CHAPTER 10 | MUSICAL THEATER AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY 235
would like to think of as familiar. Second, in place of the sweeping lyricism of
operetta was a more conversational style of vocal writing, closer to the popular
songs coming from Tin Pan Alley.
Although British musicals of the 1890s like A Gaiety Girl and Florodora are now
long forgotten, their popularity and infl uence in the United States were signifi cant.
Their relaxed informality suited the American temperament, and the prominence
they gave to the female chorus appealed to audiences brought up on The Black Crook,
while maintaining a propriety that made them more suitable family entertainment.
Most important, they provided a model for American composers interested in a the-
atrical genre that concerned itself with the here and now.
Most European imports, whether British musical comedies or Viennese
operettas, arrived on Broadway with interpolations—added songs, generally
not by the original show’s principal composer and lyricist. Sometimes these
interpo lated songs replaced material that was judged unlikely to please Ameri-
can audiences, but that was not the only reason for adding them; indeed, even
American-made shows in the early years of the twentieth century were fre-
quently studded with interpolations. They sometimes appeared at the bidding
of theater managers, anxious that a new show’s score might lack potential hits.
O t h e r i nt e r p o l at i o n s w e r e a d d e d at t h e b e h e s t of s t a r p e r fo r m e r s d i s s at i s fi ed with
what the show’s authors had provided them. In this respect, all forms of musical
theater—even opera, though the practice of interpolating arias was dying out—
stood fi rmly in the realm of performers’ music, not composers’ music.
A typical American musical comedy of this early period in the genre’s devel-
opment was Sinbad, which ran at Broadway’s Winter Garden Theater for 404
performances in 1918–19. The music was by the Hungarian-born American Sig-
mund Romberg, who later would fi nd his true métier in operetta after writing
music for several musicals and revues. The lyrics were by the prolifi c but undis-
tinguished Harold Atteridge, who also concocted the show’s book, the musical
comedy’s plainly named equivalent of an opera’s libretto.
That is, he was responsible for what little book there was,
Sinbad being notably short on plot or character devel-
opment. Instead, the book functioned mainly to string
together opportunities for elaborate staging—after start-
ing at a Long Island dog show, the story moved on to the
Grotto of the Valley of Diamonds and the Island of Eternal
Youth, among others—featuring the chorus girls and the
show’s star attraction, Al Jolson.
Born Asa Yoelson in Lithuania in 1886, Al Jolson at
age eight emigrated with his family to the United States,
where his father had obtained a position as cantor at a
Washington, D.C., synagogue. As a teenager he ran away
to New York to enter show business, and in the early years
of the century he worked his way up as a singer and come-
dian through burlesque and vaudeville to the legitimate
stage. Jolson eventually became an immensely popular
performer, not only in Broadway musicals but also in the
new media of sound recordings, radio, and fi lm. His por-
trayal of the title character in The Jazz Singer (1927), the fi rst
major sound fi lm, marked the beginning of the end of the
silent era in motion pictures (see chapter 15).K Did the success of
“Swanee” (1919) enhance
Al Jolson’s stardom, or vice
versa? Likely, the answer is a
bit of both.interpolations172028_10_231-253_r2_mr.indd 235 23/01/13 10:26 AM