The older musicals normally began with a chorus number in
order to establish the ensemble convention from the begin-
ning. This was often said to be an excuse to put the chorus
girls on display from the start—a likely enough reason, which
coexists with the other reason. The other reason is that the
older musicals were declaring themselves an ensemble kind of
theatre even before the stars of the evening made their appear-
ances. The old story about The Black Crookbecoming the first
American musical when a ballet troupe was merged into a pro-
duction of a melodrama is a good story from the aesthetic
point of view, whatever its historical accuracy. Two ensembles
are better than one at the point of origin.^2 But the best way to
use the ensemble-basis of the musical is to dramatize its build-
up as an event within the show. The drama lies in the build-up
itself. The plot has been converted into the advance of the
number to more and more singers and dancers. Sometimes
the plot of the book is more or less forgotten, replaced by the
build-up of the number—this is “Fascinating Rhythm.” The
more sophisticated version retains the plot of the book and il-
lustrates it through the build-up of the number—this is “A
Weekend in the Country.” In both cases the number has over-
taken the book, turning book time into number time and mak-
ing the drama occur through the spread of song and dance to
the entire company. The choreographer Susan Stroman has
commented on the excitement felt when a number builds to
the point where it “explodes into unison.”^3 The ensemble ef-
fect is what she is talking about.
The expansion of a number into a united ensemble is the
voice of the musical making itself heard. When Sam reprises
80 CHAPTER FOUR
(^2) A French ballet company had been booked to perform at the Academy of
Music on 14th Street, but the theatre burned down. At the same time in 1866,
William Wheatley, manager of Niblo’s Garden at Broadway and Prince Street,
had a failed melodrama on his hands, The Black Crook, by Charles M. Barras.
The producer simply combined the two—at dull moments in the plot, the bal-
let girls would come on and dance in flesh-colored pink tights. The story is
told in Flinn, Musical! A Grand Tour, pp. 81–89, and Knapp, The American Mu-
sical, pp. 20–28. A Romberg musical of the early 1950s, The Girl in Pink Tights,
is about this supposed episode in theatre history.
(^3) Quoted in the New York Times, 1 March 2002, section E, p. 1.