Music has always been a part of theater, but in the early 20th century, the cultural traditions of opera and the everyday entertainments of Music Hall and vaudeville stage came together into a new kind of musical theater, one that blended catchy tunes with serious themes.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Music Episode 244. Anything Goes.

Theater, as an art form, probably predates civilization. It is likely that human beings have

been acting out stories in front of audiences for tens of thousands of years,

and you can find this form of expression in cultures around the world.

In our Western culture, we generally think of theater as beginning with ancient Greece,

and entire ancient Greek plays have survived into the modern world.

The word theater itself is Greek in origin.

It also seems likely that for as long as there has been theater, theatrical performances have included not only the staging and acting of plays, but also of related arts, particularly music, dance, and pantomime,

either as part of the play, or before, or after, or during interludes within.

During the Middle Ages, Europe saw what we might call highbrow theater, sponsored by one or the other of

the Lord's Spiritual, the Church, or the Lord's Temporal, the State. These performances were serious,

high-minded, and they were intended to educate and uplift. There were also traveling performers who eeked out a marginal

existence entertaining ordinary people in exchange for more modest compensation. These performances

were all about fun. They relied heavily on comedy and often strayed into the dangerous territories

of mockery and bodiness, speaking the

unspeakable, though perhaps through a story or an allegory, we might call this lowbrow theater.

As an aside, I'm going to be using these words highbrow and lowbrow to describe arts and entertainments in this episode

because they're convenient terms and easy to understand.

To my mind, the distinguishing characteristics of highbrow are that it is more restrained

and often requires the audience to have some familiarity with the form in order to fully appreciate it,

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