Research Project: Depression-Era Broadway
Broadway’s Depression: Innovation and Stagnation
Summary
Broadway had garnered great success in the 1920’s (opening 56 new musicals in 1927 alone), and it resisted change in the 1930’s. The low attendance in the Depression years should have spurred more innovation in the musical form, technology, presentation and production to attract current and new patrons away from the movie theater. Due to producers’ unwillingness to take risks, holding to their principles by staying away from amplification and stubbornness to incorporate popular musical styles, evolution was held back. The new young generation, having been enamored with radio, swing music and talkies, didn’t see their tastes reflected in the theater and were unwilling to spend their ever-dwindling entertainment budget.
Innovators such as Earl Carroll and Hassard Short sought to reinvent stagecraft as a draw to audiences. Carroll, being an opportunist more than a thoughtful innovator, was more famous for using sex gimmicks to sell tickets. Short, on the other hand, was using lighting and insisting on the believably true-to-life acting that people were seeing in the movie theaters to advance the format of musical theater.
The talking movies and prohibition had an extreme effect on Broadway, pulling people away from live theater, closing or converting theatrical stages into movie houses, and sending many musicians to the bread lines. The extravaganza of 1935’s Jumbo, which garnered critical acclaim, was unable to stay solvent when competing with the opulence of the movies. MGM was able to make a movie musical revue such as Hollywood Party of 1934 that had incorporated many of Jumbo’s big stars and more—even Mickey Mouse.
As many actors, composers, producers and directors cut their losses and moved to Hollywood to work in the film industry, the void left behind was filled—but with pay markedly reduced and a smaller market overall. The response was to keep to the same formula from the late 20’s for much of the first half of the 1930’s, with many shows loosing money, despite hit songs and good reviews. Most of the innovation seen was to either cut costs or to be gimmicky, which still flopped for many producers.
As bad productions fell to the wayside, the second half of the 1930’s saw a more refined product with the move to more believable performances, more engaging lighting that highlighted the dramatic aspect of the shows, and more intimate “soft vocal” sound. Union minimums kept pit orchestras large and composers were writing for the “hard sound” amplification that was necessary to combine the two music styles desired by the audience, much to the derision of Broadway traditionalist. Moveable stages, fly systems and even ragtime music were in use during Broadway’s first Golden Age in the 1920’s; when faced with amplification, Swing music and new musical forms in hard economic times later, Broadway was very resistant to change. After a confused and unfocused period of the new raw materials and conflicting desires, Broadway was set for a rebirth and transition in the post-war Golden Age of Musicals.