musical comedy

Born in Fukuoka, Japan, Chaya wanted to be an actor in musical comedies. As a teenager he became a dresser for a celebrated Kabuki performer in Tokyo, who arranged for him to study singing and dancing.

The musical began, in this account, with The Beggar's Opera (1728), continued in such forms as operetta, vaudeville, and loosely constructed musical comedies, and it continues to evolve today.

Several new musical comedies have created good buzz in the workshop/readings pipeline: the films-to-tuners "Hairspray" and "The Night They Raided Minsky's," as well as "The Girl Most Likely to ...," based on a Joan Rivers teleplay.

Mordden shows that at the start of the decade, musical theatre was mostly musical comedies, and musical comedies were "all concoctions, pranks, swindles," albeit highly entertaining in spots.

As composer of musical comedies Vecchi had the advantage of knowing - evidently better than most - the nature and purpose of humor.

Lonsdale established himself as a librettist of musical comedies, chief among them being The King of Cadonia (1908), The Balkan Princess (1910), and The Maid of the Mountains (1916).