Musical Theatre History Midterm Flashcards
○ Post WWI- Politically Isolationist
○ Booming Economy
○ Prohibition- Classes Mingle
§ Wanted Men to stop beating wives
§ Women seen as more right bc more godly, but came with bad stereotypes
§ But then people got it anyways
§ The classes mingle bc everyone went to speakeasies
○ Lots of frivolous, diversionary entertainments
§ Who can sit on a flag pole the longest
How many ppl can fit into phonebooth
1920s
○ Review of minstrel songs by white people
White ppl understand colored ppl more than black ppl
Lew Leslie’s Blackbirds
Show Boat Year, Music, Book & Lyrics
1927
Music: Jerome Kern
Book & Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II
1st broadway intergrated musical
Show Boat
Integrated musical
Songs push plot forward, § Songs are character driven
Essential to the plot
○ Dramatic Storyline
§ They were usually funny in the 1920s
○ Black & white characters on stage together, equally complicated
§ All black characters were played by black ppl except Mammy
□ Bc she was famous
○ Black & White Actors on stage
Show Boat Innovations
○ Anything Goes ○ Porgy & Bess ○ Stock Market Crash ○ Great Depression comes in ○ A Lot of venues dry up as move into radio & film
Musicals of 1930s
○ Chilling effect on lavish productions
§ Ziegfeld dies destitute in 1932
§ Not as big bc everyone is poor
○ Migration to Hollywood
○ B’way: Stylish Escapism
§ Cole Porter: composer associated with this
§ A lot of stories about or rich ppl, mind off of troubles
○ Growth of Satire, politics in musicals
§ Gershwin Bros.
Interested in musicals to say something
Trends in the 1930s
Anything Goes Music & Lyrics
Cole Porter
○ Book: Howard Lindsay & Russell Crouse (orig. Guy Bolten & P.G. Wodehouse)
○ Ran 420 performances
○ Stylish escapism!
§ Very fun
○ White People tap dancing is becoming a b’way staple now from shuffle along
Anything Goes
George & Ira Gershwin Music & Lyrics?
○ George: Music (1898-1937) § Composed classical, jazz, B'way § Died of a brain tumor ○ Brother Ira: lyrics (1896-1983) § "The Jewler" □ Could fit lyrics into any complicated songs § Fascinating Rhythm: came from that
Porgy & Bess Year, music, lyrics
1935
Music: George Gershwin
Lyrics: Ira Gershwin, Dubose Heyward
• Operetta
• Vaudeville & Revues
Minstrel Shows
The American Musical’s DNA
○ Late 19th/Early 20th Century
○ Impprted from Central Europe
○ Combines dialogue, music & dance to tell a story
Light, comic or romantic stories
○ Large cast
○ For wealthy people
Part of the fun is seeing how rich people live
Operetta
(Opera-“art”) + melodrama x fun
Operetta
○ Clear hero & villain ○ Music as punctuation ○ Dramatic music. "Melo"=Melody ○ High, Heavy Drama ○ High stakes ○ Often features romance ○ Not always a happy ending ○ Gossip Girl Overhearing conversation, very dramatic
Features of Melodrama
○ Middle Class ○ White ○ Men & women looking for respectable entertainment ○ "Middlebrow" ○ People look down on it ○ Condescending ○ Racist § They're talking about foreheads High brow are smarter, White people
Operetta’s audience?
○ Story set in exotic/foreign locale
○ Characters= rich/royalty
○ Romance
Tropes= Mistaken identities, letters gone astray, etc.
Typical operetta conventions
○ Most popular in operetta
○ British composers of light/lyric operas
Unusual ish that he was british
Gilbert & Sullivan
Gilbert
libretto & lyrics
○ Libretto=Script
○ He was a higher class, his name goes first
Sullivan=
Music
Gilbert wrote script & Sullivan would write music afterwards
Gilbert & Sullivan Shows
H.M.S. Pinarfore (1878)
Pirates of Penzance
○ "Topsy-Turvy" Plots ○ Reflects Victorian values esp. class & race ○ Rich can never marry the poor ○ Create appetite for witty wordplay ○ Sullivan 1900, Gullivan 1911 died WWI Ends Operetta Popularity
Gilbert & Sullivan’s work
○ Genre of Popular entertainment (1880s-1930s)
○ Variety Shows
○ No common element between acts
○ Family Friendly
○ People changed it into middle class entertainment, clean
Made it fancyyyy
Vaudeville
○ Singers ○ Dancers ○ Acrobats ○ Comedians ○ Animal acts Dramatic Oratory
Types of Vaudeville acts
○ Middle & Working class
○ Cheap tickets, like movies
○ Mixed Gender
○ 1st time children are welcome in theatre
○ Do show all day long in a rotating things
○ Racially Segregated audiences
○ Some black people went to Vaudeville
○ Black audiences & performers
○ Not many black people went to Operetta
○ Chitlin’ circuit- Black Vaudeville
Pig intestines= Chitlin’. They fed this to the slaves
Audience for Vaudeville
he Producer=All important
○ Art of the “put together”, or the bill
§ Coordinating
○ Acts toured of a chain of theatres, rather than individual bookings
§ Booked for a whole year
○ Bad pay
○ Circuits varied in size, region, & status
○ “Small time” vs “Big time”
○ “Chitlin’ Circuit= Black
The Vaudeville Circuits
○ Charlie Chaplin
○ Ray Bolger (Scarecrow from Wiz of Oz)
○ The Marx Brothers
○ Laurel & Hardy
Notable Vaudeville Performers
○ Born to Family of V’Ville performers
○ Stage debut as a baby
○ Born of the 4th of july, possibly the 30th
Dancer, singer, songwriter, playwright, producer
George M. Cohan
○ Yankee Doodle Boy
○ Give My Regards to Broadway
○ You’re a Grand Old Flag
Over There
George M. Cohan Famius songs
Little Johnny Jones
George M. Cohan (1904)
• Classic Book Musical
• Deeply Patriotic
• Irish American= “All American”
○ As an immigrant, he’s most american he argued
• Achieved fame as a performer, songwriter, Playwright
• Wrote Book Musicals
○ Little Johnny Jones
○ Little Nellie Kelly
Features of Cohan’s Career
• Composer • Born Israel Beilin ○ Changed name bc he spelled name wrong ○ Immigrant ○ Protocols of elders of zion § Fake jewish story that theyre evil • Emigrated from Russia as a baby • Could barely read music • Wrote for Tin Pan Ally, V'Ville, Broadway (B'way)
Irving Berlin (1888-1989)
sheet music company, sounded like a tin pan in alley
○ Tin Pan Ally,
• God Bless America
• White Christmas
• Alexander’s Ragtime Band
• There’s No Business like Show Business
• Puttin’ On the Ritz
• Etc.
1st jazz song to cross over to white music
Famous Berlin songs
• Revue written by Berlin, variety show with a theme • *WWI inspired* • Theme is "Hooray hooray USA" • Revue about army life • Performed by real servicemen • Camp Upton, Yaphank, NY Wrote God Bless America but cut it
Yip Yip Yaphank (1917)
revival of Yip Yip Yaphank but for WWII
This is the Army
• Personally very patriotic • Prolific songwriter ○ So many songs • First to introduce syncopated rhythms to main stream white audiences Swingy
Features of Berlin’s Career
• “It is in my opinion musical numbers should carry on the action of the play and should be representative of the personalities who sing them”
• Born in NYC, studied music in Germany
• Worked in London
• Rehearsal Pianist, composed for short films
• Wrote16 scores between 1915-20
Met Oscar Hammerstein II in 1925***
Jerome Kern (1885-1945)
• Small, 299-seat theatre
• Experimented with “integrated” musicals
○ Song & dances are integral to the plot
○ Composer: Jerome Kern
○ Librettist Guy Bolton
○ Lyrics: P.G. Wodehouse or Philip Bartholomae
• Relatively small cast
• Low Budget
• Naturalistic acting & speech
• Attemps to integrate songs with plot
Not dance tho
Princess Theatre shows (1915-1918)
- Repeated musical phrases
- Note when they repeat stuff, reprise
- Use this to reinforce stuff
Motif
• 1820s European imports ○ Ballets, operas • 1830s Minstrelsy ○ 1840s- Minstrel shows • 1850s- plays, melodramas ○ Our american cousin § Play that lincoln watched while shot ○ Uncle Tom's Cabin § Love it § Ppl rewrote ending § Antislavery novel • 1860s- Burlesque & Variety ○ Tawdry! Fun! • 1870s-1917 Opererra, or light/lyric opera ○ Gilbert & Sullivan • 1880s- Vaudeville Family Friendly! Fun!
Theatre idk
• White men dressed up in blacface
• Performed songs, dances & skits
Started in 1830s
Minstrelsy review
• “wheel about an turn about an do jis so; eb’ry time I wheel about I jump jim crow”
• Saw a crippled slave singing and dancing, copied him. Popular minstrel shows
Image of what a black person is comes from them
Jump Jim Crow
• 1840s-1890s; most popular form of entertainment in America
Lasted through 1920s, out by 1940s
Minstrel show
• Concert
Semicircle, swap jokes & one liners
Minstrel show form
§ only person not in black face, Kernel sandrs
Make fun of him
Interlocutor:
§ Stars, bc they sat on the end
Played tambarines & rhythm bones
Tambo & Bones, The end men
Unrelated songs & specialty acts
Olio
• White People • Northern ○ People curious about black people • Male ○ Women would just begin to go to the theatres Often working class
Minstrel show audiences
• In the 1840s many northerners were suspicious of blacks, on the fence about slavery
○ Abolitionists were radical
○ Had sympathy, but aren’t radical
• Satisfied white’s curiosities about blacks
Allayed fears & suspicious
Why so popular?
• Started after 1855 • Flourished, super popular • Never a mixed company • Performers often blacked up, not just black people. Clown makeup • Gave black entertainers a vehicle ○ Could do something Lent credibility to black stereotypes
Afr. American minstrel troupes
• Camptown races • Pollywolly doodle • Blue tail fly (Jimmy crack corn) • Buffalo gals • My old kentucky home Eenie menie minie mo, catcha black person :(
Popular minstrel songs
• Tap dancing= Irish Jig + Shuffle ○ Evolved from this, ○ Enslaved people couldn't dance ○ Couldn't cross feet, feet go back and forth • Negro music
Minstrelsy roots in afr american culture
• Flavor flav ○ Party minded ○ Wore giant clocks ○ Accused of minstrelsy • Blacks= singing & dancing • Blacks-= comic performers • Often don't play dramatic leads or romantic roles Perpetuation of stereotypes via stock characthers
Minstrelsy roots in popular culture
Jim Crow, sambo, mammy, auntie, uncle, zip coon.
Pre-Civil War stereotypes
○ Black people are happy ○ Rural ○ Slow ○ Lazy ○ Loves "massa" ○ Loves to sing & dance ○ Loves to eat § Chicken, watermelon Black sharecroppers were given terrible land, so they could only grow watermelon.
Jim Crow, aka the Sambo
○ Loved "Massa" & his kids ○ Desexualized § Overweight § (Han)Kerchief § On the plantation, often a victim of sexual abuse § Not a threat to the family unit ○ Berated black men Backward family with women in charge
Mammy aka Auntie
○ Old, docile
○ Loves “Massa”
○ Entertains white children
Zippy doo da, uncle remus
The Uncle
○ Urban ○ Con artist § Talked fast ○ Pretentious § Wore dumb clothes that were fancy ○ Carried a razor ○ The Pimp ○ Dangerous but sort of laughable ○ Glamorization of the pimp later, flip the script Flip into images of empowerment
Zip Coon
Brute, Jezebel
Post Civil War sterotypes
○ Violent
○ Dangerous, esp. to white women
○ Animalistic, black people are animals
○ Cannot be controlled by laws, civilization
○ Lynching is acceptable to white people bc of this
§ Can not be controlled
§ Extrajudicial, malicious violence is okay if it’s white people
○ The brute as animal
§ Not human
Political cartoons protrayed them as not human
Brute
○ Josephine Baker § Banana skirt § Alluring ○ Heathen ○ Highly sexualized ○ Uncontrollable lust ○ Desires to be dominated § By white men ○ Oversexualization of black women today. That's what black women really are. White people are innocent.
The Jezebel
Shuffle Along Year, Playwright, Libertto
• 1921
• Eubie Blake & Noble Sissle
Libretto: Flournoy Miller & Aubrey Lyles
1st African American show to feautre a love story
Shuffle Along
• Break color barrier w/audiences ○ 1st time blacks allowed in orchestra ○ Audience still 90% white • Created white market for black shows • Employed hundreds of black performers ○ Launched their careers Portrayed 1st legitimate black romance
Positive effects of Shuffle Along
• Solidified negative sterotypes
○ Zip coon for the competing mayors
○ Onion- jim crow
• Set up a narrow model for black shows
• Produced by whites
○ Led to white producers & writers creating shows for black performers
White people writing stuff for black people :/
Negative effects of shuffle along
Porgy & Bess year, music, lyrics
(1935)
○ Music: George Gershwin
Lyrics: Ira
○ “Folk Opera”
○ Blend of Euro styles w/jazz & folk
Is it a black musical?
Porgy & Bess
○ "Huh?" ○ Opera? Musical? ○ Is it good for Black People? ○ Later proclaimed Gershwin's masterpiece Stephen Sondheim
Critic’s Response
○ 1943-early/mid 1960s
○ Integrated musicals are de facto form
§ Dominant form
§ Song progresses the plot
○ Hugge commercial & artistic growth
○ Musicals hhave a lofty place in mainstream middle class society
The Golden age
○ 1 of 2 ppl to win a an oscas, tony, emmy, grammy, & pulitzer prize
○ Born into a well-off jewish family
○ Took piano lessons since he was six
Studied at Columbia University, Institute of Musical Art (juliard)
Richards rodgers (1902-1979)
was his 1st lyricist ○ Struggled in the early 1920s ○ 1925: Broke in writing revues § Variety show with a theme ○ Early 1930s: Hollywood § Trying to break into broadway Later 1930s: Broadway
Rodgers & Larry Hart
○ Babes in arms (1937)
○ I’d Rather be right (1937)
Pal Joey (1940-41)
Rodger & Hart shows
○ Witty, urbane comedy
○ Sophisticated cynicism
Glorify city life
Sex & the City
Characteristics of Rogers & Hart shows
○ Hart had deteriorating health, alcholoism, etc.
○ Hart had no interest in “Green Grow the Lilacs”
Hart died in 1943
End of Rodgers & Hart
○ Grandpa (Oscar I) was Jewish theatre producer
○ Father was theatre manager; unlce was vaudeville producer
§ Uncle did pie in the face
○ Went to Columbia Univ & law school
Dropped out of law school for theatre
Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960)
○ 1st Broadway play in 1921 ○ Several modest hits ○ 1927: Show Boat with Jerome Kern § Big hit Then didn't do it
Hammerstein in the 20’s
○ A string of flops shows
§ Like 13
○ Collaborated with a variety of composers
Considered a has-been by Musical theatre pros
Hammerstein in the ’30s
○ Straight play by Lynn Riggs, produced by Theatre Guild- modest hit
○ Thetre Guild had a string of flops
○ Approached Rodgers & Hart about musicalizing the play
Rodgers wanted to; Hart didn’t
Green Grow the Lilacs (1931)
○ Out of town tryouts = lousy
○ Mike Todd: “no gags, no girls, no chance”
In rehearsals, changed the title
Away We Go!
○ Opening night = small crowd
○ Papered the house, gave tickets away to servicemen
§ Free tickets to ppl in uniform
○ Director hadn’t worked on Broadway since 1935
○ Choreographer had never worked on Broadway
○ No real starts
○ Cast had the measles opening nights
○ Ran for 2,248 performances
Revolutionized musical theatre
Oklahoma!
Oklahoma Year
1943
○ Changed “musical comedy” to musical theatre
○ Established dominance of the integrated musical
○ Uses dance to further plot
§ Dream ballet
Songs & reprises stem organically from character & story needs
Oklahoma! Innovations
○ Oklahoma! (1943) ○ Carousel (1945) ○ South Pacific (1949) ○ The King & I (1951) SOUND OF MUSIC
Rodgers & Hammerstein shows
○ Themes of tolerance, social liberalism, sincerity (sentiment?), optimism
○ Seamless integration of story, song, & dance
“gags & girls” grounded in “truth”
Charachteristics of R & H shows
○ Elevated the musical to "art" § Integrated musical § Musical drama § Musical with social import, themes ○ Musical theatre= strong cultural influence March 28, 1954: An evening with R&H
R & H legacy
○ 1943 through early (or late!) 1960s
○ Dominance of the integrated musical
○ Lavish Productions with sturdy plots
○ Comedy often grounded in serious themes
○ Rise of Ticket prices= rise of prestige
○ Dominated by R&H
Everyone else?
The golden Age
Guys & Dolls Year, Music & Lyrics,
(1950)
Music & Lyrics: Frank Loesser
○ Reflects Suburban values § Conformity § Materialsm § Marriage and Family □ "ball & chain" □ Women are obligated to get married □ Loss of freedom No economic freedom for women
Guys & Dolls in Context
West side story year, music, lyrics, director/choreo
(1957) ○ Book: Arthur Laurents ○ Music: Leonard Berstein ○ Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim Dir/Choreo: Jerome Robbins
○ Considered a landmark in using dance § Won the tony for best choreo ○ Critically hailed, audiences mixed § Famously lost the Best Musical Tony to the Music Man Eventually ran for 782 performances
West Side Story
○ Reflects dangers of excessive idealism ○ Myth of "The American Dream" ○ Race & Class ○ Polish Americans vs "Puerto Ricans" Vaguely latin
West Side Story in context
○ 1960? Oscar Hammerstein’s death
○ 1964? Fiddler on the roof= last big R&H Style musical
1968? Advent of Hair and concept musicals
End of Golden Age
○ Patriotic ○ Yankee Doodle Boy ○ Born to Vaudeville performers ○ Wasn't born on 4th of July ○ Made the Irish cool & all-american aka white ○ created musicals- was the playwright, lyricist, songwriter, and producer like lmm ○ Wrote Revues, Book Musicals ○ Grew up in Vaudeville ○ Song- Grand Old Flag Song- Give my regards to Broadway
George M. Cohan
○ One of George M. Cohan’s show
○ When done
○ What was it about
1904
Little Johnny Jones
○ Couldn’t read sheet music/ play piano
○ Jewish
○ Song- White Christmas
○ Wife died of typhoid fever on honey moon
○ Changed name
○ Annie Get your gun
○ Puttin on the ritz
○ 1st to introduce syncopated rhythms in mainstream white music
○ Tin Pan Alley
○ 2nd wife- Both got disowned, catholic family & Jewish family don’t like each other
Hated integrated musicals
Irving Berlin
○ Names § Zip Coon § Mammy § Uncle Tom § Brute § Jezebel ○ Tambo & Bones § End men Interlocuter: only guy not in blackface
Minstrel Shows and stereotypes
○ Most influential Broadway musical of 1920’s
○ Black love story
○ All Black Cast
○ Josephine Baker
○ Run for a long time
○ Black people got to sit in orchestra seating
○ Black writers white producer
○ Blake, sissel, people who wrote it, 4 ppl
○ Brought tap dancing to musical
○ Who are characters & what happens
Book musical
Shuffle Along
○ Ole Man River ○ Dramatic story line ○ Integrated musical ○ Sympathetic to POC ○ Black & white actors had equal stage time ○ Mixed race ○ 1927 Book & Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein
Show Boat
○ Military base in new york ○ Revue ○ Military members ○ God Bless America was cut ○ Composer: Berlin WWI
Yip Yip Yaphank
○ George & Ira ○ Porgy & Bess ○ Crazy for you ○ An American in Paris ○ George did the music & Ira did lyrics Rhapsody in blue
Gershwin Brothers
○ Folk Opera
○ Open a yogurt shop together until one of them evaded their taxes
○ Based off a novel by dubose hayword
○ Zip coon & brute (sporting life & crown)
○ Bess was Jezebel
○ Anne Brown, 1st black person in julliard
POC romance, sympathy
Porgy and Bess
○ Grandfather was a jewish theatre producer
○ South Pacific
○ Dropped out of law school to do theatre
○ Show boat
○ Teamed with rodgers
○ Had a long string of flops
○ Oklahoma! Was next big hit after Showboat
§ Adapted green grow the lilacs into Oklahoma
Aidelvies is his last song
Oscar Hammerstein II
○ Julliard
PEGOT
Richard Rodgers
○ Hart didn't want to do Oklahoma! ○ Book musicals ○ Babes in arms ○ Funny, witty, sexy, sophisticated ○ Sex & the City Early 1930s= Hollywood; Late 1930s= Broadway
Larry Hart
○ Jerome Kern
○ Song furthers the plot
Show boat is the 1st big hit
Integrated musical
○ Dance furthers plot ○ Adapted green grow the lilacs ○ Female choreographer: Agnes Demille ○ Women have some agency ○ Small crowd 1st night § Gave out free tickets to military § Loved it § Papering the crowd Dream Ballet
Oklahoma! 1943
○ They're the producers ○ Oklahoma! ○ Carousel: R& H!!!! ○ South Pacific DATE § Anti racist racist § Conditional romantic love song □ If I loved you □ If I did this § People saw themeselves in the soldiers § People like the kids § Women had a good amount of agency ○ The King and I Sound of Music
Rodgers & Hammerstein
South Pacific Date
(1949)
○ Berlin
○ Produced by Rodgers & Hammerstein
Didn’t wanna do integrated musical
Annie Get Your Gun
○ Revue by Berlin during WW2
Re-added god bless america
This Is The Army
○ Jerome Robbins-director ○ Sondheim- lyrics ○ Romeo & Juliet ○ 1957 ○ Rita Moreno ○ Arthur Laurents: Book ○ Reflects dangers of idealism, no american dream ○ No best tony for musical ○ Root for mixed race couple ○ Won tony for choreo LMM did spanish translations
West Side Story
○ Rock musical ○ 1968 ○ Sex drugs rock & roll ○ Hippies ○ Legal issues ○ 1750 performance ○ Who cares about plot: 1st concept musical ○ Anti war ○ brought youth back to broadway ○ East village hippies ○ Nudity ○ On stage orgy cut from stage ○ Went to Supreme Court twice ○ Lists are songs ○ Galt mcdermot was originally a jingle composer Canadian
Hair
