Curtain Up A Journey Through The Ages Of Musical Theatre – Tor Ingar Jakobsen

There were, of course, several notable musicals from the 1970s beyond those created by Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince. Some of these successes were a result of the Shubert Organization’s strategy of “betting on the jockey and not the horse,” while others thrived under the guidance of different producers and organizations. Let’s take a closer look at some of them: Jesus Christ Superstar (1971) In 1971, Broadway was introduced to a young English musical creator team: composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and librettist Tim Rice.

A few years earlier, they had worked together on “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” a musical about Joseph from the Bible’s Book of Genesis. Following the moderate success of “Joseph,” they wanted to create another project with a biblical theme. Webber and Rice wanted to create something fresh and innovative. They were inspired by the rise of rock music and its potential as a powerful storytelling medium. Someone suggested they write a musical about the final week of Jesus’ life—the Easter story.

At first, they weren’t very interested. However, Tim Rice came up with an intriguing angle: what if they told the story from the perspective of Judas Iscariot? What was going through Judas’ mind when he betrayed Jesus? Was it more than just the thirty pieces of silver? This unique perspective added a whole new dimension to the story. Plot Summary The musical starts with Jesus entering Jerusalem, his increasing popularity causing both admiration and fear. While the ruling priests become increasingly anxious about Jesus’ influence, Judas feels himself drifting away from his once-beloved friend.

Judas is worried about Jesus’ connection with followers he sees as dangerous and misguided, and fears their actions will lead to disaster. In a desperate attempt to prevent this, Judas betrays Jesus to the authorities for thirty pieces of silver. The plot comes to a dramatic conclusion when Jesus gets arrested and brought before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor.

Pilate, despite his reservations, sentences Jesus to death, culminating in the scene of his crucifixion. Album Rice and Webber were unable to secure financing for a full-scale stage production, so they decided to start by recording an album. For the recording, they brought together a mix of musical theater performers, including Murray Head, fresh from the West End production of Hair, and rock musicians like Ian Gillan, the lead singer of Deep Purple.

The BBC banned the album upon its release, calling it “sacrilegious,” and the church labeled it blasphemous. Despite this, it became a massive success, selling 1 million copies within just a few weeks. Stage Version The success of their album led Rice and Webber to take their project to the U.S., where they staged a theatrical production.

Tom O’Horgan, who we remember from Hair, was brought on as the director.

Copyright © 2025 by Tor Ingar Jakobsen All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior written permission of the publisher or author, except as permitted by applicable copyright law. All song titles, musical references, and excerpts are used solely for educational and analytical purposes. Any quoted lyrics are limited in scope and fall under fair use for commentary and critique.

The author has made every effort to trace and credit all quoted sources. If any omissions are discovered, they will be corrected in subsequent editions. OceanofPDF.com Contents Preface Part 1 The Golden Age (1943–1964) 1. The 1940s Musical Renaissance – Reaching New Heights on Broadway! Oklahoma! (1943): Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’ 2. Other Shows of the 1940s 3.

The 1950s – A Decade of Unforgettable Musicals! 4. The Late 1950s – Welcoming Innovative New Voices in Musical Theatre! 5. 1960-64 – Classic Hits and the Dawn of a New Sound Part 2: Times Are Changing 6. The late 60s, A Turning Point for Broadway Musicals 7. The Sondheim-Prince Partnership: A Legendary Collaboration in the 70s 8.

Other Shows in the 70s. Part 3: From Cats to Rent: The Musicals That Defined the 80s and 90s 9. Mega Musicals and Big Bucks 10. Stephen Sondheim: The Lapine Years 11. Disney – A New Player in Town 12. Other Shows in the 80s and 90s Part 4 From the Millennium to the Present (2025) 13.

How Presold Titles Are Shaping Broadway’s Future 14. The New Faces of Broadway – Creators Shaping the Future of Musicals Part 5: What Shaped Musical Theatre Before Oklahoma! 15. Pre Oklahoma! Afterword About the author References OceanofPDF.com Preface After lecturing on the history of musical theatre at several collages and universities, I have distilled these lectures into a book. Why another book on musical theatre history, you might ask, given that there are already so many excellent books on the subject?

I fully acknowledge that there are many outstanding books on the history of musicals. However, many of them are comprehensive and highly detailed.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: a850c36bc010ceba
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 1,752,192 bytes (1.671 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 193
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 204.34 minutes
• Total Words: 40,867
• Total Characters: 254,572
• Average Words per Page: 211.75
• Average Characters per Page: 1319.03

Most Frequent Words

musical (468), broadway (250), music (201), new (185), story (183), theater (157), musicals (138), show (128), one (101), sondheim (86), american (84), like (83), also (83), success (81), york (76), love (74), theatre (72), became (72), lyrics (71), songs (71), time (70), set (67), plot (67), world (66), stage (66), first (66), shows (64), years (63), prince (63), life (61), com (60), history (58), book (58), production (58), young (58), hammerstein (56), oceanofpdf (54), however (53), two (53), work (52), many (51), tony (51), between (50), film (50), song (49), characters (47), rodgers (46), including (45), made (42), best (42), dance (41), around (41), composer (40), become (40), early (39), themes (39), later (39), way (39), productions (37), score (37), west (37), take (36), side (36), hit (35), tells (35), family (35), oklahoma (34), create (34), together (34), known (34), often (34), george (34), stephen (33), even (33), audiences (33), traditional (33), narrative (32), career (32), despite (32), summary (32), stories (31), several (30), another (30), based (30), man (30), premiered (30), began (29), major (29), storytelling (29), came (29), opera (29), play (28), works (28), follows (28), gershwin (28), city (28), along (28), award (28), innovative (27), groundbreaking (27).

PDF Download