Development of the American Musical - Exam One

Oscar Hammerstein

- (8 May 1847 - 1 August 1919) was a businessman, theater impresario and composer in New York City. His passion for opera led him to open several opera houses, and he rekindled opera's popularity in America. He was the grandfather of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. He built the Victorian theatre in 1899 which ultimately became a vaudeville house.

Oscar Hammerstein II

- (July 12, 1895 - August 23, 1960) was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and (usually uncredited) theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Many of his songs are standard repertoire for singers and jazz musicians. He co-wrote 850 songs. Hammerstein was the lyricist and playwright in his partnerships; his collaborators wrote the music. Hammerstein collaborated with composers Jerome Kern, Vincent Youmans, Rudolf Friml, Richard A. Whiting and Sigmund Romberg; but his most famous collaboration, by far, was with Richard Rodgers, which included The Sound of Music.

George Gershwin

- (September 26, 1898 - July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known. Among his best known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928), as well as the opera Porgy and Bess (1935). - A Jazz Age composer who was the son of Russian immigrants and, like many others during his time, mixed symphony and jazz together to create an entirely new style that represented how America was a mixture of peoples. - He wrote "A rhapsody in blue" for a concert called "An Experiment in Modern Music"

Vaudeville

- * Stage entertainment offering a variety of short acts such as slapstick turns, song-and-dance routines, and juggling performances. Popular in the United States from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Vaudeville developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime museums, and literary burlesque. Called "the heart of American show business," vaudeville was one of the most popular types of entertainment in North America for several decades. - A type of inexpensive variety show that first appeared in the 1870s, often consisting of comic sketches, song-and-dance routines, and magic acts

"The Lady Is a Tramp"

- * sung by Ella Fitzgerald (tagline song, not AABA structure). It's a show tune from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms in which it was introduced by former child star Mitzi Green. This song is a spoof of New York high society and its strict etiquette (the first line of the verse is "I get too hungry for dinner at eight..."). It has become a popular standard.

Berlesque

- *Gypsy Rose Lee strip tease video - *A variety show characterized by broad ribald comedy, dancing, and striptease. - A genre of variety show. Derived from elements of Victorian burlesque, music hall and minstrel shows, burlesque shows in America became popular in the 1860s and evolved to feature ribald comedy (lewd jokes) and female striptease. By the early 20th century, burlesque in America was presented as a populist blend of satire, performance art, music hall and adult entertainment, featuring striptease and broad comedy acts. Burlesque gradually lost popularity beginning in the 1940s.

Minstrelsy

- *Starts 1830s, most popular form of American entertainment, 1850-1870, lasts mid-20th century, Thomas D. Rice "Jim Crow"- a comic variety show of the 19th and early 20th centuries, usually featuring white actors in blackface. - Popular form of musical theater in the United States during the mid-nineteenth century, in which white performers blackened their faces and impersonated African Americans in jokes, skits, songs, and dances.

Operetta

- *a genre of enormous popularity in Europe and early 20th-century America. Grew out of French "opéra bouffe." Usually more vocally challenging ("operatic") than the scores of musical comedies - The most popular brand of musical theatre for the first two decades of the 20th century. It was tailor made for the tastes and habits of the turn-of-the-century consumer of refined amusement. - Operetta originally meant a short opera [17th century]. By 19th century it became associated with comic opera or any such like considered less 'serious' than operas. - Most operettas can be described as 'light' operas - good examples are the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. Carmen (1875) is an example of an opéra comique with a tragic plot. - Although as with all labels in music, the distinction has become blurred. Basically there is no difference between the scores for an opera and an operetta - except for the operetta's lightness

torch song

- 1920s, a sad or sentimental song, typically about unrequited love.

Tony and Pulitzer Success

- 1947, since then jewish composers

Melodrama

- A literary form in which events are exaggerated in order to create an extreme emotional response. - A form of cheesy theater in which the hero is very, very good, the villain mean and rotten, and the heroine oh-so-pure.

Metatheatre

- A play within a play

Revival

- A restaging of a stage production after its original run has closed. New material may be added.

list song

- A song based wholly or in part on a list. List songs typically develop by working through a list, sometimes using items of escalating absurdity.

patter song

- A staple of comic opera, but it has also been used in musicals and other situations. ...

ASCAP

- American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. It's an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that protects its members' musical copyrights by monitoring public performances of their music, whether via a broadcast or live performance, and compensating them accordingly. - ASCAP was founded by composer Victor Herbert at the Hotel Claridge in New York City on February 13, 1914, to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members, who were mostly writers and publishers associated with New York City's Tin Pan Alley. ASCAP's earliest members included the era's most active songwriters—Irving Berlin, Otto Harbach, James Weldon Johnson, Jerome Kern and John Philip Sousa. Subsequently, many other prominent songwriters became members. In 1919, ASCAP and the Performing Rights Society of Great Britain (since 1997 known as PRS for Music), signed the first reciprocal agreement for the representation of each other's members' works in their respective territories. Today, ASCAP has global reciprocal agreements and licenses the U.S. performances of hundreds of thousands of international music creators.

The Shubert Brothers

A trio of immigrants who founded Broadway's largest theatre dynasty, which has lasted into the 21st century.

Porgy and Bess

- An American folk opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward. All three works deal with African-American life in the fictitious Catfish Row (based on the area of Cabbage Row) in Charleston, South Carolina, in the early 1920s.

George M. Cohan

- An American songwriter and entertainer of the early twentieth century, known as being the father of American musical comedy and for such rousing songs as, "Yankee doodle dandy" and "over there" - Part of the actors equity association, 1913 - (July 3, 1878 - November 5, 1942), known professionally as George M. Cohan, was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and producer. Cohan began his career as a child, performing with his parents and sister in a vaudeville act known as "The Four Cohans." Beginning with Little Johnny Jones in 1904, he wrote, composed, produced, and appeared in more than three dozen Broadway musicals. Cohan published more than 300 songs during his lifetime, including the standards "Over There", "Give My Regards to Broadway", "The Yankee Doodle Boy" and "You're a Grand Old Flag". As a composer, he was one of the early members of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). He displayed remarkable theatrical longevity, appearing in films until the 1930s, and continuing to perform as a headline artist until 1940. Known in the decade before World War I as "the man who owned Broadway", he is considered the father of American musical comedy. His life and music were depicted in the Academy Award-winning film Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and the 1968 musical George M!. A statue of Cohan in Times Square in New York City commemorates his contributions to American musical theatre.

Princess Theatre

- Cast of 30 people - a joint venture between the Shubert Brothers (Lee Shubert, Samuel S. Shubert, and Jacob J. Shubert), producer Ray Comstock, theatrical agent Elisabeth Marbury and actor-director Holbrook Blinn. Built on a narrow slice of land located at 106 West 39th Street, just off Sixth Avenue in New York City, and seating just 299 people, it was one of the smallest Broadway theaters when it opened in early 1913. The architect was William A. Swasey, who designed the Winter Garden Theatre two years earlier. Though small, the theatre had a profound effect on the development of American musical theatre. After producing a series of plays, the theatre hosted a famous series of sophisticated musicals by the team of Jerome Kern, Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, between 1915 and 1918 that were believable and humorous, musically innovative, and integrated their songs with their stories. These were considered an artistic step forward for American musical theatre, inspiring the next generation of writers and composers. Afterwards, the theatre hosted more plays and later served as a movie theatre and a recreation center. It was torn down in 1955.

Agnes De Mille

- Choreographer for Oklahoma!, Carousel, Allegro, 1947 - In Carousel she a director and choreographer - In Allegro she's the first female Broadway director - Society of stage directors and choreographers, 1959 ---> she fought to get choreographers the same rights directors had. - She choreographed "The Dream Ballet" in Oklahoma!

Tin Pan Alley

- Coined by Monroe Rosenfield when interviewing the songwriter Harry Von Tilzer. She heard pianos coming from every open office window and remarked that it sounded like the clanging together of so many tin pans. - The origins of the name extend back to the gentility of the Victorian age. - The songs were written for no grander purpose than to make money and by 1910 almost a hundred of them had sold more than a million copies each. - The beginning of a revolution of technology and popular taste that would mean a bonanza for songwriters and their publishers.

Self-contained song/scene

- Development of a story with a song

National theatre in D.C.

- Did not want a black audience

Tableaux Vivant

- Ending number, lots of people not fully clothed, not overtly sexualized

Jerome Kern

- Father of American theatre - (January 27, 1885 - November 11, 1945) he was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A Fine Romance", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "All the Things You Are", "The Way You Look Tonight", "Long Ago (and Far Away)" and "Who?". He collaborated with many of the leading librettists and lyricists of his era, including George Grossmith Jr., Guy Bolton, P. G. Wodehouse, Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields, Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin and E. Y. Harburg. - created dozens of Broadway musicals and Hollywood films in a career that lasted for more than four decades. His musical innovations, such as 4/4 dance rhythms and the employment of syncopation and jazz progressions, built on, rather than rejected, earlier musical theatre tradition. He and his collaborators also employed his melodies to further the action or develop characterization to a greater extent than in the other musicals of his day, creating the model for later musicals. Although dozens of Kern's musicals and musical films were hits, only Show Boat is now regularly revived. Songs from his other shows, however, are still frequently performed and adapted. Although Kern detested jazz arrangements of his songs, many have been adopted by jazz musicians to become standard tunes.

Victor Hurbert

- First American operetta composer. - Led the group ASCAP and in 1915 brought a suit against Broadway restaurant whose orchestra was playing Hurbert selections without authorization.

Geroge Ballanchine

- First choreographer for a Broadway show

Recitative

- Lots of words. i.e. model of a modern major general (list and patter song or either)

Jukebox Musical

- One of the more modern types of musical and does what it says on the tin - they are musicals where the audience is encouraged to join in with the songs. I think one of the first musicals of this kind in the West End was (and is) Mamma Mia! Quite often they are centred around a well known band or music recorded by a well known band, for example We Will Rock You is a jukebox musical which features many of the well known Queen songs.

Weber and Fields

- Opened their own music hall in 1896 on Broadway - They became the undisputed champions of burlesque comedy with show titles such as "fiddle-dee-dee" and "hokey pokey."

Rodgers and Hammerstein

- Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960) were an influential, innovative and successful American musical theatre writing team, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s, initiating what is considered the "golden age" of musical theatre. With Rodgers composing the music and Hammerstein writing the lyrics, five of their shows, Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music, were outstanding successes. Among the many accolades their shows (and film versions) garnered were thirty-four Tony Awards, fifteen Academy Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and two Grammy Awards. (Colombia university, varsity shows) Their musical theatre writing partnership has been called the greatest of the 20th century.

Coon song

- Ridiculed African American rural manners and urban pretensions. It was a popular style in the late nineteenth century that featured offensive racial stereotypes, strong rhythms, syncopation, and quick tempos that demanded a robust delivery.

Oklahoma!

- Rodgers and Hammerstein,1943, had over 2000 performances - The characters broke the norm in terms of how sexual the musical was at this time, lots of sexuality and the presence of violence - Music: quasi love songs ---> "people will say we're in love," "all or nothing," and "sorry we're a fringe at the top." - the first musical written by the team of composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance with farm girl Laurey Williams. A secondary romance concerns cowboy Will Parker and his flirtatious fiancée, Ado Annie. The original Broadway production opened on March 31, 1943. It was a box-office smash and ran for an unprecedented 2,212 performances, later enjoying award-winning revivals, national tours, foreign productions and an Academy Award-winning 1955 film adaptation. It has long been a popular choice for school and community productions. This musical, building on the innovations of the earlier Show Boat, epitomized the development of the "book musical", a musical play where the songs and dances are fully integrated into a well-made story with serious dramatic goals that are able to evoke genuine emotions other than laughter. In addition, Oklahoma! features musical themes, or motifs, that recur throughout the work to connect the music and story. A fifteen-minute "dream ballet" reflects Laurey's struggle with her feelings about two men, Curley and Jud. A special Pulitzer Prize was awarded to Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II for Oklahoma! in the category of "Special Awards And Citations - Music" in 1944.

Song-as-soliloquy

- Someone singing to themselves

AABA

- Song structure: First chorus, first chorus, bridge, first chorus

Cinema 1920-1929

- Started silent then ended with sound, color and talking. - *i.e. micky mouse steamboat willie

Federal Theatre Project

- The Federal Theatre Project (FTP) was a New Deal project to fund theatre and other live artistic performances in the United States during the Great Depression. - The Cradle Will Rock is a 1937 musical by Marc Blitzstein. Originally a part of the Federal Theatre Project, it was directed by Orson Welles, and produced by John Houseman.

Christy's Minstrels

- The most famous blackface minstel troupe formed in 1843 and performed works by Stephen Foster. They stereotyped black people as easily manipulated, making folly of slave history and characterizing blacks as afraid of life outside the plantation. - Characters: Mr. Tambo, Mr. Bones, Mr. Interlocutor, Tops - Structure: Preamble parade, First act - chorus song and dance, Second act - "oleo" and variety act, Third act - parody and burlesque

T.O.B.A

- Theater Owners Booking Association, or T.O.B.A., was the vaudeville circuit for African American performers in the 1920s and 1930s. The theaters mostly had White owners ( Athens, Georgia's, 1909 "Morton Theater" -- run by "Pinky" Monroe Morton, and now beautifully restored, being a notable exception) and collaborated in booking jazz, blues, comedians, and other performers (including the Classically trained -- such as operatic soprano Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones, "The Black Patti") for Black audiences. "Tough on black asses"

Greek theatre

- Theatrical events in honor of the god Dionysus that occured in ancient Greece

Screen-to-stage Musical

- These musicals are based on (sometimes well known) films like the recent production of The Bodyguard which started life as a film musical. In some cases the music from the films make it into the stage musical - not in the case of Sister Act which had a brand new score written. Another example of this type of musical was Priscilla Queen of the Desert The Musical.

Bert Williams

- Transcended minstrelsy's denigration of his race and became not only the most popular comedian of his day, but the most famous African American since Fredrick Dougless. - In Dahomey 1903, first Broadway musical played by entire black cast

Florenz Ziegfeld

- United States theatrical producer noted for a series of extravagant revues known as the Ziegfeld Follies (1869-1932), Gorgeous women in gorgeous costumes. Promoted idea that "Sex Sells" when he created a revue. He was known as the "glorifier of the American girl". - In 1893 he hired German strongman Eugene Sandow from Chicago World's Fair, Bert Williams, Fanny Brice, and took an enormous risk with SHOWBOAT. Women fainted touching Eugene's nearly naked muscular body.

Showboat

- a 1927 musical in two acts, with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Based on Edna Ferber's bestselling novel of the same name, the musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands, and dock workers on the Cotton Blossom, a Mississippi River show boat, over forty years, from 1887 to 1927. Its themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love. The musical contributed such classic songs as "Ol' Man River", "Make Believe", and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man". The arrival of Show Boat on Broadway was a watershed moment in the history of American musicals. Compared to the trivial and unrealistic operettas, light musical comedies, and "Follies"-type musical revues that defined Broadway in the 1890s and early 20th century, Show Boat "was a radical departure in musical storytelling, marrying spectacle with seriousness" Ferber was at first shocked that anyone would want to turn Show Boat into a musical, but after being convinced by Kern that he did not want to adapt the novel into the typical frivolous "girlie" show of the 1920s, she granted him and his collaborator Oscar Hammerstein II the rights to set her novel to music. After composing most of the first act songs, Kern and Hammerstein auditioned their material for producer Florenz Ziegfeld, thinking that only he could create the elaborate production necessary for Ferber's sprawling work. Ziegfeld was impressed with the show and agreed to produce it, writing the next day, "This is the best musical comedy I have ever been fortunate to get a hold of; I am thrilled to produce it, this show is the opportunity of my life..." Show Boat, with its serious and dramatic nature, was considered an unusual choice for Ziegfeld, previously known mainly for revues such as the Ziegfeld Follies.

Slaughter on Tenth Avenue

- a ballet with music by Richard Rodgers and choreography by George Balanchine. It occurs near the end of Rodgers and Hart's 1936 Broadway musical comedy On Your Toes. The ballet was danced by Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen. - The ballet is integrated into the plot of the musical by the device of having two gangsters watching it from box seats in the theatre in which it is staged. They have orders to shoot the leading dancer (played by Ray Bolger in the original production). The dancer, who has been warned just in time, evades them by suddenly dancing at full speed even after the ballet actually ends, and finally two police officers enter and arrest the gangsters.

review

- a critic's written, published assessment of a show's strengths and weaknesses (usually published around opening night). Highly-favorable reviews are called raves, while a poor review is called a pan.

Leitmotif

- a dominant or recurring theme (purely instrumental) i.e. darth vader imperial march

(Integrated) Book Musical

- a musical play where songs and dances are fully integrated into a well-made story with serious dramatic goals that is able to evoke genuine emotions other than laughter.The three main components of a book musical are its music, lyrics and book. The book or script of a musical refers to the story, character development, and dramatic structure, including the spoken dialogue and stage directions, but it can also refer to the dialogue and lyrics together, which are sometimes referred to as the libretto (Italian for "little book"). The music and lyrics together form the score of a musical but the interpretation of a musical by its creative team heavily influences the way in which a musical is presented. That team includes a director, a musical director, usually a choreographer and sometimes an orchestrator. A musical's production is also creatively characterized by technical aspects, such as set design, costumes, stage properties (props), lighting and sound, which generally change from the original production to succeeding productions. Some famous production elements, however, may be retained from the original production; for example, Bob Fosse's choreography in Chicago.A production which devlops a plot and which uses songs and dances either to develop or augment the action.

Rock musical

- a musical theatre work with rock music. The genre of rock musical may overlap somewhat with album musicals, concept albums and song cycles, as they sometimes tell a story through the rock music, and some album musicals and concept albums become rock musicals. Notable examples of rock musicals include Hair, Grease, Rent, Spring Awakening, and Next to Normal. The Who's Tommy and other so-called rock operas are sometimes presented on stage as a musical.

Concept Musical

- a musical where the show's metaphor or statement is more important than the actual narrative. Songs are used as commentaries on the situations and characters. They often avoid the conventional dramatic structure of the linear story. Plot isn't as important as theme or metaphor.Concept musicals have their roots in the plays with music Bertolt Brecht wrote with Kurt Weill and other composers. They were introduced to Broadway in the 1940s, but first flourished in the late 1960s, and became more popular in the 1970s, a trend that was set off by Hair. - There are three major contenders for the title of first concept (even though the term "concept musical" hadn't been coined when any of them played): Lady in the Dark (1941) by Kurt Weill, Ira Gershwin, and Moss Hart, Allegro (1947) by Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Love Life (1948) by Weill and Alan Jay Lerner.

Pal Joey, 1940

- a musical with a book by John O'Hara and music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. -In 1939, while out-of-town with their musical TOO MANY GIRLS, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart received a letter from writer John O'Hara, asking if they would like to write a musical based on his series of short stories written for The New Yorker about a fast-talking Chicago cad whose adventures were told in the form of letters signed "Pal Joey." The idea was provocative and, with an anti-hero at its heartless heart, a challenge to Rodgers & Hart. They quickly said yes. "Not only would the show be totally different from anything we had ever done before," noted Rodgers in his autobiography, MUSICAL STAGES, "it would be different from anything anyone else had ever tried." Working closely with George Abbott, who had signed on as the musical's director and producer, O'Hara sculpted a narrative steeped in blackmail, and sexual politics. The central story revolved around Joey and his affair with a worldly-wise society dame, Vera Simpson; Vivienne Segal was cast as Vera (the character, created for the musical, shared Segal's initials) and the title role went to a talented young actor named Gene Kelly. The supporting cast included June Havoc, Van Johnson and Stanley Donen. - * "the lady is a tramp" - Ella Fitzgerald (tagline song, not AABA structure) used in

On your toes, 1936

- a musical with a book by Richard Rodgers, George Abbott, and Lorenz Hart, music by Rodgers, and lyrics by Hart. It was adapted into a film in 1939. It marked the first time a Broadway musical made dramatic use of classical dance and incorporated jazz into its score. - While teaching music at Knickerbocker University, Phil "Junior" Dolan III tries to persuade Sergei Alexandrovich, the director of the Russian Ballet, to stage the jazz ballet "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue". After becoming involved with the company's prima ballerina, Vera Barnova, Junior is forced to assume the male lead in "Slaughter". Trouble ensues when he becomes the target of two thugs hired by Vera's lover and dance partner to kill him.

Of Thee I Sing

- a musical with a score by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and a book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. The musical lampoons American politics; the story concerns John P. Wintergreen, who runs for President of the United States on the "love" platform. When he falls in love with the sensible Mary Turner instead of Diana Devereaux, the beautiful pageant winner selected for him, he gets into political hot water. - The original Broadway production, directed by Kaufman, opened in 1931 and ran for 441 performances, gaining critical and box office success. It has been revived several times in the U.S. and in London. In 1932, Of Thee I Sing was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Annie Get Your Gun

- a musical with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin and a book by Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley (1860-1926), a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West, and her romance with sharpshooter Frank Butler. The 1946 Broadway production was a hit, and the musical had long runs in both New York (1,147 performances) and London, spawning revivals, a 1950 film version and television versions. Songs that became hits include "There's No Business Like Show Business", "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly", "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun", "They Say It's Wonderful", and "Anything You Can Do."

director

- a person who is in charge of an activity, department, or organization.

overture

- a separate instrumental number played at the beginning of an opera or show. In musical theater, it is common for the overture to contain melodies from various songs in the show.

Farce

- a style of writing and performance which is characterized by pace and physical humor; often makes use of mistaken identity and misunderstandings.

dummy lyrics

- a temporary lyric (often silly, even nonsensical) that allows you to outline a song's lyrical structure — the rhythms, the rhyme scheme, etc. It's not really a first draft of the song because you're not bothering with what the words "say" yet, just with mapping out how the final lyric might be structured. - i.e. Ira Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" lyric. The finished song goes, "I got rhythm/I got music/I got my man/Who could ask for anything more?" But the dummy lyric went, "Roly-poly/eating solely/ravioli/better watch your diet or bust!" Gershwin decided to jettison the insistent, rapid-fire rhymes in his dummy lyric in favor of a looser, more open feel in the finished song.

Revue

- a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932. Though most famous for their visual spectacle, revues frequently satirized contemporary figures, news or literature. Due to high ticket prices, ribald publicity campaigns and the occasional use of prurient material, the revue was typically patronized by audience members who earned even more and felt even less restricted by middle-class social mores than their contemporaries in vaudeville. Like much of that era's popular entertainments, revues often featured material based on sophisticated, irreverent dissections of topical matter, public personae and fads, though the primary attraction was found in the frank display of the female body. It had a spectacular setting, it was grandiose, and had abundance of everything. Not a narrative structure, it was built around a theme

musical score

- a written form of a musical composition; parts for different instruments appear on separate staves on large pages; "he studied the score of the sonata". Music and lyrics together form the score of a musical.

Rodgers and Hart

- an American songwriting partnership between composer Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and the lyricist Lorenz Hart (1895-1943). They worked together on 28 stage musicals and more than 500 songs from 1919 until Hart's death in 1943. - They both attended Colombia university, varsity shows - Garrick Gaieties, 1926 -a revue with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart, the first successful musical by this songwriting team.

musical comedy

- an American-derived genre which developed in the late 19th century. It tended to have less complex plots and less difficult singing than opera or operetta

opera

- one of the oldest ancestors of musical theater. Originated in Italy at the beginning of the Baroque era.

producer

- person responsible for the business side of a production. In many cases he/she also determines the creative image of a company by his/her choices of personnel hired for creative areas.

Quasi-love song

- romance song, but they don't know they love each other.

Copyright for choreographers

1976

Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs, 1930

- started the golden age of musicals (1943-1964) - reign of the integrated book musical - a 1930 play by Lynn Riggs named for the popular folk song of the same name. It was performed 64 times on Broadway, opening on January 26, 1931 and closing March 21, 1931. It also played January 19, 1931 through January 24, 1931 at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. It was produced by the Theatre Guild and directed by Herbert J. Biberman. Rather startlingly, the debonair, ultrasophisticated actor Franchot Tone portrayed cowboy Curly. June Walker was seen as his sweetheart Laurey. Tex Ritter sang four songs in the role of Cord Elam and was understudy for the lead part as Curly, though he never had occasion to perform in that role. Theatre Guild board member Helen Westley, who had appeared as Mrs. Muskat in the original Broadway production of Ferenc Molnár's Liliom, played Aunt Eller. Lee Strasberg, later to become a renowned teacher of method acting, played the part of the Syrian peddler. The play also toured the Midwest, and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. It appeared at the Dallas Little Theatre during the week of March 7, 1932, and again in Dallas at the Festival of Southwestern Plays, on May 10, 1935

Chitlin' circuit

- the collective name given to the string of performance venues throughout the eastern, southern, and upper mid-west areas of the United States that were safe and acceptable for African American musicians, comedians, and other entertainers to perform in during the age of racial segregation in the United States (from at least the early 19th century through the 1960s) as well as the venues that contemporary African American soul and blues performers, especially in the South, continue to appear at regularly. - victory -> Broadway - blue -> vaudeville - hospital - Fox hole -> frontlines

Choreographer

- the person who designs the dance movements

librettist / lyricist

- the person who writes the lyrics to a song

Composer

- the person who writes the score (the melodies / notes)

reprise

- the return to a earlier musical number later in a show, often with modified text. Same as leitmotif except with singing.

libretto

- the words / poetry to a musical or opera

lyrics

- the words/poetry to a song (usually rhyming)

Tony Pastor

- variety performer and theatre owner who became one of the founding forces behind American vaudeville in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. He was sometimes referred to as the "Father of Vaudeville". He opened a vaudeville house on 14th street, this was the reason vaudeville had achieved preeminence in new York city after 1881. The name of the programs were called "bills." Ethel Waters "supper time" (torch song)

Irving Berlin

-The most successful composer of the twentieth century, 1888-1989 (he was also a lyricist) - In 1911 he became a full partner in the music publishing firm of Waterson and Snyder - Wrote the first songs for Bert Williams and Fanny Brice to sing in the Ziegfield Follies - Employed as a stooge in the early 1900s by Harry Von Tilzer - (born Israel Isidore Beilin, May 11, 1888 - September 22, 1989) was an American composer and lyricist of Belarusian-Jewish origin, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history. He published his first song, "Marie from Sunny Italy", in 1907 and had his first major international hit, "Alexander's Ragtime Band" in 1911. He also was a Broadway theatre owner Music Box Theatre. He wrote hundreds of songs, many becoming major hits, which made him "a legend" before he turned thirty. During his 60-year career he wrote an estimated 1,500 songs, including the scores for 19 Broadway shows and 18 Hollywood films, with his songs nominated eight times for Academy Awards. Many songs became popular themes and anthems, including "Easter Parade", "White Christmas", "Happy Holiday", "This is the Army, Mr. Jones", and "There's No Business Like Show Business". His Broadway musical and 1942 film, This is the Army, with Ronald Reagan, had Kate Smith singing Berlin's "God Bless America" which was first performed in 1938. Berlin's songs have reached the top of the charts 25 times and have been extensively re-recorded by numerous singers including Fred Astaire, Ethel Merman, Frank Sinatra, Ethel Waters, Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Linda Ronstadt, Rosemary Clooney, Cher, Diana Ross, Bing Crosby, Rita Reys, Frankie Laine, Johnnie Ray, Al Jolson, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Doris Day, Jerry Garcia and Ella Fitzgerald. Composer Douglas Moore sets Berlin apart from all other contemporary songwriters, and includes him instead with Stephen Foster, Walt Whitman, and Carl Sandburg, as a "great American minstrel"—someone who has "caught and immortalized in his songs what we say, what we think about, and what we believe." Composer George Gershwin called him "the greatest songwriter that has ever lived", and composer Jerome Kern concluded that "Irving Berlin has no place in American music—he is American music."