A Brief History Part 1 Early Influences Early Influences English ballad opera The Beggars Opera 1728 Flora 1735 No historical scenery or costumes Spoken play with preexisting popular songs amid ID: 279594
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Slide1
Musical Theatre
A Brief History – Part 1 Early InfluencesSlide2
Early Influences -
English ballad opera
The Beggar’s Opera
– 1728;
Flora
– 1735
No historical scenery
or
costumes
Spoken
play with preexisting popular songs amid
dialogue
M
usical parody -
Late
18
th
, early
19
th
century
Satire
of famous story or performer
–
burlesques
Pantomime
with songs and dances for entertainment and variety
1828
–
Hamlet
Slide3
The Beggar’s Opera – 1728
by John Gay & John Christopher Pepusch
Music Clip "Fill Every Glass"Slide4
Early Influences -
Minstrel Show
First major contribution to theatre by blacks in America
Product
of black slave culture mingled with white colonial potpourri
Dan
Emmet, composer “Old Dan Tucker”, “Blue-Tail Fly”,1843, brought
Virginia
Minstrels to NY – touring
show
Three
part
show performed in “blackface”
1- Fantasia - The
Walkaround
(Cakewalk) singing & dancing
2 - Olio – snappy
banter,
jokes, solo
musical
(banjo, fiddle, tambourine, singing, bone castanets)
3 - Burlesque
(parody) –
one-act vignette; satire
of
plays or carefree life on the plantationSlide5
1929 audio recording that follows the classic format of a minstrel show
“Camptown Races” by Stephen Foster - Al Jolson performing
Blackface performer
The Cakewalk
Slide6
Early Influences -
Minstrel Show
Ed
Christy Minstrel Show
– featured Stephen Foster, composer “My Old
Kentucky
Home” – touring show
Olio grew into variety or vaudeville show
Fantasia became Broadway Revue
Satire became used as themes for later
musicalsSlide7
Christy Minstrels - 1847
Part 2 – The OlioSlide8
Early Influences – New York City
Shift from rural to city life created a demand for permanent theatres and pleasure gardens
1866 –
The Black Crook
– used theatrical effect and sensual pleasures to become a theatre extravaganza
Showed producers and investors that frivolity could substitute for dramatic and musical substance (as in European opera)
1874 –
Evangeline
was first to use an original musical score – first musical comedy
1879 –
The Brook
used a common locale or event to interweave stories (like a sitcom/serial) – first desire for meaningful story
Mulligan Shows – 1880’s was a burlesque on the common people of NY – tales of the ordinary became importantSlide9
The Black Crook
– 1866
First
American Acting Troupe Using
Women - 1893Slide10
Early Influences -
Operetta
1890
’s – 1920, European Operetta was an instant success as it toured U.S.
Gilbert & Sullivan’s satirical operetta was especially popular
Gave way to American imitations (Sousa)
HMS Pinafore
“Captain of the Pinafore
” 9:30Slide11
Musical Theatre
A Brief History – Part 2
American InfluenceSlide12
American Influences
– 1918-1929
U.S. was the economic world leader
U.S. was victorious after WWI
Optimistic society – an American not European culture was developing
Development of American Writers and Performers
Women and Black performers allowed onstage
Revues/Follies were dominant form of entertainmentSlide13
American Songwriters
Wrote for major music publishing houses in New York City (“Tin Pan Alley”) – before the phonograph, people used to purchase sheet music to sing around the piano
The rise of Tin Pan Alley—as music and institution—depended on the mass immigration of East European Jews to New York beginning in the early 1880s
Tin Pan Alley 1910Slide14
Birth of American Songwriters
Also the historical shift of America's black population from South to North where cultures interacted informally in neighborhoods, music halls and businesses created a new American sound
Wrote swinging optimistic melodies – “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”, “In the Good Old Summertime”, “By the Light of the Silvery Moon”Slide15
Songs of Tin Pan Alley
1911 Irving Berlin
1919
George Gershwin
1911
George M. CohanSlide16
Early Composers
Victor Herbert – Irish/German - continued American Operetta style –
Babes in Toyland
1903
George M. Cohan –
Little Johnny Jones
1904
Irving Berlin – Russian/Jewish songwriter
George Gershwin – American born songwriter
Rudolf Friml – Austrian - brought European Opera style –
Rose-Marie
1924,
The Vagabond King
1925Slide17
American Revues – the Follies
Featured stars of the day and a chorus of beautiful women in elaborate costumes and scenery such as in the
Ziegfeld Follies
(1907-1931) and George White’s Scandals (1919-1939)Slide18
American Musical Comedy
Showed a picture of contemporary America
Had a shallow insubstantial look
Had happy endings
Music and plot were not integrated - Songs were recycled and moved from one revue to another
In 1924, ASCAP (co-founded by Herbert, Cohan, Berlin, Kern and others) won a long battle to give American composers creative control over their stage scores.Slide19
Vincent
Youmans 1898-1946
Influenced by popular music; worked as a rehearsal pianist for many songwriters
Wrote the most produced musical in the 1920’s “Tea for Two” and ” I Want to Be Happy” from:
No, No Nannette
- Opened 1925 on Broadway – 321 performances!