Download 8th Grade - Musical Thtr Notes Vocab

8th Grade - Musical Theater: FACTS
& NOTES- Summative on 12/15/16
Musical theater, as it is commonly defined, combines drama (story) with music and (usually) dance, plus visual art (costumes,
set design, lighting). In stage or film musicals, all four art forms (drama, music, dance, visual arts) come together!
Songs and dances in musical theater function as ways to develop the story by either expanding on a character’s feelings (reveal
something about a character) or moving the plot (story) along. In the mid-20th century, a show might first have run on a Broadway
stage in New York and/or in London and later have been adapted as a musical film by Hollywood studios.
Because they are created from a combination of highly-developed art forms to be performed for an audience, musicals fulfill the
artistic expression purpose of music. A musical theater production tells a story (book musical) and/or showcases particular
performers’ talents (revue).
Revues, with their roots in music halls, variety shows, vaudeville, and/or minstrel shows, have fallen from popularity today. When we
refer to musical theater, we usually mean book musicals.
The structure of musicals relies on two main elements: the score and the book.
The concept of combining music, drama, and dance goes back to the ancient Greeks. While it combined story and song, grand opera of
the Baroque period was not actually the ancestor of Broadway-style musicals. The major difference is that opera lacks extended
dialogue.
American musical theater as we know it today was born in the 1800s, although plays with music were performed by touring
companies from England and Europe in the mid-1700s when the U.S. was still a collection of colonies.
Uniquely American musical theater began as a cross between operettas (light or comic opera) and music hall acts from the 1890s.
Some well-known composers such as Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, and Stephen Sondheim have created music for musical
theater, in some cases incorporating jazz, folk, and other styles. Sondheim is a good example of one who has also been a lyricist as
well as a composer.
Types of Musicals:
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Opera
Operetta
Comic Opera
Musical Revue
Concept Musical
Musical Play
Spoof
Parts of (some) Musicals:
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Overture
Crossover
Lead in Line
Production Number
Underscore
Vamp
Recitative
Vocabulary
1.
Book - (also called the libretto) is the story, which includes the language of dialogue and is sometimes adapted into song lyrics.
2.
Book musicals (musical comedic plays) have been known by various names over the years: ballad operas, musical comedies,
operettas, comic operas, extravaganzas, and so forth.
3.
Choreographer - the person who creates the dance numbers and coordinates much of the physical movement of the
actors/singers/dancers in a musical production
4.
Chorus - In Greek theater, a character or group that comments on action and advances the plot.
5.
Comic Opera - An Offshoot of straight opera, it combines music and humor
6.
Composer - The person who writes the MUSIC
7.
Conductor - The person who directs the orchestra
8.
Crossover - A short scene played in front of the curtain while scenery is being changed
9.
Lead in Line - The line or lines of dialogue immediately preceding a song, usually underscored
10. Lyricist - The person who writes the WORDS to the music
11. Monologue - a speech in which a character directly addresses the audience or another character as if thinking out loud.
12. Musical - a theatrical production with both spoken dialogue and sung dialogue
13. Musical Play - Acting and choreography are equally integral, increased emphasis on real people in real situations
14. Musical Revue - Consists of a loosely connected series of lavish production numbers
15. Musical theater - a stage, television or film production using popular-style songs and dialogue. A musical can be a comedy or a
tragedy.
16. Opera - Totally music – even conversations are SUNG!
17. Operetta - a theatrical production with lighter music than an opera and actors speak lines rather than just singing.
18. Overture - orchestral music played at the start of a show, a medley of the show’s songs
19. Principles - The named lead characters in a musical
20. Production Number - A large-scale musical number involving many performers
21. Recitative- A singing style that is closer to speaking than to singing
22. Repertory - a theater in which several different plays/musicals are performed in a season by the same company of performers
23. Revue - a series of acts, rather than a whole piece, centered on telling a single story.
24. Score - is the music, created by a composer and a lyricist or by a composer who is also a lyricist.
25. Soliloquy - when the character delivering a monologue is alone on stage,.
26. Soubrette - Secondary female lead, usually a comic role
27. Spoof - A farcical play that pokes fun at certain subjects or eras (time periods)
28. Underscore - Music played that accompanies dialogue
29. Vamp - To repeat measures of music until a singer is ready
30. Vaudeville - popular stage entertainment consisting of many unrelated acts, ranging from song and dance to comic to pantomime,
etc.
History of Musical Theatre
The history of musical theatre in Europe dates back to the theatre of the ancient Greeks, who included music and
dance in stage comedies and tragedies as early as the Fifth Century B.C. Aeschylus and Sophocles composed their
own music to accompany the plays. During the Third Century BC, Roman comedies of Plautus included song and
dance routines were performed with orchestrations. In order to make dance steps more audible in large open-air
theatres, Roman actors attached metal chips called “sabillia” to their stage footwear hence creating the first known tap
shoes. The Twelfth and Thirteenth Century BC, religious dramas such as The Play of Herod and The Play of Daniel
taught the liturgy, set to church chants. It was this type of play that developed into an autonomous form of musical
theatre, with poetic forms, sometimes alternating with the prose dialogues and liturgical chants. The poetry provided
modified or completely new melodies.
By the Renaissance period, these forms had evolved into commedia dell’arte, an Italian tradition where raucous
clowns improvised their way through familiar stories, and from there, opera buffa, Moliere turned several of his
comedies into musical entertainments with songs provided by Jean Baptiste Lully in the late 1600s.
The 1700s brought two forms of musical theatre to the area of Britain, France, and Germany. The ballad operas, as
John Gay’s, “The Beggar’s Opera” in 1728 including lyrics written to the tunes of popular songs of the day often
spoofing opera. Romantic plots became popular such as Michael Balfe’s “The Bohemian Girl” in 1845.
These sources opened the door to the vaudeville days, British music hall, melodrama, and burlesque. Melodrama’s
popularity, in particular fed on the fact that many theatres’ licensed only as music halls and none allowed such present
plays without music.
The first recorded long running play of any kind was The Beggar’s Opera, which ran for 62 successive performances
in 1728. It would take almost a century before the first play broke 100 performances. The record soon reached 150 in
the late 1820s. New York did not have a significant theatre presence until approximately 1750. By the 1840s, P.T.
Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. The theatre in New York moved from
downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, seeking less expensive real estate prices, and did not arrive
in the Times Square area until the 1920s and 1930s.
Broadway’s first long-run musical record was a 50-performance hit called “The Elves” in 1857. New York runs
continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keene’s musical Seven Sisters in 1860 shattered previous New
York Records with a run of 253 performances.
Broadway Musicals began to run rampant with new performances taken over when others completed their runs.
Elements of the Musical
by Laurence Maslon
In the early days of the musical, what mattered most were the songs, and it was essential that they were catchy enough to
amuse the audience or provide material for dancers or comedians. But, beginning in the 1930s, the situation, the book or
libretto, of the musical started to achieve primary importance.
A story or narrative became more frequently the spine of the musical, and in the 1940s, mostly due to the narrative
sophistication of the shows of Rodgers and Hammerstein, the songs followed the plot and the characters, rather than the
other way around. This narrative spine has made the musical quite influential as a cultural and artistic force; from the epic
Kern-Hammerstein “Show Boat” and its view of race relations (1927) to “Oklahoma!” (1943) through “West Side Story”
(1957), “Hair” and its antiwar sentiments (1967), “Company” (1970), and “Rent” (1996), the themes of prominent
Broadway musicals reflected the controversial, revolutionary, and nostalgic issues of an evolving American culture.
As the musical got more complex, it required a director to shape the production and its design and concept. Strong
musical directors like George S. Kaufman and George Abbott emerged in the ’30s; currently major artists like Harold
Prince, Jerry Zaks, and Julie Taymor are key to shaping a musical’s success.
Choreographers were next to emerge as major artists; in the teens and ’20s, they were simply “dance directors,” but
influential choreographers like George Balanchine and Agnes de Mille brought visionary ideas to the stage. With gifted
choreographers like Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse broadening their range in the ’50s, it was only matter of time before
they took on the job of director in addition to their dance duties. The director/choreographer became a major visionary
force on the stage, guiding every visual and physical moment of a musical. Robbins and Fosse were joined by such talents
as Gower Champion, Michael Bennett, and Tommy Tune.
Performers have also been the cornerstone of the musical. They could be comedians like Bert Lahr or Bert Williams;
singers like Ethel Merman or Ethel Waters; dancers like Ray Bolger or Marilyn Miller. With the stronger demands of the
narrative musical, performers had to become actors as well; indeed, after the success of nonsinging actor Rex Harrison in
“My Fair Lady,” actors with minimal singing ability — Richard Burton, Lauren Bacall — became major musical stars.
Of course, what Broadway values most these days is the “triple threat” — performers who can sing, dance, and act. In
fact, in the past, there were separate dancing and singing choruses; now everyone is expected to do it all. Star performers
like Bernadette Peters, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Nathan Lane appear to have limitless talents.
None of these elements would come together without the producer. The idea for a new musical can come from a writer,
composer, or performer, but it can only be realized by a producer. He or she must raise the money for the production; the
amount required is called the capitalization. This amount must not only cover getting the show to opening night but also
create a financial cushion for several weeks or months until the show catches on with audiences. The producer will rarely
spend his own money; he raises it from investors — usually called backers or “angels,” for obvious reasons — and pays
himself a salary. If the show is a success and makes back its initial expenditure (recoupment), investors get whatever
percentage of their contributed amount back in profits.
A Broadway musical is both a risky and an exciting proposition. It is the most costly business venture in the theater.
Typically, a musical will now cost at least $10 million to produce; to put this in context, 30 years ago, a musical cost one
tenth that amount. (Tickets also cost about one eighth as much in 1974.) As hard as it is to raise that money, the rewards
can be enormous. Cameron Mackintosh’s four shows (“Cats,” “Les Misérables,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” and “Miss
Saigon”) have run on Broadway for more than 62 years total and, internationally, have made more money than these four
movies — STAR WARS, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, JURASSIC PARK, and TITANIC — put together.
But the rising costs of originating a show have driven away more independent individual producers and opened the field
for corporations like the Walt Disney Co. For example, “The Lion King” may well be the most expensive show ever —
rumored at above $20 million — and took about four years to turn a profit, but a big company can afford to wait that long
for a return on their investment. That’s why there’s no business like show business!
As if these weren’t enough, the story of the musical is also the story of its creators and performers, men and women from
every aspect of American — and foreign — society, who came together, often under the most invidious circumstances, to
create something that transcended their differences. Refugees came together with native sons and daughters; task masters
worked with dissipated alcoholics; white producers championed black performers — and black performers turned right
around and made fortunes for those producers; artists fled financial failure for the blandishments of the lucrative worlds of
film and television — then fled right back to the stage; songwriters lost fortunes in the Depression, only to regain them by
writing about the Depression itself — the list of ironies and strong compelling biography is endless, each story is full with
illuminations about our culture.
Yet, still, the elements that constitute the musical don’t end there. The production of the musical is an art form itself.
Complicated and often inflammatory, the craft of producing a Broadway show involves knowing the public’s tastes (and
usually challenging it), raising capital, battling societal trends — all on the most expensive real estate in the most fractious
city in the world. And, finally, there is the distribution of the musical, which encompasses a vast narrative of
communications and the media.