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Largely a product of the 20th century, the American musical as we now know it is the first theatrical form developed in the U.S. The changes the form has undergone are in many ways reflections of the political, social, cultural, and ultimately metaphysical changes the world went through over the last century. In the history of the musicals the single most influential musical was , the first collaborative work of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, which had its premiere in 1943. It is the show that ushered in what many musical theater scholars refer to as the golden age of the Broadway musical - from the mid 1940s to the mid 1960s. 's most important influence was its structure meaning the book must be the spine from all the other element of a show grow organically, thus elevating the level of the musical from a mere popular entertainment to the regular form of art. However, until 1960's when Abe Burrows appeared, despite efforts of Rodgers and Hammerstein, the Broadway musical still remained a stereotyped format with hollow optimism in happy ending. Burrows is now best known as a librettist of Broadway musical plays like , which received the prestigeous Pulitzer Prize, , , and one straight play . The present paper focuses on Burrow's two representative musical works, and and tries to analyze those musical plays to prove that they succeeded in achieving what might be called musical theater realism until finally attaining the level of modern dramatic view of life. The premiere of on Broadway was in 1950. It ran for 1200 performances and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. Perhaps the most durable of all American musical comedies, it is so tightly written, has such vibrant characters and at the same time its intentionally contrived happy ending suggest that the newly wed's future might not be as bright as it looks when the hero catches cold from the heroine right before the curtain falls. Burrow's next hit musical, , a parody of corporate climbing and opportunism, was about as far from a Rodgers and Hammerstein's naive optimistic theme as could be imagined. It was a study in cynicism as uncompromising for a broadway musical as it was unprecedented. The musical opened at the 46th Street Theatre on Broadway in October 1961, running for 1,417 performance.