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The Story Behind tells the extraordinary history of the ordinary. Everyday objects are more closely examined, from their ancient beginnings through the present—all within 5-10 minutes.

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Nov 2, 2017

Warning: If you usually listen to this podcast at a faster speed, singing will be used and this might be a good time to slow your podcast player down.

If you’ve been with me from the very beginning, you know every so often I like to thrown in a little singing now and then. I try to deny being a theater person, but I secretly am. The theater bug bites me every so often and I want to be in a show again. And not just any show. I was brought up listening to Rodgers & Hammerstein, singing along with Julie Andrews and Bernadette Peters, and had it not been for my lack of grace when it comes to dancing, I probably would have pursued it more. But, now that I have a podcast, and I wanted to celebrate the 100 episodes by doing something special, and no one has to see my bad coordination.

I’m your host, Emily Prokop, and this is The Story Behind: The Musical!

Originally, I had a song for this episode’s promo, but I decided to record this straight instead. I just wanted to thank everyone who has supported the show. I’m really proud of not only making it to 100 episodes, but also the one year anniversary of The Story Behind. And many of you have been there from the beginning. Thank you for joining the The Story Behind Facebook Group, Liking the Story Behind Facebook page, following @storybehindpod on Twitter and Instagram, becoming executive producers by supporting the show on Patreon.com, sending notes, emails, DMs of encouragement, retweeting, commenting, telling your friends … really, you guys are the lifeblood of this podcast to keep it going. There’s going to be some exciting things planned for this podcast and myself and I can’t wait to share it with you all. So here’s to another 100 and another year of The Story Behind.

Oh, and if you’re an executive producer of The Story Behind, you can hear the original song I recorded for the promo by going to Patreon.com/TheStoryBehind.

LYRICS

This is the story all about the modern major musical
The history’s quite large and certain facts might be disputable
It started back in Greece where many theaters were acoustical
The middle ages brought them back with church and tra-ve-ling minstrels
The 17- and 18-hundreds’ shows were quite satirical
Though op-er-a quite serious the musicals were comical
The views expressed may not have always suited those imperial
But entertainment wins and they continued to be fash’niable.

With names like Strauss and Offenbach they spread fast geographical
They hit the U.S.A. and folks enjoyed a bit of Vaud-eh-ville
The history’s quite large and certain facts might be disputable
This is the story all about the modern major musical

Burlesque, we will not cover because this podcast is for all ears
But just to note this was a part of musicals for several years
Extravaganzas, Pantomimes and farces were all met with cheers
The theater thrived and fattened wallets of investing financiers
Broadway emerged as the grand force to rule all things theatrical
And stage revues like Zeigfeild’s Follies drew crowds international
In 1919 unions forced their contracts with a picket line
The ‘20s saw Cole Porter, Hart and Rodgers and then Hammerstein

The Great Depression didn’t keep the musicals from going down
But actors moved out west to Hollywood for movies now with sound
The history’s quite large and certain facts might be disputable
This is the story all about the modern major musical

The people went to movies to escape thoughts of the second war
The musicals were loved and records flew off shelves at music stores
The decades passed and rock and roll soon stepped on music theater’s toes
But Sondheim came and introduced the people to his concept shows
The trend revived and musicals came back strong like they were before
The audiences clamored for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s epic scores
And now our favorite movies-turned-to-musicals all do quite well
And history has sold out crowds with R&B by Lin-Manuel.

For episode 100 I came up with doing musicals
I hope you learned a bit and all my rhymes weren’t inexcusable
The history’s quite large and certain facts might be disputable
This is the story all about the modern major musical!

 ***

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This episode was brought to you by The Story Behind Executive Producers who support the show through the Patreon Page at patreon.com/thestorybehind: Stargate Pioneer from GonnaGeek.com, Mat from the One Word, Go! Show, Sam Dunn, Diane and Denise from History Goes Bump, Scott Smith from Recovering from Religion, Dan Brenic from Netflix N’ Swill, Jarrod Dunham from TheHistoryphile.net, Heather Welch from Sunshine and PowerCuts, and Jason Bryant from Mat Talk Online, Gerald and Andy from Two Peas on a Podcast, Bandrew Scott from The Bandrew Says Podcast and Podcastage YouTube Channel, Adam from Everyone Has a Podcast. and Barry G, Nick and Justin from Epic Film Guys, and newest Executive Producer, Jeremy Collins from Podcasts We Listen To.

Click here to support this podcast on Patreon.

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Media:

Music for Makers

Sources:

Musicals On Stage: A Capsule History - Musicals101.com

Broadway & Hollywood - PBS.org

Screen 1940's I: Warners, Goldwyn & Paramount - Musicals101.com

History of The Musical Stage The 1930s I: Great Songwriting Teams - Musicals101.com

A History of The Musical European Operetta: 1850-1880 - Musicals101.com

History of The Musical Stage 1920s: "Keep the Sun Smilin' Through" - Musicals101.com

Modern Major General Lyrics - ThoughtCo.com