NEW YORK -- The Broadway musical didn't just sing and dance this season. It sang opera -- in Italian with a mega-sized cast. It danced both ballet and modern -- without a single actor speaking a word. And it told children's stories -- with a cast of five playing a forest full of woodland creatures.
In short, this was a season when the Broadway musical wore a myriad of faces. Examples of these varied visages will be showcased in tonight's Tony Awards ceremony, when the competitors for best new musical will include:
* Movin' Out: A dance piece choreographed by Twyla Tharp to the songs of Billy Joel.
* A Year With Frog and Toad: A chamber musical based on children's books by Arnold Lobel.
* Hairspray: A traditional book musical, albeit based on a non-traditional source -- a John Waters movie.
(For the record, the nominees also include Michel Legrand's Amour, but having closed in November after only 17 performances, it poses no real threat.)
Meanwhile, the race for best musical revival features not only such conventional Broadway titles as Gypsy, Man of La Mancha and Nine, but also Australian director Baz Luhrmann's interpretation of a work more commonly found in the repertory of opera companies -- Puccini's La Boheme.
Broadway, it would appear, has come a long way from the days when imported Europop spectacles were calling the tune. Here's a closer look at just how broad the definition of a Broadway musical has become.
'Movin' Out'
Without question, Movin' Out is a breathtaking evening of dance. A case in point is the angry second-act pas de deux set to "Big Shot"; the movement here is so vital and violent, at times it seems as if one of the dancers will be hurled into the audience. Other numbers feature everything from dancing en pointe to snippets of breakdancing.
Tharp, who also conceived and directed the show, has linked more than two dozen of Joel's songs -- including such chestnuts as "She's Got a Way" and "The Stranger" -- into a thin account of the loves and friendships of five young people from the 1960s, through the Vietnam War and beyond. Told without dialogue, this story relies entirely on pre-existing lyrics, all sung (with the exception of some backup vocals by the band) by singer / pianist Michael Cavanaugh, a performer with an amazingly Billy Joel-like timbre to his voice. And of course, the story is also told through movement.
