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Hard Times

The Adult Musical in 1970s New York City

Elizabeth L. Wollman

Based on original interviews with theater artists who worked in New York during the 1970s
Sheds new light on how the sexual revolution changed American popular culture
Gives attention to Broadway, Off Broadway, and Off Off Broadway alike
Offers a better understanding 1970s popular culture in America through musical theater in New York City
Tells entertaining stories about the musical theater, its place in 1970s culture, and the people who created it
Includes rarely seen photographs
Companion website

Hard Times

The Adult Musical in 1970s New York City

Elizabeth L. Wollman

Description

One legacy of the 1960s sexual revolution was the "adult" musical of the 1970s. Adult musicals distinguished themselves from other types of musicals in their reliance on strong sexual content, frequent nudity, and simulated sexual activity. Cheap to produce, adult musicals proliferated in New York's theatres at a time when the city was teetering toward bankruptcy and tourism was sharply declining. Influenced by the overwhelming success in 1968 of "Hair"—the first Broadway musical to feature nudity—as well as by a series of legal rulings about the nature of obscenity, adult musicals became faddish in part because they allowed theatre producers to attract audiences at a time of economic crisis while simultaneously slashing budgets typically allotted for scenery, props and, of course, costumes. Typically structured like old-fashioned revues, with thematically interconnected songs and skits, adult musicals like "Stag Movie," "Let My People Come," "The Faggot," and the long-running "Oh! Calcutta!" were reviled by theatre critics, who tended to dismiss them as either going too far in the direction of hard-core pornography or, conversely, of not being erotic enough. But critics, who could typically close a show with a single scathing review, were no match for the public appetite for sex and even the shows that got the worst reviews usually made money.

Adult musicals disappeared almost entirely by the early 1980s, as the city's economy improved and the country grew more socio-politically conservative, and they have since been dismissed by writers and critics as a silly fad befitting a silly decade. Author Elizabeth Wollman finds a much richer story in adult musicals, illustrating how they both drew from and reflected aspects of American culture at a particularly tumultuous time: the country's rapidly changing sexual mores, the women's and gay liberation movements, New York City's socioeconomic status, and contemporary debates on the relationship between art and obscenity. She argues that because of their middlebrow appeal and their concentration in a city that experienced the 1970s in especially turbulent ways, adult musicals represent aspects of 1970s American culture at their messiest and most confused, and thus, perhaps, at their most honest.

Hard Times

The Adult Musical in 1970s New York City

Elizabeth L. Wollman

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1: Burlesque, Off Off Broadway, and the Birth of the Adult Musical
Chapter 2: The Birth of Modern Gay Theater and the Subtext of Company
Chapter 3: The Post-Stonewall Gay Musical
Chapter 4: The Adult Musical Meets Second-Wave Feminism: Mod Donna
Chapter 5: Not-So-Angry Feminist Musicals
Chapter 6: The Changing Nature of Obscenity, the Impact of "Porno Chic" and Let My People Come
Chapter 7: Hell Freezes Over: The Hard-Core Musical on Stage and Screen
Chapter 8: Applying Contemporary Community Standards: Is It Obscene, Or Merely Lewd?
Chapter 9: New York's Financial Crisis and the Adult Musical on Broadway
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Hard Times

The Adult Musical in 1970s New York City

Elizabeth L. Wollman

Author Information

Elizabeth L. Wollman, Assistant Professor of Music, Baruch College, USA

Elizabeth L. Wollman is Assistant Professor of Music at Baruch College in New York City, and author of The Theater Will Rock: A History of the Rock Musical, From Hair to Hedwig (2006).

Hard Times

The Adult Musical in 1970s New York City

Elizabeth L. Wollman

Reviews and Awards

"this is a scholarly work on an overlooked subject, and a delightful read for anyone already steeped in Broadway history." - E. C. Skiles, CHOICE

Hard Times

The Adult Musical in 1970s New York City

Elizabeth L. Wollman

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Hard times no more: The Performers

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Posted on November 27, 2012

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