Gilbert and Sullivan

One of Musical Theatre’s most loved productions, Pirates of Penzance, has delighted and enthralled audiences all around the world since its first production in 1879. In Opera Australia’s 2006 performance of this Gilbert and Sullivan classic they showed that even after a century, this production was timeless, a true testament to the genius of her creators. Pirates of Penzance is about a young man named Frederic (David Hobson) who has been wrongly apprenticed to a band of pirates, led by the Pirate King (Anthony Warlow), since a young age. He has finally reached an age at which he can go off into the world and live as a free man. However his troubles follow him in the form of his nurse old Ruth (Suzanne Johnston) who had been the reason for his accidental apprenticeship in the…

When it first started, musical theatre wasn’t what we think of today, it wasn’t even called musical theatre. The roots of this art form go all the way back to ancient Greece. In America, however, it goes all the way back to minstrel shows, then vaudeville, follies after that, musical comedy and then finally it developed into what we recognize as musical theatre. This paper will tell a brief history of how musical theatre, or more specifically, Broadway, developed. There’s one prominent person…

History of Musical Theatre When people imagine Musicals they think of Big Broadway lights shining down on people singing and acting but most do not know the story behind the curtains you see. People wouldn't’ ever first think of Athens on a hill in the fifth century B.C.E. Musical Theatre started as a unpopular idea but over the years it started to grow into a world wide famous reputation. A musical is a well written play that makes living art forms in dialogues that include music and…

It is not a secret that West Side Story is what can be called the American version of the Romeo and Juliet. I will like to note the contribution of West Side Story to the history of musical theater. The creators did their research and although the creation time was long, they came up with a game changing idea in the music theater arena. At that time not many plays on Broadway attempted to introduce or present musical theater productions which explored, in depth, issues of racism, geographical,…

Although Signature Theatre has not yet produced Guys and Dolls, it is one that their company could undoubtedly do in the future. The theatre certainly has the capabilities and facilities necessary to produce a high quality version of this musical. However, this fact, although relevant is not the most important factor in deciding whether or not they would choose to produce the show. The theatre must also have a desire to pick this specific musical out of the hundreds of other choices that exist.…

A rising art form in popular culture today is none other than the American musical theatre. An array of factors have emerged and collided over the past decade to bring what was once a niche staple of American culture to the forefront of the media and culture around the world. The sum of an evolving variety of music genres within the form, an increased interest and engagement by A and B list celebrities, an increasingly globalized Western culture, among other influences have allowed for the…

Thinking of high school plays and musicals, not much thought goes into the similarities and differences between the two people tend to think they are pretty much the same thing. Although in reality they are not, even when I start a play or a musical the audition process is different. Being part of the cast and crew can also be different depending on if a play or a musical. In the end, the performances are pretty much the same with slight differences in the preparation for the show. Auditioning…

How boring would life be without musical theatre entertainment? I can answer that—boring. Entertainment in this industry has proved the world that musical theatre is just as amusing as a football event played on the weekends. Acquiring a job in this field can be difficult, but with hard work it can be done. Musical theatre has been around for a long time and has changed over decades. Entertainment in this industry started in the nineteenth century and still thrives today. It started off…

America goes through contrasting situations during the 1920–1940 that is reflected in the development of musicals. The first decade is reflected for economic welfare causing Immigration attraction. Thus, the context allowed the development of new talents and developments on musical entertainment. Genres like operetta achieved an enormous popularity, this achievement provided a robust background for the formation of new musicals. New talents that had a Jewish formation emerged at this time,…

The perception of our emotions, and the world we live in isn’t all that it seems. Daniel Gilbert, a professor of social psychology at Harvard has an inquisitive view of the relationship between perceived happiness, and reality. In the chapter “Immune to Reality” from his book Stumbling on Happiness, Gilbert reasons that our psychological immune system causes us to be self-deceiving and as a result, causing us to have the tendency to cook the facts of situations that can affect our happiness.…