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40 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back

Musical theatre in the 30s

-drought hit broadway


-no one picked up where Show Boat left off



Longest runs of the 30s

-Of thee I sing (441) by Gershwins


-Music in the Air (342 p) by Kern and Hammerstein

Comparison of Longest runs

20s- 608


30s- 441 of thee I sing


40s- 2,212 oklahoma


50s- 2,717 my fair lady


60s- 3,242 fiddler on the roof


70s- 6, 137 a chorus line


80s- 5,944 cats

why so few success after show boat?

-rise of radio


-rise of film


-hollywood migration


-great depression


-WWII


-the end of an era:


George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, and Lorenz Hart died

how did new technology affect musical theatre?

-5,000 theatres closed


-1,000 performers forced to quit

Ethel Merman

-Annie get your gun, anything goes


-broadway belter

Broadway belter

-associated w/women


-loud and projected optimism, brassy voice


-narrow and lower range


-ex. Ethel Merman, Idina Menzel

Mary Martin

-leave it to me!, south pacific, the sound of music


-original Maria in sound of music


-half broadway belter, half "legit voice"



Legit voice

-wider range


-ability for vibrato


-classically trained


-lighter in tone

George Abbott

-not a performer but a huge figure


-father of modern musical comedy


-for 30yrs all but 1 week he had a show running on broadway


-producer, director, bookwriter


-mentored Harold Prince


-focused on book of show


-his shows had lots of dance and choreo was integrated

Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart

-25yr partnership (A Connecticut yankee, on your toes, paul joey


-producing on average 2 shows a yr


-rodgers wrote music first then Hart added lyrics

"Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered"

-Form: V, A, A, B, A

George and Ira Gershwin

-brothers collabed on Strike up the band, of thee I sing, Let 'Em eat cake, and Porgy and Bess


-wrote political operettas


-George a composer


-Ira a lyricist

Oklahoma! billing

Composer: Rodgers


Lyricist/bookwriter: Hammerstein II


Source: Green grow the lilacs (play) by Lynn Riggs


Producer: Theatre Guild


Director: Rouben Mamoulian


Choreo: Agnes de Mille


Billing: a new musical comedy (altered to musical play)


Ran: March 31, 1943


2,212 performances

Oklahoma!

-theatre guild approached Rogers and Hart about doing the show


-lacked a cultural frame of reference in which to place Oklahoma!

Making a show:

Creative process


producer


director


casting


rehearse


tryouts


previews


opening

what is a Musical Play?

-emphasis on book


-focus on serious issues


-music is integrated (shift b/w speech and song is almost unnoticeable)


-dance is integrated

Richard Rogers

-american composer


-rodgers worked with Hart on more than 15 musical comedies


-later joined Hammerstein to create most successful partnership


-composed more than 900 published songs and 40 musicals

Oscar Hammerstein

-lyricist/bookwriter


-collabed w/Romberg, Friml, Kern,


-Oklahoma!, Carousel, Allegro, South Pacific, The King and I, The Sound of Music


-dozens of awards


-Rodgers added music to Hammersteins lyrics

Agnes de Mille

-choreo and dancer


-choreographed 15 musicals


-Carousel, Allegro, Brigadoon, 110 in the Shade, Oklahoma

Rouben Mamoulian

-american theatre and film director


-directed Porgy and Bess and its source (the play Porgy) and Carousel

Oklahoma Main characters:

-Curly


-Laurey Williams


-Will Parker


-Ado Annie


-Aunt Eller


-Ali Hakim


-Jud Fry

"The Surrey with the Fringe On Top"

-sung by Curly (then Laurey and Aunt Eller)


-ex of underscoring and musical scene


-ex of charm song


-non-diegetic


-Form: V, A, A, B, A1, V, A, A, B, A1, underscored dialogue, A, A, B, A1

Rhyme

correspondence of sound b/w words or the endings of words

Alliteration

repetition of initial consonants

Onomatopoeia

word that imitates the sound of the thing its describing

Consonance

close repetition of consonant sounds

Assonance

close repetition of vowel sounds

Anaphora

repetition of same words at beg of successive lines

False Firsts

-NOT first musical to end with an exclamation point


-NOT first musical w/cast recording (The Cradle will Rock)


-NOT first musical to start w/out a chorus number (anything goes)


-NOT first musical play (lady in the dark)


-NOT first dream ballet

"Oh ,What a Beautiful Mornin'"

-might be first a cappella opening to a musical


-ex of an establishing number

Real Firsts

-first show to cast exclusively unknown stars


-first musical to have such a long run


-redefined the parameters of a broadway show as a commercial enterprise


-first to demonstrate the principles of integration


-first to experience almost immediate national resonance as an american cultural artifact

Principles of Integration

-song advances plot


-song flows directly from the dialogue


-song expresses the character who sings them


-dances advance the plot


-orchestra advances the plot

Problems w/Idea of integration

-shouldn't be equated w/artistic success


-celebrating integration casts a shadow over the shows that came before Oklahoma

"The Farmer and the Cowman"

-ex of a production number

Making of an Icon

-Oklahoma! was a revolutionary manifesto because of:


-critical reception (opening night reviews, reviews in nationally-circulating publications, "birthday" pieces)


-revivals


-the reputation of its creators

Oklahoma love triangles

Laurey-Curly and Jud


Ado Annie- Will and Ali Hakim

The "Golden Age" of the Musical

-from Oklahoma (1943) to West Side Story (1957)


-fewer shows opened but many had long runs


-300 shows opened during golden age


-20 musicals ran more than 1,000 performances


-more than 50 surpassed the 500 performance mark

Creative Partnerships

-Rodgers and Hammerstein


-Lerner and Loewe


-Adler and Ross


-Arlen and Harburg


-Burrows and Loesser


-Comden and Green


-Bock and Harrick


-Kander and Ebb


-Strouse and Adams


-Jones and Schmidt

Characteristics of Golden Age musical

-more adventurous in its subject matter


-more serious in its social commentary


-"integrated"


-elevation of dance


-expansion of formal parameters from AABA to complex musical scenes