Theatre In The 1920s Research Paper

Throughout the 1920s many things changed in the United States along with other countries. When World War 1 ended, some many countries struggled economically, but the United States was not one of them. At the time America was in a happy state with good economic standing. Since the U.S. was doing so well people were able to work less and enjoy more leisure activities such as sports, music on the radio, movies and Broadway theatre. Before the 1920s theatre was mainly for the rich and was not wildly popular, as people’s money situations changed so did theatre and Broadway Theatre grew in popularity with more people coming to the U.S. through Ellis Island. Centered in New York with its large population, Broadway theatre in the 1920s was filled of

musicals with simple plots to reflect on real world issues, comedies and melodramas which were new styles of theatre that made the 1920s theatre era different from previous years.
Spontaneous playwrights and a large population of spectators made New York the center of Broadway theatre in the 1920s. As Marybeth Hamilton writes, since Broadway was centered in New York, many playwrights set most of their plays in New York, such as May West with her play The Drag. Across the United States, especially in New York the audience in theatres grew because more middle class people could afford the ticket prices after the end of WW1 (86-90). As Hannah K. Schauer Galli writes, in 1916 a famous theatre company that held performances at the Greenwich Theatre known as the Province Players, organized by Eugene O’Neill, Robert Edmond Jones, and Kenneth Macgowan, changed its name to the Experimental Theatre Inc. in 1923. After this group split up in 1925, The Actors’ Theatre took over the Greenwich Theatre, and began holding their performances there. Along with O’Neill, George S. Kaufman and Philip Barry were the three most successful and most known playwrights of the 1920s (861-862). As “Theatre” writes, O’Neill was known as the father of American Theatre for winning three pulitzer prizes in the 1920s alone. Another famous playwright of the 1920s was Elmer Rice with his famous works, The Adding Machine and Street Scene winning him a Pulitzer Prize in 1929 (93-94). As John Spalding Gatton writes, “By fitting contrast, Elmer Rice’s Street Scene (1929), a socially conscious melodrama about ethnic and religious intolerance in New York, won the Pulitzer Prize” (537). Playwrights throughout the 1920s experimented with different styles of theatre creating shows with catchy music, elaborate dance numbers and plots that simplified realism.
Musical comedies were a Broadway specialty because of the elaborate dance numbers, plays that simplified realism, and catchy show tunes.

As Larry Stempel writes, the five main forms of dancing up through the 1920s were tap, step, ballet, exhibition, and acrobatic. A form of dancing created in the 1920s was called American specialty dancing which was a combination of tap, step and ballet dancing. Ned Wayburn was one of the most known choreographers of the 1920s for creating elaborate dance routines that involved multiple standing arrangements (230-231). Another part of a Broadway production was the catchy tunes. As Stempel writes, jazz music was favored on Broadway for its upbeat tune, snappy dance rhythms , and catchy but often senseless lyrics. An example of a catchy Broadway showtune is the song I Want to Be Happy written by Irving Caesar, and performed in the musical Jonny Spielt Auf in 1927. One songwriter and composer who was not only well known in the 1920s, with a career lasting from 1920-1932, but is still known today for the song Tea for Two performed in the musical No No Nanette in 1925 (229-234). Many songs that became popular by being performed in Broadway theatres were later being played on both the phonograph and the radio (James Ciment 503). As Oscar Brockett writes, catchy tunes and elaborate dance numbers were combined with a simple plot line to create thousands of different plays with different plots, music and forms of dance. Although every play was

different they all expressed the ideas of expressionism and simplified realism (552). As Pamela Lee Gray writes the most famous and definitely most know song and dance groups of the 1920s was the Ziegfeld Follies which was founded by Florenz Ziegfeld in 1907. During the Follies’ early years they performed old fashioned Vaudeville shows, but thought the 1920s Ziegfeld used modeling, posing, elaborate dance numbers and different standing arrangements to shape and make each performance better than the last. The Ziegfeld Follies performed on stage until 1928 then switched to film until 1932 when the director and founder, Florenz Ziegfeld died (307). These plays and songs became unique because directors and playwrights were beginning to explore new ideas of theatre and broke away from the older American theatre lifestyle.
Before the 1920s Broadway Theatre era, theatre was not as popular because everyone was either working to help the World War 1 effort or was in Europe serving in the war.

Before the 1920s Americans adapted many theatre ideas and techniques such as the circus and Vaudeville (Gray 303-305). As Gray writes, Vaudeville was the first main style of theatre which was created by Benjamin Franklin Keith in the early 1880s. Vaudeville shows typically had strict rules on plot, music and dance, lasted about twelve hours and consisted of seven to ten acts. During the days of Vaudeville, over twenty-five thousand performances took place from the 1880s until the 1920s . Vaudeville impacted 1920s Broadway Theatre because many actors, dancers, and other performers trained in the Bijou Theater which were Vaudeville theatre started (308). In the early years of theatre most of the audiences were people of the upper class (Galli 861). Starting in 1915 new ideas in theatre began to change and shape Broadway Theatre into what it is today: “The 1850s established a clear American tradition on the stage, with both the high period for theater profits running from the Civil War era until 1915” (Gray 304). As Hamilton writes comedies consisting of provocative scenes, sexual relations and sometimes prostitution grew in popularity in the 1920s. With an absurd and adventurous plot the play SEX became one of the most seen plays in 1926 (83-86). Audiences in the 1920s showed interest in plays that consist of

religious issues of tolerance and bigotry (Gatton 535-536). As “Theatre” writes, book musicals which are plays written based on famous novels and plays that showed ideas expressionism. The first true American musical Show Boat written in 1927 by Oscar Hammerstein with music by Jerome Kern (86-96). At the start of these new theatre ideas not everyone liked breaking away from tradition: “‘It did not belong on Broadway,’ wrote the theatre journal Variety on April 28, 1926” (86-87). As old traditional ideas in theatre have been replaced with new ideas of proactive expressive plots, elaborate dance numbers, catchy tunes and scandalous costumes created a new era of Broadway Theatre.
Centered in New York with its large population, Broadway theatre in the 1920s was filled of musicals with simple plots to reflect on real world issues, comedies and melodramas which were new styles of theatre that made the 1920s theatre era different from previous years. Theatre was only one of the many things to change after World War 1. Sports, film, radio and music were just a few of the things that changed along with Broadway Theatre. In conclusion the ending of World War 1 and the beginning of the 1920s brought about change in not only the United States but the rest of the World.