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Part 5Music for Theater and Film

Chapter 17: Musical Theater

America’s Musical Landscape 6th edition

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Part 5: Music for Theater and Film Chapter 17: Musical Theater 2

Music and Theater: Historical and Cultural Perspective Music and theater create a union greater than the

sum of its parts Long history – back to ancient Greek choruses

The mutual attraction of music and drama remains as strong today as it was in ancient times

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Part 5: Music for Theater and Film Chapter 17: Musical Theater 3

Music and Theater: Musical Theater in America America’s earliest professional musical

performances mostly operas and operettas imported from England or Europe British Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operettas were favorites

Early American productions included some based on British ballad operas

incorporated popular songs into melodramatic stage presentations

The Black Crook – first notable American musical Little Johnny Jones – first American musical comedy

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Music and Theater: Broadway Musicals The Broadway musical stage reflected changing

styles and mores George Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing was a political satire His Porgy and Bess offered a sympathetic view of Negro life in Charleston Jerome Kern’s Showboat and Pins and Needles were social commentaries

Late 20th century British invasion Predominantly white and mainstream Popularity of revivals

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Part 5: Music for Theater and Film Chapter 17: Musical Theater 5

Music and Theater: Opera Today’s musicals and operas are nearly

interchangeable

Many American operas based on stories of American life, legend, or current events Others based on popular Italian operas

Some current Broadway shows are largely sung throughout, as in opera

Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King

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Music and Theater: Films Several outstanding Broadway composers

worked on Hollywood films Adapting old musicals Writing new musical scores

Movie musicals are making a comeback Audiences continue to fill theaters and movie

houses and buy recordings of theater music Despite the glut of entertainment available on video, computers and

television

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Chapter 17: Musical Theater: Variety Shows Vaudeville

Invented by Tony (Antonio) Pastor (1837-1908) Shared characteristics of minstrel shows, but involved different performers Featured a variety of entertainment such as circus stunts,

jugglers, songs, dances Team of Harrigan and Hart depicted scenes of everyday

life in America Chicago – 1975 Broadway musical that celebrated the

vaudeville tradition New or postmodern vaudevillians are younger

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Variety Shows: Burlesque A type of variety of show that ridicules something important –

a kind of satire Strip shows were included between acts 1920s – Burlesque had degenerated to strip shows Sugar Babies (1979) – Broadway show highlighting the best

of early burlesque Burlesque on television

Saturday Night Live The Jerry Springer Show

Burlesque is no longer a fading form

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Part 5: Music for Theater and Film Chapter 17: Musical Theater 9

Variety Shows: Revues A form of a variety show in which scenes

are related by a common theme Ziegfeld Follies – Most popular of all revues

Extravagant staging and costumes Celebrated the American girl

Recent revues are based on the music of one composer Side By Side by Stephen Sondheim

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Variety Shows: Operetta A story told in speech and song with an integrated plot

Sometimes called “light opera, ” includes songs, dances, instrumental pieces

Gilbert and Sullivan – Gilbert’s patter songs ridiculed politics in humorous

rhyming words Sullivan’s music poked fun at opera

American Operettas John Philip Sousa composed fifteen operettas

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Musical Comedies These new musical show were gaudy, boisterous

productions George M. Cohan (1878-1942) Child of vaudeville performers

Little Johnny Jones (1904) considered the first real musical comedy Composed hits such as Give My Regards to Broadway and Yankee Doodle Boy

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Listening Example 59Give My Regards to Broadway(from Little Johnny Jones)By George M. Cohan (1878 – 1942)Listening Guide page 299

Meter: DupleTempo: BriskForm: Verse-chorusTimbre: Male vocalist (Al Jolson) accompanied by theater orchestra

and chorus

This piece from Cohan’s firstfull-length show, LittleJohnny Jones, is usuallyconsidered to be the firstmusical comedy. The plot concerns a jockey who is accused of throwing a race.

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Black Musical Theater African Americans were influential on Broadway Will Marion Cook (1869-1944) – composed for

several black shows including In Dahoney (1903) Shuffle Along (1921) – Broadway hit which

included Josephine Baker, who was later a star in Paris, in the cast Revived interest in black musical theater

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Jerome Kern’s Show Boat Jerome Kern was a Tin Pan Alley songwriter Wrote several successful Broadway shows

Collaborated with Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse

Show Boat (1927) – landmark show with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, focused on interracial relations Had an integrated plot based on a novel by an established

author, Edna Ferber Literature-based musicals didn’t become common for years Called both a musical and an operetta

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Part 5: Music for Theater and Film Chapter 17: Musical Theater 15

Golden Age of Broadway Musicals(1930-1955) Irving Berlin’s Watch Your Step (1914)

Famous dance couple Irene and Vernon Castle sparked a dance craze

George Gershwin’s Lady Be Good (1924) – featured great song and dance

After 1929 sound movies became popular

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Listening Example 60Ol’ Man River (from Show Boat)Composer Jerome Kern (1885-1945)Lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960)Listening Guide page 303

Meter: Verse: Triple. Chorus: Quadruple.Texture: HomophonicTimbre: Bass voice (Paul Robeson) accompanied by string orchestra

Singers including Robeson have altered the original lyrics of this song to avoid the racial terms commonlyused in the composers’ time.

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Part 5: Music for Theater and Film Chapter 17: Musical Theater 17

Rodgers and Hart Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) – songwriter

Lorenz Hart (1895-1943) – lyricist

On Your Toes (1936) – Rodgers and Hart musical featuring choreographer, George Balanchine, who designed dance steps to integrate with the drama

Pal Joey (1940)

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Part 5: Music for Theater and Film Chapter 17: Musical Theater 18

Rodgers and Hammerstein Oklahoma! – The product of a new collaboration between

Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II

Carousel (1945)

King and I (1951)

South Pacific (1949)

The Sound of Music (1959)

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Expansion of the Broadway Musical Frank Loesser (1910-1969) – composer of

Broadway shows that required a heightened sense of singing

Lerner and Loewe – famous Broadway team (lyricist and composer) Brigadoon Camelot My Fair Lady

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Leonard Bernstein(1918-1990) Pianist, composer, conductor

Adapted On the Town from ballet

Composed Broadway masterpiece West Side Story (1957) featuring heightened use of dance with choreography by Jerome Robbins

Ensemble – several characters present their own point of view, singly and collectively

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Listening Example 61Tonight (from West Side Story)Composer Leonard Bernstein (191801990)Lyricist Stephen Sondheim (b. 1930)Listening Guide page 309

Meter: ChangingTexture: Homophonic/polyphonicTimbres: Vocal soloists, solo and choral ensembles, and orchestra

Notice how sophisticated rhythms and changing meters lend excitement to the finale.

West Side Story, based on Romeo and Juliet, is set in modern times (New York Cityin the 1950s).

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Part 5: Music for Theater and Film Chapter 17: Musical Theater 22

Stephen Sondheim (b. 1930) Intended to compose concert music, but drawn to Broadway A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) Follies (1971) – parodies the Ziegfeld Follies A Little Night Music (1973) Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979) – a

musical about murder and cannibalism Company – a “concept musical” which addresses

controversial subjects

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Listening Example 62Every Day a Little Death (from A Little Night Music)Composer and Lyricist Stephen Sondheim (b. 1930)Listening Guide page 311

Meter: QuadrupleForm: A B ATexture: HomophonicTimbre: Female vocal duet, accompanied by orchestra

Although a critical success,audiences criticized A LittleNight Music for not havingenough “good” songs.

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Part 5: Music for Theater and Film Chapter 17: Musical Theater 24

More Black Musicals

The Wiz – a black interpretation of The Wizard of Oz

A black version of Guys and Dolls Bubbling Brown Sugar – all black revue

featuring music by “Fats” Waller, Duke Ellington and Eubie Blake

Dream Girls – a show based on the experiences of the Supremes

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Part 5: Music for Theater and Film Chapter 17: Musical Theater 25

The Music of Musicals Use of jazz, country-western, blues Use of rock music

Hair , Jesus Christ Superstar, Grease, Mama Mia

Use of indie rock Spring Awakening

Use of Latin and hip-hop Def Poetry Jam In the Heights

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Current Trends Revivals of shows including Cabaret (1998) and

Oklahoma (2002) From film to Broadway

The Producers The Lion King

Effects other than music Increasing interest in multi-media shows Audience involvement Dance Concern for addressing children (Cats, Beauty and the

Beast)