Sister Act (musical)
Elysa Gardner of "USA Today" gave the show three and a half out of four stars and said, "Sister Act: A Divine Musical Comedy may be less giddily profane, and thought-provoking, than "The Book of Mormon", but it has its own distinct and surprising charms. Composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater provide original tunes that nod cheekily, but with genuine affection, to that pop era while also propelling the story with a style and exuberance specific to well-crafted musical theater."
Musical theatre
Progressing far beyond the comparatively frivolous musicals and sentimental operettas of the decade, Broadway's "Show Boat" (1927), represented an even more complete integration of book and score than the Princess Theatre musicals, with dramatic themes told through the music, dialogue, setting and movement. This was accomplished by combining the lyricism of Kern's music with the skillful libretto of Oscar Hammerstein II. One historian wrote, "Here we come to a completely new genre – the musical play as distinguished from musical comedy. Now ... everything else was subservient to that play. Now ... came complete integration of song, humor and production numbers into a single and inextricable artistic entity."
As the Great Depression set in during the post-Broadway national tour of "Show Boat", the public turned back to mostly light, escapist song-and-dance entertainment. Audiences on both sides of the Atlantic had little money to spend on entertainment, and only a few stage shows anywhere exceeded a run of 500 performances during the decade. The revue "The Band Wagon" (1931) starred dancing partners Fred Astaire and his sister Adele, while Porter's "Anything Goes" (1934) confirmed Ethel Merman's position as the First Lady of musical theatre, a title she maintained for many years. Coward and Novello continued to deliver old fashioned, sentimental musicals, such as "The Dancing Years", while Rodgers and Hart returned from Hollywood to create a series of successful Broadway shows, including "On Your Toes" (1936, with Ray Bolger, the first Broadway musical to make dramatic use of classical dance), "Babes in Arms" (1937) and "The Boys from Syracuse" (1938). Porter added "DuBarry Was a Lady" (1939). The longest-running piece of musical theatre of the 1930s was "Hellzapoppin" (1938), a revue with audience participation, which played for 1,404 performances, setting a new Broadway record.