The Roaring Twenties

The Roaring Twenties: entertainment, music, and more

After the devastation of World War I, the 1920s was an exciting decade in America, with a prevailing carefree, optimistic atmosphere and unprecedented economic prosperity.  Nicknamed the Roaring Twenties to express the energetic and progressive spirit of the decade, the 1920s witnessed advances in technology and innovations in film, visual art and architecture, radio, music, dance, fashion, literature, and intellectual movements.  The period also saw many social changes, as the younger generation sought to break from older traditions and embrace “modernity.”

The widespread prosperity meant more time for leisure and an expanded ability to produce popular entertainment.  The 1920s was Broadway’s busiest decade, where the number of musical theatre productions more than doubled.  The peak of success occurred during the 1927-28 season, with the success extending into 1929, until the Great Stock Market Crash.

Judy Garland and her sisters

The most popular form of entertainment during the late 19^th century and into the early 20^th century, lasting until 1920, vaudeville provided fertile training grounds for about 25,000 performers to hone their skills.  Among the many entertainers who began in vaudeville were Mae West, W.C. Fields, Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, Burns and Allen, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, Abbot and Costello, Bob Hope, and Judy Garland.

A typical vaudeville show consisted of about 10 unrelated acts that might include: magicians, acrobats, jugglers, plate-spinners, ventriloquists, comedians, trained animals, singers, and dancers.  Musicals of the 1920s were greatly influenced by vaudeville, and often featured the talents of vaudeville performers.

In the early 1920s, revues were the most popular form of musical theatre.  Similar to vaudeville in content, revues contained skits, songs, dance numbers, comic sketches, and scantily-clad chorus girls.  The main differences between the two were revues had thematic coherence and each act was created specifically for show.  Annual revues—such as George White’s Scandals, Earl Carroll’s Vanities, and the Ziegfeld Follies—provided many song and dance numbers for emerging young writers, entertainers, and choreographers.

Ziegfeld girls

Inspired by the Foiles Bergère, a late nineteenth-century cabaret hall in Paris, the Ziegfeld Follies were extravagant revues; a step beyond vaudeville, on the way to later Broadway shows.  Revues like Ziegfeld’s were a glamorous combination of music, dance, and sketches surrounded by visual spectacle.  Probably the best-known feature of the Follies was the Ziegfeld girls.  Beautiful women, spectacular costumes, and the best entertainers in the business…it’s no surprise the productions were a New York City staple for nearly three decades.

An elaborate Ziegfeld staircase set

Florenz “Flo” Ziegfeld and his crew brought to life the most lavish, and complex stage sets to reside on Broadway.  Trap doors, functional fountains, exotic animals, rotating sets, and grand, multi-story staircases were regular features on the Follies stage.

A fabulous Ziegfeld set

Hedy Lamarr, Judy Garland, and Lana Turner in Zeigfeld Follies

The Follies featured and created some of the biggest stars of its day, and their popularity inspired three full-length motion pictures: the Academy Award-winning The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Ziegfeld Girl (1941) starring Lana Turner, Judy Garland, and Hedy Lamarr, and Ziegfeld Follies (1946) featuring Fred Astaire, Judy Garland (again!), Gene Kelly, and Lucille Ball.  Later stage revivals of the Follies featured famous performers like Josephine Baker, Bob Hope, and Gypsy Rose Lee.

The Famous “Wedding Cake” sequence from the The Great Ziegfeld (1936).

A scene from a typical 1920s musical

In addition to paying homage to the Follies, The Drowsy Chaperone is a Valentine to twenties musicals, both celebrating and mocking their absurdities and stylistic conventions.  Stars and songs were the main draws of these musicals, so plots were often far-fetched and mainly used to provide opportunities for spectacular production numbers and popular songs to dance to.  One of the exuberant new dances created was the Varsity Drag, which was popularized by the song “Varsity Drag” from Good News (1927).

Flapper girls dancing

As the most popular music style of the 1920s, Jazz quickly became identified with the musical comedies, vaudeville, and revues of the era.  Although much of the music that was considered Jazz at that time had elements of Ragtime and would now be called Big Band, Jazz music became representative of the era.  Show-stopping hits like “Crazy Rhythm,” from the musical comedy Here’s Howe (1928), captured the youthful energy of the 20s with their edgy lyrics and catchy rhythms that were perfect for the crazy dances that flourished during the time.

Besides showcasing the music and dance of the period, some musicals also reflected the prevailing racial perceptions and stereotypes typical of America during the 1920s.  For instance, musicals of the period sometimes contained performers wearing blackface, unrealistic depictions of foreign locations, and other aspect that we now think of as blatant racism.  However, this was a common element in the popular, lighthearted entertainment of that time.

Considered the Golden Age of songwriting, the 1920s was also a highly productive era for the legendary writers of music and lyrics for musical theatre. Many new talented writers emerged during the period, including the celebrated teams of Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart and George & Ira Gershwin.  Other famous talents of the time include: Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Cole Porter.  These writers introduced many enduring musical theatre and jazz standards in the scores of popular musicals created during the 1920s, such as the classic “’S Wonderful” from Funny Face (1927) and “You’re the Cream in My Coffee” from Hold Everything (1928).

As an exciting and formative period in musical theatre history, the 1920s mark the development of spectacular revues, the creation of numerous lighthearted musical comedies, the introduction of musical plays, and the innovations of creative artists that left a lasting impression on American culture and laid the foundations for later “modern” musicals.

A scene from the original 1927 production of Show Boat