Although music has been part of dramatic presentations since ancient times, by the 18th century, two forms of musical theatre were popular in Britain: ballad operas (like John Gay’s ‘The Beggar’s Opera’, 1728) and comic operas (like Balde’s ‘The Bohemian Girl’, 1845). Other musical theatre forms developed by the 19th century, such as music hall, melodrama, burlesque and vaudeville. This became popular because most London theatres were licensed only as music halls and couldn’t perform plays without music.
The comic opera is argued to be the earliest form of the musical theatre we know today. Offenbach was the best know composer of this style of musicals (known as operetta- music theatre comedy). His combinations of melodies and lyrics formed a model for music theatre to follow. This heavily influenced the work of Gilbert and
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The novella focuses on split personality syndrome (which is known as dissociative identity disorder), where within the same body there exists more than one distinct personality. The musical follows the same story, exploring similar themes. It combine spoken dialogue and music, follows a plot and character development and has a resolve at the end. This allows it to fall into the category of the genre, 20th century British Book Musical. However, it can also be described as a musical thriller in style.
‘Fiddler on the Roof’ is also based on a novel (Tevye and his Daughters by Sholem Aleichem). It opened in Broadway in 1964 with music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. It is a Russian musical, set in 1905, that focuses on the themes of family and Jewish tradition. This musical also follows a plot and character development so falls into the category of a Book Musical. However, it is classed as an American mid-20th century book musical, with a heavily influence Jewish traditional music