The first musical was called “The Black Crook,” and was performed in the 1860s. This musical was five hours long, and was not a contemporary style piece as is seen today in modern musicals. It was originated from Charles M. Marcus’s book, and from there was turned into a beautiful stage performance that became the first modern English musical.

By the 1920s, some more serious musicals came to surface, such as “Show Boat” in 1927. This was one of the firsts musicals to resemble a real play. It also had one of the first integrated casts on broadway.

In the 1940s, the songs in these musicals started to take a big role in its storytelling. Some examples of this are in “Oklahoma!” This musical did not just have songs to fill the time or make the story more entertaining; the music in this story gave content to the musical, and showed the audience key details that made the story make more sense.

“’Oklahoma!’ was one of my favorite musicals because it was such a deep and dramatic story, yet still a musical, and still very fun to watch,” senior Jordan Coutcher said. “We also performed this musical my freshman year. It was really cool to see it come alive through my classmates and how they performed this story.”

Musicals like “Sweeney Todd” started to pop up in the in the 1980s. These kind of pieces showed dark stories in dramatic and sometimes comical pieces. This era started to really shake the limits of what a musical could accomplish, and what kinds of stories could be shown though this art form.

By the 2000s, the contemporary era of musicals emerged, and performances such as “Legally Blonde” (shown in 2008) started to become widely popular. These kind of stories showed more modern storylines and music.

“I think musicals move with the current popular culture at the given time,” senior Amanda Pierce said. “So many different kinds of musicals emerge during different eras, and that, to me, is why they are never really that similar throughout time.”