Belinski 1

Samantha Belinski

Dr. Carey

Music Since 1900

17 December, 2021

The Significance of Jukebox Musicals and their Rise in Popularity

Musical theatre is a genre with many different styles and unique musical ideas. One such

style is known as the jukebox musical, which is a show that incorporates popular songs into the

score to further the plot, and this type of musical has grown in popularity over the years.

Musicals such as Mamma Mia! and Rock of Ages are just a few examples of jukebox musicals

that have met much success and have caused many people to be exposed to musical theatre.

However, rather than simply accepting the jukebox musical as one category of many when it

comes to musical theatre, one might ask what is the significance of jukebox musicals and why

has their popularity risen in recent years?

For the purposes of this paper, Charles D. Adamson’s definition of jukebox musicals

from his dissertation, “Defining the Jukebox Musical Through a Historical Approach: From The

Beggar’s Opera to Nice Work If You Can Get It”, will be used. In his words, a jukebox musical

is:

A musical theatre piece containing previously released songs from popular music. The

songs may be from one particular musical group, or they may be a mixture of popular songs

familiar to large audiences. There are two key criteria that define a jukebox musical. 1) It

contains a plot and/or storyline and 2) It was not adapted from a motion picture. Examples of this

type of musical would include Buddy!, The Buddy Holly Story; Mamma Mia!; Jersey Boys;

Million Dollar Quartet; The Boy From Oz; and Rock of Ages (Adamson, 2013, p. 4).
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The jukebox musical has been around for many generations, with the first dating back to

1728 with The Beggar’s Opera. After opening in England in 1728 and becoming popular, a

production was opened in New York in 1750 which met the same success. Decades later in the

1920s and 1930s, George and Ira Gershwin made many contributions to the jukebox musical

model by writing many shows that incorporated popular songs into the plot. Adamson explains

in his dissertation that the Gershwins repeatedly used many of their own popular songs such as

“S’Wonderful”, “Embraceable You”, “Naughty Baby”, and “I Got Rhythm”, and many of these

songs and the model that the Gershwins follow are still used today when creating musicals.

Crazy For You and Nice Work If You Can Get It are two examples of this, as both shows include

Gershwin scores that follow an original storyline. In the 1920s, Cole Porter rose to fame and was

another influential figure in jukebox musical history. Like the Gershwins, his popular songs

would be included in different musicals, such as Anything Goes and The Gay Divorcée, and some

of his most famous songs like “I Get a Kick Out Of You”, “Let’s Misbehave”, “Begin the

Beguine”, and “Be a Clown” were repeatedly being used in a variety of shows. He did not only

have an influence on the jukebox musical, however, as he also made contributions to the musical

theatre genre as a whole. He was one of the leading figures in creating the thirty-two bar song

model, something that was used through the Golden Age of musical theatre and is still used

today. This musical model has songs that follow an AABA form with a verse (A section), a

repeated verse that uses different lyrics, a chorus (B section), and a return to the A section to

finish the song. Adamson uses a quote from Stephen Citron, the author of Noel and Cole: The

Sophisticates, to explain how Porter could use this thirty-two bar model and the jukebox musical

to continue creating musicals, even if one of his shows was not successful, and Citron uses

Porter’s Bitter Sweet as an example:

The show was never produced, but Cole, not one to discard material, uses the words and

music for “But He Never Says He Loves Me” as “The Physician” in Nymph Errant, and “I’ve

Got You On My Mind,” “Mister and Missus Fitch,” and “I Still Love the Red, White and Blue”

in The Gay Divorcée. One of his greatest hits, “I Get A Kick Out of You,” did not die along with

Star Dust; he was to use it again in Anything Goes. (Citron, 2005, p. 134).

The Golden Age of musical theatre followed shortly after the work of Cole Porter, but

new musical ideas were found when it came to the creation of Broadway musicals. Shows were

being written with original scores and stories, so there was a big decline in the production of

jukebox musicals. However, as society moved into the 1970s, the jukebox musical made its

comeback with The Night That Made America Famous in 1975, beginning the contemporary

jukebox age and setting the foundation for many of the musicals that would follow in the years to

come. With this shift, Adamson states “Gone are the days of Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Noel

Coward, or the Gershwins creating their own shows. The producer is now the creator.

Productions such as Buddy! The Buddy Holly Story; Forever Plaid; The Marvelous Wonderettes;

The Boy From Oz; and Rock of Ages are producer-driven. Formulaic vehicles attempting to cash

in on nostalgia” (Adamson, 2013, p. 26).

One of the most well-known jukebox musicals is Mamma Mia!. Opening on Broadway

on October 18, 2001, the show featured the music of ABBA and played until September 2015,

earning several Tony nominations during its run. With its popularity, it was turned into a movie

in 2008 that was met with enough success to also include a sequel film ten years later in 2018.

Larry Stempel states in his book Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theatre,

“Mamma Mia! has proved the runaway hit of the genre nonetheless and its success has fueled the

jukebox craze despite the harsh realities that most such ventures fail” (Stempel, 2010, p.639).
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While this was not the first jukebox musical, Mamma Mia! became a phenomenon and was one

of the musicals that led to the success of the jukebox musical model as producers saw how

successful one of these shows could be.

Another example of a successful jukebox musical is Rock of Ages, which opened at the

Brooks Atkinson Theatre on April 7, 2009. It follows the story of a girl from a small town who

meets a rocker from the city at one of the most famous clubs in Los Angeles in 1987, and the

music was all popular songs from rock bands of the 1980s, such as Journey, Def Leppard, and

Twisted Sister, to name a few. The show received five Tony Award nominations, with Best

Musical being one of them, before it closed in January of 2015. This is another jukebox musical

that was met with enough success on Broadway to be turned into a film, which was done in

2012. By using rock music throughout the show, creators not only incorporated a genre of music

that many audience members had not associated with Broadway, but they also appealed to new

audiences who might be more interested to see a Broadway show that included their favorite

rock songs from the 1980s.

As a jukebox musical, the creative process for Rock of Ages differed from that of other

Broadway musicals. Dave Itzkoff of The New York Times explores the process of creating

jukebox musicals in an interview specifically with Chris D’Arienzo, the producer of Rock of

Ages:

On a fateful drive [Matthew Weaver] and [Carl Levin] happened to hear the 1981 power

ballad “Don’t Stop Believing” by the band Journey and concluded that it would be just as potent

on a stage as on their car radio. They rapidly put together a CD of like-minded rock songs and

passed it to the director Kristin Hanggi to see if there was a show in there somewhere. Ms.

Hanggi, who was finishing the Off-Broadway run of the pop musical “Bare,” agreed that there
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was… In meetings at various Sunset Strip institutions, from rock clubs to coffee bars, Ms.

Hanggi and Mr. D’Arienzo sketched out the show, about an ensemble of characters at a fictitious

West Hollywood Club called the Bourbon Room. There would be an aspiring rock guitarist and

an aspiring actress who fall in love, a seduction scene set to Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What

Love Is,” and a dance number to the tune of REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling,”

inspired by the dream ballet in Oklahoma! (Itzkoff, 2009).

This look behind the scenes paints a picture of what part of the production process is like

for a musical like this and why it might be more appealing to write this type of show. Since

jukebox musicals use already existing, popular music as the score throughout the show, the entire

process can be much more producer-driven, as illustrated with the interactions between

producers Matthew Weaver, Carl Levin, and Chris D’Arienzo.

More and more of these types of musicals are being produced, and audiences continue

supporting these productions. Adamson states in his dissertation:

While Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! paved the way for writers of the form to

stretch their artistic wings through the 1990s, the twenty-first century has seen a sharp decline in

new or original material for Broadway musicals. The musical is slowly being replaced with

jukebox and movical musicals as producers have developed the “musical machine” to

manufacture productions in lieu of investing in unknown works by aspiring or seasoned musical

theatre composers. This is not to say that new works are never produced, but that the majority of

Broadway musicals today fall into the movical or jukebox category (Adamson, 2013, p. 27).

While this dissertation was written in 2013, this statement is still true today. In looking at

current musicals that are open on Broadway, there are six jukebox musicals, five musicals that

are based on a movie, or “movicals” as Adamson refers to them, with at least three that were
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open right before the COVID-19 shutdown such as Mean Girls, Beetlejuice, and Frozen, and

three revivals. There are nine musicals that are based on original scores, but several have been on

Broadway for years, such as Phantom of the Opera and Wicked, meaning that Adamson is

correct in stating that original musicals on Broadway are being outnumbered by the jukebox and

movie-based musicals.

What has been leading to this rise in popularity of jukebox musicals? There are many

reasons, both behind the scenes with the production process and with audience members'

reactions. Adamson explores some of the benefits of producing a jukebox musical in his

dissertation. He states:

“This process of creating a show around a catalogue of songs or a popular movie may

seem peculiar, but for producers of Broadway musicals it holds several advantages. The songs,

performance artists, and/or movies are already a known commodity with established fan bases.

According to Broadway musical composer Michael John LaChiusa in his remarks on the jukebox

phenomenon in Opera News, the potential audience is large. Many fans would purchase a ticket

just to hear the songs–as they would do for a concert– with little or no concern about the plot.

(Adamson, 2013, p. 29)

Producers are interested in these types of musicals because of the potential for

profit. Many fans are more likely to purchase a ticket for a show where they already know the

songs, and this is an advantage to being part of the creative process of a jukebox musical. Many

of these shows are also nostalgic for audience members, another reason that they are more likely

to make a profit off of ticket sales. This is another reason for their rise in popularity as more

producers come to this realization: “The appeal of the nostalgic jukebox musical… is precisely

the reason behind producing them” (Adamson, 2013, p. 30). People who feel a sense of nostalgia
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while watching one of these shows are more likely to enjoy the show, and Adamson says that this

can also cause “... ticket buyers to equate the jukebox musical as the standard of the golden age”

(Adamson, 2013, p. 30). These positive reactions from many audience members is what tells

producers to create these kinds of shows– as long as tickets are being purchased, jukebox

musicals will continue to be made. Looking back at Mamma Mia!, Adamson explains that “The

ground-breaking Mamma Mia! did not continue its long run due to raves by the critics, but

through ticket sales, mostly from tourists. The tourist audience can keep even the most mediocre

show running for years in New York” (Adamson, 2013, p. 32). Mamma Mia! is just one example

of a jukebox musical whose public reception is what made it a success, allowing tourists and

fans alike to see a performance.

Even without looking at their rising popularity, jukebox musicals hold a significant place

in the musical theatre industry. They follow a different model than original Broadway musicals

do since they use popular music that has been previously written prior to the creation of the

show, and this model changed the existing ideas of what Broadway should sound like. Jukebox

musicals prove that shows on Broadway do not have to have original scores to be successful and

that popular music has a place on the stage as well. These types of musicals also appeal to new

people who might not have had a previous interest in going to see a Broadway show. In looking

at the two musicals discussed in this paper, audience members might have purchased a ticket

simply to hear the music of ABBA in Mamma Mia! or to hear their favorite rock songs in Rock

of Ages, and these types of musicals could be the first experiences that many people have with

Broadway. Many people might be more willing to spend money on a ticket to a show where they

already know they enjoy the music than they would be to purchase a ticket for a show that they

know nothing about. This is also a reason for their rising popularity as Broadway producers have
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realized this and worked to continue making profits off of shows like these. While this does not

apply to all fans of musical theatre, having jukebox musicals is important because it allows

people to access musical theatre and experience Broadway, maybe for the first time, and having

this opportunity allows those audience members to share their theatre experience with others.

To conclude, jukebox musicals are a significant part of the musical theatre industry and

have risen in popularity in recent years with shows like Mamma Mia! And Rock of Ages. These

shows are only two examples of many that have been very successful both on the stage and on

the big screen, and they have allowed audiences to experience musical theatre through the music

of popular artists that many audience members are already familiar with. While everyone might

not be fans of jukebox musicals and would prefer to see a completely original musical when they

visit Broadway, jukebox musicals opened a door, and continue to open doors, for new audiences

and musicals, and this type of musical played a big role in shaping musical theatre into what it is

today.
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Bibliography

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From The Beggar’s Opera to Nice Work If You Can Get It (dissertation).

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Citron, Stephen. Noel and Cole: The Sophisticates. New York: Hal Leonard Publishing,

2005. Print.

Itzkoff, Dave. “Songs to Mock and to Love.” New York Times. New York Times. 2 April

2009. Web. 8 Aug. 2012.

Larson, S. (2014, July 22). Let's rock: In Defense of Jukebox Musicals. The New Yorker.

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dumbing down Broadway, or just giving us what we want? The Washington Post. Retrieved

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