History AudienceAlienatingEra / Theatre

* A huge debate among fans of [[TheMusical musical theatre]] involves this trope: Has the medium gone through an Audience-Alienating Era and come out on the other side, has it been trapped in one with no way out since X show/era, or has it not fallen into one at all? The answer depends on the fan's tastes. The worst-case scenario is seen as the form permanently falling into this trope in TheSeventies. Most of the "Golden Age" shows of the 1940s through the '60s had come and gone, composers of that era were largely running on fumes with their newest works if they weren't retiring or dying, and not all fans embraced the harder-edged, often conceptually challenging and dark work of Music/StephenSondheim, the most acclaimed composer-lyricist of that decade. Also, Broadway was notoriously slow to adapt to changing popular musical tastes, and many of the early shows that incorporated rock, R&B, pop, etc. did not age well -- if they were even successful to begin with. The most commonly cited Audience-Alienating Era is TheEighties, which saw Creator/AndrewLloydWebber's success in the previous decade exploded starting with ''Theatre/{{Cats}}''. This formally ushered in the age of the {{spectacle}}-driven "megamusical", a subgenre that critics drubbed as style over substance. Although the megamusical is dead and gone with regards to new works, the old ones remain popular while Disney stage musicals, ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'', and the like owe a lot to that subgenre aesthetically. At the same time the post-Golden Age generation of American creatives and performers was ''wrenchingly'' thinned by the [=AIDS=] epidemic, leaving a cloud of grief and rage over those left behind.\\\
Since the TurnOfTheMillennium, the medium has suffered creatively for the exploding popularity of the JukeboxMusical (which exclusively relies upon music an audience knows going in), the increasingly mercenary approach to AllMusicalsAreAdaptations with the Disney musicals opening the floodgates for seemingly ''every'' vaguely-popular family-friendly property being put on a stage, theatre in general becoming subject to PopCultureIsolation, and challenging adult-oriented works failing to manage toeholds in FlyoverCountry. Between all that, and older fans being reluctant or even unwilling to accept post-Golden Age styles, cases have been made that 21st century musical theatre is nothing more than an overpriced tourist trap, the odd ''Theatre/TheBookOfMormon'' or ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'' aside -- and with the crippling UsefulNotes/CoronavirusPandemic closing live theater down for over a year in world centers like New York City and London, the whole medium may not fully recover in terms of artistic credibility for years, if ever (especially in the U.S., where public arts funding is notoriously poor and thus LowestCommonDenominator work is the fastest path to rebuilding).

* Even those who are only, at best, casual fans of ballet will generally agree that the Mariinsky Ballet in [[UsefulNotes/TheCityFormerlyKnownAs St. Petersburg]] is [[http://observer.com/2015/01/a-season-of-the-mariinsky-conjures-more-questions-than-answers/ suffering from this]] under its current artistic director, Yuri Fateyev. [[WTHCastingAgency Horrendous casting decisions]], while a favorite for critics to bring up, aren't the only part of the problem, either.

* Even Creator/RodgersAndHammerstein, those titans of American musical theatre, hit a rough patch in the '50s. Their early partnership was marked by a string of successful shows that included ''Theatre/{{Oklahoma}}'' (1943), ''Theatre/{{Carousel}}'' (1945), ''Allegro'' (1947) (the one non-hit), ''Theatre/SouthPacific'' (1949), and ''Theatre/TheKingAndI'' (1951). Following this, they wrote two musicals, ''Me and Juliet'' (1953) and ''Pipe Dream'' (1955), which are so obscure that few people have ever heard of them, and they have never received film adaptations or revivals. Their 1958 show ''Literature/FlowerDrumSong'' was received somewhat better by audiences but viewed very poorly by history as [[ModernMinstrelsy "an Oriental minstrel show"]], and didn't return to Broadway for over four decades, being heavily revised when it did. The final collaboration between the pair before Hammerstein's death was ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic'' (1959), undoubtedly their best-known and loved work.

{{Dork Age}}s in theatre.

* Creator/CirqueDuSoleil has had a few missteps in tour itineraries and miscellaneous projects (such as entertainment for the Celebrity Cruises line) that went over poorly, but for the live shows that serve as the company's backbone, the company generally works hard to improve troubled productions and refine good ones, so even a rocky start can pay off later. But in doing more and more shows, trying to put new twists on their usual fare, and expanding into new markets that may or may not be welcoming, they hit a DorkAge in TheNewTens, resulting in a purge of shows and triple-digit company layoffs over 2012-13 to set things to rights.

* A huge debate among fans of [[TheMusical musical theatre]] involves this trope: Has the medium gone through a Dork Age and come out on the other side, has it been trapped in one with no way out since X show/era, or has it not fallen into one at all? The answer depends on the fan's tastes. The worst-case scenario is seen as the form permanently falling into this trope in TheSeventies. Most of the "Golden Age" shows of the 1940s through the '60s had come and gone, composers of that era were largely running on fumes with their newest works if they weren't retiring or dying, and not all fans embraced the harder-edged, often conceptually challenging and dark work of Music/StephenSondheim, the most acclaimed composer-lyricist of that decade. Also, Broadway was notoriously slow to adapt to changing popular musical tastes, and many of the early shows that incorporated rock, R&B, pop, etc. did not age well -- if they were even successful to begin with. The most commonly cited Dork Age is TheEighties, which saw Creator/AndrewLloydWebber's success in the previous decade exploded starting with ''Theatre/{{Cats}}''. This formally ushered in the age of the {{spectacle}}-driven "megamusical", a subgenre that critics drubbed as style over substance. Although the megamusical is dead and gone with regards to new works, the old ones remain popular while Disney stage musicals, ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'', and the like owe a lot to that subgenre aesthetically. At the same time the post-Golden Age generation of American creatives and performers was ''wrenchingly'' thinned by the [=AIDS=] epidemic, leaving a cloud of grief and rage over those left behind.\\\

* Even Creator/RodgersAndHammerstein, those titans of American musical theatre, hit a rough patch in the '50s. Their early partnership was marked by a string of successful shows that included ''Theatre/{{Oklahoma}}'' (1943), ''Theatre/Carousel'' (1945), ''Allegro'' (1947) (the one non-hit), ''Theatre/SouthPacific'' (1949), and ''Theatre/TheKingAndI'' (1951). Following this, they wrote two musicals, ''Theatre ''Me and Juliet'' (1953) and ''Pipe Dream'' (1955), which are so obscure that few people have ever heard of them, and they have never received film adaptations or revivals. Their 1958 show ''Literature/FlowerDrumSong'' was received somewhat better by audiences but viewed very poorly by history as [[ModernMinstrelsy "an Oriental minstrel show"]], and didn't return to Broadway for over four decades, being heavily revised when it did. The final collaboration between the pair before Hammerstein's death was ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic'' (1959), undoubtedly their best-known and loved work.

* Even Creator/RodgersAndHammerstein, those titans of American musical theatre, could hit a rough patch now and then. Their 1958 show ''Literature/FlowerDrumSong'', for instance, was condemned as [[ModernMinstrelsy "an Oriental minstrel show."]] Tellingly, it was the first R&H musical to tone down its racial elements for stage revivals, even before ''Theatre/TheKingAndI'' and ''Theatre/SouthPacific'', and to a greater degree overall than the other two mentioned, and didn't return to Broadway for over four decades.

* A huge debate among fans of [[TheMusical musical theatre]] involves this trope: Has the medium gone through a Dork Age and come out on the other side, has it been trapped in one with no way out since X show/era, or has it not fallen into one at all? The answer depends on the fan's tastes. The worst-case scenario is seen as the form permanently falling into this trope in TheSeventies. Most of the "Golden Age" shows of the 1940s through the '60s had come and gone, composers of that era were largely running on fumes with their newest works if they weren't retiring or dying, and not all fans embraced the harder-edged, often conceptually challenging and dark work of Music/StephenSondheim, the most acclaimed composer-lyricist of that decade. Also, Broadway was notoriously slow to adapt to changing popular musical tastes, and many of the early shows that incorporated rock, R&B, pop, etc. did not age well -- if they were even successful to begin with. The most commonly cited Dork Age is TheEighties, when Creator/AndrewLloydWebber's success in the previous decade exploded starting with ''Theatre/{{Cats}}'', which formally ushered in the age of the {{spectacle}}-driven "megamusical", a subgenre that critics drubbed as style over substance. Although the megamusical is dead and gone with regards to new works, the old ones remain popular while Disney stage musicals, ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'', and the like owe a lot to that subgenre aesthetically.\\\

Since the TurnOfTheMillennium, the medium has suffered creatively for the exploding popularity of the JukeboxMusical (which exclusively relies upon music an audience knows going in), the increasingly mercenary approach to AllMusicalsAreAdaptations with the Disney musicals opening the floodgates for seemingly ''every'' vaguely-popular family-friendly property being put on a stage, theatre in general becoming subject to PopCultureIsolation, and challenging adult-oriented works failing to manage toeholds in FlyoverCountry. Between all that, and older fans being reluctant or even unwilling to accept post-Golden Age styles, cases have been made that 21st century musical theatre is nothing more than an overpriced tourist trap, the odd ''Theatre/TheBookOfMormon'' or ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'' aside.

* Even Creator/RodgersAndHammerstein, those titans of American musical theatre, could hit a rough patch now and then. Their 1958 show ''Literature/FlowerDrumSong'', for instance, was condemned as [[ModernMinstrelsy "an Oriental minstrel show."]]