Musicals Set in Early 1900s

[mamajunebug95]

Wondering if anybody knows of any musicals that are set in the early 1900s on a farm?

[CockeyedOptimist2]

Oklahoma! is set in 1906, I believe, and on a farm.

[ChenoKahn]

Correct me if I'm wrong but Ragtime.

[AEA AGMA SM]

I don't recall any farm scenes in Ragtime.

[ChenoKahn]

Oh haha just looked at early 1900's.

[henrikegerman]

Fiddler On The Roof. The Yearling also comes to mind although that's late 1800s I think.

[ClapYo'Hands]

Although, again, Fiddler on the Roof is not really set on a farm...

[best12bars]

The Wizard of Oz ... at least the beginning and the end.

[AADA81]

"Titanic"

"The Music Man"

"The Unsinkable Molly Brown" (whose score was written by the same man who wrote "The Music Man" and whose title character is rescued from the "Titanic")

[winston89]

Ragtime would count.

The first line in the show has the year in it. "In 1902, Father built a house, on the crest of the Broadview Avenue hill, in New Rochelle, New York."

[chewy5000]

Well, I suppose that the Titanic did plow the ocean .

I'm here all week, try the fish.

[Inigomontoya]

Does A little night music count?

[henrikegerman]

"Although, again, Fiddler on the Roof is not really set on a farm..."

In what universe is Fiddler not really set on a farm? Tevye is a dairy farmer. Where do dairy farmers live? They live on dairy farms.




dairy farmer + horse + cow + hay + barn = dairy farm = farm

[best12bars]

"The house in New Rochelle," however, is not a farm.

None of the action of Music Man takes place on a farm. Or A Little Night Music, or Titanic.

[henrikegerman]

^for some people anything north of the Bronx River Parkway is farm country.

Perhaps Inigo might have been referring to Mme. Armfeldt's chateau, which I never thought of as a working farm in the musical, although it seems to be in Smiles of a Summer Night. I believe Frid is a groom/farmhand in the movie and a manservant in the show.

All of this has got me thinking, perhaps it is time for BABE the musical. I'm only half joking.


There is no better life than this!

[Inigomontoya]

Oh, didn't read the farm part

[North2009]

Though it ran only 37 performances in 1951, COURTIN' TIME. THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM also, the father is a tobacco farmer, though do not recall what year it is set in - anyone?

[minicko88]

What about Parade? 1913 and the South?

[ChildrenwillListen]

Why does it need to be on a farm?

[MTVMANN]

Oklahoma is the best bet!

[ClapYo'Hands]

He has some animals, but it's not really a farm.

[henrikegerman]

About ten minutes near the beginning of The Will Rogers Follies takes plays at a ranch in around 1900. There's also a musical of Anne of Green Gables, although I don't believe it's ever been done in New York.

[Gaveston2]

Wikipedia puts THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM in the late 18th century. I haven't seen it in almost 40 years, but I believe the action takes place on the Natchez Trace, before roads were built and probably decades before Mississippi was cleared for farming.

[best12bars]

^ Correct!

[Gaveston2]

Thank you, b12.

I don't know how loosely "early 1900s" can be being defined by the OP, but PLAIN AND FANCY takes place in the mid-1900s and really emphasizes the city-folks-in-the-country theme. I've only read the libretto, but the score has some fanatical adherents.