Musicals101.com presents
Sample Scenes from Historic Musicals
Compiled & Edited by John Kenrick
George M. Cohan and
his wife Ethel Levey in Little Johnny Jones (1904).
Here are sample scenes from several historic musicals. Looking them over, you can get some sense of how musical theatre changed over a period of almost two centuries.
All of the materials quoted here are taken from scripts in John Kenrick's personal collection, and are (as best we can determine) all currently in the public domain.
The Beggar's Opera (1728)
The Black Crook (1866)
Humpty Dumpty (1868)
The Mulligan Guard (1879)
Weber & Fields Vaudeville Sketch (1880s)
Robin Hood (1891)
Little Johnny Jones (1904)
The Merry Widow (1904)
The Ziegfeld Follies (1907)