Transcript Broadway Musical Revue Week 4 段馨君 Iris Hsin

Broadway Musical
Revue
Week 4
段馨君 Iris Hsin-chun Tuan
Associate Professor
Department of Humanities and Social
Sciences
NCTU
Revue
• The word is French. Revue: a
satirical entertainment of
fashionable Parisian life that
features music, specialty acts,
and pretty grils.
• In American theater, the word
applies to a similar form with
American character and
energy, show with musical
numbers, comedy, sketches,
The Admiral Broadway Revue starring
and specialty routines.
• In a revue, a single unifying force organizes
the variety of elements into a cumulative
sequence of ascending theatrical peaks
designed to service the concept of the show.
• The revue brings the unity to variety where
before there was only variety.
• It stress vital interrelationships among parts,
the cumulative development of the program
and the overall effect of the production.
CLASSIC TELEVISION SHOWBIZ
http://classicshowbiz.blogspot.com/2010/0
3/admiral-broadway-revue-starring-sid.html
• The revue borrowed its
name from the Franch, but
indigenous American
musical theater forms
gave it life, sustenance,
and personality.
• The American revue is the
child of four parents:
(1)minstrelsy (2)vaudeville
(3)burlesque
(4)spectacle/extravaganza
The Ziegfeld Follies were a
series of elaborate theatrical
productions on Broadway in New
York City from 1907 through 1931.
• Intimate revue identified the
alternative personality, for
the shows are of modest
means, yet rich in charm,
satire, and performance
energy like the grand street
The grand street follies made
follies, the Garrick Gaieties, audience laugh from 1922 to 1927
and pins and Needles.
• Both personalities thrived in
the receptive theatrical
climate of the early decades
of the twentieth century.
The spectacular revue
• The earliest revue relied
on the spectacle,
beautiful girls, and
wonderful stage effects
that attracted an
affluent public eager for
glamour and excitement.
The “spectacular”
tradition originated with
The Passing Show(1894).
• The show started the
trend for spectacular
entertainment of
constant change but
with just sufficient
coherency that came
to be called revue.
By the time the Avon Comedy Four opened
in The Passing Show of 1919, Kaufm and
goldwin where no longer in the group.
• Ziegfeld’s formula for
the revue called for
(1)glamour
(2) pace
(3)decency
(4)spectacle.
A band of girl
musicians called the
girl .
The photographs of lovely anonymous
Ziegfeld’s girls by Alfred Cheney
Johnston.
• We’ve got to give them something out of the
ordinary ---something on a little higher plane
than formerly, but with enough snap and go to
it to prevent the suspicion of high-brow.
• The typical Follies--- colorful, tuneful, dazzing,
alternately excruciatingly funny and
satisfyingly beautiful.
• Ziegfeld engaged the most outstanding
musical theater writers, composer, designers,
and performers to execute his follies.
Ziegfeld girls photos
http://www.doctormacro.com/Movie%20Sta
r%20Pages/Ziegfeld%20Girls/Ziegfeld%20
Girls.htm
• “A Pretty Girl Is Like a
Melody”. Ziegfeld
accepted only the most
magnificent sets,
painted often in
pointillist style.
• Marilyn Miller, a
beautiful dancer whom
Ziegfeld groomed into
the “most dazzling
musical shoe personality
of Broadway.”
All I Want To Do Do Do Is Dance - 1929
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaEA1
V3OTVA
Marilyn Miller was one of the most
popular Broadway musical stars of the
1920s and early 1930s. She was an
accomplished tap dancer, singer and
actress, but it was the combination of
these talents that endeared her to
• Ziegfeld’s main
interest turned to
book shows like Show
Boat .
• When Ziegfeld died in
1932, the spectacular
revue as a consistent
and self-generating
form died with him.
On this day in 1928 – “Ol’ Man River”
was recorded by Paul Whiteman and his
orchestra. Bing Crosby was the song’s
featured vocalist. The song is from the
Broadway musical, “Showboat”.
Show Boat (1936) - Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5owzfuvE2k
• Theater specifically for opera
comique, musical comedies,
and revue. The auditorium
was construct in the from of
true ellipse.
• In the best tradition of the
Ameriacan musical theater,
Ziegfeld glorified America and
the beauty of the American
girl. Seldom in live theater
entertainment have so many
beautiful girls been
assembled under one roof.
"I Wanta Be A Ziegfeld Girl"
~ By Absolutely*Kate
The intimate revue
• Not all revues aspired
to the spectacular. The
Grand Street
Follies(1924) succeeded
Off-Broadway, it
instituted a new
approach to the revue
that rejected glamour
and splendor for
simplicity, wit, satire,
and sophistication.
• In order to succeed, an
intimate revue requires
clever sketches of comic
impersonation, lively
music, bright lyrics, and
refreshing
performances.
• What people were
responding to was an
irresistible combination
of innocence and
smartness.
• “Manhattan” become a hit song, launched the
career of Rodgers and Hart, and opened
another avenue for the development of the
theater song.
• Althous.gh the spectacular revues fades alng
with American affluence during the
Depression, the intimate revue survived,
especially as an effective forum for musical
theater entertainments on serious ubjest
Nellie McKay – “Manhattan Avenue”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8KFY3-TlOY
• Another revolutionary
success: Oklahoma!
• The revue neither
disappeared, adapted,
or degenerated; it
survives in cabaret,
varsity shows,
community theater, and
an occasional New York
production.
OKLAHOMA! OK! - Hugh Jackman 1998
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrDVzbeDzRk
Porgy and Bess
•
Porgy and Bess is an 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[1]) in Charleston, South Carolina, in the early 1920s.
•
The song "Summertime" is the best-known selection from Porgy and Bess. Other
popular and frequently recorded songs from the opera include "It Ain't Necessarily
So", "Bess, You Is My Woman Now", "I Loves You, Porgy" and "I Got Plenty o'
Nuttin'". The opera is admired for Gershwin's innovative synthesis of European
orchestral techniques with American jazz and folk music idioms.
"I Got Plenty O' Nothing", Porgy and Bess
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giVGv_dnmdY
Ethel Merman
• Ethel Merman
– Ethel Merman (January 16, 1908 – February 15,
1984) was an American actress and singer.[1]
Known primarily for her belting voice and roles in
musical theatre, she has been called "the
undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy
stage.
Let Me Call You Sweetheart (1932)-Ethel Merman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Let_Me_Call_Y
ou_Sweetheart_(1932).webm
Of Thee I Sing
• Of Thee I Sing is 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.
Gems from "Of Thee I Sing" (1938)-Jane Froman & Sonny
Schuyler & Chorus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbQE0EIFaiE
‘
Ethel Waters
• Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an
African-American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress.
She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on
the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her
career in the 1920s singing blues.
'Birmingham Bertha' - Ethel Waters - 1929
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I1RUM3L_Tc
Cole Porter
• Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American
composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied
the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a
profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre.
After a slow start, he began to achieve success in the 1920s, and by the
1930s he was one of the major songwriters for the Broadway musical
stage. Unlike many successful Broadway composers, Porter wrote the
lyrics as well as the music for his songs.
Night And Day - Cole Porter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WX_fKVWX2s