Musicals Flashcards
The swindler Harold Hill attempts to con the families of River City, Iowa by starting a boys’ band. While there, he falls in love with the librarian Marian Paroo. The scheme is exposed, but the town forgives him. Notable songs include “Trouble” (the origin of the phrase “trouble in River City”), “76 Trombones”, “Shipoopi”, “Gary, Indiana”, and “Til There Was You”
The Music Man (Meredith Wilson and Franklin Lacey, 1957)
Based loosely on Puccini’s La Boheme, Jonathan Larson’s Rent follows a year in the life of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York’s Lower East Side, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. The physical and emotional complications of the disease pervade the lives of Roger, Mimi, Tom and Angel. Maureen deals with her chronic infidelity through performance art; her partner, Joanne, wonders if their relationship is worth the trouble. Benny has sold out his Bohemian ideals in exchange for a hefty income and is on the outs with his former friends. Mark, an aspiring filmmaker, feels like an outsider to life in general. How these young bohemians negotiate their dreams, loves and conflicts provides the narrative thread to this groundbreaking musical.
Rent (Jonathan Larson, 1996)
Nathan Detroit runs an underground craps game but needs a location. To make enough money to use the Biltmore garage for his game, he bets the notorious gambler Sky Masterson that Sky can’t convince a girl of Nathan’s choice to go to Havana with him for dinner; Nathan chooses the righteous missionary Sarah Brown. Sky wins the bet but ends up having to bring a dozen sinning gamblers to a revival meeting. As Nathan attends the meeting, his long-suffering fiancee Adelaide, a nightclub dancer, is increasingly frustrated that their 14-year engagement has not led to marriage. At the meeting, Sky bets a large amount of money against the gamblers’ souls, winning, and eventually convinces Sarah to marry him and Nathan to marry Adelaide. Adapted from short stories by Damon Runyon, the musical the songs “A Bushel and a Peck,” “Luck Be A Lady,” and “Sit Down, You’re Rocking The Boat”
Guys and Dolls (Frank Loesser, Jo Swerling, and Abe Burrows, 1950)
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show comes to town, and performer Frank Butler challenges anyone to a shooting contest. Annie Oakley wins the contest and joins the show. She and Frank fall in love, but Frank quits out of jealousy that Annie is a better shooter than he is. The title role was originated by Ethel Merman. The show includes the songs “There’s No business like Show Business”, “Doin What comes Naturally”, and “Anything You can Do”
Annie Get Your Gun (Irving Berlin, Herbert Fields, and Dorothy Fields, 1946)
Frederic, having turned 21, is released from his apprenticeship to the title pirates. Reaching shore for the first time, Frederic falls in love with Mabel, the daughter of Major-General Stanley. Frederic realizes that he was apprenticed until his 21st birthday, and, having been born on February 29, he must return to his apprenticeship. Mabel vows to wait for him. The Major-General and the police pursue the pirates, who surrender. The pirates are forgiven, and Mabel and Frederic reunite.
The Pirates of Penzance (W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, 1879)
Aboard the title ship, Josephine promises her father, the captain, that she will marry Sir Joseph Porter, but Josephine secretly loves the common sailor Ralph Rackstraw, and the two plan to elope. A peddler named Buttercup reveals that she accidentally switched the captain and Ralph at birth: Ralph is of noble birth and should be captain, while the captain is nothing more than a common sailor. Ralph, now captain, marries Josephine, and the former captain marries Buttercup.
H.M.S. Pinafore (W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, 1878)
Anna Leonowens, a British schoolteacher, travels to Siam (now Thailand) to teach English to the King’s many children and wives. Anna’s western ways, the looming threat of the British rule, and romance between Lun Tha and the concubine Tuptim all weigh heavily on the traditional, chauvinistic King. As the king dies, Anna kneels at his side, and the prince abolishes the practice of kowtowing.
The King and I (Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, 1951)
In the week leading up to the crucifixion, Jesus grows angry with Christ’s claims of divinity, and Mary Magdalene laments her romantic feelings for Christ. Judas hangs himself, and Christ, though frustrated with God, accepts his fate. It includes the songs “I Don’t know how to Love Him”, “Gethsemane”, and “Trial Before Pilate”.
Jesus Christ Superstar (Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, 1971)
Sweeney Todd, a barber returns to London from Australia, where the evil Judge Turpin - who lusted after Sweeney’s wife - unjustly imprisoned him. Sweeney’s daughter, Joanna, escapes Turpin - of whom she had been a ward during her father’s incarceration - and falls in love with the sailor Anthony Hope. A vengeful Sweeney begins murdering his customers, and his neighbor, Mrs. Lovett, bakes them into meat pies. Sweeney kills the judge, but in his fury, accidentally kills a mad beggar woman who was really his long-lost wife. Mrs. Lovett’s shop boy, Tobias, grows scared and kills Sweeney.
Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, 1979)
During the Pacific Theater of World War II, Nellie Forbush, a U.S. navy nurse, has fallen in love with Emile, a French plantation owner. Emile helps Lt. Cable carry out an espionage mission against the Japanese. The mission is sucessful, and Emile and Nellie reunite. It is adapted from James Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific.
South Pacific (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Joshua Logan, 1949)
