“Like all stories, musicals can be joyous, somber, thrilling, meditative, lively, plodding, goofy, emotional, political, instructive, and on and on. What they are obliged to be, first and foremost, is entertaining….”
~Steve Cuden

If you’re going to write, produce, or direct a new musical, it may be helpful to understand what kind of musical you’re going to create. There are a number of different styles of musicals. They all take slightly different approaches to the broader form called “musicals,” but at the end of the day they all serve similar purposes.

How are Musicals Different than Concerts?

Keep in mind that musicals are, for the most part, a brilliantly unique and vibrant form of storytelling. But without a story to tell, you would merely have a concert. Nothing wrong with a concert; it just isn’t a musical. If all you had were dancers dancing, then you’d have another form of concert, a dance concert, or a ballet. No problem there, either, but it still wouldn’t be a musical. If a musical’s songs are not sung by characters that the audience unquestionably recognizes as being part of a clearly identifiable story, then you also have a concert or recital.

Types of Musicals

While there are certainly shows that can incorporate various aspects of each of these, we can categorize most modern and traditional shows into the following types of musicals:

1) Musical comedy, as you might find in The Book of Mormon, The Producers, Avenue Q, and Spamalot.

2) Musical drama, such as The King and I, Cabaret, Titanic, and Jekyll & Hyde.

3) Opera, which is sung-through with no dialogue. Here I don’t mean classic operas like Don Giovanni, and Rigoletto. I’m referring to those operas intended for the commercial Broadway stage, which would include “rock operas,” such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, and The Who’s Tommy.

4) Light opera or operetta, which has some dialogue, but is heavy on song and recitative, like Sweeney Todd and Rent.

5) Revue, which would include shows such as Smokey Joe’s Café or Five Guys Named Mo, and also so-called “jukebox musicals,” in which well-known existing songs, often written originally for popular radio play and record sales, are used to form the basis of a new stage work. These would include productions with plotted stories, such as Jersey Boys or Mamma Mia or Beautiful: The Carol King Musical, or Forever Plaid, and dance-heavy shows with far less plot, such as Movin’ Out and Contact.

Naturally, there are plenty of crossbred hybrids that combine one or more of the above five types of musicals. The modern musical is descended from classical opera, ballet, plays, and vaudeville. Developed primarily in the United States during the early to mid-twentieth century by great writers like George and Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Loesser, Meredith Willson, Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe, Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Tom Jones, Harvey Schmidt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, and many other great artists, the form that we know today as a “musical” is a brilliantly bastardized combination of all those styles noted above and more.

The musical has proven to be very flexible, adaptable, and open to telling a wide range of tales. As time marches on, writers, producers, and directors always try to push the boundaries between styles in an attempt to forge something fresh. And yet nowhere is the phrase “Everything old is new again” easier to see than in the musicals of today. This is not only acceptable, but also desirable, as it helps to keep the form alive, dynamic in the healthiest sense, and moving ever forward.

No matter the type of musical you choose, make it entertaining!

Like all stories, musicals can be joyous, somber, thrilling, meditative, lively, plodding, goofy, emotional, political, instructive, and on and on. What they are obliged to be, first and foremost, is entertaining in a way that attracts ticket buyers. They are not documentaries (though a musical documentary might be interesting) or dry texts or treatises or news reports. They are not “reality shows,” no matter how realistically the sets, costumes, and performances may be contrived to be. People never have and never will spontaneously break into song on the street to deliver to others messages about their inner thoughts. Even so-called “flashmob musicals” that appear to spring up spontaneously in public places require significant planning.

The musical form of storytelling is not how we communicate with the rest of the world in our day-to-day lives. As such, I believe that the very nature of musicals makes them, one and all, fantasies, even though the kinds of stories typically told in musicals don’t fall into the category of what most of us think of as “fantasy.” But the moment a character steps out of a show’s established reality to tell the audience something about himself or herself by singing about it, then I think the work instantly becomes fantasy. I say long live fantasy!

What type of musical are you most drawn to? Let us know in the comments section below!