American Musicals Broadway Equation with notions of America Street in Manhattan Cluster of commercial theaters B way and 40 s Began as red light district mid century became glamorous 1970s 80s Broadway home to porn theaters another red light district ORIGINS Since 1980s tourist district Disney nostalgia very commercial o Florenz Ziegfeld impresario Ziegfeld Follies Mix of genres o Comedy sketches o Novelty acts o Tableaux o Spectacle Showcased melting pot Manufactured feminine glamour Musical Revues Musical comedies Loosely connected sketches scenes and songs No overarching storyline Shuffle Along 1921 Created by African American artists Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle All black cast Highly influential to later musicals Some minstrelsy aspects remain Show Boat 1927 Example of a BOOK MUSICAL Progressive theme of miscegenation Story and music connected GOLDEN AGE 1943 1966 Blending art and mass culture Accessible Reflecting Shaping US culture Songs explore character relationships or forward the plot INTEGRATED MUSICAL Integration of elements Unify score lyrics libretto book story dance into one total art work Tension between dialogue and song All songs o Express character o Explore relationships o Move plot story forward or o Reflect setting Other Golden Age musicals by R H South Pacific King and I Cinderella Flower Drum Song Sound of Music My Fair Lady 1956 stage 1964 film Lerner Lowe Seamless transition in and out of song dance Song and dance emerge from story and characters UNIFICATION HETEROSEXUAL COUPLINGS Musicals are structured around heterosexual couplings Beginning we meet male and female characters they usually don t like each other they must fall in love Love interests stand in for larger ideas forces o Oklahoma Laurie and Curly cowboys and farmers Oklahoma becomes a state o Sound of Music Maria and Captain Von Trapp stand in for nature culture low orphan high aristocracy Marriage symbolizes unification Couples and the worlds they symbolize come together through song West Side Story 1957 stage 1961 film Libretto Arthur Laurents Music Leonard Berstein Stephen Sondheim Choreography Jerome Robbins Notable for its further integration of dance into the story Movement dance express character tell story Based on Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare Originally East Side Story Irish Catholic and Jewish family Holocaust survivors But felt material had already been done When they revisited it years later gang warfare was a new urban social problem Shelved When it opened people walked out a lot of people Serious themes racial conflict in US People get raped and stabbed Ending people die No marriage Music was difficult not as hummable and poppy as Rogers Hammerstein The point It s not just that it has more dance It s that the dance tells so much about the story and character Some of the most important moments are all dance OTHER INSIGHTS AND QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER Throughout its history the musical and predecessors work out anxieties and issues about by immigration race national belonging Golden Age musicals Cold War anxieties about gender the home civil rights Broadway Musicals celebrates Americanness also works out anxieties Broadway Musicals COMMERCIAL What sells What is balance between artistry and commerce MUSICAL THEATER GENRES 1960s and beyond Concept Musicals Driven by idea rather than story Example Cabaret 1966 Signals end of Golden Age Rock Musicals HAIR The Who s Tommy Juke box musical Structured around hit songs Ex Jersey Boys Megamusicals Andrew Lloyd Weber Disney Les Miserables Phantom of the Opera Beauty and the Beast The Lion King Tarzan There are many other sub genres too Musicals grappling with social issues Wicked 2003 Stephen Schwartz Structured around female friendship not heterosexual marriage Girl fans Based on cultural knowledge of Wizard of Oz Oklahoma 4 10 15 Rogers Hammerstein Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein create new genre the MUSICAL PLAY Focus on characters relationship Score music follows book story not the other way around 2 Acts These are the conventions of Broadway musical that remain in place for next 20 years Book the spoken dialogue Choreography dance Lyrics the sung words Libretto Book lyrics Score Lyrics Music played by the band orchestra Production History 1943 Stage 1955 Film Adapted from play o Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs Richard Rogers Oscar Hammerstein o 1st of many collaborations Focus on story character relationships Dance as key storytelling component o Agnes DeMille choreographer Context World War II Golden Age 1943 1966 World War II Cold War Musicals are a major part of American popular culture Most musicals are book musicals in this period Musicals generally display optimistic stories with American values and patriotism whether or not the play is set in America o e g My Fair Lady South Pacific Sound of Music Cast recordings very popular o Many who had never seen the show would have the record and know the music Oklahoma Plot and Characters Characters Worlds come together o Laurie and Curley o Farmer and Cowman o Statehood Oklahoma Female Characters Love Triangles o Ing nue Laurie main love interest o Soubrette Ado Annie comic relief Cant Say No o Laurie Curley Jud Frye o Ado Annie Will Parker Ali Hakim What happens to the outsiders o Ali Hakim o Jud Fry Takarazuka Takarazuka Revue All female performance troupe and Academy Founded 1913 by Kobayashi Ichizo Suburban Osaka now also Tokyo Named after Takarazuka rail stop Historical Context Development Taisho 1912 26 showa 1926 89 Westernization and industrialization WWII When founded women still discouraged from public stage Kabuki ban 1930s shift to Western dress no whiteface military style uniform Repertoire Broadway style Musicals and Musical Revues Classical Japanese style dramas Folk dances from around the world First Production Donburaku 1914 Known for the Takarazuka s trademark staircase Gender and Takarazuka Performance All Performers Takarasiennes o Primary Gender Women biological sex o Secondary Gender What sex they decide their character to be Musumeyaku o Player of women s roles o Feminine kata Otokoyaku o Player of men s roles o Masculine kata Takarazuka Fans Majority o Adult Married women o 30s or older Fan Culture o Gifts for stars o Magazines posters etc o Emotional attachment o Erotic appeal o At Takarazuka women can express the emotion they cant show their coldhearted husbands Takarazuka fan American Realism Context Social Political o Cold War o Early Civil