musical comedyn.
/ˌmjuːzᵻkl ˈkɒmᵻdi/, U.S. /ˈˌmjuzək(ə)l ˈkɑmədi/ 1. A comic drama consisting of dialogue, songs, and dancing.The term is not normally applied to operas or operettas although the modern musical comedy derives from the operettas of the late 19th cent., which it originally resembled closely in terms of plot and musical idiom. See also musical n. 3b.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > type of music > vocal music > opera > [noun] > musical play
musical comedy1765
sketch1861
music drama1874
singspiel1876
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > a play > [noun] > a comedy > other types of comedy
Old Comedy1529
New Comedy1542
comedy of errors?1595
romantic comedy1748
musical comedy1765
comédie larmoyante1773
sketch1789
serio-comedy1808
vaudeville1827
teacup-and-saucer comedy1842
satyr play1845
Restoration comedy1866
zarzuela1888
situation comedy1893
sex comedy1915
sitcom1956
1765 R. Cumberland (title) The summer's tale: a musical comedy of three acts.
1791 H. Walpole Let. to Miss M. Berry 28 June Frank North..has a musical comedy at the Little Haymarket, and coldly received.
1821 B. Livius (title) Maid or wife; or, the deceiver deceived. A musical comedy in two acts.
1879 H. T. Craven (title) My daughter's début. A musical comedy, in one act.
1890 B. Hall Turnover Club 29 'Twas in the year of '83 when a party of six and me Went on the road with a show that's knowed As a musical com-i-dee.
1904 E. B. Tweedie Behind Footlights xvi. 292 For some forthcoming musical comedy.
1957 New Yorker 12 Jan. 34/1 It was her favorite kind of film, a musical comedy in full color.
1996 Entertainment Today 28 June 23 Santa Barbara's Civic Light Opera's all-singing, all-dancing Central Coast production of the Gershwin musical comedy Crazy For You.
2. As a mass noun: the genre comprising musical comedies (sometimes taken to include all musicals).
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > [noun] > comedy > specific
low comedy1608
farce1676
light comedy1698
high comedy1707
comedy of manners1822
comedietta1823
Adelphi screamer1830
commedia dell'arte1877
musical comedy1903
comédie noire1958
alternative comedy1980
1903 ‘C. E. Merriman’ Lett. from Son xv. 208 Not quite all the modern Venuses have been corralled for the ‘show-girl’ department of musical comedy.
1967 Listener 3 Aug. 138/1 I thought I'd start in musical comedy,..carry on training as a dancer and singer.
1994 H. Burton Leonard Bernstein iii. xxii. 222 Bernstein misleadingly described Trouble in Tahiti as a ‘light-weight piece..’, with roots..in American musical comedy.
Compounds
General attributive (often with hyphen).
ΚΠ
1910 ‘Saki’ in Bystander 7 Dec. 484/1 Noted lights of the musical-comedy stage.
1923 A. Huxley Antic Hay iii. 35 He looked..positively soldierly in his black jacket and his musical comedy trousers.
1952 C. Beaton Diary 4 Nov. in Self Portrait with Friends (1979) xviii. 243 The tiresome, pushing little Lady Waverley..with her innate vulgarity of yellow, frizzy, musical comedy curls and sycophantic flattery.
1989 Opera Nov. 1320 Anna Steiger introduced a plump and pretty Jenny with a musical-comedy soprano that conveyed nothing sexy about the moon of Alabama.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1765