FINAL Flashcards
42nd Street
Directed/Choreographed by: Gower Champion (He died the night it opened)
It was the year’s biggest hit
Based on the classic movie which starred Ruby Keeler
Story: Understudy going for the star
Songs: We’re in the Money, Shuffle Off to Buffalo, Lullaby of Broadway
1980
Sophisticated Ladies
Story: Revue of Duke Ellington's music Retrospective of the 20s & 30s Small cast Starred Gregory Hines 1981
Forbidden Broadway
Cabaret revue in Palsson’s Supper Club
Story: Farce on musicals
1982
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Andrew Lloyd Webber musical with lyrics by Tim Rice
Started in Brooklyn in 1976
Story: Joseph in the Bible
1982
Little Shop of Horros
Started off-off Broadway
Story: Audrey II, a plant, eats everything
1982
Cats
Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Based on T.S. Elliott's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats Rock opera style became popular Story: Cats in a junkyard Song: Memory sung by cat Grizabella 1982
La Cage Aux Folles
Won 6 Tony awards Depicts a gay couple who own a nightclub Based on the movie The Birdcage Not the first musicals about homosexuality, but the first show to make money 1983
The Tap Dance Kid
Story: Young boy wanting to follow in the footsteps of Astaire & Robinson, but his father holds him back
Song: Fabulous Feet–number at end where the chorus tapped in sneakers
1983
Singin’ in the Rain
Taken from the movie
Director/Choreographer: Twyla Tharp
Not a great success because it’s hard to make movies into musicals
1985
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Started at Shakespeare in the Park as a musical Dickens
Story: A play within a place; a tacky English touring company
Interaction with the audience–audience picks the ending
1985
Les Miserables
Musical version of Victor Hugo’s novel
1987
Starlight Express
Andrew Lloyd Webber musical
Cost $8 million–most money to mount a show up to this point
Only ran 761 shows
Story: Child’s dream about an underdog story of a racing tournament on his model railway
Performed on roller skates
1987
Into the Woods
Music & Lyrics: Sondheim
Story: Childess baker and wife are hexed by the witch; they go into the woods to counteract the hex
While made up of fairytale characters, it is not really a children’s musical
Witch originally played by Bernadette Peters
1987
Phantom of the Opera
Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Story: Disfigured, masked nd murderous madman (Michael Crawford) haunts the Paris Opera and kidnaps Prima Donna (Sarah Brightman) Song: Music of the Night Set and lights were spectacular 1988
Black and Blue
Choreography: LeTang, Atkins, F. Nicholas, Frankie Manning
Story: Black show in the style of the 20s & 30s
Won a Tony for Best Musical, plus others
Songs by artists such as Armstrong, Ellington, Waller
Large cast, including Savion, Bunny Briggs, Jimmy Slyde
1989
Jerome Robbins Broadway
Retrospect of Robbins’ musical choreography
Brought in talent/technical dancers
1989
Grand Hotel
After the classic movie of the same name Director/Choreographer: Tommy Tune Set in Berlin Stories: A fading ballerina, an unscrupulous aristocrat, a dying Jew out for a last fling, and a wild young girl 1989
Miss Saigon
Ran for 10 years & had 4,264 performances
Adaptation of Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly
Story: The doomed romance of an Asian woman and an American man in 1970s during Vietnam War
1991
The Will Rogers Follies
Director/Choreographer: Tommy Tune
Tony for Best Musical
Tells the story of performer Will Rogers using the Ziegfeld Follies as a backdrop
1991
Jelly’s Last Jam
Directed by George C. Wolfe
Starred Gregory Hines as composer Jelly Roll Morton, and Savion Glover
Controversy over Wolfe’s desire to portray Jelly as a racist
Ran for nearly 600 performances
Hines won a Tony for Best Actor
1992
Kiss of the Spider Woman
Music: John Kander Lyrics: Fred Ebb Choreography: Vincent Paterson and Rob Marshall Tony for Best Musical Starred Chita Rivera 1993
Beauty and the Beast
Opened at Palace Theatre to negative press, industry resentment, and huge ticket sales
In 2001, surpassed A Chorus Line as the longest-running musical
1994
Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk
Began in Public Theatre (like Hair & A Chorus Line)
Quickly transferred to the Broadway stage
George C. Wolfe collaborated with Savion Glover to translate the African-American experience into musical theatre, using history of tap dance as a narrative line
Brought an urban, hip-hop sound to Broadway
1995
Rent
Based on Puccini's La Boheme Composer/Concept by Jonathan Larson Based the characters on people he knew Was accepted for a series of readings and workshops at the New York Theatre Workshop in 1994, a not-for-profit theatre in the East Village and had its first preview on January 25, 1996 1996
The Lion King
Opened at New Amsterdam Theatre
Director: Julie Taymor–utilized her experience with puppetry, which she studied in Japan and INdonesia; she was also interested in commedia dell’arte
She believes children are more capable of comprehending abstract images than adults
Taymor’s influence: Beefed up storyline, gave more power to female characters, added South African to score
Show won Tonys for Best Original Musical, Best Direction of a Musical (Taymor made history by being the first female to do so)
No one except Disney knows what it cost to produce, estimates at approximately $20 million
1997
Fosse
3-act musical revue of Bob Fosse’s work–plotless and no chronological order
Conceived/Choreographed: Ann Reinking
Did not recreate numbers as originally presented–featured black & white costumes and understated set
Won a Tony for Best Musical
1999
Contact
“Dance play” conceived by Susan Stroman and John Weidman
Choreographed/Directed: Susan Stroman
Won Tony for Best Musical, among others
Caused controversy because it used pre-recorded songs rather than original music, actos do not sing, uses minimal dialogue (some termed it a ballet)
As a result, new Tony category created: Best Special Theatrical Event
Made up of 3 separate dance pieces, each set to pre-recorded music from Tchaikovsky, the Squirrel Nut Zippers, and The Beach Boys to name a few
2000
Aida
Opened at Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago in 1999 & moved to Palace Theatre on Broadway
Disney commissioned Tim Rice and Elton John to write the score
2000
The Producers
Opened in Chicago
Moved to Broadway April 19, 2001
Immediate success
Starred Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick
Director/Choreographer: Susan Stroman
Ticket sales plummeted when Lane and Broderick left–They returned for a limited engagement in 2003
2001
Thoroughly Modern Millie
Won Tony for Best Musical Adapted from a 1967 minor film musical Story: Small town girl who moves to NYC to marry for money Starred Sutton Foster 2002
Hairspray
Tony for Best Musical–won 8 Tonys out of 13 nominations
Adapted from the 1980s film
Songs include 1960s style dance music and rhythm and blues
Rob Marshall was brought on in early stages to direct, but due to work on movie version of Chicago, he brought Jack O’Brien as director and Jerry Mitchell as choreographer
2002
Movin’ Out
Conceived, directored, choreographed by Twyla Tharp
Won Tony for Best Choreography
Songs provided by Billy Joel
Story: Long Island young men and their experiences with Vietnam series of dances linked by a thin plot
2002
Avenue Q
Largely inspired by Sesame Street–most characters performed by puppets
Charcters are in their 20s & 30s, facing adult issues rather than pre-school ones
Pushed boundaries of gender identity and race in a comical way
Won several Tonys, including Best Musical
2003
Wicked
Covers the backstory of the 2 witches depicted in the Wizard of Oz
Composer: Stephen Schwartz
Starred Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel
2003
The Drowsy Chaperone
One-act musical
Started as a spoot of old musicals from the Jazz Age
Originally starred Beth Leavel and Sutton Foster
Won numerous Tonys
2006
Trends in musicals of the 1980s
Inflation was growing
It became quite expensive to mount shows
Revivals were a safe bet
Many shows closed quickly if there was any doubt of success: Kept costs from mounting, some only lasted 1 night
Trends in musicals of the 1990s and beyond
Several big-name pop composers were contributing scores to Broadway: Elton John–Lion King and Aida, Billy Joel–Movin’ Out
Inspired rock sound on Broadway–Rent
Walt Disney Company adapted format from Golden Age of Musicals–Success of these animated films prompted Disney to get into the Broadway business
The commercialization of Broadway
Disney and other large corporations funded shows and made Broadway a more family friendly environment.
They were originally met with opposition by the true artists of Broadway who felt these packaged shows weren’t broadway material because they lacked artistic quality.
Technology and the development of jazz dance
Recorded music: record players brought recorded music to nearly every household; this technology grew with cassette tapes, CDs, and mp3s
Dance on film: Movie musicals in the 30s brought dance to a broader audience; films of Elvis and Frankie and Annette in the 60s gave social dance a boost; 80s movies like Fame Flashdance Footloose Stayin’ Alive and Breakin’ gave jazz dance a boost
Dance on television: Amateur dance in the late 50s like “American Bandstand” caused enthusiasm in dance to grow; dancing in TV commercials & MTV–both created more jobs for dancers and made people want to dance more, also required more formal training
Popular culture and the development of jazz dance
40s: Big bands and be-bop music which was hard to dance to, so jazz was in decline
50s: Rock n roll, and the monotonous downbeat and popularity of sock hops helped dance resurface
60s: Motown groups and Cholly Atkins who choreographed for them, and they preserved jazz by making certain dances popular, and dance studios were beginning to offer more classes
70s: Shows like A Chorus Line on Broadway which had dance as the primary focus, and that truly brought dance to the forefront of pop future
80s: Movies like Footloose and Fame made dance desirable, and the creation of MTV made dance the new craze, along with giving professional dancers new job opportunities
Pioneers of jazz dance
Gus Giordano: Marine in WWII, Broadway (Paint Your Wagon, On the Town), Began the Giordano Jazz Dance Company, Started Jazz Dance World Congress, Originator of the Giordano Technique
Eugene Louis Facciuto (Luigi): A style of jazz that is classic sophisticated elegant and liquid fire, Created an exercise routine for his own rehabilitation
Matt Mattox: Trained in ballet, Style is ballet Jack Cold modern flamenco tap, Developed London’s jazz dance–Jazzart
Joe Tremaine: Originated “west coast style”, first competition/convention
