Tin Pan Alley’s Impact on Today’s Musical Theater

In Tuesday’s blogpost about Tin Pan Alley and the Jazz Age, I said that I wanted to talk a little more about how the songwriters of that era impacted shows after it, even up to today.

When I taught this course back in 2020, I asked my class the question:

What do these old dead guys have to do with today’s musicals?

And today I answer the question, from the perspectives of melody (Berlin), rhythm (Gershwin), and “anything goes” (Porter).

S’wonderful – Ira Gershwin

Today is the 126th anniversary of the birth of lyricist Ira Gershwin (12/6/1896-8/17/1983). While his brother George had the reputation as the celebrity composer beloved by movie stars and international classical composers alike (although less so by American ones of his era), Ira was the quiet, somewhat shy older brother. George was a notorious commitment-phobe;Continue reading “S’wonderful – Ira Gershwin”

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