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Essays on the history of musical theatre
Evolution of music in america
Impact of culture by music
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The European and Pacific Theatre There were many battles in World War II, all of them being important and having different outcomes. Two main theaters we are focusing on are going to be the European Theatre where the Invasion of Normandy took place, along with the Pacific Theatre where the Attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. Both events had major impacts on the outcome of World War II, along with all the other battles we encountered. If ether of these battles turned out differently, America may not have become the amazing beautiful place it is today. The battle of Pearl Harbor occurred early morning in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 7, 1941.
Composers have the ability to influence how we the audience views and responds to characters and issues. Through viewing and analysing ‘The Shoe Horn Sonata’ by John Misto and ‘Saving Private Ryan’ directed by Steven Spielberg, it is obvious that composers have the ability to impact and influence our views on characters and issues that occur. Shoe Horn Sonata and Saving Private Ryan were set in the same context of World War 2. John Misto’s Shoe Horn Sonata takes place during the war against Japan, the play focus on the lives of two women Bridie and Sheila who have been captured by the Japanese to become (POW) prisoners of war. John Misto’s play was based on real accounts from POWs, the play was to commemorate the female POWS who story was unheard of and to give an insight to the audience into what the POWs had to endure while under the japanese rule.
Both created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s, initiating what to be considered the “golden age” of musical theatre. Rodgers was composing the music and Hammerstein was writing the lyrics, five of their Broadway shows, “ Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music, were outstanding successes, as was the television broadcast of Cinderella. “ The King and I” opened on Broadway on March 29, 1951. The idea of the Broadway came from a film in 1956 with Brynner re-creating his role opposite Deborah Kerr. “ The Sound of Music” were Rodgers and Hammerstein las work together, the play told the story of the von Trapp family.
Andrew Lloyd Webber has become a household name throughout the entire world. Not only do people flock to see his shows, but the pure fact that people outside of the theatre world know the composer of certain musicals is an accomplishment in itself. He has changed the musical theatre world. Some call him a “Broadway master” because his musical Phantom of the Opera surpassed his own record for the musical Cats to now hold the record for the longest running musical on Broadway as well as London’s West End ( Snelson 1).
Today we face the complex decision whether to stage or not the controversial 1935 opera Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin. The author, touched by the 1925 novel Porgy, fashioned this opera challenging his initial area of expertise, jazz. Not only did he challenge his previous image, he also had African Americans on stage for a white audience, an unprecedented occurrence. This opera tells the love story between Porgy, the crippled beggar, and Bess, an addicted woman. After the first performance, it soon became the source of American recognition and praise by the whites, who thought it a true African American reality.
Savannah Live was a musical preformance held in one of the oldest continuing theater halls in the nation. The theater, appropiately named the Historic Savannah Theater, origionally opened in 1818, yet do to years of wear and tear and several fires, the modern theater was retrofitted to look like its 1940s, art-deco self. Although the stage was in the traditional Proscienim style, the play was anything but traditional. The stage hall itself seemed like something right out of the hay day of Broadway, with lights surrounding the procienian arch, red velvet chairs and carpet, the hall was like a time caplse bringing me back into the 20th centry. Mimicing the transformations of the hall throughout the years, the musical took the audience on a journey through musical, and theatrical history.
Devin Dew Frisch ELA 10 Honors 27 March 2023 How Music has Shaped America In the United States a person listens to approximately 20 hours of music per week. Music plays a large role in most people's daily lives. It can change a person's mood, keep people focused, and be a good conversation topic. What most people don't realize is that music has played an important role in shaping America.
Tg beneath the surface” (Weakland). Jerome Robbins fully integrated all of the elements of musical theater including music, lyrics, book, and dance to produce something entirely unique. Jerome Robbins was changing the face of musical theater entirely. West Side Story also broke the rules in a thematic way. West Side Story was the first show to portray that musicals could be based on painful stories.
The Greeks were the first to introduce the concept of theater. As a matter of fact, one performer, Thespis, created the idea of a chorus, which was a group of people that expressed opinions, gave advice, and had the author’s point of view. The chorus would be the equivalent to the “score” in modern theater. The International Thespian Society, an organization formed to honor student’s success in the theater, was named after Thespis. In Greek theater, the place that the actors performed was called the “paraskene,” while in modern theater it is called the stage.
Lin-Manuel Miranda has taken many unlikely things, like hip-hop, American history, theater and music, and put them all into one event. This way, people who like only one of those things can all enjoy his performances and now very different people can now relate with each other better. So if one person hates hip-hop, but loves theater, they will still be able to enjoy it, and they will have a reason to go to the performance. Lin-Manuel Miranda has brought many audiences and people closer together by combining many things together. Lin-Manuel Miranda has really revolutionized American culture, theater, music and entertainment.
The American music industry has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past few decades, owing to the rapid advancements in technology. From the rise of digital recording and editing tools to the emergence of online streaming platforms, technology has become an omnipresent force shaping the production and distribution of music. This paper aims to delve into the intricate relationship between technology and the American music scene, examining how technological innovations have revolutionized the creation, consumption, and dissemination of musical content. The advent of digital technology has significantly altered the traditional landscape of music production.
Musical theatre is a performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical are told through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Musical theatre is unique for every culture. In america it took years to find its own unique identity. The first “play” put on was in 1735, it was technically a British opera called Flora.
The emergence of a popular mass culture depended upon the introduction of many new forms of entertainment such as film, radio, and theater. One of the most notable forms of theater that emerged was vaudeville, which gained popularity in the late 1800’s, reaching its height in the 1910’s through the 1930’s. Vaudeville theaters’ affordability and accessibility allowed Americans of different ethnic and social backgrounds a chance to socialize in a way that was previously not allowed. Vaudeville had a major impact on popular culture and many films took much of their content from vaudeville acts. An example of a film that was influenced by vaudeville is the play turned film, Wonder Bar.
Feminist theatre came into being as a by product of the experimental theatre movement of the 1970s’ and 1980’. It was an alternate theatre which enabled women to explore their creative talents on stage independently. Feminist theatre served as a means of constructing an exclusive feminist discourse on stage that questioned the patriarchal norms of female subjugation. Its movement was towards the construction of a theatre space where women are no longer mere stage props. They started functioning as the creators of drama rather than being confined to the roles of wife, lover, mother or lunatic.
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players,” (Shakespeare), meaning the whole world is like a stage show and humans are the actors. The quote proves that life can imitate art even when it’s not recognized, art is everywhere you look, in places you never thought to look. Theater is represented in any imaginable way, so why is it not good enough for a simple required subject in school? Fine arts such as drama, dance, and art programs get cut from high schools due to the expenses that go into them. People say theater is not needed for the future, no help in the “real world”, and it’s not a life skill.