A Brief History of Jukebox Musicals

By Maddy Higgins

Jukebox musicals are stage or cinematic musicals mostly featuring songs already popular and well-known, with a minority or complete lack of original songs. Most commonly, jukebox musicals utilize songs from one well-known artist, composer, or band, as a way of honoring the legacy of their work. In this article, I’d like to take a look at the history of jukebox musicals, and how they became what they are today.

Although many people credit the creation of the jukebox musical as we know it to early Hollywood, the idea of incorporating popular tunes into a new show was first used by John Gay, mid-18th century English poet and dramatist, in “The Beggar’s Opera” (1728).

Skipping forward a couple of centuries, the first official jukebox musical was the Hollywood film Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), which tells the life story of composer George M. Cohan. It was a huge hit, winning three Academy Awards, one of which being “Best Music and Scoring of a Musical Picture.” The success of Yankee Doodle Dandy led to more jukebox musicals produced by Hollywood in the years following, including Singin’ in the Rain (1952), which was also a huge success. However, towards the end of the 1950s, the era of Hollywood musicals largely ended, and these films stopped being made.

But that didn’t stop Broadway; the first jukebox musical to be performed on Broadway, The Night that Made America Famous, opened in February 1975. It was a musical revue, featuring songs by rockstar Harry Chaplin. It combines new songs written for the show by Harry Chaplin and already popular ones. Unfortunately, the show flopped with both audiences and critics. It was performed only 47 times before it closed in April of that same year.

More jukebox musicals were performed on Broadway through the 1990s, including Beatlemania (1977), Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story (1990), and Smokey Joe’s Cafe (1995) – which was nominated for seven Tony Awards – but very few reached the success of Broadway’s other hits, and jukebox musicals quickly faded from relevance.

But! This all changed in 2001 when one musical hit the stage, becoming a huge sensation and bringing back the jukebox musical. Mamma Mia! incorporated songs from the band ABBA with an original story and characters. With 1,500 performances, it became Broadway’s 9th longest-running show, surpassing both The Sound of Music and The King and I. It was adapted into a movie in 2008, starring Meryl Streep, which also received mainstream success. Mamma Mia! was followed up that year with another extremely popular jukebox musical, the movie Moulin Rouge, which was nominated for two Academy Awards.

The success of Mamma Mia! and Moulin Rouge led to an explosion of jukebox musicals on Broadway. In the 2010s, no less than 22 jukebox musicals were performed on Broadway. Recently, Moulin Rouge was adapted onto the stage and has also received positive audience and critical reception, receiving 10 Tony Awards including “Best Musical.”

Who knows what lies in store for the future of jukebox musicals? I, for one, am excited to find out.

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