THEA Exam 1 Flashcards
Producer
- -Finances the production through own money or angels
- -Options the property rights
- -Hires creative team
- -Sometimes hires the star
- -Makes all business decisions
- -Overall head; has final say
- -Unlike investment pools, makes a weekly fee and percentage of the box office, no matter what the take
Investment Pools
- -Now prevalent
- -$10,000 minimum; may not be able to afford this, so you join a pool
- -Get nothing back unless the show turns a profit
Percentage of shows that actually turn a profit
20-30%
Librettist
Playwright
- -Writes the story
- -Writes the book–the dialogue
- -Works with composer, lyricist, and director
Lyricist
- -Writes the words to the songs
- -May or may not be the same person as the playwright
Composer
–Writes the music
Director
- -Casts the actors
- -Collaborates with everyone!
- -Responsible for the “vision,” or concept
- -Stages the play
- -Creates compositional pictures onstage
- -Reports directly to producer
- -Provides guidance to the actor in developing their character
Choreographer
- -Stages the dances
- -Frequently stages movement within songs
- -Frequently also the director today
Set/Scenic Designer
- -Designs the environment or world (not just a set)
- -Includes props
Costume Designer
–Works especially with lighting designer to maintain color palette
Sound Designer
- -Designs sound effects
- -Handles microphone usage
Music Director
- -Coordinates all musical elements with musical team
- -Works directly w/ actors, singers, dancers to teach and interpret the music
- -Might also be the conductor
- -Orchestrates: Writes the parts for the different orchestra members
Ensemble show
No star, no lead
- -Hair
- -Rent
- -Godspell
- -A Chorus Line
Broadway Theater
500+ seats
–Only 40 today; may soon be a 41st
Off-Broadway Theater
100-499 seats
Off-Off-Broadway Theater
99 seats or less
Pulitzer Prize
- -Oldest Award
- -First awards in 1917
- -Named for journalist Joseph Pulitzer
- -Only 8 musicals have won
- -Administered by Columbia University
NY Drama Critics Circle Award
- -Second oldest
- -Alternative to Pulitzer
Tony Awards
- -Since 1947
- -Created by American Theater League and The Broadway League
- -Named for actress and director Mary Antoinette Perry
- -Every June on CBS
American Theater Wing
- -Co-created the Tony awards
- -NY based, non-profit
- -“Dedicated to supporting education and excellence in theater”
The Broadway League
- -Co-creater of the Tony awards
- -National trade association for Broadway theater industry
- -Comprised of theater owners, operators, producers, presenters, and general managers in NY and 250+ cities
Mary Antoinette Perry
- -Actress and director
- -Co-Founder of the American Theater Wing
- -Namesake of the Tony awards
First distincly American theater form
Minstrel shows
Steers “the boat”
Director
Owns “the boat”
Producer
Minstrel shows
- -First distinctly American theater form
- -Blackfaced shows meant to degrade another race
- -Appeared in early 1600s
- -Most prominent in 1830s
- -Died out by 1920s
- -Always began with the line, “Gentlemen, be seated”
- -Gave us many American folk classics
- -Gave us dances like the cakewalk
- -Gave us comedy style: jokes, slapstick, comedic timing
- -Cross-dressing comedy (did not invent)
Jim Crow
Character in minstrel shows
- -Folk trickster persona known by slaves
- -included in every minstrel show
- -Became a by-word for legalized racial oppression in the south
Tambo
Stock character in minstrel shows
- -Played tamborine
- -Sat on the right side
Bones
Stock character in minstrel shows
- -Used/played animal bones
- -Sat on the left side
Interlocutor
Stock character in minstrel shows
- -The MC
- -Sat in the middle
Stock characters in minstrel shows
- -Jim Crow
- -Tambo
- -Bones
- -Interlocutor
American folk classics that began in minstrel shows
- -Dixie
- -Oh, Susanna
- -Camptown Races
- -My Old Kentucky Home
Cakewalk
Dance that came out of minstrel shows
- -Originally a slave dance
- -Making fun of their masters, and how high-and-might they thought themselves
First American musical
The Disappointment -or- The Force of Credulity
The Disappointment -or- The Force of Credulity
- -First American Musical
- -1767, Philadelphia
- -Banned for being too political; made fun of King George
- -Never performed; found in a trunk decades later
- -Ballad Opera: satirical tunes written in popular style
Show Boats
- -1830s to 1940s (suspended during Civil War)
- -Found on all major rivers,not just Mississippi
- -Flat-bottom barges propelled by tugboats (not paddleboats)
- -Showcased melodramas until the 1920s
Melodramas
- -Overacted, silly stories
- -Played music during costume changes and at the end
- -Music: Olois/Hodgepodge
- -Audiences preferred the music, so melodramas gave way to musical revues with heavy African-American influence
Broadway’s first hit musical
The Black Crook, 1866
The Black Crook
Broadway’s first hit musical
- -1866
- -Based on a Foust story about a pact with the devil
- -Became a musical by accident
- -Introduced elaborate costumes and scenery, and bare-limbed girls
- -First to have song and dance interspersed throughout a unifying theme
- -Banned in various cities; considered sinful by ministers
- -Record 474 performances
How did The Black Crook become a musical?
A ballet troop had come from Paris, but their theater burned down. They needed a place to perform, so the producer of Black Crook had them dance in certain places in the show, also it had nothing to do with the story
The operetta
- -A European import, brought by Gilbert and Sullivan
- -Means “Little Work” in Italian
- -All the rage in 1870s and 1880s
- -Satirical
First international hit musical
HMS Pinafore, 1878
HMS Pinafore
- -1878
- -Gilbert and Sullivan
- -Music is meant to go with the storyline, although not an integrated musical
- -Merchandising began with this show: “Pinafore fever”
- -Popular song: “I’m a Little Buttercup”
Integrated musical
Songs and dialogue go together perfectly
Pirates of Penzance
- -A parody of the serious stage
- -Last time for Gilbert and Sullivan on Broadway: 1981
Most successful Gilbert and Sullivan show
The Mikado, 1885
Victor Herbert
- -Wrote 43 American operettas
- -1903: Babes in Toyland
- -1910: Naughty Marietta, his most popular
- -Song: “Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life” (from Naughty Marietta)
- -Helped pass the Copyright Law of 1909
- -Helped form ASCAP (1914)
- -Has a bust in Central Park b/c of his contributions
Copyright Law of 1909
Grants royalties to writers if their music is used.
Victor Herbert help get this passed.
ASCAP
- -American Association of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
- -1914
- -Keeps track of every time a song is played
- -Victor Herbert was instrumental in this
Vaudeville
- -Early 1880s-early 1930s
- -The training ground for early Broadway stars
- -Variety shows
- -Star/headliner that people came to see
- -Played the circuit
The Orpheum Circuit
The most famous Vaudeville circuit
“Blue” Material
Obscene/inapproriate/sexually suggestive
–Vaudeville was family enertainment; if they told an inappropriate joke, they received a reprimand in a blue envelope.
Stars from vaudeville
- -Bob Hope
- -Burt Laher (Cowardly Lion)
- -Marx Bros.
- -Fanny Brice
- -WC Fields
Burlesque
- -Similar to Vaudeville for a while
- -Raunchy, dirty jokes; immodestly dressed women
- -Satire
- -Began around 1840s; gradually became more raunchy, eventually adding striptease
- -1937: Last of the NYC burlesque houses shut down by the mayor
Minsky’s
The most famous Burlesque house
Gypsy Rose Lee
The most famous Burlesque star
- -Never totally disrobed
- -In good taste
Satire
Poking fun at current political events
–Term originally applied to comic plays and musicals that made fun of operas, plays, and social habits of the upper classes
Theater District before 1870s
scattered across the 5 burroughs
1870s Theater District
Rialto District (near Union Square)
Why did the Theater District move in the late 19th century?
Move uptown to less expensive real estate, just south of the current district.
1895 Theater District
The Theater District as we now now it.
Longacre Square: Broadway, 7th, and 42nd
Longacre Square
Now Times Square
Broadway, 7th, and 42nd
The current Theater District
Times Square
The crossroads of the world
Subway built April 8, 1904
Originally Longacre Square
Named for the newspaper
The Empire
Theater District’s first theater, 1893
First theater with electricity
The Olympia
Broadway’s 2nd theater, 1895
Oscar Hammerstein
Where Toys-R-Us is today
George M Cohan
- -The original song and dance man
- -Vaudeville kid
- -Enormously patriotic
- -Created Broadway mystique by writing songs about Broadway
- -Director, star, actor, playwright, composer, lyricist
- -More than 40 shows over 3 decades
- -Only performer with a statue in NYC
The original song and dance man
George M Cohan
Only performer with a statue in NYC
George M Cohan
Theatrical Syndicate
Most theaters in the country were owned by 6 men
- -Headed by Klaw and Erlanger
- -Used managers lockout to force people to work under their terms
- -Held grip for 14 years
- -Undone by the Shubert Bros.
Klaw & Erlanger
Head of the Theatrical Syndicate
Shubert Bros.
- -Bought 1000+ theaters in the US
- -“Collected” actors by proving better theaters, shows, and pay
- -Shadowed the syndicate to find out where they were going and open there first
- -1919: Shubert Theater, still stands
- -Shubert Organization
Shubert Organization
- -America’s largest and most powerful theater owner and producer
- -Control 17 of 40 theaters in NYC
- -Own Telecharge
Ziegfeld
- -Impresario; producer extraordinaire
- -1907: Follies begin
- -Married to Billie Burke
- -Loved beautiful women, on and offstage
- -One of the first to break down racial barriers
Ziegfeld’s Follies
- -Began in 1907
- -21 Follies by him (future shows not successful)
- -Variety show
- -Elaborate production numbers
- -New Amsterdam Theater (now owned by Disney)
- -Best of everything
- -Tableaux Vivants
Showgirls and Ponies
Ziegfeld’s girls
Ziegfeld’s girls
Showgirls and ponies
Showgirls (Ziegfeld)
Wore the elaborate costumes
Ponies (Ziegfeld)
The dancers
Called “Gypsies” today
