The first full-length musical performed in the USA was Flora, or The Hob on the Wall, a ballad opera staged in Charleston in 1735.
New York's first professional musical was John Gay's 1728 British satire, The Beggar's Opera, which opened at the Nassau Street Theatre on 3 December 1750.
The first music hall star to be knighted was Sir Harry Lauder in 1919. One of his most famous songs was 'Roamin' in the Gloamin'.
The first Tony Awards were given in 1947. They are named after Antoinette Perry (1888-1946), an actress, stage director and philanthropist.
The original cast album of Oklahoma! was the first to record the songs exactly as they were heard on stage. And, in 1953, the song 'Oklahoma' from the show became the official song of Oklahoma state.
Richard Rodgers' father was an obstetrician and he delivered Oscar Hammerstein's two children. Rodgers' daughter, Mary, wrote a musical called Once Upon a Mattress, based on the fairytale The Princess and the Pea. It was made into a TV movie starring Carol Burnett.
Stephen Sondheim once created a board game called Psychiatry, which consisted of little couches being moved around the board. He also played chess with Humphrey Bogart during the filming of Beat the Devil.
The biggest musical flops in London were the Royal Shakespeare Company's Carrie (1988), based on the Stephen King horror story; Which Witch (1992), a story about a medieval witch by Norwegians Ingrid Bjornov and Benedicte Adrian (famous for scoring 'nul points' in the 1984 Eurovision Song Contest); and The Fields of Ambrosia (1996), about a travelling executioner.
Since it opened in 1981, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats has been staged in more than 340 cities in 32 countries. It has been translated into 12 languages and ran in the West End for exactly 21 years, the longest run for any musical ever.
The most profitable musical of all time is Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera (1986). Seen by 52 million people worldwide, it made $2 billion. The most popular film ever, Titanic, made $1.8 billion.
