MUSICAL THEATERWEST SIDE STORY

AND GANG LIFE

Miss Wendell April 2013

The History of Musical Theater

Also known as Broadway theater

The Black Crook – the first musicalPremiered in New York City on September 12, 1866

It was 5 ½ hours long and ran for 474 performances

Vaudeville – mixture of dancing, singing, and comedic actsVariety housesMusical comedy was very popular in the late 19th century

At the turn of the century, better transportation allowed for better travel in and out of the city so musicals were easier to get to in the evening. This made musical theater more popular.

Although, there was competition with the beginning of sound and moving motion pictures.

Musical theater started to ignore plot and focus more on entertainment – big actors/actresses and big musical numbers

Between the wars:Started to involve more dramaThe musicals would have themes similar to what was going on in the worldEx. Nazism in Europe during WWII

1950s – 1970s:Oklahoma! made Broadway hit its golden age

Musical theater became less popular quickly with the change of culture in the cities – there was a decline of interest in the 1960s and 1970s

Today:There are many new musicals on Broadway but there are also many revivals that are put on stage

Broadway has to hire popular actresses and actors to draw more audiences

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo6lPifGnGA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6eibFYnlF4

West Side Story Book written by Arthur

Laurents Music by Leonard Bernstein Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Inspired by Shakespeare’s

Romeo and Juliet

Set in the 50s/60s Upper West Side New York City in an ethnic, blue-collar neighborhood

Rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks 2 gangs from different ethnic

backgroundsSharks = Puerto RicanJets = Polish American

Tony (Jet) falls in love with Maria (sister to the leader of the Sharks) which creates a forbidden love story

Gang Activity NYC was the center of gang life Harlem, The Bronx, and Brooklyn were

heavy areas of gang crime “fighting” gangs took place after the

Latinos immigrated to the United States into neighborhoods that were highly populated with European Americans (Italians, Irish, Polish)

As the African American population grew, so did the African American gangs

As shown in West Side Story there was often armed fighting between adolescent gangs

There was a large Latino population in NYC which created many all minority or multiethnic neighborhoods

There was a high population of Puerto Ricans and African American gangs

sources used http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/

43455_1.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadway_theatre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Side_Story