Theatre During The 1980s

Many children experience nightmares. They toss and turn in their beds until a loving parent arrives to comfort them. Often though, the thing that eventually eases the child back into sleep is their own idea that morning and light are near. It is human nature to look toward the future to relieve fear and anxiety; but what if that future seems uncertain? What if the new day coming looks grim, foreboding, not hopeful at all? The 1980s were a time of excess and materialism. Fashion became more vibrant and eccentric. Movie plots were absurd. The music of the decade expressed a new need for material goods and the theatre was excessive and expensive. One might say that the American decade that was the 1980s was a nightmare of self -indulgence. When …show more content…
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s, “Cats” is an excellent example of this newfound excessive nature of theatre. Broadway began to open more and more shows that displayed “in your face theatre” tactics with bigger sets, songs, dance numbers, and costumes. Most of all this new kind of theatre worked to impress audiences through extreme special effects such as a rocket ship on stage. “Cats” depicted a gathering of felines in a garbage-strewn alley where one cat would be allowed to ascend, on an oversized hydraulic tire, to "the heavy-side layer" which is another way of saying cat heaven. The first and last fifteen minutes were so dazzling due to heavy-duty lighting effects and intricate dance numbers that few complained about the two tedious hours that yawned in-between. The American public loved “Cats” because it was a reflection of the culture during the 1980s. Inevitably, several other “megamusicals” followed this trend of excess after “Cats” was so successful. Cats was very successful at the Tonys as well, with Best Book going to T.S. Eliot, and Best Featured Actress going to Betty Buckley as the bedraggled feline Grizzabella. People today wonder why the garish and ostentatious “Cats” was so prosperous but really, it can be attributed to that materialistic nightmare of a decade, the