ABSTRACT
JIM O’QUINN Whither the American musical? No answer to that well-worn question was
forthcoming in recent American theatrical seasons, but it was a topic on many
minds. As the millennium approached, serious plays seemed to be in vogue,
especially in the commercial theatre, where Arthur Miller’s ever-dependable Death
of a Salesman enjoyed a long and profitable Broadway run; August Wilson
debuted King Hedley II , a powerful new entry in his decade-by-decade
examination of the African American experience; and a talky drama about
nuclear physics, Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen, was not only a Tony winner for
2000’s best play but a genuine hot ticket. Musicals, though – that signature
commodity of the American theatre’s golden age, the only theatrical form
verifiably invented on US soil – were in alarmingly short supply.
