(All the photos below are thumbnails – click on them to see larger versions.)

In the 1950s, the old separations between acting, song and dance in musical theatre faded, and were replaced by a greater fluidity in the staging and structure of musicals. As a result, directors took on a much greater role in the development of new musicals. Veterans like George Abbott and a new, innovative breed of director-choreographers put their creative stamp a long line of musicals that would stand the test of time, classics that formed what many call the "golden age" of Broadway musicals. For the first time, critics and ticket buyers paid serious attention to who was "at the helm."

"Mr. Abbott"
George Abbott and Ray Bolger camp it up during rehearsals for Where's Charley.

George Abbott was so revered that even longtime colleagues addressed him as "Mr. Abbott." He had more than twenty years experience as an actor, playwright and comedy director when he staged his first musical, Jumbo (1935 - 233). Over the next 27 years, he directed 26 Broadway musicals, 22 of which were moneymakers. He also wrote all or part of the librettos for many of those shows. Abbott's swift pacing and instinct for dramatic construction did much to shape the American musical comedy as we know it. He urged composers to tailor songs to specific characters and situations long before anyone else was interested. Many a show facing trouble on the road to Broadway benefited from Abbot's unaccredited doctoring – which came to be known as "the Abbott touch."

Abbott's career reads like a history of the American musical theatre in the 20th Century. He worked with Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart on a series of definitive 1930s musical comedies (On Your Toes, The Boys From Syracuse), followed by the daring Pal Joey (1940). In the next two decades, he remained at the creative forefront by teaming with such choreographers as Jerome Robbins (see below) and Bob Fosse (see below) to create several groundbreaking dance musicals. Abbott's credits include –

– Call Me Madam (1950 - 644) told the tale of a Washington socialite who becomes US ambassador to a fictional European principality. Ethel Merman starred, singing an Irving Berlin score that included "Just In Love," "Hostess With the Mostess" and "They Like Ike." (More on this show in a previous chapter.)

– Wonderful Town (1953 - 559) starred Rosalind Russell as a reporter seeking love and success in Greenwich Village. The score featured music by Leonard Bernstein, with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green – including "Ohio" and "A Little Bit in Love." Robbins turned the ensemble "Conga" into a showstopper.

– The Pajama Game (1954 - 1,063) focused on a pajama factory superintendent and a union rep falling in love as a strike looms. Fosse's dances gave the show electrifying drive, and the score by newcomers Richard Adler and Jerry Ross included "Hey There" (introduced by leading man John Raitt) and "Hernando's Hideaway."

– Damn Yankees (1955 - 1,019) had a baseball fan sell his soul to the devil for a chance to lead his favorite team to a championship. Fosse's dances and a knockout performance by Gwen Verdon made it the hottest ticket on Broadway. The brilliant score by Adler and Ross has kept the show a perennial favorite. Ross died early in the run, ending one of the most promising collaborations of the decade.

– New Girl In Town (1957 - 431) was songwriter Bob Merrill's musicalization of Eugene O'Neill's drama Anna Christie. Abbot shaped the story of a prostitute finding love on the waterfront of 1800s New York into a workable vehicle, but ongoing battles with choreographer Fosse made this their last collaborative effort.

Abbott greatest strength was in identifying an author's intentions and expressing them in accessible, entertaining ways. As a result, Abbott's importance as a director was sometimes taken for granted, and he was often overlooked at award time. Two exceptions –

– At age 72, George Abbott won two Tonys and a Pulitzer Prize for directing and co-authoring Fiorello (1959 - 795), a semi-fictionalized look at the early political career of New York's beloved Mayor LaGuardia. The show shared the Best Book, Composer and Musical Tonys with The Sound Of Music – a unique triple-tie vote) The score was by composer Jerry Bock and lyricist Sheldon Harnick, a team that would write several major hits in the 1960s.

– Two years later, Abbott won another Tony for directing A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962 - 964), a sexy farce with book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, choreography by Jerome Robbins, and the first complete Broadway score with words and music by Stephen Sondheim. The show took the Best Musical Tony, with Best Actor going to Zero Mostel as Pseudolus, a Roman slave who turns lives upside down in his pursuit of freedom. 

The energetic Abbott directed ten more Broadway productions, including an acclaimed revival of On Your Toes (1982 - 505). He remained active well past his centennial year, helping to revise the revival libretto of Damn Yankees (1994 - 510) shortly before his death at age 107. A no-nonsense organizer in a business where disorganization was all-too common, Abbott had an extraordinary eye for talent, and played a crucial role in launching the careers of many theatrical greats, including the two director-choreographers below.

Jerome Robbins
Coming from the world of classical ballet, Jerome Robbins used dance as a story-telling device, making it as intrinsic to the musical as the script and the score. What Agnes DeMille had in initiated in Oklahoma came to fruition in the best Robbins stagings. He directed and/or choreographed the following –

– On The Town (1944 - 463) allowed Robbins to weave dance into the story of three sailors on leave in New York City. George Abbott directed, giving Robbins wide leeway for the creative use of choreography. (More on this show in a previous chapter.)

– Billion Dollar Baby (1945 - 219) was built around a series of story-telling dances, once again with Abbott directing and Robbins handling the dances.

Phil Silvers bilks a New Jersey family, only to lose his ill-gotten gains in High Button Shoes.

– High Button Shoes (1947 - 727) had a score by Jule Styne and a stellar comic performance by Phil Silvers as a slick 1913 con man, but it is primarily remembered for Robbins' choreography, most notably a madcap "Mack Sennett Ballet." Keystone-style cops and bathing beauties were unleashed in a wild chase to nowhere, stopping the show. The director was (who else?) George Abbott.

– The King and I (1951 - 1,246) had Robbins combining narrative dance and oriental techniques in Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's "Small House of Uncle Thomas Ballet." He also staged the "March of the Siamese Children" and the showstopping "Shall We Dance." Although playwright John Van Druten was credited as director, some cast members later claimed that this production received important directorial touches from lead actor Yul Brynner. 

– West Side Story (1957 - 732) What began with Agnes DeMille's dream ballets in Oklahoma! found its fulfillment here with Robbins serving as director and choreographer, shaping the entire show as one nonstop choreographic event. Something as prosaic as a gang walking down a street became an excuse for dance that simultaneously strengthened the plot and developed individual characters. The inherent drama of young lovers meeting at a dance or teenagers clashing in a schoolyard brawl became riveting highlights in the history of modern dance. (More on this show in a previous chapter.)

– Gypsy (1959 - 702) was not a dance show, but Robbins added much to it by re-creating the dance styles of vaudeville and burlesque. When three strippers assured young Louise (about to blossom as Gypsy Rose Lee) that "You Gotta Get a Gimmick" to succeed in burlesque, Robbins turned their bumps and grinds into one of the funniest showstoppers in theatrical history. (More on this show in an upcoming chapter.)

– A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962 - 964) is discussed above in our section on George Abbott.

– Fiddler on the Roof (1964 - 3,242) was Robbins' ultimate Broadway triumph, weaving story, song and dance together to tell the story of a Jewish milkman facing change in his family and his shtetl community. He staged unforgettable images – the Jews of Anatevka forming a circle of community, the wedding dancers with wine bottles perched precariously on their hats, and the circle finally breaking apart as the Jews flee Russian oppression. As the philosophical milkman Tevya, Zero Mostel overcame personal differences with Robbins and gave the most memorable performance of his career. Robbins and Mostel took home Tonys, with the show winning Best Musical.

After Fiddler, Robbins concentrated on classical ballet, and on burying whatever private guilt he might have carried after betraying friends to the witch-hunting Congressional committees of the 1950s. He returned to Broadway to supervise Jerome Robbins Broadway (1989 - 634), a valedictory revue of his finest Broadway dances. Brilliant but dictatorial -- some would even say despotic-- Robbins was arguably the most brilliant director the musical theatre has ever known. He worked closely with authors and composers, taking an active role in shaping much of the material he would bring to life on stage. As a result, his directorial concepts are often written into the librettos and songs, a permanent part of the fabric of these shows.

Bob Fosse
Bob Fosse's sexy, impious dancing won attention in the 1952 Broadway revival of Pal Joey and such MGM films as Kiss Me Kate (1953). His first choreography credit on Broadway was The Pajama Game (1954 – 1,063), a bright musical comedy about a romance between a supervisor and a union rep as labor battles management in a Midwestern factory. With a delightful score by the new composing team of Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, this show was the perfect vehicle for Fosse's dance style. George Abbott handled the book scenes and left the musical numbers to Fosse.

Fosse built on what choreographers Robbins and Agnes DeMille had begun, adding a touch of show biz razzle-dazzle and a generous dose of unapologetic sex appeal. He found the perfect vehicle for his style in Gwen Verdon, a gifted dancer and actress who combined vulnerability with sleek sensuality. In Damn Yankees (1955 - 1,019) Verdon played a demonic temptress, stopping the show with the raunchy "Whatever Lola Wants." The show, choreographer and actress all collected Tonys, and Fosse made the connection permanent by marrying Verdon during the run. Verdon won another Tony starring in New Girl in Town (1957 - 431), but Fosse's "Whorehouse Ballet" was so daring that director George Abbott disposed of it during out of town previews. An infuriated Fosse resolved to be director-choreographer on all his future projects. Redhead (1959 - 452) cemented Verdon's place as one of the greatest musical stage stars of her time, and is covered in our next chapter.

In 1959, Verdon explained to a New York Times interviewer the special contribution a director-choreographer could make to a musical --