First of all, I want to commend Susan for presenting the history of music theatre in an hour's time! That was quite an accomplishment. The history of music theatre is quite nebulous and comes from quite a variety of developments. I developed a love for music theatre after getting my bachelor's degree. I started being the music director for a community theatre's production of "Bye Bye Birdie." I remember looking at the conductor's/accompanist's score and thinking, "I can't play all that!" It was my first time reading from a condensed orchestral score. I made it through that production without too much scarring. Thankfully, that experience didn't deter me from being involved in other musicals over the past ___ years. Since then I've been involved with various types of musicals, from Gilbert/Sullivan's operettas to modern musicals, such as "Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?" and montage-type shows "A...My Name is Still Alice." I'm probably a nut about musicals just like Susan, except my days with theatre are spent at the piano (music director) and not on the stage. There's something about memorization that I don't like!
Now, to get to the question asked in the title...musical theatre an innovation!? I heard Dr. Brunner asked this question at the end of Susan's presentation. Most people would think that MT is just showbiz (ask Ethel Merman!). Some people may think of MT as just trivial music. And some people may consider it as watered-down operatic soundings. I, however, find it innovative. MT has gone through many changes throughout its history. At first it was just a coupling of various acts that didn't follow any pattern or scheme. It was to amuse the people (and make money for the performers!). Then in the early part of the 20th century, musicals began to develop a storyline. The early musicals were very operatic stylistically. You can listen to recordings of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald and hear the operatic training that they both had. The lead female singers were definitely soprano and the lead male singers were high baritones. Eventually that changed when voices like Ethel Merman and Doris Day brought the lead females down to low altos. This remained the mainstay of musicals until the late 70s in my opinion. Then composers such as Andrew Lloyd Webber began to bring back the lead sopranos in his productions. Overall, musical theatre has gone through a wide variety of transformations.
I think that the innovative part of musical theatre is the way that it continues to pull audiences into a live theatre setting instead of audiences just sitting at home watching TV or DVDs. It continues to grow. In today's world, audiences can easily sit at home and watch anything they want. Music theatre continues to grab our attention and pulls us into the theatre to watch it. I'm often amazed on many different musical notes we have (88 on the piano) and how we continue to create different songs over the past several hundred years! Musical theatre does that...along with other innovators such as Cage and Glass. But the innovation is subtle. It's a continual melding of sounds, effects, and stories. Just like with all types of music, there is bad and good (all subjective of course). I think musical theatre will continue to grow and will continue to astound us in the future.
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I agree with a lot of what Doug is saying about Musical Theater. One of the main draws of MT is that it continues to be popular and relevant to our culture. There is so much music that is "innovative" that is quickly forgotten. That isn't to say that it doesn't have any value, but for the most part, I think it is peculiar that a genre that most serious musicians dismiss, is one of the most popular and lucrative genres out there. I also think that MT is so innovative because it is able to make social commentary in the here and now. Musicals such as "Rent" made a huge poignant statement about the AIDS epidemic in America and incorporated rock instruments and sounds in the score. You can't really say that Brahms's music speaks out about the economic crisis, or the current state of the world. (you can relate it, but it isn't specific to our time.) We spend so much time lingering in the past (not percussionists....they have tons of new music.) but it's nice to be able to listen to something fresh and new that makes me want to see it again and again. Musicals have developed tremendously over it's history (thanks Susan!) and it will be nice to hear them for years to come....unless the workd ends in 2012.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that most of the innovations in Musical theatre are quickly forgotten, I think they are taken and adapted for whatever is new, so quickly that it seems that they've been forgotten. Disney would never have been inspired to produce their own mega-musicals if Lloyd Webber hadn't proved that the formula worked AND made money. Each thing really builds on itself, creating something different (Lion King certainly doesn't sound like Phantom!). What is so fun to watch is how old trends get brought back in new ways:
ReplyDeleteDirty Rotten Scoundrels is a modern musical, based on the movie of the same name. But unlike the mega-musicals that it competed with, DRS returned to an almost Rodgers and Hammerstein formula, with the leading man and lady, a secondary couple, opening chorus act, second act dance number - all the R&H conventions were there, but as Dennis pointed out, this musical speaks to the modern day much more so than "Oklahoma" does now. But what DRS proves is that the formulas and conventions that Rodgers and Hammerstein perfected, can still be relevant to the modern audience, given a strong enough story.
Nowadays it seems that a new broadway show needs something special to get it noticed by the investors: With most disney shows, it's the recognizable Disney name and branding that comes along with it, or a movie title like "The Wedding Singer" or even DRS. But even though that's enough to get people in the door at first, the show still has to have something enticing to keep people coming, (though nothing will top the "Fantasticks!")