Music Theatre Flashcards
Period one
Operetta
Early 1900s
Took opera concept and made it into slapstick comedy
Patter songs
So many words it’s hard to sing
“I am the very model of a modern major general”
Florenz Ziegfeld
Ziegfeld follies
- song + dance + comedy (variety show)
- novelty/circus acts
- sketches
- tableau vivant
Tableau vivant
Basically almost naked ladies (seen as innocent and pure)
Tin Pan Alley
Famous in roots of pop music
Period 2
1920s and 30s
American versions of music theatre
Songs and dances interrupt flow of show
Irving Berlin
Major songwriter of period 2
Father of American music
Wrote 24 shows
1914-1962
Jerome Kern
Some guy
Ragtime
First “pop” musical
Showboat
Ziegfeld + Kern collab Worked with Hammerstein 1926 Racism + it's sad Serious dialogue Song+dances have nothing to do with story Story is intense and dramatic
New genre - serious themes integrated into story
What started happening to Broadway musicals in period 2?
They became films
Period 3
1940s and 50s
More realistic plots
Balanced elements
Some of best musical “standards”
“Golden age”
Oklahoma
1942
Oscar Hammerstein II (diff from before) + Rodgers
-explores relationships
-not musical comedy
-from now on main drive is WRITER
-songs related to stories
-dream ballet - dance used to advance plot
Collaborations in period 3?
HUGE
Very important
Guys and Dolls
1950
Loesser
“Golden time” of Broadway
Crapshooters dance shows influence of Oklahoma (dance used to advance plot)
The Sound of Music
1957
Hammerstein II + Rodgers
Operetta
Hammerstein’s last show
Period 4
1960 to now
Social changes and new attitudes included in plot
Rock musicals popular
West Side Story
1957
- lyrics + dance (not ballet, not tradition, ACTION in movement)
- Jerome Robbins (choreo), Sondheim (story), Bernstein (music)
- Romeo and Juliet in NYC (modern)
- it’s ok to die/be raped and stuff in a musical now
- –darker stories
Stephen Sondheim
- Sweeny Todd
- -murder + cannibalism in 1800s London
- –can you scare an audience like movies can? (Thrilling)
- moved beyond concentration of typical romantic plots to darker grittier sides of life
Modern day musicals
Much harder for success
If a show doesn’t do well you’re screwed
9/11/2001
Resurgence came at the lion King
Disney takes over
The Black Crook
First musical that resembled modern day
Dance and music helped tell a story
Controversial
Ran 474 times
Gilbert and Sullivan
Pirates of Penzance
Popular
Vaudeville
Variety show (early musicals)
Music/sketch/etc
Aka minstrel shows
Great Depression
Success rate down
Federal Theatre Project
Created to allow unknown artists to try out new methods of production
Shows had little or no cost, so audiences could afford to see them
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Hammerstein wrote lyrics, Rodgers set the, to music
Worked together for 17 years
Integrated plot with music
Won a loooot of awards together
Movie Musicals
- 20th century fox - gold-played blonde policy (all about profit)
- Metro Goldwyn Mayer - musicals can be entertainment and art
- Broadway stars brought into film
- became popular during the war
New concepts in period 4
- more varied musical genres and styles incorporated
- pop musicals
- exploration of darker themes and issues
- intended messages of racial intolerance
Mega musicals
- pop musicals
- heavily influenced by pop musicals
- large cast and sets
- usually unique identifiable effect (ex falling chandelier in phantom of the opera)
1980s and early 90s - movie musicals
Movie musicals went on hiatus
Revived with Moulin Rouge! And then Chicago in early 2000s
Now many are released (ex La La Land)
Some TV shows have musical episodes (The Flash, Once Upon a Time)
