Long-running musical theatre productions

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 growth and current peak prosperity of the musical theatre genre across many platforms and international lines. The reintroduction of the live television broadcast of musicals on major television networks, the most coveted and promoted major holiday season…

The movie of ‘Tomorrow’, but as everyone knows it Annie, this musical was based on a comic strip, Little Orphan Annie, created by Harold Gray in the early 1900’s. It is fact that originally the playwright Thomas Meehan was a bit hesitant of creating a musical based on a comic, but in fact it was Martin Charnin the director also lyricist who had this idea, in this case persistence paid off when eventually Thomas and the composer Charles Strouse agreed. The production of Annie was first…

Allison Atkenson Kevin Long Musical Theatre History December 16, 2015 Issues confronted At the start of the year my classmates and I were asked to define the true purpose of theatre. Our responses ranged from “a combination of song and spectacle” to “emotions communicated through spoken word, music, and movement.” But overall, we concluded it was an art form that was meant to both teach and entertain. Musical theatre has and will likely forever remain a vehicle to discuss societal issues…

April 29th 1996, Broadway’s Nederland theatre is sold out to capacity and the audience is gritting their teeth with excitement, but an overture is nowhere to be heard, the curtains are missing and the haphazardly placed lighting rigs have not yet dimmed. All at once, the stage erupts with cast members running in-between and out of the industrial themed set, a strum of a guitar is heard and a critically acclaimed overnight sensation is born in the image of Jonathon Larson. Adapted from the…

rehearsal hours, feeding off an audience during live performances, and praying to the right gods, were signed on for a starring role in a film: an advancement in their career. Today, the craft of acting and the medium in which an actor is showcased have changed landscapes and the up-and-coming “starving actor” is struggling for work. Casting for film has long been equated to having the right “look” and there seems to only be two ways to get your feet on a Broadway stage: insane talent and luck…

The musical has gone through many changes in its lifetime. Its has been developed, explored and performed in millions of theatres around the world. But what really are the foundations of the art form itself? All of the three elements are really important, but there is one that stands out and has changed the most. That would be the music. The music has served the musical in many ways. It serves the characters extended feelings of fulfillment and gives the audience something to hum out of the…

and that I did not belong. On a couple of occurrences I was beat and once I even got chocked until I blacked out. I was living in this world of hell and my only solace was forgetting who I was. The feeling of being able to leave behind the world for a temporary period of time to become someone else was and is always going to be the best feeling I ever felt in my life. The drama program molded me into who I am today and without that I think that I would be here today. As I was growing up I was…

The Lubbock Moonlight Musicals in partnership with Texas Tech’s School of Music definitely did not disappoint with their amazing performance of Phantom of the Opera. This is one of the most well know and classical musicals but doesn’t fit into any specific category. It is not exactly classic musical theatre due to the music being for classically trained singers, but it is not exactly an opera either because it has dialogue while an opera is traditionally completely sung. This makes for a…

Music in film can have many purposes. It can change the mood of the audience, alert them to danger, or even be used to give exposition of the story to the audience. The latter, along with its variation, such as a monologue delivered in song, are used to create musicals--a genre used by Disney since its very beginning. For this journal I watched Disney’s Moana to see how it used music to move the plot, and influence its audience. The song “Where You Are” is used in Moana to tell exposition and…

West Side Story book turned musical was written in 1957 by Arthur Laurents. West Side Story is a musical interpretation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, giving it a modern spin and a change from the original class to race rivalry. The setting of this play is based in the 1950s in the Upper West Side of New York City. The rivalry is between two gangs called the Jets, a white gang, and the Sharks, a Puerto Rican gang. Comparable to Romeo and Juliet the main plot to this story is based on the…