Two openings of significance, both in London, occurred early in this decade and set the pattern for much of the theater that was to follow. One was ”The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby” in 1980, the other was
”Cats” in 1981.
Between them, these two productions helped redefine theater as ”event,” as a spectacular occasion that went beyond the allure of an ordinarily interesting play or musical. In a time of rising costs and increasing ticket prices, these productions-extraordinary in concept and filled with large casts and much stagecraft-were the shows that the customers in London, New York and beyond came to see in commercial theater.
Bigger shows meant fewer shows, both on the main stem of Broadway and in the declining touring circuit. By the end of the decade, the blockbuster ”Les Miserables” was capable of grossing more than $700,000 a week in a six-month run in Chicago`s Auditorium Theatre-but it was virtually the only big touring Broadway show to arrive in the city for the season.
Gigantism took its toll on the theater experience in other ways. Huge auditoriums, such as the Arie Crown Theatre in Chicago in the mid-`80s, were used to pack in large numbers of customers for shorter runs of musicals that had been electronically amplified and esthetically reduced. Houses once reserved as venues for large musicals, such as the Shubert Theatre in Chicago, came to be considered relatively small, to be used for the odd straight comedy that managed to make a tour.
With the risk of producing becoming greater than ever in the growing all- or-nothing atmosphere of Broadway, producers relied more than ever on stars-Dustin Hoffman in ”Death of a Salesman,” Vanessa Redgrave in ”Orpheus Descending,” James Earl Jones in ”Fences” and Madonna in ”Speed-The-Plow”-to sell straight dramas, either new or classic.
Producers also tried to cut their financial risk by importing approved material from abroad and from resident theaters throughout the United States. With some resident not-for-profit theaters used as a pre-Broadway circuit of testing grounds for commercial product, the lines between commercial and not- for-profit theaters frequently became confused and blurred. A Neil Simon comedy (”Rumors”) and a Stephen Sondheim musical (”Into the Woods”), instead of taking the traditional out-of-town tryout route on the commercial trail, would go instead to a regional theater (San Diego`s Old Globe Theatre) to get on their feet and shake out the bugs.
Chicago, a center of activity for the booming resident theater movement in the `70s, felt both the elation and the deflation of the movement in the
`80s. Steppenwolf Theatre, founded in the `70s, reached an incredible peak of national acclaim in the mid-`80s, winning a special Tony Award in 1985 on the basis of the budding stars (John Malkovich, John Mahoney, Laurie Metcalf, etc.) and vibrant productions (”True West,” ”Balm in Gilead,” ”Orphans”) it had brought from Chicago into New York. Productions by such theaters as Wisdom Bridge, Steppenwolf and the Body Politic were invited to send their productions abroad to the United Kingdom for further exposure and acclaim.
Even as the artistry and craft of Chicago`s theaters rose, however, so did their problems of organization and funding. The small, not-for-profit troupes that had emerged as a major force in American theater in the 1970s found in the `80s that financial support was harder to come by. With more of them competing for limited funding (including a decreasing percentage of government support in the Reagan years), the going got tough for many a small theater.
Despite the quality of these small theaters, moreover, they did not break through to a large, popular audience. Instead, they were joined near the end of the `80s by a new band of mid-size commercial producers who tapped into the popular market with productions of small off-Broadway hits such as ”Driving Miss Daisy” and ”Pump Boys and Dinettes.”
Yet, with all its problems, the theater still supplied its audience with worthy works by talented artists.
Along with the popular spectacles associated with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, there were the complex musical theater masterpieces of Stephen Sondheim, reaching a peak with his ”Sunday in the Park with George.”
Neil Simon, the most commercially successful playwright in America, produced an autobiographical trilogy of heart and substance in ”Brighton Beach Memoirs,” ”Biloxi Blues” and ”Broadway Bound.” David Mamet, having won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for ”Glengarry Glen Ross,” followed with his 1988 doomsday comedy, ”Speed-the-Plow.”
In a stunning 1984 debut, ”Ma Rainey`s Black Bottom,” August Wilson announced himself as a major writer for theater in the United States. ”Ma Rainey,” ”Fences,” ”Joe Turner`s Come and Gone” and ”The Piano Lesson”- all part of Wilson`s planned collection of plays on the black American experience in each decade of the century-made up the most eloquent, important work by a single playwright in the decade.
Wilson was not alone among playwrights in raising eloquent voice to the issues of his time. In plays such as ”The Normal Heart,” ”Mastergate,”
”Aunt Dan and Lemon” and ”Speed-the-Plow,” American playwrights attacked with passion and intelligence profound moral and social topics.
There were irreplaceable losses in the decade: Michael Bennett, Gower Champion, Bob Fosse, Jean Genet, Laurence Olivier, Ethel Merman, Richard Burton.
But the flow of new talent continued. The theater, forever beleaguered, battled on.
TONY WINNERS
Top Tony Awards for Broadway shows in the 1980s:
1980: ”Children of a Lesser God” (play), ”Evita” (musical).
1981: ”Amadeus,” ”42nd Street.”
1982: ”The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby,” ”Nine.”
1983: ”Torch Song Trilogy,” ”Cats.”
1984: ”The Real Thing,” ”La Cage Aux Folles.”
1985: ”Biloxi Blues,” ”Big River.”
1986: ”I`m Not Rappaport,” ”The Mystery of Edwin Drood.”
1987: ”Fences,” ”Les Miserables.”
1988: ”M. Butterfly,” ”The Phantom of the Opera.”
1989: ”THe Heidi Chronicles,” ”Jerome Robbins` Broadway.”
