On Broadway
and
West End, the new millennium regarded as an era of juke-box
and
movie musicals. However, there is another trend, including
Urinetown (2001),
The Producers (2001),
Avenue Q (2003),
Spamalot (2005),
The Drowsy Chaperone (2006),
The Book of Mormon (2011),
and
Something Rotten! (2015). These shows share several aspects that differ from juke-box musicals
and
movie musicals. This essay aims to reevaluate these musicals as metamusicals: an alternative genre of musical theater that emerged around the 2000s. Regarding this kind of musicals, Kathryn Edney argued that
City of Angels (1989) was one of the first “hyper-aware” musicals. In
Showtime, Larry Stempel referred to shows such as
Urinetown,
Avenue Q,
and
The Drowsy Chaperone as “self-reflexive.” Osanai Shin categorized
The Producers,
Spamalot,
and
The Drowsy Chaperone as “meta musicals”—along with revivals of backstage musicals such as
Kiss Me, Kate (1999)
and
42nd Street (2001). Reviews by notable theater critics, such as Ben Brantley, also share this viewpoint regarding these musicals. However, while they mention the possibility of the emergence of a new genre of musical theater, their analyses are sporadic
and
disagree on some points, such as which shows might be included in this new trend. As the analysis of this essay reveals, these shows are basically musical comedies filled with self-references but not necessarily backstage musicals. Rather, these musicals are saturated with inside jokes, parodies,
and
self-referential spoofs even though they are not necessarily backstage musicals. In this regard, there is a sharp distinction between the shows produced before
and
after the turn of the century. As in
The Drowsy Chaperone,
The Book of Mormon,
and
Something Rotten!, self-referential jokes are not merely a device of musical comedy to entertain its audience. Instead, they consists the main body of the show. In these metamusicals, characters are aware that they are in musicals. In fact, they are hyperaware of their existence in a musical. They comment on how musicals should be
and
how they feel about certain songs,
and
they often complain about the show they are in. At the same time, the plot of the show comments on itself as being a musical. All in all, metamusicals examine the relevance of the conventions of musical in this postmodern world.
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