Musical Theatre

An American Form

Roots

Song, dance, acting

Italian Opera- interpretation of Greek Drama- with a chorus, song, dance

19th century- Minstrelsy

Vaudeville

Burlesque

Yiddish Theatre (NYC)

Types of Musical Theatre

Operetta

Musical Comedy

Musical Theatre

Revue

Vaudeville & Burlesque

dramatic sketches

songs

variety acts

juggling

acrobatics

animal acts

other spectacle

striptease

Minstrelsy

American Musical Performance tradition - 19th century

white performers in blackface

black performers

black performers in blackface

traveling troupes

Early Broadway

George M. Cohan’s musical shows- developed aspects of the “book” musical- connecting scenes, bridging gap between music, dance, dialogue

“Give My Regards To Broadway”, “Yankee Doodle Dandee” from his first hit- Little Johnny Jones (1904)

“Down to earth dialogue”

Created and produced over 50 musicals (1904-1920)

Formal Structure

Book, Lyrics, Music

Librettist, Lyricist, Composer

Book- the musical has a story and plot with traditional structure- beginning, middle, end

Trace the main characters through the entire play

1920s & 1930s Musical Comedies

Songs from the Musical Comedies- known as “standards”

Composers- Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers

Innovated the form and the music & lyrics- modulations, development of intricate, clever rhymes

Lyricists - Ira Gershwin (brother of George), Lorenz Hart (Rodgers), Irving Berlin- music & lyrics, Cole Porter- music & lyrics

Other Early Musical Theatre Artists

Oscar Hammerstein-(book & lyrics) adapted Edna Ferber’s novel - about life on the Mississippi river- Showboat (opened -1927) music by Jerome Kern

George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin won a pulitzer for Of Thee I Sing (1931)

George Gershwin (music) & DuBose Heyward (book) Ira Gershwin & Heyward (lyrics) -Porgy and Bess (1935)

1940s-1950s

1943- Rodgers & Hammerstein- Oklahoma!

Oklahoma! included a dream ballet (choreographer Agnes De Mille)

Carousel (1945)

South Pacific (1949)

The King and I (1951)

Sound of Music (1959)

1960s-1980s

Fiddler On The Roof (1964) - marks an end to the golden era

Hair (1967) -ushers in the “rock” musical, the concept musical

Musicals become disjointed, experimental, loosely arranged around ideas, characters, places, etc.

Stephen Sondheim emerges as major influence/contributor to the form (writes the concept musical - Company - 1970

Stephen Sondheim

Anyone Can Whistle

Assassins

Candide

Company

Do I Hear a Waltz?

Evening Primrose

Follies

The Frogs

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Gypsy

Into the Woods

A Little Night Music

Stephen Sondheim

A Little Night Music

Marry Me a Little

Merrily We Roll Along

Pacific Overtures

Passion

Putting It Together

Road Show (Bounce)

Saturday Night

Side By Side By Sondheim

Sondheim on Sondheim

Sunday in the Park With George

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

West Side Story

You're Gonna Love Tomorrow