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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
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