Last night on the way home I heard part of an interview on NPR’s “Soundcheck” hosted by John Schaefer. Elizabeth Wollman has written a new book titled “Hard Times: The Adult Musicals in the 1970’s in NYC.” She began by stating that the Broadway musicals of the 70s were in transition. Young people of that time didn’t want to see/hear the musicals of their parent’s generation. So a new crop of artists, producers, and composers was born.
The two musicals that I remember from that period that were groundbreaking were, of course, “Hair” and “Oh!Calcutta.” Wollman described in detail how these musicals came to be staged and their reception by the Broadway-going audience. Since they were so different in format, music, and, most of all, staging–all those naked people–she coins these shows “The Adult Music Musicals.”
If her book is as good as this interview, it might be of interest to some of our patrons.