So I was saw Something Rotten today.

I think anyone familiar with the show knows where this is going now.

If you aren't familiar with it, it is, keeping spoilers to the minimum, the story of how a down-on-his luck poet creates a musical to combat Shakespeare's fame and fortune and maybe secure his own financial stability. Well, realistically... that ain't happening.

Now, I know the modern musical is... not happening in Elizabethan England. But there was precedence for performative solo and small-chorus performances, with simple dancing sometimes involved— madrigals. So how close can we get to a combination of song, acting, and maybe even dance? With, say, a PoD ranging from the birth of Shakespeare to his death, is there a way some form of show revolving around the idea of "actors in a full-length drama occasionally burst out into song to advance plot and entertain" could exist?

Now of course I don't mean anything quite like a modern song/dance Broadway musical. But how close could we conceivably get?

What would be its effects on future entertainment and the England of its own day, not to mention the rest of Europe?

Could such a thing be a foreign import rather than homegrown?

And, how would this interplay with Elizabethan clergy?
 
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It probably wouldn't be too much of a leap to turn one of Shakespeare's sonnets into a song i would think. Some are even duets!
 
OTL courtly masques seem close to what you want.
Those seem to have a lot of audience participation is the only problem, especially in the song and dance portions, if the masque in Romeo and Juliet is anything to go by. They seem almost to be more themed dances with a story in the background, though I might just be totally misinformed. Maybe it could evolve from masques, though. This does bring up an interesting question, though. How did the Elizabethan clergy see masques? Sinful or courtly?
That's basically OTL opera. Have some Italophile bring it back from Tuscany or something. :p
I'm envisioning something more for the hoi polloi. Popular rather than elite entertainment, or something enjoyed by both, similar to the Shakespearean plays. Opera also comes a bit late, in the late 1590's, and is a very regional Italian thing at first. Also, opera is nothing but song, while a musical is both spoken acting and song or song/dance.
 
Those seem to have a lot of audience participation is the only problem, especially in the song and dance portions, if the masque in Romeo and Juliet is anything to go by. They seem almost to be more themed dances with a story in the background, though I might just be totally misinformed. Maybe it could evolve from masques, though. This does bring up an interesting question, though. How did the Elizabethan clergy see masques? Sinful or courtly?

I'm envisioning something more for the hoi polloi. Popular rather than elite entertainment, or something enjoyed by both, similar to the Shakespearean plays. Opera also comes a bit late, in the late 1590's, and is a very regional Italian thing at first. Also, opera is nothing but song, while a musical is both spoken acting and song or song/dance.

Well, if we go back to the Greek tradition there was the "chorus" who would sing songs as the common person/voice of morality in plays, which you could probably spin into something both entertaining and morally acceptable via having it be a kind of dialouge between an upstanding hero and the masses seeking advice from/applying pressure to stray or sin too/ect. a main character to help develop them or throw some of their aspects into sharp relief. The dancing might be more of a chorus thing, while the virtuous hero sings. Maybe it develops as a once during the play thing, to highlight a crecendo of emotion/key decision/conflict or as a sign that this is where a lesson about life (a socially acceptable one... or at least an ambigious one that can be construed in a moral way) is
 
I agree with @Timaeus - someone enjoys opera, but wants to make it a bit more "English".

Also agreed. The difference between opera and musicals seems rather trivial to be honest. At the core both are plays with lots of singing. Somebody decides to bring it back to England but without the weird "foreign" bits like Italian and it needs more jokes so we'll put dialogue between the songs and English audiences love a good sing-along so lets make the tunes catchier...
 
Minstrels were dropping in popularity at the time so that will need adjusting first.
I could certainly see someone like Shakespeare creating a musical.
They are a lot harder to put on than plays though (speaking from personal experience!)
Plus I'm not sure that musical players would have as much rogue cachet as OTL regular players. Seeing an elizabethan play was like going to a midnight rave in the 90s or whatever today's equivalent is for edgy hipsters.
 
. . . I'm envisioning something more for the hoi polloi. Popular rather than elite entertainment, or something enjoyed by both, similar to the Shakespearean plays. . .
I remember in 1987 (pre-cell phone!) on the UH campus on a flat area by the green hillside at the “Satellite” lunch area, the Dance Dept. put on an unannounced dance to Side 2 of the Beatles Abbey Road.

It was about 20 minutes, and people watched with rapt fascination, even delaying their lunch!

Moral: People will watch when it’s presented to them, but won’t really seek it out.
 
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