Consider how many more professionals need to collaborate to create a musical than a simple dramatic play, and the special skills required by the performers. How do you think adding the element of music and dance to a play affects the creative process?
People have always gone to the theater expecting to be entertained. What do you find interesting about theater which talks about social and political issues as entertainment? Why do you think we have such a long history of doing this? How does this relate to our first amendment right of freedom of speech? Avenue Q broke many barriers in terms of subject matter for musical theater. Can you think of a subject matter that has not yet been addressed by musical theater that now could be?
Do you think there is a subject that might still present challenges as a tale for a musical venue or that would still be considered taboo for musical theater? How do you think we benefit by examining these difficult subjects through the lens of story, song and dance? There will always be issues of huge social importance to face; wars, poverty, injustice to name a few. At the community level there are also always topics of contention between people or groups like budget issues, environmental concerns, bullying and the like.
What do you think might happen if your school, or community or family got together to put on a musical to deal with pressing issues you are facing? Could this be a way to learn about and talk about a difficult topic in a creative and maybe even a humorous or light hearted way? As the rock musical gave way to the spectacle musical, shows like Cats , Phantom of the Opera and Starlight Express came to rely less on story and more on technology.
Heather Nathans talks about the changes in musical theater in the last forty years and where musical theater appears to be headed. Looking back at the history of musical theater in America, there was a period of relative stability followed by some pivotal points of change in the way musicals were presented. Describe when how the musical changed over the course of the last hundred years.
During this time the creative energy behind the musical was spent on creating extravagant special effects. Why do you think this change happened? Do you think this change was driven by audience demand or by creative inspiration or by the technology itself? Did we lose our interest in story? Did technology give us a sense of wonder, power, control? What else was happening in the world of art, politics, and culture at this time? How might that have had anything to do with this change?
As you can see, the history of musical theater is an art form that has gone through many changes and continues to thrive and be important to our cultural experience.
Can you draw a comparison between musical theater and a living organism or as something that has a natural life cycle of its own? What can studying the history of musical theater reveal about our society that say the history of politics or science or legislation might not tell us?
Music and dance have been part of American theater since the early days of our country. Think about what you heard from Heather Nathans and any Disney musicals you have seen. What do Disney musicals and Broadway musicals have in common? When Walt Disney began making movies, that technology was in its infancy. Disney took the musical theater formula and put it into cartoons that were generally intended for children and families. How do you think Disney got the idea to do this?
Think about the kind of entertainment that you enjoy, which is probably marketed to you and your friends. Can you imagine a way to repackage that same kind of entertainment to a different audience, say your grandparents or the military or factory workers? When musical theater hit a slump, Disney revived the business by bringing its cartoon stories to the stage.
What do you think happened in America to make the musical theater go out of favor? Could it be because people were going to the movies instead? Or because the problems of society were too serious or not serious enough for the public to seek entertainment in the musical? Think about the long history of Disney; starting out in the animated cartoon business, then making feature length musicals, and then Broadway bound for spectacular productions.
What do you think about a company that can be successful in so many ways? Why do you think Disney went back to Broadway with their musical know how?
Was it an artistic ambition? Could it be because they saw an opportunity to make money? To capture a different audience? Were their movie audiences changing, thereby forcing them to reinvent their product? If you wanted to perform heart surgery, fly an airplane or build a bridge there are things you know you would need to do first in order to be able to accomplish those goals. To achieve excellence in the arts requires the same kind of commitment and effort. What steps do you need to take to write a musical?
Think of the common elements of these kinds of stories and how they have been told through musical theater in the past. What are some subjects that you think you could turn into a story for musical theater?
What twists of plot and character development would you use to tell this story? Just about everything is interesting if you get interested in it. Thinking about the history of musical theater in America there have been famous personalities, prolific writers and composers, songs that have become part of our national identity, fortunes made and lost, the exportation of our culture around the world to name a few topics.
If you were to tell the story of the history of American musical theater as a musical play, how would you go about it? The episodes in this series have dealt with the opening songs and the songs that tell the story. What about the big finish? Of particular importance was George M. Cohan, whose grandparents were among those Irish immigrants. Cohan was a writer, director, producer, and performer who launched musical theater as a distinct genre in the early s.
When George M. Around the same time, Jewish immigrants arrived from Eastern Europe and African Americans moved to New York from the South, further developing the art form. Like the Irish, these groups faced discrimination and had few opportunities for advancement. But the middle- and upper-class audiences that attended theater performances looked down on performing as a profession, leaving that field wide open for the lower classes.
For those who had talent, musical theater was a way out of poverty. That was the case for Irving Berlin, who came to the U. Renowned songwriter Cole Porter and other members of the queer community were also among those working at the highest levels of musical theater from the start.
They were valued and largely accepted in that world. Armstrong features all of these musical theater pioneers in his course, weaving in the huge influence of African American writers and performers, and the less visible but significant contribution of women working as songwriters, lighting designers, and choreographers.
He then traces the bumpy road of musical theater, which has included periods of great popularity followed by decline and evolution. The number of productions dropped by half, and shows became more urbane and sophisticated to attract an audience.
Hollywood began producing film musicals during this period, broadening the audience. It integrated its story, song, and dance more cohesively than any show before, ushering a Golden Age for musicals that would last nearly 30 years. Another shakeup came with the Vietnam War, when a growing cynicism led to shows like Cabaret and Sweeney Todd that featured darker themes and antiheroes.
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