ABSTRACT
M e d i a a n d t h e a t re : A l l i n t h e f a m i l y Media technologies have had obvious impact on the forms, styles, and techniques of the theatre. (For a discussion of the ways theatre and film borrowed from each other earlier in the twentieth century, see the Chapter 8 section on film and the avant-garde.) In the realm of theatre as popular entertainment (Broadway and London’s West End are two major Western venues of this), producers responded to the expectations of audiences who were becoming accustomed to the escalating spectacles of film and television. Scenic spectacularism became a star performer in big-budget American and British musicals, such as The Phantom of the Opera (1984). For audiences accustomed to sophisticated home and auto sound systems and rock concert amplification, musicals began to equip actors with wireless microphones and to digitally balance and distribute blends of singers and orchestras. British and Broadway musicals were recycled into films, CD soundtracks, DVDs, and touring shows for international audiences. There has been no business like show business for the repackaging of its own mythologies, from Show Boat (1927) through Chorus Line (1975) to 42nd Street (1980). Broadway’s domestic situation comedies, especially those by Neil Simon, were often indistinguishable from television’s “sitcoms,” in which couches became major characters.
