The form evolved from the light opera and operetta in the 1890’s and 1900 and to the heavy rollerskate-rock in i.e "Starlight Express".

A line dividing operetta and musical comedy has never been drawn clearly. "The Merry Widow" tends to be regarded an operetta, while shows like "Oklahoma" and "My Fair Lady" mostly are categorized as musicals.

But is "Les Miserable" an opera or a musical ? You’ll find it marketed as a musical but I’m sure nobody would object to the categorization opera.

More recent creators of musicals have turned increasingly to adapting successful straight dramatic plays into musicals, sometimes with total disregard for the original texts specific qualities and their possibility to survive such a transformation.

Another way to create a musical might be described as the dubious enterprise of combining a well-known, well-told story with widely palatable music.

Also, the growing demands of a sophisticated audience has forced the scenic effects of a modern musical to get increasingly spectacular, sometimes pushing the actual content of the story into the background. The set of "Starlight Express" is completely dictated by the fact that the show is performed on roller-skates (!), and the very image of "Miss Saigon" is the spectacular helicopter landing.

Is there any end to it?

It has also been customary to produce a film based on the musical. I have tried to mark these in my presentation below.

I have also collected a few interesting links to musicals and stuff regarding musicals.

In fact: The pages are full of different links, seek for Yourselves. If You find that any of them are "dead", please give me a hint , and I'll remove them!