Impact Bridges’s work in the 1980’s continued to
be both prolific and well-received, demonstrating
his rare ability to excel in many films made in rapid
succession. Off-screen, Bridges advocated for social
justice; in 1983, he founded the End Hunger Net-
work. He modeled the possibility of maintaining a
distinguished and prolific acting career, a solid mar-
riage and family life, commitment to humanitarian
causes, and involvement in artistic pursuits (includ-
ing photography, sketch art, songwriting, and musi-
cal performance) within the chaotic shadow of the
film industry.
Further Reading
Bridges, Jeff.Pictures. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Powerhouse
Books, 2003.
Palmer, William J.The Films of the Eighties: A Social
Histor y. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University
Press, 1993.
Carolyn Anderson
See also Academy Awards; Film in the United
States;Heaven’s Gate; Science-fiction films;Tron.
Broadway musicals
Definition Musical theater productions opening
Broadway musicals.
The 1980’s saw a shift on Broadway away from book-
driven American musicals and toward the rising British
mega-musicals.
The early 1980’s welcomed strong book musicals on
Broadway. One of the most popular was42nd Street
(pr. 1980), based on the 1930’s Busby Berkeley film
of the same name. Opening at the Winter Garden
Theatre, it delighted audiences with its tap-driven
spectacle, including an opening number in which
the curtain rose only high enough to expose more
than forty pairs of tapping feet. Produced by David
Merrick and directed by Gower Champion, the show
garnered international press when, after multiple
ovations on its opening night, Merrick came for-
ward to reveal to the audience and cast that Cham-
pion had died of cancer hours before the perfor-
mance. The production ran 3,486 performances
over its eight-year original run.
Other productions of note in the early 1980’s
from American composers included Cy Coleman,
Michael Stewart, and Mark Bramble’sBarnum(pr.
1980), Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit’sNine(pr.
1982), Henry Krieger and Tom Eyen’sDreamgirls
(pr. 1981), andMy One and Only(pr. 1983), which
featured the music of George and Ira Gershwin and
a book by Peter Stone and Timothy S. Mayer and fol-
lowed its two-year Broadway run with an even more
successful road tour.
The British Invasion of the Early 1980’s Perhaps
the defining moment of the change that was about
to take place on Broadway occurred in 1982, when
Andrew Lloyd Webber and director Trevor Nunn
bumped42nd Streetfrom the Winter Garden Thea-
tre to mountCats(pr. 1982). Produced by Cameron
Macintosh and Lloyd Webber and based an a book
of poems by T. S. Eliot,Catsfocused almost exclu-
sively on spectacle and music instead of plot and
theme. The result was a production that could be en-
joyed by entire families and by tourists who spoke lit-
tle English. Even more influential than the style of
the show, however, was Macintosh’s aggressive mar-
keting campaign. Featuring two yellow cat eyes with
dancers’ silhouettes for pupils, theCatslogo became
synonymous with the production and was featured
on everything from T-shirts to Christmas ornaments.
Macintosh and Lloyd Webber also started a trend by
releasing tracks from the musical before it opened,
so audiences would already be familiar with the mu-
sic. Barbra Streisand recorded “Memory” from the
show, and it became a pop hit well before the Broad-
way production opened.Catslasted eighteen years
on Broadway, closing in 2000 after 7,485 perfor-
mances.
Mega-musicals of the Mid-1980’s The mid-1980’s
saw few American musicals enjoying long runs.La
Cage Aux Folles(pr. 1983), by Jerry Herman with a
book by Harvey Fierstein and Arthur Laurents;
Sunday in the Park with George(pr. 1984), by Stephen
Sondheim and James Lapine; and Roger Miller and
William Hauptman’sBig River(pr. 1985) were the
exceptions. In fact,Big Riverwould be followed by
years of no American musical reaching the 1,000-
performance mark. Even the rarity ofSunday in the
Park with Georgewinning a Pulitzer Prize in drama,
one of very few musicals to do so, was not enough to
keep the production open for more than 604 perfor-
mances.
The mid-1980’s also brought about the prolifera-
tion of the British mega-musical, so-called for its fo-The Eighties in America Broadway musicals 147