Transcript Musical Theatre

America's Musical
Pioneers
1700’s - Showboat
1700’s

The ancient Greeks had plays with songs, and Roman
comedies included song and dance routines. But the
music of these eras disappeared long ago, so they
had no real influence on the development of modern
musical theatre. The Middle Ages brought traveling
minstrels and musical morality plays staged by
churches, but these had little if any influence on the
development of musicals as an art form.

Although there were many musical stage
entertainments in the 1700s, none of them were
called "musicals." The first lasting English-language
work of this period was John Gay's The Beggar's
Opera (1728), a ballad opera that reset popular tunes
of the day to lyrics that fit a satirical spoof of
respectable citizens who are no better than common
thieves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW2GIYQTtIY
The Beggar’s Opera, and other British ballad
operas, burlettas and pantomimes, formed
the majority of musicals offered on American
stages right into the early 1800s.
•
pantomimes - one act works which
replaced spoken dialogue with wordless
clowning and interpolated songs.
•
ballad operas - comic plays peppered
with popular ballads reset to new satirical
lyrics.
Roots of the Musical

French and Viennese
Operettas of the 1800s. The
satiric works of Jacques
Offenbach (Paris) and the
romantic comedies of Johann
Strauss II (Vienna) were the first
musicals to achieve
international popularity.

The earliest American musicals
were mostly comic operas
(satirical operas with original
scores and libretti), but sources
differ as to which was the first.
Mid- 1800s onward…

While the contemporary Broadway musical took its
form from operetta, it got its comic soul from the
variety entertainments that delighted America.

Crude American Variety and Minstrel
Shows eventually gave way to the more refined
pleasures of Vaudeville -- and the rowdy spirit of
Burlesque.
Minstrel Shows
The American musical has one shameful chapter in its
history –minstrel shows. The most popular musical
stage shows of the early and mid 19th Century,
minstrelsy embodied racial hatred. Both white and
black performers donned blackface, and audiences of
all colours loved it. Hateful as their content was,
minstrel shows were the first form of musical theatre
that was 100% American-born and bred.
Vaudeville
 Theatrical entertainment consisting of a
number of individual performances, acts, or
mixed numbers, as by comedians, singers,
dancers, acrobats, and magicians.
Burlesque
Most people think that "burlesque" means female
strippers walking a runway to a bump and grind beat.
But that only fits the form in its declining years. At its
best, burlesque was a rich source of music and comedy that kept America,
audiences laughing from 1840 through the 1960s.
The Primary attraction of burlesque was sex . . in the form
of ribald humour and immodestly dressed women. Although
many dismissed burlesque as the tail-end of show
business, its influence reaches through the development of
popular entertainment into the present.
The First Muscial?
 The success of The Black
Crook (1860) opened the way for the
development of American musicals in the
1860s, including extravaganzas,
pantomimes, and the musical farces of
Harrigan & Hart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0Uihq7a
SG8
(watch from 1.29- 3ish)
Gilbert & Sullivan
(1871-1896)

G & S wrote comic operettas that were witty, tuneful and exquisitely
produced – leading to new standards of theatrical production.
Some of their works included
•
H.M.S. Pinafore
•
The Pirates Of Penzance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2OcbeGqbpU)
•
Iolanthe
•
The Mikado (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyEJZ9yODB8)

After Gilbert and Sullivan, the theatre in Britain and the United States
was re-defined – first by imitation, then by innovation.
During the
early
1900s
- Imports like Franz Lehar’s The Merry
Widow (1907) had enormous influence on
the Broadway musical
- George M. Cohan (Watch Clip) Ref - Little
Jonny Jones
- Irving Berlin (Watch Clip)
-
Victor Herbert –” During his career as a cellist,
Herbert was composing music that
undoubtedly was a mixture of European
romanticism and American tradition. He is
arguably the greatest influence on American
theater, transitioning it from vaudeville and
variety acts to operatic and story-based
entertainment. ” (The song Writers Hall of
Fame)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUn0lOY8Hk
-
Jerome Kern, Guy Boulton and P.G.
Wodehouse took this a step further with the
Princess Theatre shows, putting believable
people and situations on the musical stage.
During the same years, Florenz Ziegfeld
introduced his Follies, the ultimate stage revue.
1920’s
The American musical comedy gained worldwide influence. Broadway saw the
composing debuts of –

Cole Porter,

Rodgers and Hart,

The Gershwins

Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote the innovative Showboat (1927) the most
lasting hit of the 1920s.

http://broadwayscene.com/broadway-history-the-golden-age-of-the-americanbook-musical-part-3-show/
Showboat (1927)
Show Boat established the template for the standard book musical.
Drama and song was used to move the plot along
By choosing to adapt a work of literature to the stage and turn it into a
musical, Hammerstein and Kern had basically committed to creating a
musical with a strong plot, realistic characters and important themes..
Show Boat was a serious novel that dealt with large issues such as –

dysfunctional romantic relationship

Alcoholism

gambling addiction

prejudice against interracial
marriage
Showboat continued
Of course Kern and Hammerstein knew what they were doing
when they decided to base a musical on the sprawling novel.
At least, they understood that they were attempting to raise the
bar when it came to utilizing musical theatre to create a serious
work of art. Show Boat would include elements from the minstrel
show, vaudeville and burlesque, but it in no way fit into any of
those genres. It was in a genre of its own- the book musical.
Well know songs from Showboat –
 "Ol' Man River,"
 "Make Believe,"
 "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man,"

"Bill”
Questions
 Name three styles of theatre that preceded
the book musical
 Name three composers that influenced the
American musical song book.
 Why was Showboat considered the first
book musical?
 What was innovative about the book
musical?
Bibliography
Bradley, I.C. (2005) Oh joy! Oh rapture!: The enduring phenomenon of Gilbert and Sullivan.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, USA.
Frieden, J.A. and Frieden, D.E. (no date) Show boat - topics: U.S./1750 - 1810. Available at:
http://www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/show-boat.html (Accessed: 8 January 2017).
Little Johnny Jones (no date) Available at: http://davecol8.tripod.com/id27.htm (Accessed: 8
January 2017).
Mroczka, P. (2013) Broadway history: The Golden Age of the American book musical, part 3
show boat. Available at: http://broadwayscene.com/broadway-history-the-golden-age-of-theamerican-book-musical-part-3-show/ (Accessed: 8 January 2017).
Musicals on stage: A capsule history (1970) Available at:
https://www.musicals101.com/stagecap.htm (Accessed: 8 January 2017).
Victor Herbert biography (2002) Available at:
http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/bio/C290 (Accessed: 8 January 2017).