Sometimes after a great shock or sorrow, you just want to have a party. That’s what the 1920s were: one long, fabulous, roaring party of a decade after years of horror and war. World War I had brought the world so much death; tens of thousands of young men had been lost. The old ways of behaving, the old moralities, seemed old-fashioned. People had had enough of reality – they wanted spectacle and romance, fun and frivolity. Solemnity and seriousness were out – fun and spectacle were in. The American people wanted a new way of looking at the world, a new perspective. And they got it, in their music, their clothes, their architecture, and especially in their theatre. Jazz was the soundtrack of this wild new era, and musical theatre artists did not hesitate to use this uniquely American sound in their shows. If America broke its political ties with Europe in 1776, it finally broke away theatrically during the 1920’s. During the 19th century, the European operetta had been the model for American theatre, but, like all of American culture, something new was needed. As Prince Dorough says in Popular-Music Culture in America, “The 1920s musicals ...avoided the sentimentality and slightly aristocratic tone that came from Viennese operetta. American musical comedies were brassy and brash, lively and spicy, colloquial and earthy. They employed more of the elements of dance and music that were identifiably American, and they accurately reflected the optimism and hedonism, the frenetic energy, and the abandoned, carefree attitudes of the postwar-boom era.” This is the joyous passion that The Drowsy Chaperone celebrates.
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PETER ROYSTON A writer and a teaching artist, Peter Royston has worked in various capacities to bridge the gap between the entertainment industry and the educational community. As the co-founder and co-director of Theatre Direct’s educational program, Broadway Classroom, Peter helped to bring thousands of students to Broadway, to experience – and learn from - the history, grandeur, and just plain fun of live theatre.