > 0:32:19Puccini's La Boheme, set in 19th-century Paris.
0:32:19 > 0:32:21Just as, 40 years earlier,
0:32:21 > 0:32:25West Side Story had reimagined Romeo and Juliet,
0:32:25 > 0:32:28so Larson would use timeless themes to create a musical
0:32:28 > 0:32:30that was utterly of the moment.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34MUSIC: "Rent" from Rent
0:32:34 > 0:32:37Rent is about the residents of an apartment block
0:32:37 > 0:32:38threatened with eviction.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41Here are drag queens and exotic dancers,
0:32:41 > 0:32:43frustrated artists and misfits -
0:32:43 > 0:32:46a community of outsiders.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49Larson sets their stories to a dizzying mix
0:32:49 > 0:32:52of MTV-era rock and pop numbers.
0:32:54 > 0:32:56# How we gonna pay?
0:32:56 > 0:32:59# How we gonna pay?
0:32:59 > 0:33:01# How we gonna pay
0:33:01 > 0:33:06# Last year's rent? #
0:33:09 > 0:33:11But Larson was determined to avoid the pitfalls
0:33:11 > 0:33:15of bombastic rock operas or overblown mega-musicals,
0:33:15 > 0:33:17as Anthony Rapp, the first actor
0:33:17 > 0:33:20to play Mark, the narrator of Rent, recalls.
0:33:23 > 0:33:27Jonathan was watching what was happening in musical theatre
0:33:27 > 0:33:28with a little bit of dismay.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31That it was... You know, there were so many of these shows
0:33:31 > 0:33:33that didn't have any kind of reflection of...
0:33:33 > 0:33:37the life that we were all living at the time.
0:33:37 > 0:33:39They were sort of escapist and fantastical,
0:33:39 > 0:33:42and, you know, there certainly is a place for that,
0:33:42 > 0:33:45but I think he was very, very moved to use theatre
0:33:45 > 0:33:49as a vehicle to speak about the real world
0:33:49 > 0:33:53in a way that people who were living in the real world could relate.
0:33:53 > 0:33:55# That's where I work - I dance... #
0:33:55 > 0:33:57You can see this in the way
0:33:57 > 0:34:00Rent grittily reworks scenes from La Boheme.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03The focus of Puccini's opera
0:34:03 > 0:34:07is the love affair between Rodolfo and seamstress Mimi,
0:34:07 > 0:34:10who meet when she asks for a light.
0:34:11 > 0:34:17# Oh, won't you light the candle? #
0:34:17 > 0:34:21But in Larson's version, Mimi is a dancer
0:34:21 > 0:34:22in a seedy club.
0:34:22 > 0:34:24# You look like you're 16
0:34:24 > 0:34:26# I'm 19
0:34:26 > 0:34:29# But I'm old for my age I'm just born to... #
0:34:29 > 0:34:32And she needs a candle not to illuminate her apartment
0:34:32 > 0:34:34but to cook up a fix of heroin.
0:34:34 > 0:34:36- # ..shiver like that - I have no heat
0:34:36 > 0:34:39- # I used to sweat - I got a cold- Uh-huh
0:34:39 > 0:34:41# I used to be a junkie
0:34:41 > 0:34:43# But now and then I like to feel good... #
0:34:43 > 0:34:48These were unusual people to be populating a musical.
0:34:48 > 0:34:51Mimi, an HIV-positive S&M dancer,
0:34:51 > 0:34:55and Angel, a, you know, HIV-positive drag queen,
0:34:55 > 0:34:57and Mark was a documentary film-maker
0:34:57 > 0:35:00and Roger an HIV-positive rock singer.
0:35:00 > 0:35:04Larson wrote Rent just as HIV and AIDS
0:35:04 > 0:35:06were sweeping through New York.
0:35:06 > 0:35:10# One song glory
0:35:10 > 0:35:15# One song before I go... #
0:35:15 > 0:35:19Jonathan was himself a heterosexual, HIV-negative man
0:35:19 > 0:35:24who was...incredibly moved by what was happening around him,
0:35:24 > 0:35:28by his friends who were HIV-positive and some of whom died.
0:35:28 > 0:35:30And that's why he wrote Rent -
0:35:30 > 0:35:33he was responding to this event in his life.
0:35:33 > 0:35:38Um, and he was speaking to that, and Mark is trying to document that...
0:35:38 > 0:35:41His friends' lives, before they're gone.
0:35:41 > 0:35:4520 years after Rent's Broadway premiere,
0:35:45 > 0:35:48Theatr Clwyd are putting on a new production in London.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53The cast are about to give me a very intimate performance
0:35:53 > 0:35:57of what I think is Larson's finest song.
0:35:57 > 0:35:59MUSIC: Seasons of Love from Rent
0:35:59 > 0:36:02It captures the brevity of human life, but with joy
0:36:02 > 0:36:05and spontaneity.
0:36:08 > 0:36:13# Five hundred, twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
0:36:13 > 0:36:18# Five hundred, twenty-five thousand moments so dear
0:36:18 > 0:36:23# Five hundred, twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
0:36:23 > 0:36:28# How do you measure Measure a year? #
0:36:28 > 0:36:31Do you hear those big opening chords?
0:36:31 > 0:36:33Do you hear that gospel sound?
0:36:33 > 0:36:36Do you hear those questions repeated over and over again,
0:36:36 > 0:36:38that big long number?
0:36:38 > 0:36:41Five hundred and twenty-five thousand what?
0:36:41 > 0:36:42And we get the answer.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46Well, you should be hearing it, because it's all aimed at you.
0:36:46 > 0:36:48This number breaks the fourth wall
0:36:48 > 0:36:51and embraces the audience with its ideas.
0:36:51 > 0:36:53# ..measure a year?
0:36:53 > 0:36:56# In daylights, in sunsets
0:36:56 > 0:36:59# In midnights, in cups of coffee
0:36:59 > 0:37:01# In inches, in miles
0:37:01 > 0:37:03# In laughter, in strife... #
0:37:03 > 0:37:06To write it, Larson rang up all his friends and said,
0:37:06 > 0:37:08how do you calculate a year?
0:37:08 > 0:37:12And as we're listening, we realise that what it's saying is,
0:37:12 > 0:37:14how are you going to calculate your year?
0:37:14 > 0:37:16And what it's going to come down to is
0:37:16 > 0:37:18you'll live it, as these people do,
0:37:18 > 0:37:19not knowing how long you've got.
0:37:19 > 0:37:23# How do you measure a year in the life?
0:37:23 > 0:37:28# How about love?
0:37:28 > 0:37:33# How about love?
0:37:33 > 0:37:37# How about love?
0:37:37 > 0:37:41# Measure in love
0:37:41 > 0:37:47- # Seasons of love - Lo-o-o-ove
0:37:47 > 0:37:53- # Seasons of love - Lo-o-o-ove
0:37:53 > 0:37:58# Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
0:37:58 > 0:38:03# Five hundred twenty-five thousand journeys to plan
0:38:03 > 0:38:08# Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes... #
0:38:08 > 0:38:10And then finally, pure musical theatre.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14The individual singers who scat sing, virtually.
0:38:14 > 0:38:18# ..she learned or in times that he cried
0:38:18 > 0:38:23# In bridges he burned Or the way that she died
0:38:23 > 0:38:25# It's time now to sing out... #
0:38:25 > 0:38:27They riff over the top of the melody,
0:38:27 > 0:38:31sending their voices high above what we're listening to,
0:38:31 > 0:38:33and that is what we love as an audience -
0:38:33 > 0:38:36to hear the physical expression of the performer
0:38:36 > 0:38:39going into the song and giving even more emotion to it.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42- # Lo-o-ove - A gift from up above
0:38:42 > 0:38:46- # Remember the lo-o-ove - Share love, give love
0:38:46 > 0:38:48- # Remember the love - Spread love
0:38:48 > 0:38:53# Measure, measure your life in love
0:38:53 > 0:38:59# Seasons of love
0:38:59 > 0:39:02- # Seasons of love - Measure your life
0:39:02 > 0:39:08# Measure your life in love. #
0:39:09 > 0:39:13Jonathan Larson never saw Rent open to rapturous reviews,
0:39:13 > 0:39:17as it quickly transferred from off- to on-Broadway.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20On the day before the first preview, he died
0:39:20 > 0:39:23from an undiagnosed heart condition.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29I know for sure that, um, Rent...changed people's lives.
0:39:29 > 0:39:31That's a phrase that they used,
0:39:31 > 0:39:34and I don't think people say that lightly.
0:39:34 > 0:39:38And I know for a fact that it introduced people to...
0:39:38 > 0:39:42people with AIDS for the first time, in many cases.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45I remember a very specific letter I got when I was in the show
0:39:45 > 0:39:47from a young woman, and she was like,
0:39:47 > 0:39:50she literally said, "I'd never met anyone with AIDS -
0:39:50 > 0:39:52"I feel like I have and now I've found out
0:39:52 > 0:39:55"where my local AIDS hospice is and I've volunteered for it."
0:39:55 > 0:39:58- Brilliant.- I mean, that's one example, it's anecdotal,
0:39:58 > 0:40:00but I know that that's not the only time.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07Rent confirmed that New York's off-Broadway theatre world
0:40:07 > 0:40:10was a fertile ground for fresh talent.
0:40:10 > 0:40:15But during the 1990s, other new forces would come into play.
0:40:17 > 0:40:21In 1991, the influential New York Times theatre critic, Frank Rich,
0:40:21 > 0:40:23had surprised his readers
0:40:23 > 0:40:25by proclaiming that the best musical of the year
0:40:25 > 0:40:28wasn't a stage production but an animated film -
0:40:28 > 0:40:31Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
0:40:32 > 0:40:33To write the music,
0:40:33 > 0:40:37Disney had turned to songwriting team Alan Menken and Howard Ashman,
0:40:37 > 0:40:42whose previous credits included an off-Broadway hit of their own -
0:40:42 > 0:40:43Little Shop of Horrors.
0:40:46 > 0:40:48Beauty and the Beast's first song
0:40:48 > 0:40:51is a classic Broadway-style opening number,
0:40:51 > 0:40:54establishing the story's heroine, Belle,
0:40:54 > 0:40:56and her everyday frustrations.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01# Little town It's a quiet village
0:41:01 > 0:41:04# Every day like the one before... #
0:41:04 > 0:41:06She's rolling her eyes.
0:41:06 > 0:41:09# Little town full of little people
0:41:09 > 0:41:14# Waking up to say
0:41:14 > 0:41:17# Bonjour, bonjour Bonjour, bonjour!
0:41:17 > 0:41:21# There goes the baker with his tray like always
0:41:21 > 0:41:23# The same old bread and rolls to sell
0:41:23 > 0:41:27# Every morning just the same Since the morning that we came
0:41:27 > 0:41:31- # To this poor provincial town - Good morning- ...Belle... #
0:41:31 > 0:41:34And as she goes through the town, we're meeting...
0:41:34 > 0:41:36We're getting everybody's reaction to her,
0:41:36 > 0:41:38which is that she's unusual and she's different,
0:41:38 > 0:41:41and getting a sense of what she dreams of, you know.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45# Oh, isn't this amazing?
0:41:45 > 0:41:49# It's my favourite part because you'll see... #
0:41:49 > 0:41:52And then of course meeting Gaston...
0:41:52 > 0:41:54# A-da-da... #
0:41:54 > 0:41:58- Again, you're creating a world for...- Creating a total world,
0:41:58 > 0:42:02and this was very much back to sort of the Bavarian village
0:42:02 > 0:42:06of Walt, you know, as in Snow White and Cinderella.
0:42:06 > 0:42:09That was, you know, where Belle comes from.
0:42:09 > 0:42:14So it was very much consciously back to that world of Snow White,
0:42:14 > 0:42:16that world...early Walt.
0:42:18 > 0:42:22Responding to the acclaim for the film's pure Broadway numbers,
0:42:22 > 0:42:23Disney took a gamble
0:42:23 > 0:42:26and turned Beauty and the Beast into a stage musical.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30The process was every bit, you know...
0:42:30 > 0:42:33as developing a Broadway show.
0:42:33 > 0:42:35But it was a Broadway show of this animated movie.
0:42:35 > 0:42:40And, you know, initially Broadway's reaction was, um...
0:42:40 > 0:42:44- cynical and threatened, you know? - Yeah.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47Which continues even to this day. There are still people who call it
0:42:47 > 0:42:50"the Disneyfication of Broadway".
0:42:50 > 0:42:51You know. And...
0:42:53 > 0:42:56Sorry, but the fact is, it IS Broadway.
0:42:56 > 0:43:00If it's on stage and you're singing thoughts and feelings
0:43:00 > 0:43:03and you're moving the story forward with song, guess what?
0:43:03 > 0:43:04You're a musical.
0:43:04 > 0:43:09On stage, Beauty and the Beast clearly resembled the movie.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15But in 1994, the studio scored its biggest animated hit yet
0:43:15 > 0:43:17with The Lion King.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21Disney's chairman asked Tom Schumacher to work on
0:43:21 > 0:43:25turning that very different beast into musical theatre.
0:43:25 > 0:43:27SONG FINISHES
0:43:27 > 0:43:29And I say, "Well, Lion King is a terrible idea."
0:43:29 > 0:43:34Because there's nothing about it that is a stage musical.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37It's an epic film. And there was a bit of a tussle,
0:43:37 > 0:43:40and he had to remind me that I was actually an employee
0:43:40 > 0:43:42and worked for him.
0:43:42 > 0:43:44He didn't have an idea how to do it, particularly,
0:43:44 > 0:43:46but he thought people loved the characters,
0:43:46 > 0:43:50they loved the story, they loved the music. Why couldn't it be on stage?
0:43:50 > 0:43:55The reason it couldn't be on stage is because the film itself
0:43:55 > 0:43:57is not theatrical.
0:43:57 > 0:43:59So what it needed was a giant idea.
0:43:59 > 0:44:02MUSIC: Circle of Life from The Lion King
0:44:06 > 0:44:11That giant idea needed to turn 2D into 3D,
0:44:11 > 0:44:14to recreate widescreen African vistas
0:44:14 > 0:44:16in the confines of the theatre,
0:44:16 > 0:44:21and bring to life all those animated but characterful animals.
0:44:21 > 0:44:25In a brilliant move, Disney recruited Julie Taymor,
0:44:25 > 0:44:29a director whose previous work included opera and puppetry.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32When I started this project, I said to Disney -
0:44:32 > 0:44:35you know, they have all the money in the world if you want it.
0:44:35 > 0:44:39I said no, I'm going to use the most theatrical devices
0:44:39 > 0:44:41that are age-old.
0:44:41 > 0:44:46Obviously revisited, done as all of us artists, we take things in,
0:44:46 > 0:44:48we're inspired by the traditions,
0:44:48 > 0:44:52but then it comes out, hopefully, in a personal and individual way.
0:44:52 > 0:44:57# Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba
0:44:57 > 0:45:01# Sithi uhm ingonyama... #
0:45:01 > 0:45:04Julie Taymor had a deep understanding of
0:45:04 > 0:45:07mask and folk theatre from across the world.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11As well as director, she worked as lead costume designer.
0:45:13 > 0:45:15For instance, in this costume of Scar,
0:45:15 > 0:45:18the most African thing in this would be what is called Kuba cloth,
0:45:18 > 0:45:21African, uh, textiles.
0:45:21 > 0:45:25And I took the patterns and I wove them into my own silhouette.
0:45:25 > 0:45:28- And that very pinched face. - Oh, the mask there?
0:45:28 > 0:45:30Well, that is inspired by the animated film,
0:45:30 > 0:45:33but then I sculpted it and it's my style of sculpting.
0:45:33 > 0:45:38Because Scar represents a kind of wily, serpentine character,
0:45:38 > 0:45:42you'll see it in this asymmetrical mask.
0:45:43 > 0:45:47I looked at many African tribal performances with masks
0:45:47 > 0:45:50and when they do the animals, they don't do anything realistic.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54They take two sticks and they'll walk to represent the four legs.
0:45:56 > 0:46:00That opening moment when you see the giraffes walk across.
0:46:00 > 0:46:02You never for a minute
0:46:02 > 0:46:05are seeing only giraffe - you see giraffe and human. Right?
0:46:05 > 0:46:07The cheetah walks out from stage right
0:46:07 > 0:46:09as the giraffes are coming from stage left,
0:46:09 > 0:46:11this beautiful moment of their passing,
0:46:11 > 0:46:14and you go, "Oh!"
0:46:14 > 0:46:15That you see the human,
0:46:15 > 0:46:18that you know when that beautiful elephant comes
0:46:18 > 0:46:21and that sweet child who's playing the baby elephant,
0:46:21 > 0:46:22and you see the child -
0:46:22 > 0:46:25always seeing people, that was something Julie had from the start,
0:46:25 > 0:46:28that we would always have this dual event of human and animal.
0:46:31 > 0:46:35This drawing on authentic cultural traditions
0:46:35 > 0:46:36for the physical performances
0:46:36 > 0:46:39was complimented by Julie Taymor's decision
0:46:39 > 0:46:42to put the chorus centre-stage,
0:46:42 > 0:46:46foregrounding arrangements by the South African composer Lebo M.
0:46:48 > 0:46:50In a movie, choral is invisible.
0:46:50 > 0:46:52In theatre, it's all live,
0:46:52 > 0:46:55so we have to assign, who are the characters singing?
0:46:55 > 0:46:58So partly it was that, but also I said
0:46:58 > 0:47:02the chorus is now going to be a major player.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05The choral part will be in your face,
0:47:05 > 0:47:09and that's where I said, I do want to have a South African chorus come.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13Um, because it's a different way of singing. It's such a tradition.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16# Ibabeni njalo bakithi
0:47:16 > 0:47:18# Ninga dinwa
0:47:18 > 0:47:20# Ninga phelelwa nga mandla
0:47:20 > 0:47:23# Siya ba bona Bebe fun' ukusi xeda... #
0:47:23 > 0:47:25When you hear that singing,
0:47:25 > 0:47:28even if you don't understand the words, it goes right into your heart
0:47:28 > 0:47:30and explodes there.
0:47:30 > 0:47:33- # Ngeke ba lunge - One by one
0:47:33 > 0:47:36# Ibabeni njalo bakithi... #
0:47:36 > 0:47:40The Lion King had been virtually rebuilt from scratch
0:47:40 > 0:47:44into something that looked and sounded like no show before it.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48And it's become a musical theatre phenomenon in its own right.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55By 2015, it had made more money at the box office
0:47:55 > 0:47:58than any other production in history.
0:47:59 > 0:48:03The Lion King continues to speak to audiences of all ages
0:48:03 > 0:48:05in a host of countries.
0:48:07 > 0:48:11But not every recent hit has been so family-friendly.
0:48:11 > 0:48:16In 2003, 30 years after the Rocky Horror Show opened,
0:48:16 > 0:48:20audiences were reminded of musicals' capacity to make mischief.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23# The sun is shining It's a lovely day
0:48:23 > 0:48:27# A perfect morning for a kid to play
0:48:27 > 0:48:29# But you've got lots of bills... #
0:48:29 > 0:48:31But this production still paid homage to
0:48:31 > 0:48:34the classical musical theatre tradition.
0:48:34 > 0:48:36# You are 22
0:48:36 > 0:48:39# And you live on Avenue Q...
0:48:39 > 0:48:42I thought you'd like to meet the cast.
0:48:42 > 0:48:43This is Princeton.
0:48:43 > 0:48:45# ..You live on Avenue Q! #
0:48:47 > 0:48:51Avenue Q is a biting comedy with an adult edge,
0:48:51 > 0:48:53performed by actors with sweary puppets.
0:48:54 > 0:48:57It's set in a kind of Sesame Street for adults.
0:48:57 > 0:49:01It's a coming-of-age tale in which the characters have grown up
0:49:01 > 0:49:04to discover that despite the assurances of kids' TV,
0:49:04 > 0:49:08we weren't all destined to be special after all.
0:49:09 > 0:49:11Avenue Q was the breakthrough project
0:49:11 > 0:49:15of co-creators Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez.
0:49:15 > 0:49:16MUSIC: What Do You Do With A BA In English?
0:49:16 > 0:49:20Did you start with the puppets as the idea, going into the show,
0:49:20 > 0:49:22or did you start with the idea
0:49:22 > 0:49:25of doing something that was very up to date and pretty in your face
0:49:25 > 0:49:26and pretty different?
0:49:26 > 0:49:28We had thought of the puppets first.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31Our previous project had involved puppets,
0:49:31 > 0:49:34it was just a classroom project.
0:49:34 > 0:49:37Kermit, Prince of Denmark. Uh...
0:49:37 > 0:49:39So how did Jim Henson take it?
0:49:39 > 0:49:43Well, pretty well - he'd been dead for 15 years.
0:49:43 > 0:49:46The idea of... I think musical theatre
0:49:46 > 0:49:49had not progressed with comedy. There are some funny musicals,
0:49:49 > 0:49:51but they were still doing the Borscht Belt,
0:49:51 > 0:49:54still doing kind of Mel Brooks-y humour,
0:49:54 > 0:49:57and we thought, well, we've had Spinal Tap,
0:49:57 > 0:50:00we've had the Simpsons, we've had South Park...
0:50:00 > 0:50:02We'd just seen South Park, actually,
0:50:02 > 0:50:04and thought, "They're eating our lunch, man!
0:50:04 > 0:50:07"We've got to do it, we've got to make a show."
0:50:07 > 0:50:09And we thought what if there was a show like...
0:50:09 > 0:50:13Like, uh, like South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, the movie,
0:50:13 > 0:50:15that was funny the whole way through,
0:50:15 > 0:50:20that had elements of spoof but that still worked on its own as a story.
0:50:20 > 0:50:23It wasn't just some fake musical within another idea.
0:50:23 > 0:50:25That was the gap we were trying to shoot with Avenue Q.
0:50:25 > 0:50:29# The internet is really, really great
0:50:29 > 0:50:31# For porn... #
0:50:31 > 0:50:33And the first thing I love about the songs
0:50:33 > 0:50:36is that they are totally unapologetic.
0:50:36 > 0:50:37# For porn!
0:50:37 > 0:50:39# There's always some new site
0:50:39 > 0:50:42- # For porn - I browse all day and night
0:50:42 > 0:50:44- # For porn - It's like I'm surfing
0:50:44 > 0:50:46# At the speed of light
0:50:46 > 0:50:48- # For porn! #- Trekkie!
0:50:50 > 0:50:53# If you were gay
0:50:53 > 0:50:55# That'd be OK... #
0:50:55 > 0:50:57And because they're "just puppets",
0:50:57 > 0:51:02we let them get away with saying - or singing - the unsayable.
0:51:02 > 0:51:06# ..see, if it were me
0:51:06 > 0:51:08# I would feel free to say
0:51:08 > 0:51:11# That I was gay But I'm not gay... #
0:51:11 > 0:51:14# If you were gay... # Nicky!
0:51:14 > 0:51:16# That'd be OK... # Nicky!
0:51:16 > 0:51:17You know?
0:51:17 > 0:51:20And...we tried to make every song build,
0:51:20 > 0:51:23not just musically, not just lyrically,
0:51:23 > 0:51:25but also comedically.
0:51:25 > 0:51:29So the laughs started here, they would go somewhere in the next verse
0:51:29 > 0:51:31and then they would climax, you know,
0:51:31 > 0:51:34at the same point that the song climaxed musically.
0:51:36 > 0:51:39So in the song Everyone's A Little Bit Racist,
0:51:39 > 0:51:42you know, we made sure to keep the humour building.
0:51:42 > 0:51:44It starts out rather, um, blithe.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53# You're a little bit racist...
0:51:53 > 0:51:56# Everyone's a little bit racist All right
0:51:56 > 0:51:59- # All right- All right- All right!
0:51:59 > 0:52:04# Bigotry has never been exclusively white... #
0:52:04 > 0:52:06THEY GIGGLE
0:52:06 > 0:52:10And the music keeps changing key every time someone comes on stage,
0:52:10 > 0:52:13and it builds a little bit, it gears up as everyone comes up.
0:52:13 > 0:52:17The very last chorus of it is, um, you know,
0:52:17 > 0:52:19Christmas Eve sings...
0:52:19 > 0:52:23- # The Jews have all the money and the whites- Have all the power
0:52:23 > 0:52:29# And I'm always in taxi cab with driver who no shower
0:52:29 > 0:52:32- # Me too!- Me too! - I can't even get a taxi!
0:52:32 > 0:52:33# Everyone's... #
0:52:33 > 0:52:37So this... We try to use the shifts in energy, the key changes,
0:52:37 > 0:52:41the modulations, to help heighten the jokes
0:52:41 > 0:52:43and bring them up a notch.
0:52:45 > 0:52:48Avenue Q is musically sophisticated,
0:52:48 > 0:52:51but it's also very aware of its antecedents
0:52:51 > 0:52:53from the golden age of musical theatre.
0:52:53 > 0:52:57There's an "I Am" song, and showstoppers,
0:52:57 > 0:53:00and in the number Mix Tape, there's an almost love song,
0:53:00 > 0:53:03harking back to Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel
0:53:03 > 0:53:05nearly 60 years earlier.
0:53:06 > 0:53:08Aww.
0:53:08 > 0:53:10Princeton.
0:53:10 > 0:53:12# He likes me Oh
0:53:12 > 0:53:15# I think he likes me
0:53:15 > 0:53:18# But does he "like me" like me...? #
0:53:18 > 0:53:21One of the songs I love is Mix Tape,
0:53:21 > 0:53:24which is kind of the great non-romantic love song.
0:53:24 > 0:53:28Right, right! Yes, that's the If I Loved You of Avenue Q.
0:53:28 > 0:53:30Exactly so. Could you tell me
0:53:30 > 0:53:32a little bit about Mix Tape, how that came about?
0:53:32 > 0:53:35We had an idea that we wanted to write a song called
0:53:35 > 0:53:37Does He Like Me Or Does He Like Me Like Me.
0:53:37 > 0:53:40Er, and we started writing, you now...
0:53:40 > 0:53:42HE PLAYS "MIX TAPE" INTRO
0:53:44 > 0:53:46# He likes me
0:53:46 > 0:53:48# I think he likes me
0:53:49 > 0:53:51# But does he "like me" like me
0:53:51 > 0:53:54# Like I like him?
0:53:54 > 0:53:58# Will we be friends
0:53:58 > 0:54:00# Or something more?
0:54:00 > 0:54:03# I think he's interested
0:54:03 > 0:54:07# But I'm not sure... #
0:54:07 > 0:54:10And we began to realise that what we were writing wasn't the song
0:54:10 > 0:54:12but the intro to a song,
0:54:12 > 0:54:15and then we thought, well, what would she be confused about?
0:54:15 > 0:54:18What's a good mixed signal for her to be like,
0:54:18 > 0:54:21does he like me or does he just like me, like me?
0:54:21 > 0:54:23And then we thought of a mix tape
0:54:23 > 0:54:26because every song could be misread
0:54:26 > 0:54:29or thought of as an intention, an innuendo.
0:54:29 > 0:54:31- PIANO MIMICS DOORBELL - Oh, come in!
0:54:31 > 0:54:33- Hi, Kate.- Oh, Princeton! Hi!
0:54:33 > 0:54:36Listen, I was going through my old CDs yesterday
0:54:36 > 0:54:38and I kept coming across songs I thought you'd like,
0:54:38 > 0:54:41- so I made you this mix. - That's so sweet!
0:54:41 > 0:54:43Can I get you a drink or a snack?
0:54:43 > 0:54:45- Actually, do you mind if I use your bathroom?- Go right ahead.
0:54:45 > 0:54:47Thanks!
0:54:47 > 0:54:49SHE SIGHS
0:54:49 > 0:54:50# A mix tape
0:54:50 > 0:54:53# Oh, he made a mix tape
0:54:53 > 0:54:54# A-ha-ha!
0:54:54 > 0:54:56# He was thinking of me
0:54:56 > 0:55:00# Which shows he cares
0:55:00 > 0:55:05# Sometimes when someone has a crush on you
0:55:05 > 0:55:08# They'll make you a mix tape
0:55:08 > 0:55:11# To give you a clue. #
0:55:11 > 0:55:13And then it was a real trick
0:55:13 > 0:55:16to get song titles that...
0:55:16 > 0:55:20Some of which suggested "I like you" and some of which suggest...
0:55:20 > 0:55:25Some of which suggested "you're just my friend", and rhymed!
0:55:25 > 0:55:29And I don't think we would have been able to do it without Napster.
0:55:29 > 0:55:33Napster was the big internet music platform back then.
0:55:33 > 0:55:35Let's see.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38# You've Got A Friend The Theme From Friends
0:55:38 > 0:55:41# That's What Friends Are For... #
0:55:41 > 0:55:43Shit.
0:55:43 > 0:55:46So we would just say, "OK, um...
0:55:46 > 0:55:49"That's What Friends Are For, we know we need that -
0:55:49 > 0:55:53"what rhymes with That's What Friends Are For and is a song?
0:55:53 > 0:55:56"Oh, My Cherie Amour!"
0:55:58 > 0:55:59Oh, but look!
0:55:59 > 0:56:03# A Whole New World Kiss The Girl
0:56:03 > 0:56:06# My Cherie Amour... #
0:56:06 > 0:56:08Oh, Princeton. He does like me! Ha-ha!
0:56:08 > 0:56:11# I Am The Walrus
0:56:11 > 0:56:13# Fat Bottomed Girls
0:56:13 > 0:56:16# Yellow Submarine
0:56:16 > 0:56:20# What does this mean? #
0:56:22 > 0:56:26This kind of very knowing comedy has been around since the millennium.
0:56:26 > 0:56:28We've entered a distinctly adult world,
0:56:28 > 0:56:31but via an unapologetically juvenile one.
0:56:31 > 0:56:34We're hitting all the pop culture notes,
0:56:34 > 0:56:37the comedy is wry and on the nose,
0:56:37 > 0:56:39and yet as with most modern musicals,
0:56:39 > 0:56:42there's also a fundamental understanding of,
0:56:42 > 0:56:46and indeed nostalgia for, musical theatre itself.
0:56:47 > 0:56:51- Nice mix.- Oh. There's one more.
0:56:52 > 0:56:59# I Have To Say I Love You In A Song... #
0:57:05 > 0:57:09MUSIC ENDS
0:57:12 > 0:57:16Throughout this series, I've had a chance to tell the stories
0:57:16 > 0:57:19behind some of the greatest songs of musical theatre,
0:57:19 > 0:57:23and crucially, to perform them.
0:57:23 > 0:57:26MUSIC: Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin'
0:57:26 > 0:57:30I've been reminded of the depth and inventiveness of the writing,
0:57:30 > 0:57:35and struck by how fresh songs created decades ago can still feel.
0:57:35 > 0:57:41# And everything's going my way. #
0:57:41 > 0:57:45# In New York you can be a new man... #
0:57:45 > 0:57:48And from Wicked to Avenue Q
0:57:48 > 0:57:51to the hottest new ticket, Hamilton,
0:57:51 > 0:57:5321st-century musicals offer us
0:57:53 > 0:57:57an unprecedented range of styles and subjects.
0:57:57 > 0:57:59# Just you wait!
0:57:59 > 0:58:02- # Alexander Hamilton - Alexander Hamilton
0:58:02 > 0:58:04# We are waiting in the wings... #
0:58:04 > 0:58:07They're proof of musical theatre's extraordinary ability
0:58:07 > 0:58:12to reinvent itself without losing sight of its own tradition.
0:58:12 > 0:58:14# Oh, Alexander Hamilton... #
0:58:14 > 0:58:16There's a buzz around these shows
0:58:16 > 0:58:19that hasn't been felt in a generation.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22An appeal that reaches across all audiences
0:58:22 > 0:58:24and continues to win new converts.
0:58:24 > 0:58:28More than ever before, musicals are for everybody.
0:58:28 > 0:58:31They make us laugh, they make us cry,
0:58:31 > 0:58:34and they leave us with memories of song and spectacle
0:58:34 > 0:58:37that will last a lifetime.
0:58:37 > 0:58:39# I am not throwing away my shot
0:58:39 > 0:58:42# I am not throwing away my shot
0:58:42 > 0:58:45# Hey yo, I'm just like my country I'm young, scrappy and hungry
0:58:45 > 0:58:47# And I'm not throwing away my shot
0:58:47 > 0:58:49# I'ma get a scholarship to King's College
0:58:49 > 0:58:52# I prob'ly shouldn't brag but dag, I amaze and astonish
0:58:52 > 0:58:55# The problem is I got a lot of brains but no polish
0:58:55 > 0:58:57# I gotta holler just to be heard with every word...
0:58:57 > 0:59:00# What are the odds the gods would put us all in one spot
0:59:00 > 0:59:03# Poppin' a squat on conventional wisdom, like it or not
0:59:03 > 0:59:06# A bunch of revolutionary manumission abolitionists?
0:59:06 > 0:59:09# Give me a position Show me where the ammunition is! #