The Musical

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Chapter 13

• The Musical

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On Musicals

• American musical theatre is our
• indigenous art form. We cant
• claim drama, ballet, or opera,
• but musical theatre is our very
• own. . . . Musicals are in our
• blood and in our bones, are part
• of our collective personality.
• Molly Smith,
• Artistic Director of the Arena Stage

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Broad Categories of Musicals

• Book musicals
• Rodgers and Hammerstein
• Lerner and Loewe
• Dance musicals
• Michael Bennett
• Bob Fosse
• Tommie Tune
• Operatic musicals
• Andrew Lloyd Webber
• Stephen Sondheim
• Adam Guettel

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Musical Theatre Genres

• Opera
• Operetta
• Revue
• Variety show
• Vaudeville
• Burlesque
• Musical comedy
• Straight musical
• Rock musical

Avenue Q
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Components of the Musical

• Music
• Composer
• Lyricists
• Book
• Librettist

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Types of Musical Numbers

• Overture
• Previews the music from the show by playing a
  medley of tunes before the show begins
• Ballad
• Usually a slow love song
• Comedy number
• Designed for comic relief
• Showstopper
• A big brass production number
• Reprise
• Repetition of pieces of a song or melody line

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Musicals A Brief HistoryOpera

• Opera
• Originated in Italy in the 1500s
• Reached its peak in the 19th century with
  composers like Wagner, Mozart, Puccini, Rossini,
  and Handel

• Comic Opera
• Developed from intermezzi
• Gilbert and Sullivans opera are regarded by most
  as the epitome of this form
• Exists today in the form of the rock opera

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Musicals A Brief HistoryEarly American Musicals

• Ballad Operas
• Began with John Gays Three Penny Opera in 1728
• Vaudeville
• 1890 1920 was its height of popularity
• Minstrel Shows
• Caricatured African-American plantation life in
  song and dance
• Revues
• Ziegfeld Follies was the epitome of this unique
  form of the American musical theatre
• Extravaganzas
• The Black Crook in 1866 spawned this unique form
  of musical that emphasized elaborate scenery and
  scantily glad female dancing chorines

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Musicals A Brief HistoryAfrican American
Musicals

• A Trip to Coontown (1898)
• The Origin of the Cakewalk (1898)
• Scuffle Along (1921)
• Running Wild (1923)
• Porgy and Bess (1935)
• Cabin in the Sky (1940)
• The Wiz (1975)
• Bring in da Noise Bring in da Funk (1996)

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Musicals A Brief HistoryThe Show Boat (1927)
Revolution

• The quintessential American musical
• Integrated book, lyrics, and music into a unified
  whole
• Focused on serious themes in American culture
• Brought Euro-American and African-American
  performers together on the same stage at the same
  time
• First musical to win the Pulitzer Prize
• Established Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II
  as major figures in the development of the
  American musical

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Musicals A Brief History1927 - Today

• Oklahoma! (1943)
• West Side Story (1957)
• Cabaret (1966)
• Hair (1967)
• A Chorus Line (1975)
• Cats (1982)
• Rent (1996)
• The Producers (2001)
• The Light in the Piazza (2005)

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Musicals Today

• The main problems for Broadway musicals has to do
  with the exorbitant cost of producing them
• Disneyification of the musical
• Reliance upon revivals to recoup huge investments
• The Tourist Musical is challenged by smaller cast
  musicals like Urinetown and Avenue Q