How Sondheim, Fosse, Prince, and Bennett transformed musical theater from linear stories to groundbreaking ideas, themes, and psychological explorations.
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Picture Broadway in the 1960s: polished shows with tidy stories, where the boy gets the girl and everyone bursts into song at just the right moment. Now, fast-forward to 1970. Audiences file into the Alvin Theatre, expecting more of the same. Still, instead, they encounter "Company" – a musical with no plot to speak of, just a bachelor named Bobby floating through disconnected scenes about marriage and commitment. At the same time, his friends badger him about settling down. No romance, no happy ending, just questions about what it means to be "Being Alive.
This was the birth of the concept musical – a revolutionary approach that flipped Broadway on its head and changed what musical theater could be forever.
The Golden Age Gives Way
The 1970s didn't just happen in a vacuum. To understand why concept musicals exploded when they did, we need to look at what came before. From the 1940s through the mid-1960s, Broadway enjoyed what we now call its Golden Age. Shows like Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!" (1943) and "South Pacific" (1949) or Lerner and Loewe's "My Fair Lady" (1956) established a winning formula: tell a straightforward story where songs advance the plot, center it around romance, and wrap everything up with a satisfying resolution.
But by the late 1960s, America was changing rapidly. The Vietnam War dragged on. Civil rights protests filled the streets. The assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert Kennedy left people shaken. The sexual revolution and feminism challenged traditional values. The clean, optimistic stories of the Golden Age started feeling out of step with reality.
"The well-made musical felt like a lie," explains theater historian Carol Oja. "How could you tell a simple love story when the world was burning around you? Artists needed new forms to express the complexity and chaos of contemporary life."
Enter the concept musical – a form that prioritized ideas and themes over plot, psychological exploration over simple characters, and fragmented structures over linear narratives. It was exactly what the moment demanded.
What Makes a Concept Musical?
So what exactly is a concept musical? Unlike traditional book musicals with their clear beginning-middle-end structures, concept musicals are organized around a central theme, idea, or question. Think of them as theatrical collages rather than straight narratives.
Harold Prince, who directed many of the pioneering concept musicals, put it this way: "A concept is a filter through which you tell a story... It's a metaphor that allows you to comment on what's happening in the scenes rather than just presenting them."
While traditional musicals ask "What happens next?", concept musicals often ask "What does this mean?" They tend to be more interested in exploring conditions (marriage, ambition, cultural change) than in resolving conflicts. Characters might represent ideas as much as people. Time might flow non-chronologically or exist in multiple layers simultaneously.
These shows often embrace theatrical self-awareness, acknowledging that an audience is watching performers on a stage rather than trying to create perfect illusions. They're more likely to break the fourth wall, use minimalist staging, or incorporate commentary on theater itself.
The Visionaries Behind the Revolution
The concept musical revolution was driven by four main innovators who pushed musical theater in radical new directions:
Stephen Sondheim: The Composer-Poet
When people talk about concept musicals, Stephen Sondheim's name usually comes first. After cutting his teeth writing lyrics for "West Side Story" and "Gypsy," Sondheim emerged as the most revolutionary voice in American musical theater.
"Sondheim didn't just write pretty songs – he created musical architectures that reflected his characters' psychological states," says composer Jason Robert Brown. "His lyrics were so precisely crafted that a single song could tell you everything about a character's past, present, and inner conflicts."
In shows like "Company" (1970), "Follies" (1971), and "Pacific Overtures" (1976), Sondheim created complex, often dissonant scores that eschewed easy hooks for intricate development. His songs rarely served as simple plot points – instead, they deepened character psychology or commented on thematic ideas.
Take "The Ladies Who Lunch" from "Company" – a blistering, booze-soaked character study that reveals more about Joanne's self-loathing and cynicism in four minutes than many conventional musicals reveal about their protagonists across two acts. Or "Someone in a Tree" from "Pacific Overtures," which explores how history is assembled from fragmentary, subjective perspectives – a theme reflected in its very musical structure.
Harold Prince: The Visionary Director
If Sondheim provided the musical language for concept musicals, director Harold Prince created their visual and spatial vocabulary. Prince had produced hits like "The Pajama Game" and "West Side Story," but as a director, he developed staging techniques that broke from Broadway traditions.
Prince's genius lay in creating productions where staging itself communicated meaning. For "Company," he placed the action in a sleek Manhattan high-rise that served as a metaphor for Bobby's emotional isolation. In "Follies," he staged scenes where characters literally confronted ghosts of their younger selves, creating haunting theatrical poetry about aging and regret.
"What Prince understood," explains theater director Diane Paulus, "was that the physical production could carry as much thematic weight as the script and score. His sets weren't just backdrops for action – they were active metaphors that shaped how audiences understood the story."
Prince's collaboration with Sondheim produced some of the most innovative work of the era, pushing boundaries with each production. Their partnership represented the perfect marriage of musical and visual innovation.
Michael Bennett: The Choreographer-Director
While Sondheim and Prince explored fragmented narratives and psychological complexity, choreographer-turned-director Michael Bennett took another approach to the concept musical with "A Chorus Line" (1975).
Bennett's innovation began with process. He gathered a group of Broadway dancers and recorded them sharing their personal stories – their childhoods, their struggles, their reasons for dancing. From these raw materials, Bennett and his collaborators shaped a musical set during an audition, where dancers seeking work reveal their inner lives.
"What made 'A Chorus Line' revolutionary wasn't just its minimalist staging – a bare stage with mirrors and a white line – but its content," says theater scholar Stacy Wolf. "It was about ordinary people, the chorus dancers usually relegated to the background, and it treated their lives and aspirations as worthy of center stage."
With its documentary-inspired approach and emotional authenticity, "A Chorus Line" brought a different kind of truth to Broadway. Its characters weren't fictional constructs but theatrical versions of real people, speaking directly to audiences about their hopes and vulnerabilities.
Bob Fosse: The Cynical Stylist
No discussion of concept musicals would be complete without choreographer-director Bob Fosse, whose distinctive vision brought a dark, sexualized edge to Broadway. Fosse's angular movements, isolated body parts, and smoldering intensity created a physical language perfectly suited to the cynicism of the post-Watergate era.
In "Pippin" (1972), Fosse reimagined the life of Charlemagne's son as a performance by a mysterious troupe led by a manipulative Leading Player. The show functioned as both a dazzling entertainment and a critique of entertainment itself, culminating in Pippin's rejection of spectacular suicide in favor of ordinary life.
"Chicago" (1975) pushed Fosse's cynicism even further, structuring the true story of murderers Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly as a series of vaudeville acts. Each number in "Chicago" commented on America's obsession with celebrity, scandal, and the thin line between justice and performance.
"Fosse understood America's darkness," notes choreographer Sergio Trujillo. "His work embraced our fascination with sex, violence, and corruption while simultaneously critiquing it. He made entertainment that was ashamed of being entertainment, and that tension created incredible theatrical energy."
Landmark Concept Musicals of the 1970s
The concept musical took many forms during the 1970s. Let's look at some of the groundbreaking shows that defined the movement:
"Company" (1970): The Bachelor's Dilemma
"Company" marked the true arrival of the concept musical. Instead of following a linear plot, the show presented a series of vignettes exploring modern relationships through the eyes of Bobby, a 35-year-old bachelor unable to commit. The audience experiences discrete moments with Bobby's married friends, punctuated by his relationship reflections.
The show's brilliance lies in its structure – it's like flipping through a photo album rather than watching a movie. Songs like "Sorry-Grateful" captured the ambivalence of marriage, while "Being Alive" transformed from a pressure to couple up into a genuine plea for connection by the show's end.
"'Company' was revolutionary because it was honest about something most musicals ignored – that relationships are complicated, marriage is hard, and being alone can be both terrifying and liberating," says director Marianne Elliott, who reimagined the show in 2018. "It didn't provide answers; it just asked better questions."
"Follies" (1971): Memory and Regret
Sondheim and Prince pushed even further with "Follies," set at a reunion of former showgirls in a crumbling theater about to be demolished. The show intertwined past and present, with characters haunted by their younger selves and the choices that shaped their lives.
"Follies" used pastiche brilliantly, with songs that evoked different eras of American musical theater. Numbers like "Broadway Baby" and "Losing My Mind" weren't just entertaining – they commented on how American cultural history shaped individual psychology. The show's stunning "Loveland" sequence transported characters into a fantasy world where they played out their delusions in the style of the follies shows of their youth.
Though initially a commercial disappointment, "Follies" has become recognized as one of the most ambitious and affecting works in the American musical canon – a meditation on time, memory, and disillusionment that continues to resonate with audiences.
"A Chorus Line" (1975): The Dancers Speak
"A Chorus Line" transformed Broadway with its raw authenticity and minimalist aesthetic. Setting an entire musical during an audition was revolutionary enough, but the show's genius lay in giving voice to the usually anonymous chorus dancers who populate Broadway ensembles.
The show's structure was brilliantly simple: a director asks dancers to share personal stories as part of the audition process. What follows is a series of monologues and songs where performers reveal their childhoods, insecurities, ambitions, and fears. From Cassie's desperate "The Music and the Mirror" to Paul's heartbreaking monologue about his parents discovering his homosexuality, the show created space for untold stories.
"What 'A Chorus Line' gave us," says theater critic Ben Brantley, "was a musical about ordinary people with ordinary dreams, presented with extraordinary honesty. It made the invisible visible and insisted that every person on that line had a story worth telling."
The show ran for an astonishing 15 years, becoming the longest-running Broadway production of its time and winning nine Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
"Chicago" (1975): Murder as Entertainment
When "Chicago" opened in 1975, it was overshadowed by "A Chorus Line." But its cynical brilliance eventually received recognition through its 1996 revival, which became one of Broadway's longest-running shows. Based on actual murder cases from 1920s Chicago, the musical used vaudeville structures to comment on America's fascination with crime, celebrity, and spectacle.
Each number in "Chicago" functioned as both character development and social commentary. "All That Jazz" established the show's darkly seductive tone; "Cell Block Tango" transformed female revenge into a darkly comic set piece; "Razzle Dazzle" explicitly addressed how showmanship trumps truth in the American justice system.
"'Chicago' was ahead of its time," explains theater director Walter Bobbie, who helmed the 1996 revival. "It predicted our reality-TV, celebrity-obsessed culture with uncanny accuracy. What seemed cynical in 1975 feels prophetic today."
"Pacific Overtures" (1976): East Meets West
Perhaps the most formally daring concept musical of the era was Sondheim and Prince's "Pacific Overtures," which chronicled Japan's opening to Western influence in the 19th century. The show incorporated techniques from Japanese Kabuki theater alongside Brechtian distancing effects, creating a unique theatrical language.
Songs like "Someone in a Tree" explored how history is constructed from fragmentary perspectives, while the stunning finale "Next" compressed a century of Japan's Westernization into a single, accelerating sequence. The show's casting of Asian actors in all roles – including Westerners – reversed traditional yellowface practices and created a pointed commentary on cultural appropriation.
"'Pacific Overtures' wasn't just innovative in form – it asked audiences to consider American imperialism from the perspective of those being colonized," notes theater scholar David Savran. "It was politically radical as well as artistically revolutionary."
Musical Innovation: New Sounds for New Stories
The concept musical demanded new approaches to composition. Traditional musical theater had been built around accessible melodies and straightforward lyrics that advanced the plot. Concept musicals, by contrast, often featured more complex harmonies reflecting psychological depths.
Sondheim's scores were particularly revolutionary. His intricate lyrics prioritized character revelation over narrative advancement, while his music incorporated dissonance and irregular rhythms that mirrored his characters' internal conflicts. Songs like "Getting Married Today" from "Company" used rapid-fire patter and overlapping voices to convey a bride's panic attack, while "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" drew from English music hall traditions and requiem masses to establish an ominous tone.
Other composers brought different innovations. Marvin Hamlisch's score for "A Chorus Line" incorporated contemporary pop influences while maintaining theatrical storytelling. John Kander and Fred Ebb brought vaudeville and jazz influences to "Chicago," creating musical numbers that functioned as both character pieces and social commentary.
"What makes concept musical scores different," explains musicologist Scott McMillin, "is that they're not just collections of songs – they're architectural structures where motifs and musical ideas develop across the entire show, just as they would in classical composition."
Staging the Revolution
The concept musical's innovations weren't limited to music and structure. Directors developed new approaches to theatrical space that broke from proscenium traditions. Simple staging often replaced elaborate sets, allowing ideas and performances to take center stage.
Michael Bennett's use of a single line of dancers against mirrors in "A Chorus Line" transformed a minimalist staging into a powerful metaphor for self-reflection and judgment. Boris Aronson's crumbling theater setting for "Follies" embodied the show's themes of decay and lost glory. Robin Wagner's sparse, reconfigurable set for "Chicago" created a performance space that emphasized the show's vaudeville aesthetic.
Lighting design became increasingly important in helping audiences navigate the shifts in time and psychological states. Tharon Musser's revolutionary use of computerized lighting for "A Chorus Line" allowed for precisely timed changes that complemented the show's documentary aesthetic.
"What these designers understood," says set designer David Korins, "was that concept musicals required environments that could transform as fluidly as the shows' structures. The physical production had to enhance the conceptual framework, not just provide a backdrop for action."
The Legacy: Theater Transformed
The concept musical of the 1970s represents one of the most significant evolutionary leaps in American musical theater history. Emerging from a period of social upheaval and artistic experimentation, it forever changed how stories could be told on the Broadway stage.
What makes these shows continue to resonate is their willingness to embrace complexity rather than provide easy answers. They acknowledge that human experiences – relationships, ambition, cultural change, aging – resist simple narratives. In their fragmented structures and psychological depth, they reflect life as it's actually lived: messy, contradictory, and full of questions that have no definitive answers.
By breaking from tradition, these revolutionary artists ensured musical theater would remain a vital, evolving art form. The concept musical didn't just change theatrical form; it expanded our understanding of what stories could be told and how they could be told. These innovations opened the door to new possibilities in musical theater that would continue to develop in the decades that followed.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a concept musical?
A concept musical prioritizes themes and ideas over traditional linear plot. Rather than following a straightforward narrative, concept musicals organize around central questions or conditions, often using fragmented structures and psychological exploration.
Who created the first concept musical?
While there were earlier experiments, Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince's "Company" (1970) is widely considered the first fully-realized concept musical on Broadway, establishing the form that would revolutionize musical theater.
Why did concept musicals emerge in the 1970s?
Concept musicals emerged in response to social upheaval of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Vietnam War, civil rights movement, and changing social values created demand for art forms that could express the complexity and ambiguity of contemporary life.
What are the most famous concept musicals?
The most influential concept musicals include "Company" (1970), "Follies" (1971), "Pippin" (1972), "A Chorus Line" (1975), "Chicago" (1975), and "Pacific Overtures" (1976). These shows established new possibilities for musical theater structure.
Who were the key creators of concept musicals?
The concept musical revolution was driven primarily by Stephen Sondheim (composer/lyricist), Harold Prince (director), Michael Bennett (choreographer/director), and Bob Fosse (choreographer/director). Their innovative approaches transformed Broadway.
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