Musical Theatre

music and dance

1600 men who thought they were imitating Greek tragedy

Music

Music accompanied the action onstage

There's a natural affinity between them, they have wide popular appeal, and they have an ability to capture sound and movement to convey emotions

Drama set entirely to music

opera

transitions between songs

arias, duets, trios, quartettes and choruses

strong melodic solos

myth, history, contemporary fiction, and real events

The composer and score predominate the production

Operetta, musical comedy, revue, and the musical

- Similar to the opera but is not set entirely to music
- Generally gestures a romantic story in a far-off location
- Tells a complete story, however fanciful

- Emerged in the 1920’s in the US
- Featured comic stories interspersed with popular music
- Stories related to contemporary people and events, thus musical comedies were closer to everyday life than operetta

- sketches and vignettes alternated with musical numbers
- No single story line carried through from beginning to end, but often have a common theme

Also called musical theatre, evolved out of operetta and musical comedy

Vaudeville and burlesque

- Became synonymous with vulgar sketches and girlie shows
- Featured dramatic sketches and songs that satirized other theatrical form

- A series of variety acts such as music, sketching, juggling, animal acts that made up an evening’s entertainment

Introduced strong american themes in songs, and made dialogue realistic and down to earth

show that traces the fortunes of the main characters through a series of adventures from beginning to end

the book of a musical

writes the libretto

the person who writes the lyrics to the musical score

1920s and 1930s

songs from musical comedies that became so popular that they were played a lot, even on the radio

Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Richard Rogers

Show Boat

Oscar Hammerstein

- Story based on Edna Ferber novel about her life in Mississippi riverboat
- Story had two characters, Julie and Steve, which was a first for America because it showed a romantic relationship between people of different races
- Attempted to pull away from fantasy and bring daring realism with the depiction of the lives of black works on the levies of Mississippi

the line of chorus girls

Oklahoma! by Rogers and Hammerstein

Story was set in the founding of the state of Oklahoma and tells the love story of Curley and Laurey who are thwarted by Jud. During the action Jud is killed by Curley onstage which was extremely daring

Ballet; used to forward the story

Agnes de Mille

Fiddler on the Roof (1964)

- Hair was a celebration of the informal, antiestablishment lifestyle of young people in the 60s
- Radical departure from the book musical that it had no real storyline

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Time Rice

Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, Phantom, Les Mis, and Miss Saigon

- A huge number of major revivals of past musical successes
- The periodic appearance of fresh, offbeat musicals, indicating the genre remains full of vitality
- Musicals based on films
- Creation of productions out of the music of former popular stars and groups