Art of Theatre Chapter 11

Napoleon Bonaparte

"Give me control over he who shapes the music of a nation; I care not who makes the laws."

Popular African American Musicals

- "A Trip to Coontown" (1898) - "The Origin of the Cakewalk" (1898) - "Runnin' Wild" (1923) - "Dixie to Broadway" (1924) - "Blackbirds" (1926)

Stephen Sondheim

-Wrote first musical at age 15 -Wrote lyrics for West Side story(1957) -Wrote lyrics for Gypsy (1959) -Composer and lyricist for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum -Apprentice of Oscar Hammerstein

Revue

A program of sketches, singing, dancing, and songs pulled from the same author or authors is called this

Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron

All-female team that won five tony awards in 2015 for the musical "Fun Home"

The earliest American musicals

Ballad operas, brought from England and popular during the colonial period

"The Black Crook"

First modern American musical; a melodrama about black magic staged in New York City in 1866, is often called the United States' first modern musical. Opened September 12th, 1866, and ran for 475 performances and made over $1 million.

Dance Musicals

Fosse (1998) and other musicals in this category feature the work of a director-choreographer such as Tommy Tune, Michael Bennett, or Bob Fosse.

Straight Musical (Musical)

Has a more serious plot and theme. "West Side Story" (1957)

Cyndi Lauper

In 2013, this woman made history when she won the Tony for writing both the music and lyrics for the musical Kinky Boots.

"Show Boat"

It combined musical comedy and serious drama to create what we recognize today as the quintessential American musical. It was the first production to combine dancing, choruses, toe-tapping melodies, and huge spectacle with a strong plot and plausible characters.

"Oklahoma!" (1943)

It is the tale of a cowboy and a farmhand competing for the affections of a farm girl in Oklahoma Territory in 1906. However, it was influential because it incorporated storytelling techniques new to musicals, and the use of dance to develop the plot and the characters.

Ancestors of the modern American Musical

Musical masques, operas, burlesques, minstrel shows, variety shows, and music hall revues

Operatic Musicals

Musicals that are mostly singing and have less spoken dialogue, such as Les Misérables and Evita. These musicals are similar to operettas, but their tone is often much darker and more dramatic.

Jukebox Musicals

Musicals that feature a particular band's songs like Mamma Mia! (2001), which was built around the music of Abba.

Book Musicals

Musicals with a particularly well-developed story and characters, such as Fiddler on the Roof, are sometimes called this

Vaudeville

Revues and Variety Shows descend from this; these shows were known for having a dozen or so slapstick comedy routines, song and dance numbers, juggling, magic acts, and acrobatic performances. Popular from the 1880's-1940's.

Notable Opera Composers

Richard Wagner (1813-1883), Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), Wolfgang Mozart (1756-1791), Gioacchino Rossini (1792- 1868), and George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

Musicals that are Pulitzer Prize Winners

South Pacific (1950), Fiorello! (1960), How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying (1963), A Chorus Line (1976), Sunday in the Park with George (1985), and Rent (1996).

False; 800

T or F: An average of 400 films are made in Bollywood per year

True

T or F: In Opera, there is no spoken dialogue

True

T or F: It is often said that Musicals are an American invention

False; musicals are in another transition stage

T or F: Musicals are dying and will soon be gone.

Golden Age

The two decades following World War II; Paralleled American's feelings of optimism and the feeling that we had saved the world for democracy

"Work"

The word Opera comes from this Latin word

Comic Opera

This style of opera became widely popular with the work of Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911) and Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842-1900), including The Pirates of Penzance (1879), The Mikado (1885), and H.M.S. Pinafore (1878).

Minstrel Show

Unique to the United States, these shows came to prominence in the late 1840s and lasted well into the twentieth century. The shows included comic scenes, dance interludes, and sentimental ballads, all based on white stereotypes of black life in the South. Purely entertainment, never challenged white audiences.

Burlesque

Vaudevilles descended from this. A form of musical entertainment featuring bawdy songs, dancing women, and sometimes striptease. Popular in the 1840's as a parody of the pretentiousness of the opera and those who attended it.

Where was the first public Opera house built?

Venice, 1637

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry in 1959

What was the first straight play written by a black playwright to make it to Broadway? When?

Spider-man: Turn off the dark; $75 million

What was the most expensive musical to produce on Broadway? How much?

Book Writer

Writes the dialogue in the Musicals

Lyricist

Writes the lyrics in the Musicals... shocker right

Composer

Writes the music in the Musicals

Dorothy Fields (1905-1974)

Wrote the lyrics for "Sweet Charity" (1966) and the book for "Annie Get Your Gun" (1946)

Ira Gershwin and George S. Kauffman's musical "Of Thee I Sing"

a biting satire of Washington politics, became the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize—the highest award given for American drama.

Overture

a medley of the show's songs played as a preview.

Variety Show

a program of unrelated singing, dancing, and comedy numbers is called this

Reprise

a repetition of the song, sometimes with new lyrics, sometimes with the same lyrics but with new meaning or subtext in order to make a dramatic point.

Musical Comedy

characterized by a light-hearted, fast-moving comic story, whose dialogue is interspersed with popular music. "Guys and Dolls" (1950)

"A Chorus Line" (1975)

dealt with homosexuality in a matter-of-fact way.

Comedy Number

ex: "Gee, Officer Krupke", provides comic relief.

Ballad

ex: "Tonight", a love song for Tony and Maria in West Side Story.

"Hair" (1967)

introduced rock music, hippies, and nudity to the musical.

Opera

is a drama that is set entirely to music; all the lines are sung, usually to grand classical music. Giacomo Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" (1904)

Musicals of the Golden Age

musicals: Carousel (1945), Annie Get Your Gun (1946), South Pacific (1949), Guys and Dolls (1950), The King and I (1951), My Fair Lady (1956), West Side Story (1957), The Sound of Music (1959), Fiddler on the Roof (1964), and Man of La Mancha (1965)

Showstopper

numbers such as "America" from West Side Story or "Seize the Day" from Newsies that literally stop the show due to applause.

Operetta

or light opera, such as The Mikado (1885) by Gilbert and Sullivan, differs from "grand opera" because it has a frivolous, comic theme, some spoken dialogue, a melodramatic story, and usually a little dancing.

"The Wiz" (1975)

retold the story of the Wizard of Oz from the perspective of an African American schoolteacher and her streetwise companions, who travel through an Oz with an urban flavor in search of happiness.

"Cabaret" (1966)

showed Germany's period of political freedom and cultural experimentation just before the Nazis came to power.

Rock Musical

uses rock music—the rock and roll of the 1950s (Grease, 1972), the psychedelic rock of the 1960s (Hair, 1967), or contemporary pop and rock (Rent, 1996).

Betty Comden (1919-2006) and her partner Adolf Green (1915-2002)

wrote lyrics for On the Town (1944), Wonderful Town (1953), Subways Are for Sleeping (1961), Hallelujah, Baby (1967), and the screenplay for the movie Singin' in the Rain (1952).