21st Century Musical Theatre

The new millennium has brought renewed energy to the world of musical theater. At the San Francisco Public Library we try to meet this interest by purchasing scores of new musical theater works for actors, actresses and accompanists interested in expanding their repertoire.

Recent musical theater productions have taken popular musicians as a theme, for instance Jersey Boys about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and All Shook Up featuring the hit songs of Elvis Presley.

The world of literature continues to provide subject matter for the musical stage with productions like Wicked, based on Wicked: The Life and Times Of The Wicked Witch Of The West by Gregory Maguirre, My Life With Albertine based on Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, Little Women based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott, and the Woman In White based on the novel by Wilkie Collins.

Many new musicals are based upon film including Hairspray, Johnny Guitar, The It Girl, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Tarzan.

Many musicals continue to be independent creative works. These are often based on themes from contemporary American life like The Last Five Years, Urinetown, Avenue Q, Brooklyn, Altar Boyz, and the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Other original musicals include Monty Python's Spamalot and The Light in The Piazza.

Since publishers only rarely publish complete vocal scores these days, the scores the library offers are almost exclusively vocal selections. We usually buy circulating copies of these scores, but we always have a copy in reference at the Fourth Floor Page Desk that is available to auditioners.

Here is a chronological selection of some recent musical theater titles.

2001

Hairspray / music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman

Urinetown: The Musical / music and lyrics by Mark Hollmann, book and lyrics by Greg Kotis.

The It Girl / music by Paul McKibbins, lyrics by BT McNicholl.

The Last 5 Years / music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown.

2002

Avenue Q: The Musical / music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, book by Jeff Whitty.

2003

My Life with Albertine: A New Musical / book & lyrics by Richard Nelson, music & lyrics by Ricky Ian Gordon.

Wicked: A New Musical / music & lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, book by Winnie Holzman.

2004

Altar Boyz / music and lyrics by Gary Adler & Michael Patrick Walker, book by Kevin Del Aguila.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels / book by Jeffrey Lane, music and lyrics by David Yazbek.

Brooklyn: The Musical / book, music, and lyrics by Mark Schoenfeld & Barri McPherson.

The Woman In White / music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by David Zippel.

Johnny Guitar: The Musical / book by Nicholas van Hoogstraten, music by Martin Silvestri.


2005

Little Women: The Musical / music by Jason Howland, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein.

The Light In The Piazza / book, Craig Lucas, music and lyrics, Adam Guettel.

Jersey Boys: The Story of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee / music & lyrics by William Finn.

Monty Python's Spamalot / book & lyrics by Eric Idle, music by John Du Prez & Eric Idle.

All Shook Up: A New Musical Comedy / book by Joe DiPrieto.

2006

Tarzan: The Broadway Musical / music and lyrics by Phil Collins.