Sung-through explained

A sung-through (also through-sung) musical, musical film, opera, or other work of performance art is one in which songs entirely or almost entirely replace any spoken dialogue. Conversations, speeches, and musings are communicated musically, for example through a combination of recitative, aria, and arioso. Early versions of this include the Italian genre of opera buffa, a light-hearted form of opera that gained prominence in the 1750s.^{[1] [2]}

A through-sung opera or other form of narrative work with continuous music may also be described as through-composed.

List of fully sung-through musicals

• Art Thief Musical!
• Bumblescratch
• Cats^[3]
• Une chambre en ville
• Cricket
• Les Dix Commandements
• Evening-1910^[4]
• Evita
• Falsettos
• The Human Comedy^[5]
• Jesus Christ Superstar
• Johanna
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
• Katy! the Musical
• Keating!
• King David
• The Last 5 Years
• Marry Me a Little
• Les Misérables^[6]
• Miss Saigon
• Murder Ballad
• Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812^[7]
• Notre-Dame de Paris
• Ordinary Days
• Quadrophenia
• Repo! The Genetic Opera
• Song and Dance
• Songs for a New World
• Starlight Express
• Starmania
• Tell Me on a Sunday^[8]
• The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

List of sung-through musicals with scattered lines

• Ain't Misbehavin'
• American Idiot
• Annette
• Aspects of Love
• Caroline or Change
• Come from Away^[9]
• Dance of the Vampires
• Elisabeth
• The Golden Apple^[10]
• Hadestown
• Hamilton: An American Musical^[11]
• In Trousers
• Jekyll & Hyde
• John & Jen
• Love Never Dies
• Martin Guerre
• The Most Happy Fella
• A New Brain^[12]
• Next to Normal^[13]
• Once on This Island^{[14] [15]}
• Passing Strange
• The Phantom of the Opera
• Pink Floyd—The Wall
• The Pirate Queen
• Ragtime
• Razia's Shadow
• Rent
• Seussical^[16]
• Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• Side Show^[17]
• Soon
• The Stingiest Man in Town
• Suffs^[18]
• Superhero
• The Who's Tommy
• The Woman in White

List of sung-through musicals depending on the production

• Chess^{[19] [20]}
  • Originally starting off as a concept album, the musical has a reputation for being re-written during every new production that is staged around the world. Some productions are completely sung-through, some have scattered lines, and some (notably the original Broadway production) are staged as book musicals.^[21]
• Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris^[22]

Notes and References

1. [Richard Taruskin]
2. Lotte Eilskov Jensen, Joseph Theodoor Leerssen, Marita Mathijsen (eds). 2010. Free Access to the Past: Romanticism, Cultural Heritage and the Nation. Brill. p. 236.
3. Web site: Cats. Variety. 13 October 1982. Richard. Hummler. 2 April 2019. live. 2 April 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190402021920/https://variety.com/1982/legit/reviews/cats-1200425296/.
4. Web site: First Nighter: "Evening-1910" a Valuable Musical Evening-2016. David. Finkle. HuffPost. 9 May 2016.
5. Web site: Ken Mandelbaum's MUSICALS ON DISC: Human Comedy and Ziegfeld Follies - Playbill.com . 2014-12-12 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150924200345/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/ken-mandelbaums-musicals-on-disc-human-comedy-and-ziegfeld-follies-72815/print . 2015-09-24 .
6. Book: Vermette, Margaret . 9781557837158 . 37, 41 . The Musical World of Boublil and Schonberg . 2007 . registration .
7. Web site: BWW CD Reviews: NATASHA, PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 (Original Cast Recording) is Astonishingly Complex. David. Clarke. BroadwayWorld.com.
8. News: First Nighter: Andrew Lloyd Webber's So Low 'Stephen Ward' and Solo 'Tell Me on a Sunday' . Huffington Post . 19 February 2014.
9. Web site: The Surprisingly Funny 9/11 Musical 'Come from Away' is Now in LA. 29 November 2018.
10. Book: Dietz, Dan. Off Broadway Musicals, 1910Š—–2007: Casts, Credits, Songs, Critical Reception and Performance Data of More Than 1,800 Shows. 21 November 2012. McFarland. 9780786457311. Google Books.
11. Donaldson, Kayleigh (2017). "How to Make a Hamilton Movie". Screen Rant.
12. Web site: A New Brain, a CurtainUp review. www.curtainup.com.
13. Web site: BWW Reviews: NEXT TO NORMAL At Center Stage is Electrifying. Charles. Shubow. BroadwayWorld.com.
14. Web site: Charpo Canada -. Charpo Canada.
15. Book: Hischak, Thomas S.. Off-Broadway Musicals since 1919: From Greenwich Village Follies to The Toxic Avenger. 18 February 2011. Scarecrow Press. 9780810877726. Google Books.
16. "Munster High School Musical Opens Saturday." NWITimes. 2013.
17. Web site: Erin Davie and Emily Padgett Will Star in Re-Imagined Side Show at La Jolla and Kennedy Center. Adam. Hetrick. 2 August 2013. Playbill.
18. https://www.newyorktheatreguide.com/reviews/suffs-off-broadway-review-public-theater
19. Web site: Chess the Musical – The Production Company. www.australianstage.com.au.
20. Web site: Chess: A Musical. www.metafilter.com.
21. [Chess (musical)#Miscellaneous productions.2C concerts.2C and recordings .281989.E2.80.93present.29]
22. [Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (film)#Soundtrack]