The American Musical

Precursive & Contemporaneous

Genres

•Vaudeville

•Revues

•Ziegfeld follies

•Operettas

Musicals

•Stage play plus singing and dancing

•Popular styles

•Often comedic

What is one difference between Operettas and

Musicals?•1) Operettas are performed in

theatres, Musicals are not

•2) Operettas have spoken dialogue, Musicals do not

•3) Operettas are more closely tied to the classical tradition, while Musicals are oriented toward popular song.

•Vehicle for star performer, loose plots

•Showboat (1927) changed this

•Jerome Kern, music

•Oscar Hammerstein II, text and lyrics

•social issues

Showboat (1927)

•“Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man”

•“Ol’ Man River”

•1) It combined music and acting

•2) Its plot dealt with sensitive issues such as racism

•3) There was a working river on the stage

One of the innovative features of Showboat was?

Oklahoma! (1943)

•Richard Rogers, music; Hammerstein, lyrics

•Based on Lynn Riggs play Green Grow the Lilacs

•Unprecedented run of 2, 212 performances

•Special Pulitzer prize awarded 1944

•Set in 1906, Oklahoma territory

•Curley and Laurey

•“Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’”

•“The Surrey with the Fringe on Top”

•“Oklahoma”

•1) Kern and Berlin

•2) Rogers and Hammerstein

•3) George and Ira Gershwin

•4) San Francisco Giants

Oklahoma! was a product of the

outstanding team:

West Side Story (1957)

•Leonard Bernstein, music

•Stephen Sondheim, lyrics

•Arthur Laurents, book

•Jerome Robbins, choreography

•retelling of Romeo & Juliet

•Jets & Sharks

•Tony & Maria

•Anita & Bernardo

•1) Street gangs: one White (Polish) and the other Puerto Rican

•2) Two fathers: one works in a nuclear power plant, the other owns the Kwik-e-Mart

In West Side Story, the role of the “feuding

families” is played by

•“Cool”

•“Maria”

•“America”

•“Tonight”