Bell Work 1.Take out a Clean Sheet of Paper in your Notebooks
2.Entitle it: Modern Musicals and the 1960s
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MODERN MUSICAL HOW THE 1960S CHANGED EVERYTHING
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OBJECTIVES Students will understand how the 1960s changed this
countries history and society Students will understand how
societies changed affected the theater and music that was being
produced. Students will compare and contrast the FACTUAL parts of
Classical Musicals vs. the Modern Musical Era
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LETS REVIEW What can we deduce that the Classical Musicals ALL
had in common?
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CLASSICAL MUSICALS Heres what we Viewed: 1.Oklahoma! 2.South
Pacific 3.Brigadoon 4.How to Succeed in Business Without Really
Trying 5.The Music Man What is the One Thing about their STORIES
they all had in common?
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ANSWER They were all Love Stories
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CLASSICAL MUSICALS Most of your classical musicals all dealt
with the same basic story: Boy meets girl Little conflict that
threatens the relationship Boy looses girl for a little bit
Everything works out in the end Lots of kissing.Yuck Love stories
were a common theme in the Pre-60s era.Why? Because Love is the
most complex emotion in all of human nature.
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SOCIETIES SHIFT All of this changed with the coming of the
1960s What were some events that happened from 1960-1969 that
impacted society?
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HERES SOME JFK Election in 1960 JFK Assassination in 1963
Vietnam Television Beatle-mania The British Invasion The Hippie
Movement Woodstock The Race to the Moon.AND WINNING IT Martin
Luther King Jr.s fight for Civil Rights and Assassination
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How Did Society Respond and Change? Look at the Clothes
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HOW DID THEATER RESPOND? Remember: Theater is Always REFLECTIVE
of the society. Plays and musicals will give you clues as to what
was going on at the time they come out.
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THEATERS RESPONSE 1.With T.V. being the dominant form of
entertainment, people did not need to be entertained for 3-4 hours.
So the first thing composers did was shorten their shows. Heres how
they did it: They either shortened or cut out the overture
completely Songs were not as long Composers tended NOT to reprise
songs more than once 2.Characters Became Darker and Deeper. They
had a back-story and a reason why theyve arrived at this point and
time. 3.Most Importantly: Shows became A LOT more political in
nature.
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EXAMPLES Cabaret-by Kander and Ebb Wonderful Example of how
stories and characters are darker. Takes place during WW2 and
speaks about the darker side of the war Issues discussed throughout
the musical: The Holocaust Alcoholism Drugs Abortion Premarital Sex
Sexuality Hair by James Rado, Gerome Ragini and Galt MacDermot
Perfect Example of how Theater is Reflective. Story about a farm
boy who gets drafted into the Vietnam War and comes to the Big City
to report for Boot Camp Ends up getting swept up with the ideals
involved in the Hippie Movement. First time the audience saw nudity
on the legitimate stage.
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SINCE THEN. Theater has followed this format of writing and is
still being written this way today!
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WHERE ARE WE AT NOW? Right now, the musicals on Broadway fall
into one of three categories. 1.The Revival Broadway is currently
reviving old shows to pay homages to those brilliant composers of
old that paved the way for theater to be what it is today. Here are
some examples of shows currently playing on Broadway: H2$, Porgy
and Bess, Chicago, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, Mama
Mia!, Anything Goes, Rent, The Fantasticks, and Lil Abner.
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CATEGORY 2 2. The Family Oriented Show. Broadway wants to make
sure its image stays very family oriented, so they make sure to
have about of a third of its musicals/plays be something that the
whole family can enjoy. Here are some examples of new shows
currently playing on Broadway that are family oriented: The Lion
King, Mary Poppins, Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera, Spider-Man,
Peter and the Star Catcher (based on the story of Peter Pan),
Sister Act, Voca People, My Sinatra, The Berenstain Bears Live!,
Newsies.
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CATEGORY 3 3.The New and Edgy Musical Broadway has always been,
and will always be, a place where the envelope gets pushed.
Composers will use this medium to get a message across either
personally or politically and the public will decide, how much is
to much. Here are some examples of new shows that push the envelope
on Broadway: The Book of Mormon, Memphis, Rock of Ages, Million
Dollar Quartet, Avenue Q, Sistas, Newsical the Musical: End of the
world edition, Silence the Musical (based on Silence of the Lambs),
Rated P for Parenthood, The Devils Music, Naked Boys Singing, Old
Jews Telling Jokes
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QUESTIONS Are there any questions about Modern Musicals we will
now study? Any questions about the 1960s..remembering I was NOT
alive during that time period