When was the first musical theatre produced?

Answer 1

Musical theatre started out in the early 1900s with shows called Broadway Reviews, aka vaudeville shows. The music was all that was important and the plot was almost nonexistent. There were a few shows that stood out and are still performed today (Showboat, Anything Goes). The music in these shows were not character driven or gender based. Anyone could sing them and they were often used in multiple shows. This was also the popular music of that era. Then in 1943, Oklahoma! opened on Broadway and changed the way musical theatre worked. Now the plot was just as important as the music if not more, and the songs were character driven and related to the plot. Thus begins the Golden Age of musicals. This era lasted until the mid to late 1960s when Rock Music started to affect the stage. This started the Contemporary age, when musicals started to become more abstract and people started trying new ways to look at theatre. . Newer and stranger plots came into play and the music began to change. This is the era we are now in.