TV bursts into song - The Boston Globe

For decades upon decades, TV’s attitude toward the Broadway musical could be roughly summarized as: Broadway, Schmoadway.

But musical theater has entered — make that reentered — the consciousness of the television industry in a big way.

Apple TV+’s delightful new “Schmigadoon!,” which manages to simultaneously send up and pay homage to Golden Age musicals like “Brigadoon,” is only the most recent bit of evidence that Broadway is once again teaching TV how to sing and dance.

Given that the favored stance of our age is a certain ironic detachment, it’s notable that an art form known for directly and unapologetically channeling emotion has staked out such a sizable chunk of contemporary TV territory.

But perhaps it’s not surprising. Television’s creatives are always searching for new ways to tell stories, and musical sequences are not just colorful but efficient in covering a lot of ground, plot-wise and character-wise. When Amazon’s “Transparent” ended its groundbreaking run two years ago, the vehicle it chose was a movie-length musical finale. Fox’s “The Simpsons” will launch its 33rd season next month with what the show’s executive producer has described as “the most musical episode we’ve ever done — almost wall-to-wall music” and “a Broadway musical of an episode, with all original songs.”

Beyond their never-ending quest for material, networks and streaming services are united in the constant quest for an Event — and musicals qualify, at least potentially. NBC recently announced plans to produce a live production of “Annie” in the upcoming holiday season, continuing the renaissance of live musicals on TV.

When NBC aired a live version of “The Sound of Music” in 2013 starring Carrie Underwood, it marked the first full-scale live musical on TV in 50 years. Decidedly subpar though it was, with a flailing Underwood out of both her comfort zone and her depth, “The Sound of Music” drew 18.5 million viewers.

From left: Ne-Yo as Tin-Man, Shanice Williams as Dorothy, and Elijah Kelley as Scarecrow shown during a dress rehearsal of "The Wiz Live!"Virginia Sherwood/NBC via AP

Since then, the major broadcast networks have made a habit of staging live musicals. “Annie” will join a list of NBC musicals that includes “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “The Wiz,” “Peter Pan,” and “Hairspray.” Rival network Fox, for its part, has televised performances of “Grease” and “Rent” (the latter only partially live).

These musicals have become a core strategic element in the increasingly urgent quest by the networks to stand out — that word “live” has a certain must-see magic — at a time when audiences have been fragmented by a teeming multitude of viewing options.

And the streaming platforms that are doing so much of that fragmenting? They clearly see musical content as a way to establish or broaden their identities.

Next month Paramount+ will premiere “The J Team,” a musical starring 18-year-old singer/YouTube personality JoJo Siwa. “Central Park,” an animated musical sitcom that debuted last year on Apple TV+, numbers “Hamilton” alumni Daveed Diggs and Leslie Odom Jr. among its voice cast, as well as Josh Gad, who starred in the Broadway production of “The Book of Mormon.”

Last summer the still-new Disney+ made a huge splash with its presentation of “Hamilton.” Not only did it help send a message that Disney+ was not just for kids, it was seen as a significant step for digital content more broadly. Last month the streamer was rewarded with a passel of Emmy Award nominations for “Hamilton.”

Daveed Diggs portrays Thomas Jefferson in a filmed version of "Hamilton," which was shown on Disney+ and snagged a passel of Emmy nominations.Disney Plus via AP

Michelle Williams won an Emmy Award in 2019 for her performance as legendary Broadway actress-dancer Gwen Verdon in the FX channel’s “Fosse/Verdon,” an eight-episode series about the relationship between Verdon and choreographer-director Bob Fosse (Sam Rockwell). Illustrating Broadway’s influence, “Fosse/Verdon” was developed for television by Thomas Kail, the director of “Hamilton,” with “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda serving as an executive producer.

Meanwhile, scripted TV series like The CW’s “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and NBC’s “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” have livened up their story lines or illustrated character dilemmas in recent years with Broadway-style production numbers and original music.

The upshot is that perhaps not since the 1950s has musical theater enjoyed a more prominent footprint on television. So what reawakened the small screen’s interest in the traditions, tropes, and talents of Broadway musicals?

In the view of former TV scriptwriter Manny Basanese, the resurgence was partly driven by the popularity of shows like “American Idol” and “The Voice” (even though judges on those shows have been known to make the fatuous complaint that a contestant sounds “too Broadway”).

“Singing competitions showed the networks there could be an audience for entertainment that they viewed as corny before,” says Basanese, who wrote for shows on CBS, ABC, Fox, and the WB, and is now an associate professor in the visual media arts department at Emerson College.

In a sense, this creative union is tantamount to a renewal of marriage vows. When the curtain first rose on the upstart medium of television, it seemed poised for a long and happy partnership with the Broadway musical.

Back in 1950, NBC launched “Musical Comedy Time,” a live anthology series featuring abridged versions of Broadway musicals performed by the likes of Jackie Gleason (“No, No Nanette”) and Bert Lahr (”Flying High”). In 1953, 60 million viewers tuned in to “The Ford 50th Anniversary Show,” a two-hour, commercial-free joint broadcast by CBS and NBC, choreographed by Jerome Robbins, in which Broadway superstars Ethel Merman and Mary Martin sang a lengthy duet medley of show tunes.

In 1955, 65 million viewers tuned in to see Martin soar singingly through the air on NBC’s live telecast of “Peter Pan,” which included most of the show’s Broadway cast. Then the powerhouse songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, at the zenith of their prowess and commercial success, created a musical version of “Cinderella” specifically for television that aired in 1957, starring Julie Andrews.

And then … well, let Emerson’s Basanese tell it.

“And then rock ‘n’ roll happened, and Elvis happened, and everything changed,” he says. “And it had to be reflected in TV. All of a sudden TV was all about embracing rock ‘n’ roll and the market that came with it.”

“So you might not have ‘Peter Pan’ on TV. You had Ricky Nelson singing on ‘Ozzie and Harriet.’ The Broadway musical was very much part of what we were seeing on TV, and then it waned. Rock ‘n’ roll made all of this stuff seem so dated and quaint.”

For decades, TV and Broadway largely went their separate ways. Even during the 1960s-1970s heyday of the variety show, Broadway got short shrift from the electronic medium that had once embraced it so warmly. In 1990, when producer Steven Bochco (“Hill Street Blues,” “LA Law,” ”NYPD Blue”) tried to extend his Midas touch to a musical depiction of law enforcement titled “Cop Rock,” it was canceled after only 11 episodes.

However, the environment started to grow more hospitable around the beginning of this century. On her syndicated daytime show that aired from 1996 to 2002, Rosie O’Donnell emerged as a reliable champion of Broadway, often showcasing musical performers from the world of theater. Innovative scripted series like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Scrubs” incorporated freewheeling, Broadway-style musical sequences into certain episodes.

Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens in "High School Musical."Fred Hayes/Disney Channel

But momentum really began to accelerate in 2006, when the Disney Channel’s “High School Musical” introduced a generation of young viewers to the rigorous training and expressive possibilities of musical theater while minting stars like Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens.

Three years later came “Glee.” Fox’s series became a hit, even as it cast plausibility to the winds each week, with the members of a high school glee club somehow managing to pull off elaborate musical numbers that in the real world would require a Broadway-size big-budget. (“Glee” benefited from the stage-trained professionalism of star Lea Michele, who had made her Broadway debut as young Cosette in “Les Miserables” when she was just 8 years old, then played the Little Girl in “Ragtime.”)

Of course, having musicals in your show’s DNA has not been a surefire guarantee of success, even amid the renaissance. NBC’s “Smash,” a drama about the development of a fictional Broadway biomusical about Marilyn Monroe, only lasted two seasons (2012-2013). Ditto for “Galavant’' (2015-2016) and the just-canceled “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” (2020-2021).

Jane Levy in "Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist."Sergei Bachlakov/NBC/Lionsgate

But musical theater has nevertheless secured a solid niche on TV — so solid, in fact, that it’s even capable of generating a backlash. Both eyebrows and hackles were raised when Miranda, Kail, and members of the “Hamilton” supporting cast, along with “Hamilton” itself, received that raft of Emmy nominations on July 13.

Given that what Disney+ presented was a filmed version of a theatrical performance — actually three 2016 stage performances, stitched together — rival networks and streamers questioned whether “Hamilton” should have been eligible in the categories where it drew nods (acting in a television movie or limited series, and pre-recorded variety special).

A fair question. But if “Hamilton” is an unfair presence in the competition for TV’s loftiest laurels, perhaps it’s a form of poetic justice and historical payback, given how long musical theater was defined on television by its absence.

Don Aucoin can be reached at donald.aucoin@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeAucoin.