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Survey of Musical Theater > THEA Exam 1 > Flashcards

THEA Exam 1 Flashcards

1
Q

Producer

A
  • -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
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2
Q

Investment Pools

A
  • -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
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3
Q

Percentage of shows that actually turn a profit

A

20-30%

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4
Q

Librettist

A

Playwright

  • -Writes the story
  • -Writes the book–the dialogue
  • -Works with composer, lyricist, and director
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5
Q

Lyricist

A
  • -Writes the words to the songs

- -May or may not be the same person as the playwright

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6
Q

Composer

A

–Writes the music

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7
Q

Director

A
  • -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
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8
Q

Choreographer

A
  • -Stages the dances
  • -Frequently stages movement within songs
  • -Frequently also the director today
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9
Q

Set/Scenic Designer

A
  • -Designs the environment or world (not just a set)

- -Includes props

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10
Q

Costume Designer

A

–Works especially with lighting designer to maintain color palette

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11
Q

Sound Designer

A
  • -Designs sound effects

- -Handles microphone usage

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12
Q

Music Director

A
  • -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
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13
Q

Ensemble show

A

No star, no lead

  • -Hair
  • -Rent
  • -Godspell
  • -A Chorus Line
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14
Q

Broadway Theater

A

500+ seats

–Only 40 today; may soon be a 41st

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15
Q

Off-Broadway Theater

A

100-499 seats

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16
Q

Off-Off-Broadway Theater

A

99 seats or less

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17
Q

Pulitzer Prize

A
  • -Oldest Award
  • -First awards in 1917
  • -Named for journalist Joseph Pulitzer
  • -Only 8 musicals have won
  • -Administered by Columbia University
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18
Q

NY Drama Critics Circle Award

A
  • -Second oldest

- -Alternative to Pulitzer

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19
Q

Tony Awards

A
  • -Since 1947
  • -Created by American Theater League and The Broadway League
  • -Named for actress and director Mary Antoinette Perry
  • -Every June on CBS
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20
Q

American Theater Wing

A
  • -Co-created the Tony awards
  • -NY based, non-profit
  • -“Dedicated to supporting education and excellence in theater”
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21
Q

The Broadway League

A
  • -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
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22
Q

Mary Antoinette Perry

A
  • -Actress and director
  • -Co-Founder of the American Theater Wing
  • -Namesake of the Tony awards
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23
Q

First distincly American theater form

A

Minstrel shows

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24
Q

Steers “the boat”

A

Director

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25
Q

Owns “the boat”

A

Producer

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26
Q

Minstrel shows

A
  • -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)
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27
Q

Jim Crow

A

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
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28
Q

Tambo

A

Stock character in minstrel shows

  • -Played tamborine
  • -Sat on the right side
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29
Q

Bones

A

Stock character in minstrel shows

  • -Used/played animal bones
  • -Sat on the left side
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30
Q

Interlocutor

A

Stock character in minstrel shows

  • -The MC
  • -Sat in the middle
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31
Q

Stock characters in minstrel shows

A
  • -Jim Crow
  • -Tambo
  • -Bones
  • -Interlocutor
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32
Q

American folk classics that began in minstrel shows

A
  • -Dixie
  • -Oh, Susanna
  • -Camptown Races
  • -My Old Kentucky Home
33
Q

Cakewalk

A

Dance that came out of minstrel shows

  • -Originally a slave dance
  • -Making fun of their masters, and how high-and-might they thought themselves
34
Q

First American musical

A

The Disappointment -or- The Force of Credulity

35
Q

The Disappointment -or- The Force of Credulity

A
  • -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
36
Q

Show Boats

A
  • -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
37
Q

Melodramas

A
  • -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
38
Q

Broadway’s first hit musical

A

The Black Crook, 1866

39
Q

The Black Crook

A

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
40
Q

How did The Black Crook become a musical?

A

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

41
Q

The operetta

A
  • -A European import, brought by Gilbert and Sullivan
  • -Means “Little Work” in Italian
  • -All the rage in 1870s and 1880s
  • -Satirical
42
Q

First international hit musical

A

HMS Pinafore, 1878

43
Q

HMS Pinafore

A
  • -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”
44
Q

Integrated musical

A

Songs and dialogue go together perfectly

45
Q

Pirates of Penzance

A
  • -A parody of the serious stage

- -Last time for Gilbert and Sullivan on Broadway: 1981

46
Q

Most successful Gilbert and Sullivan show

A

The Mikado, 1885

47
Q

Victor Herbert

A
  • -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
48
Q

Copyright Law of 1909

A

Grants royalties to writers if their music is used.

Victor Herbert help get this passed.

49
Q

ASCAP

A
  • -American Association of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
  • -1914
  • -Keeps track of every time a song is played
  • -Victor Herbert was instrumental in this
50
Q

Vaudeville

A
  • -Early 1880s-early 1930s
  • -The training ground for early Broadway stars
  • -Variety shows
  • -Star/headliner that people came to see
  • -Played the circuit
51
Q

The Orpheum Circuit

A

The most famous Vaudeville circuit

52
Q

“Blue” Material

A

Obscene/inapproriate/sexually suggestive

–Vaudeville was family enertainment; if they told an inappropriate joke, they received a reprimand in a blue envelope.

53
Q

Stars from vaudeville

A
  • -Bob Hope
  • -Burt Laher (Cowardly Lion)
  • -Marx Bros.
  • -Fanny Brice
  • -WC Fields
54
Q

Burlesque

A
  • -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
55
Q

Minsky’s

A

The most famous Burlesque house

56
Q

Gypsy Rose Lee

A

The most famous Burlesque star

  • -Never totally disrobed
  • -In good taste
57
Q

Satire

A

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

58
Q

Theater District before 1870s

A

scattered across the 5 burroughs

59
Q

1870s Theater District

A

Rialto District (near Union Square)

60
Q

Why did the Theater District move in the late 19th century?

A

Move uptown to less expensive real estate, just south of the current district.

61
Q

1895 Theater District

A

The Theater District as we now now it.

Longacre Square: Broadway, 7th, and 42nd

62
Q

Longacre Square

A

Now Times Square
Broadway, 7th, and 42nd
The current Theater District

63
Q

Times Square

A

The crossroads of the world
Subway built April 8, 1904
Originally Longacre Square
Named for the newspaper

64
Q

The Empire

A

Theater District’s first theater, 1893

First theater with electricity

65
Q

The Olympia

A

Broadway’s 2nd theater, 1895
Oscar Hammerstein
Where Toys-R-Us is today

66
Q

George M Cohan

A
  • -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
67
Q

The original song and dance man

A

George M Cohan

68
Q

Only performer with a statue in NYC

A

George M Cohan

69
Q

Theatrical Syndicate

A

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.
70
Q

Klaw & Erlanger

A

Head of the Theatrical Syndicate

71
Q

Shubert Bros.

A
  • -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
72
Q

Shubert Organization

A
  • -America’s largest and most powerful theater owner and producer
  • -Control 17 of 40 theaters in NYC
  • -Own Telecharge
73
Q

Ziegfeld

A
  • -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
74
Q

Ziegfeld’s Follies

A
  • -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
75
Q

Showgirls and Ponies

A

Ziegfeld’s girls

76
Q

Ziegfeld’s girls

A

Showgirls and ponies

77
Q

Showgirls (Ziegfeld)

A

Wore the elaborate costumes

78
Q

Ponies (Ziegfeld)

A

The dancers

Called “Gypsies” today

Survey of Musical Theater (1 decks)

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