The Great White Way Analysis

Through the combination of this documentary, “The Great White Way” and “Showtime, I was exposed to information that made me question my definition of a musical. I was also forced to explore how the musical developed from its origins into what we know as the modern musical of today. My first discovery was that the musical is a distinctly “Americanized” art form and as such it is became a key part of American cultural movements that would follow the Revolutionary war. After gaining our independence as a country we moved to reject a great deal of our European culture and were then forced to create a new distinct American culture with its own art forms and practices. In order to determine how this process occurred specifically within live performance …show more content…
The documentary we watched in class along with reading from the “Great White Way” and “Showtime” gave me a good sense of how and why the modern musical came to be the important cultural platform it is today. The modern musical came to be as a result of American’s creating the need for an art form that was both entertaining and provacative while still remaining accessible to a wide range of audiences. In Europe, operas and operettas served this purpose but American’s perceived that art form as something only for the high class and educated which made it inaccessible to a wider audience. In order to achieve this the entertainment for a wide rage of audiences had to evolve from an entertainment only art, to an art that made people think and question society. One of biggest successes of musical theatre was in the civil rights movement by giving a much needed platform to showcase black people and black culture. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was the most popular play of it’s time and the original book was intended to condemned slavery. It was one of the very first platforms that …show more content…
The American musical has started the conversation for many important issues and allowed for the inclusion of Black and LGBTQA* communities in the American identity by bringing them into the spotlight and the conversation. Broadway and the American musical has become an incredibly valuable platform for issues like these to gain the visibility they wouldn’t otherwise get. I think that Broadway has become this platform because it is one of the only places where live performance art can still thrive. The reason live performance has had such success talking about tough issues is because of the magic of live theatre. Watching an actor perform live automatically instills a sense of empathy in the audience for that character, even if that character’s culture, race, sexual orientation or life choices are something you struggle to