re: Re. today's generic chorus
Posted by: AlanScott 11:36 pm EDT 10/21/24
In reply to: Re. today's generic chorus - icecadet 08:47 pm EDT 10/20/24

West Side Story is sometimes said to have accelerated the move to a single ensemble, but that might have been taken more as a sort of one-off at the time. But if you go back in time, many older musicals didn’t list separate singing and dancing ensembles. For example, Sweet Adeline in 1929 (admittedly a show that was probably light on dancing) listed Girls of the Gay Nineties and Gentlemen of the Ensemble. Ladies of the Ensemble and Gentlemen of the Ensemble were pretty common. The original Broadway No, No, Nanette listed The Maids, The Marrieds (Friends of Lucille), and The Bachelors. And I know that had some fairly extensive choreography.

By 1970 or so, listing the ensemble as separate singing and dancing groups was pretty nearly over. Both Applause and Purlie did it that year, and I doubt they were the last two, but I think there weren't too many afterwards. A lot of 1960s musicals did not do it. For example, the ensemble in Mame was listed as Mame's Friends, and the ensemble in Sweet Charity was listed as The singers and dancers of Times Square.
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