- a play or film in which part or all of the story is told using songs and often dancing
- a Broadway/Hollywood musical
- the star of the hit West End musical
- a musical based on the biblical story of Job
- a cycle of classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals
CultureMusicals started to develop in the early 20th century, combining features of comic opera and the British music hall tradition. The modern Broadway musical began with Showboat, and others have included Oklahoma!, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Hair and Sunset Boulevard. Most later became films. One of the most popular musicals written originally as a film is Singin' in the Rain. US writers of musicals have included Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and his brother Ira, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Oscar Hammerstein and Lerner and Loewe. The best-known British composer of musicals is Andrew Lloyd Webber, whose work includes Jesus Christ Superstar and Cats.Topics Film and theatreb1, Musicb1Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- hit
- popular
- successful
- …
- be based on something
Word Originlate Middle English: from Old French, from medieval Latin musicalis, from Latin musica, from Greek mousikē (tekhnē) ‘(art) of the Muses’, from mousa ‘muse’.
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