cynthia teacher study guide -...

2008-2009 Student Matinee concerts

Teacher Study Guide Grade 7—12

The National Arts Centre Orchestra presents

Broadway Spectacular

Steven Reineke, conductor

Cynthia Dale

Table of Contents

Teacher Study Guide Page 2 Broadway Spectacular

This programme is made possible by the National Youth and Education Trust supported by Founding Partner TELUS, Sun Life Financial, Michael Potter and Véronique Dhieux,

supporters and patrons of the annual National Arts Centre Gala and the donors of the NAC Foundation’s Corporate Club and Donor’s Circle.

Welcome Teachers!

Concert Programme Page 4

About the National Arts Centre and the Performers Page 5 Canada’s National Arts Centre Page 5 The National Arts Centre Orchestra Page 6 Steven Reineke, conductor Page 7 Cynthia Dale, vocalist Page 8

All about the Orchestra Page 9

Map of the NAC Orchestra Sections Page 10

Programme Notes Page 11 What is “Broadway”? Page 11 The Origins of Broadway Page 11 The Elements of Broadway Page 12 Lyrics vs. Music: Which comes first? Page 12 In the Beginning Page 12 Broadway Musicals in the 20th Century Page 13 Broadway Musical vs. Operetta Page 13 The First True Broadway Musical Page 14 Rodgers and Hammerstein Page 14 Other Broadway Hits of the 1940s and 1950s Page 15 The British Invasion of Broadway Page 15 Fascinating Facts: The Business Side of Broadway Page 16 Record‐Breaking Broadway Hits Page 16 Off Broadway Page 17 Broadway On Tour Page 17 Broadway in the Movies Page 18 Classroom Activities Page 18

Performance Hall Etiquette Page 19

Bibliography of Resources Available at the Ottawa Public Library Page 20

ArtsAlive.ca Page 22

Other available NAC Orchestra Teacher Study Guides Page 23

Dear Teachers,

Pinchas Zukerman Music Director, National Arts Centre Orchestra

Should you have any questions regarding Music Education at the National Arts Centre, please contact us:

General information Tel: 613‐947‐7000 x 390 ♦ Email: mused@nac‐cna.ca

www.nac‐cna.ca www.ArtsAlive.ca Music

About this guide As a support to your classroom work, we have created this guide to help introduce you to the programme and content of the performance. In it you will find:

♦ Programme notes about the music you will hear at the concert ♦ Biographical information about the conductor, the performers and the NAC Orchestra ♦ Classroom activities for you to share with your students

We hope this study guide is helpful in preparing you for your concert experience. The level of difficulty for the activities is broad, so please assess them according to the grade level you teach. If you have any comments about the study guide or the performance please write to us at mused@nac‐cna.ca.

See you at the NAC!

Last year, you brought nearly 15,000 students to the National Arts Centre to hear great music performed by the NAC Orchestra. I can't tell you how overwhelmed I am by your commitment and this demonstration of support. It is proof that there exists in our schools a belief that music and music education have a fundamental role to play in the development of our youth, and ultimately our Canadian society. I can assure you we will continue to hold ourselves to the highest standards in the creation of educational programming that we hope you find is as entertaining as it is enriching. Sincerely,


mailto:[email protected]�

Concert Programme (subject to change)

Concert Dates: Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:00 am – 12:00 pm (bilingual) Friday, November 21, 2008 11:00 am – 12:00 pm (bilingual)

Location for all concerts: Southam Hall, National Arts Centre

Running time for all concerts: 60 minutes without intermission

Broadway Spectacular The National Arts Centre Orchestra

Steven Reineke, conductor

FEATURING: Cynthia Dale, vocalist Michel Dozois, host

Michael Lichtefeld, choreographer

Throughout the concert, students will hear excerpts from:


TITLE FROM CREDITS

Overture to Gypsy Gypsy WRITTEN BY: Arthur Laurents MUSIC BY: Jule Styne LYRICS BY: S. Sondheim

Face The Music and Dance/I'm Happy Follow the Fleet BY: Irving Berlin

If They Could See Me Now Sweet Charity WRITTEN BY: Cy Coleman LYRICS: Dorothy Fields

It's Better With A Band It’s Better With A Band MUSIC BY: Wally Harper LYRICS BY: David Zippel

Overture to Funny Girl Funny Girl MUSIC BY: Jule Styne LYRICS BY: Bob Merrill

Moon River Breakfast At Tiffany’s MUSIC BY: Henry Mancini LYRICS BY: Johnny Mercer

The Ingénue It’s Better With A Band MUSIC BY: Wally Harper LYRICS BY: David Zippel

My Favourite Things The Sound of Music MUSIC BY: Richard Rodgers LYRICS BY: Oscar Hammerstein II

The Emerald Isle on the Great White MUSIC BY: Frederick Loewe & Way Burton Lane (arr. Jack Everly)

Adelaide's Lament Guys and Dolls MUSIC BY: Frank Loesser

Can't Help Lovin' That Man Show Boat MUSIC BY: Jerome Kern LYRICS BY: Oscar Hammerstein II

Ev'rything's Coming Up Roses Gypsy WRITTEN BY: Arthur Laurents MUSIC BY: Jule Styne LYRICS BY: S. Sondheim

The Impossible Dream (encore) Man of La Mancha WRITTEN BY: Dale Wasserman MUSIC BY: Mitch Leigh LYRICS BY: Joe Darion

About the National Arts Centre and the Performers


Designed by Fred Lebensold (ARCOP Design), one of North America's foremost theatre designers, the building was widely praised as a twentieth century architectural landmark. Of fundamental importance to the creators of the NAC was the belief that, beautiful and functional as the complex was, it would need more than bricks and mortar and, in the words of Jean Gascon, former Director of the NAC’s French Theatre Department (1977‐1983), "it would need a heart that beats."

A programme to incorporate visual arts into the fabric of the building has resulted in the creation of one of the country's most unique permanent art collections of international and Canadian contemporary art. Pieces include special commissions such as Homage to RFK (mural) by internationally

acclaimed Canadian contemporary artist William Ronald, The Three Graces by Ossip Zadkine and a large free standing untitled bronze sculpture by Charles Daudelin. In 1997, the NAC collaborated with the Art Bank of the Canada Council for the Arts to install over 130 pieces of Canadian contemporary art.

Canada’s National Arts Centre Situated in the heart of the nation's capital across Confedera‐tion Square from Parliament Hill, the National Arts Centre is among the largest performing arts complexes in Canada. It is unique as the only multidisciplinary, bilingual performing arts centre in North America and features one of the largest stages on the continent.

Southam Hall is home to the National Arts Centre Orchestra, to the largest film screen in the country and to the Micheline Beauchemin Curtain.

Officially opened on June 2, 1969, the National Arts Centre was a key institution created by Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson as a Centennial project of the federal government.

Built in the shape of a hexagon, the design became the architectural leitmotif for Canada's premier performing arts centre.

Today, the NAC works with countless artists, both emerging and established, from across Canada and around the world, and collaborates with scores of other arts organizations across the country.

The NAC is strongly committed to being a leader and innovator in each of the performing arts fields in which it works ‐ classical music, English theatre, French theatre, dance, variety, and community programming. It is at the forefront of youth and educational activities, supporting programmes for young and emerging artists and programmes for young audiences, and producing resources and study materials for teachers.


The NAC Orchestra offers a number of programmes dedicated to fostering a knowledge and appreciation of music among young people. In addition to a highly popular subscription series of TD Canada Trust Family Adventures with the NAC Orchestra, the Orchestra presents a variety of opportunities for schools to learn about classical music: Student Matinees, and Open Rehearsals to allow students to hear the Orchestra perform in its home at the NAC. In addition, Musicians in the

Schools programmes including ensemble performances and instrument sectionals take the music to the students in their schools.

The National Arts Centre Orchestra Consistent praise has followed this vibrant orchestra throughout its history of touring both nationally and internationally, recording, and commissioning Canadian works. Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, now under the direction of renowned conductor/ violinist/violist Pinchas Zukerman, continues to draw accolades both abroad and at its home in Ottawa where it gives over 100 performances a year.

The NAC Orchestra was founded in 1969 as the resident orchestra of the newly opened National Arts Centre, with Jean‐Marie Beaudet as Music Director and Mario Bernardi as founding conductor and (from 1971) Music Director until 1982. He was succeeded by Franco Mannino (1982 to 1987), Gabriel Chmura (1987 to 1990), and Trevor Pinnock (1991‐1997). In April 1998, Pinchas Zukerman was named Music Director of the NAC Orchestra.

Pinchas Zukerman has led the Orchestra on tours within Canada in 1999, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006, to Europe and Israel in 2000, and the United States and Mexico in 2003, with educational activities ranging from master‐classes and question‐and‐answer sessions to sectional rehearsals with youth and community orchestras and student matinees.

The NAC Orchestra has 40 recordings to its name, six with Pinchas Zukerman: Haydn, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Schubert and two of Mozart (a CD of flute quartets, and a CD of orchestral music and string quintets). The commissioning of original Canadian works has always been an important part of the National Arts Centre’s mandate with over 90 works commissioned to date.

In addition to a full series of subscription concerts at the National Arts Centre each season, tours are undertaken to regions throughout Canada and around the world. Since the arrival of Pinchas Zukerman, education has been an extremely important component of these tours. Teacher Resource Kits have been developed for distribution to elementary schools in the regions toured and across Canada, and the public has been able to follow each tour through fully interactive websites which are now archived on the NAC’s Performing Arts Education Website at www.ArtsAlive.ca. The Orchestra’s tour of

Western Canada in October and November 2008 will include over 100 education events.

http://www.artsalive.ca/�

Steven Reineke conductor

Steven Reineke is the Principal Pops Conductor of the Modesto Symphony Orchestra and serves as Music Associate and Principal Arranger/Composer of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Recognized as the sound of the Cincinnati Pops, Mr. Reineke’s 100+ arrangements for that orchestra have been performed worldwide. In addition to his work for the Cincinnati Pops, Mr. Reineke has written and arranged for pops conductors Doc Severinsen, Jack Everly and Michael Krajewski. Mr. Reineke’s arrangements can be heard on numerous Cincinnati Pops recordings on the Telarc label and have been broadcast nationally by PBS.

A protégé of the legendary pops conductor Erich Kunzel, Steven Reineke’s recent guest conducting appearances include the orchestras of Cincinnati, Toronto, Detroit, Indianapolis, Baltimore and Edmonton. In 2008 Mr. Reineke made his Carnegie Hall debut conducting the New York Pops 25th Birthday Gala. In 2007 he made his Hollywood Bowl debut with the multi‐faceted entertainer Wayne Brady and he returned to the Hollywood Bowl in 2008. In addition, Mr. Reineke conducted, arranged and orchestrated the music for Mr. Brady’s new orchestral show that debuted in

October 2007 with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. In 2006 Mr. Reineke collaborated with rock legend Peter Frampton as conductor, arranger and orchestrator for Mr. Frampton’s orchestral show. Mr. Reineke is also an established symphonic composer. His works Celebration Fanfare, Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Casey at the Bat are performed frequently in North America, with the most recent performances by the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic in July 2008. He is a frequent guest conductor and clinician with college and high school bands. A native of Ohio, Mr. Reineke is a graduate of Miami University of Ohio, receiving two bachelor of music degrees with honours in both trumpet performance and music composition. He currently resides in Cincinnati.



Michel Dozois Host

Cynthia Dale began her career at the age of five in a production of Finian's Rainbow at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. Since then she has worked extensively in theatre, television and film.

Her Stratford Festival credits include: ♦ Edythe Herbert My One and Only ♦ Nellie Forbush South Pacific ♦ Maggie Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ♦ Sarah Brown Guys and Dolls ♦ Reno Sweeney Anything Goes ♦ Eliza My Fair Lady ♦ Maria The Sound of Music ♦ Aldonza Man of La Mancha ♦ Annie Sullivan The Miracle Worker ♦ Bianca The Taming of the Shrew ♦ Guinevere Camelot ♦ The Mikado ♦ The Gondoliers

Other theatre credits include Syncopation (MTC/Mirvish Productions); Tamara (New York City); Pal Joey (Tarragon Theatre‐Dora Mavor Moore Award Best Actress in a Musical); Dames at Sea (Premier Dance Theatre). Film and television credits include A Broken Life, The Boy in Blue, Heavenly Bodies, Moonstruck, Spenser For Hire (ABC); Taking the Falls (CTV); Street Legal (CBC); Thanks of a Grateful Nation (Showtime); Witness To Yesterday (History/PBS); Barnum (A&E); Made in Canada; Triple Sensations; and The Cynthia Dale Special (CBC). She recently performed with the Kitchener/Waterloo Symphony, and has recorded three CDs "...To Dream", "More...", and "Enchanted".

Cynthia Dale vocalist

A Montreal native, Michel Dozois trained as a dancer at the MUDRA school in Belgium and pursued a successful dance career with le Groupe Nouvel Aire

de Montréal in the 1970s. He was also employed as a stage manager, lighting technician, and freelance technical director, working on numerous tours and with many of the dance companies in Montreal. Mr. Dozois joined the National Arts Centre as a technical director in the early 1980s. During the last decade, he worked closely with Jack Udashkin as Associate Producer for Dance and Special Projects before heading the department as Producer. Among his credits are the spectacular "Harmony 2000" event produced for the Casino de Hull.

All about the Orchestra


What is an orchestra?

An orchestra is a group of musicians playing different musical instruments under the direction of a conductor. It can be large or small, depending on the pieces that are performed. Orchestras are comprised of instruments from four different families (also known as sections):

♪ Strings ♪ Woodwinds ♪ Brass ♪ Percussion

Strings: Violin, viola, cello, and double bass

All string instruments of the orchestra have four strings. The vibration of the strings produces the sound. A string player either draws a bow made of horsehair across the strings, or plucks the strings with his or her fingers to produce sound. The larger the instrument, the lower the sound – violins make the highest sounds and double basses the lowest. Every string instrument is constructed of pieces of wood carefully glued together and covered with several coats of varnish – no nails or screws are used.

Woodwinds: Flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon

Woodwind instruments are simply tubes pierced with holes. The musician blows through or across the tube while covering some holes to produce different notes. Many wind instruments are played with reeds. A reed is a thin piece of cane that is set in motion as the musician blows across it. The oboe and bassoon use a double reed while the clarinet uses a single reed. Most wind instruments are made from wood, like ebony, except for the flute, which is almost always made of silver. Flutes create the highest notes, bassoons create the lowest.

Brass: Trumpet, French horn, trombone, and tuba

The Brass Section has the most resounding instruments in the orchestra. They are metallic loops of tubing of different lengths, with a mouthpiece at one end and a bell shape at the other. The longer the length of tube, the lower the sound of the instrument will be. The vibration of the musician’s lips produces the sound as air is blown in the mouthpiece. Most brass instruments have valves that the players press and release in order to change and produce different notes. The trombone has a slide that moves to change notes.

Percussion: Timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle

Percussion instruments are made of naturally resonant materials like skin, wood, and metal. The sound is produced when the instrument is struck. The percussion provides rhythm and character to the orchestra. Different pitches are produced on the timpani by changing the skin tension either by tightening or loosening screws fixed to the shell, or by using the pedal.

Visit the Instrument Lab on ArtsAlive.ca Music to tweak, tinker and listen to all your favourite instruments of the orchestra!

Map of the NAC Orchestra Sections


harp

tuba

trom

bone

trum

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Programme Notes Prepared by Robert Markow

The Origins of “Broadway” As most everyone knows, “Broadway” is not just a theatrical reference but an actual place: a long, wide boulevard that cuts diagonally through the heart of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The street has become synonymous with the theatrical entertainment that takes place there in the midtown stretch between 42nd and 53rd Streets. This district is also known as the “Great White Way,” a moniker that first appeared in the New York Evening Telegram in 1902 and referred to the millions of lights on theatre marquees and billboard advertisements. In more recent

times, “Broadway theatre” has been expanded to include 39 professional venues (“houses”) containing five hundred or more seats located either on Broadway itself or on side streets to the left and right. (The expression “Off Broadway” is something else, to be discussed later.) Actually, most “Broadway” theatres are now on its side streets.


What is “Broadway”? Glamour and glitter, rhythm and rhyme, drama and dance, music and magic: these are the ingredients that make up that heady brew known as the Broadway musical. The medium is one of America’s most distinguished ‐ and distinguishing ‐ contributions to world culture, one that has brought countless hours of entertainment to untold millions both at home and abroad. There is something special about a Broadway musical, a quality that cannot be recreated elsewhere. There is energy, vitality, exhilaration, an “emotional kick in the pants” as one writer (Martin Gottfried) put it. Broadway is a unique combination of music, story, songs, dances, sets, costumes, lighting, acting and direction.

Did you know? Canadians mostly use the British spelling “theatre” while Americans generally prefer “theater.” However, when it comes to Broadway, Americans have inexplicably adopted the British form of the word for their uniquely American brand of entertainment.

Finally there is the book – the dialogue, all the words besides the songs. This is the first element to be written, the very basis of the show itself. But it is crucial that the book “works.” If it doesn’t, the whole show can flop. Martin Gottfried, in his handsome volume Broadway Musicals, describes “book trouble” as follows: “One episode isn’t leading clearly to another; the funny business is getting no laughs; leading characters look awkward, having nothing to do; scenes are not playing smoothly and musical numbers aren’t properly set up.” Sometimes “book doctors” can fix the problems, or hide them, sometimes they can’t. It takes a special knack to write a good book for a Broadway musical. Far more shows flop or close prematurely than become blockbusters. Alan Jay Lerner said that the book decides whether or not a musical will be an immediate hit, but that its music determines whether it survives.

Lyrics vs. Music: Which comes first?

Lyrics are the words to the songs. Usually the music comes first, although Oscar Hammerstein II often wrote the lyrics before handing them over to Richard Rodgers for the music. Sometimes composer‐lyricist partners work closely together, pushing and pulling until the music and words fit perfectly.

The Elements of Broadway A Broadway musical consists of three main elements: the music, the book and the lyrics. The relative importance of each varies with the show, but generally speaking, the music takes precedence. A two or two‐and‐a‐half‐hour show requires a lot of music: all the songs and the dance numbers, the overture, the exit music, and the underscoring (music accompanying some of the dialogue). A good show will contain at least half a dozen memorable songs, with one or two of them becoming real hits. Examples include “Seventy‐six Trombones” from The Music Man, “I Could Have Danced All Night” from My Fair Lady and “Memory” from Cats. Not surprisingly, love songs are by far the most numerous.


In the Beginning Theatrical activity in the American Colonies goes back to the early eighteenth century. Residents saw their first musical comedy in 1750, 26 years before “America” was born. Understandably it was a British import, a ballad opera by John Gay called The Beggar’s Opera, which had premiered in London in 1728 and immediately became immensely popular. On September 12, 1866, The Black Crook opened in New York, the first home‐grown theatrical entertainment that resembles what would years later become the Broadway musical. This five‐and‐a‐half hour extravaganza, complete with elaborate scenic effects (including a simulated hurricane), songs, dances, gorgeous costumes and rows of scantily clad young women, was America’s first long‐running musical hit.


In the Beginning (continued) Purists tried to discourage attendance on moral grounds but this inevitably served only to boost sales. The show ran for 475 performances, an astounding number for the age. The “book,” such as it was (there was virtually no plot), was written by a single American author, but the music and lyrics were a jumble. A further step in the direction of Broadway as we know it today was The Brook (1879), which had more of a plot as well as characterization and a real setting (a picnic and its attendant mishaps).

Broadway Musicals in the 20th Century Theatres began to open with increasing regularity in and around Times Square during the early years of the twentieth century, and shows proliferated with upwards of two dozen new ones every season by the 1920s. Audiences fell in love with the music of now‐legendary names like Victor Herbert (The Fortune Teller, Naughty Marietta), Irving Berlin (Ziegfeld Follies, The Cocoanuts), Jerome Kern (Very Good Eddie, Oh, Lady!, Lady!), George Gershwin (Funny Face, Strike Up the Band, Girl Crazy, Of Thee I Sing), Vincent Youmans (No, No, Nanette, Hit the Deck!) and Cole Porter (Fifty Million Frenchmen, The New Yorkers).

Broadway Musical vs. Operetta Operetta is not quite the same thing as a musical but it was nevertheless hugely popular in Broadway theatres in the early twentieth century, whether it be the Viennese type (Johann Strauss II, Lehár, von Suppé), the British type (Gilbert and Sullivan) or American. Like musical comedy, it relies on plot, songs, dances, scenery and costumes. In neither form does one seek profound experiences, ennoblement of the soul or character development such as we find in the great operas by Mozart, Verdi, Wagner or Puccini. But operetta differs from musical comedy in one important respect. Gerald Bordman explains that “at heart, operetta trafficked in a roseate, earnest romanticism, frequently transporting both its characters and its audiences to far‐off, exotic lands and far‐off, fondly remembered times. By contrast, musical comedy professed to take a jaundiced, cynical look at everyday and, more frequently than not, very contemporary foibles.” The Chocolate Soldier by Oscar Straus, The Merry Widow by Franz Lehár and Countess Maritza by Emmerich Kálmán were among the most successful European imports (translated into English, of course), but there were original American operettas as well, notably Babes in Toyland (Victor Herbert), The Desert Song (Siegmund Romberg) and, of special interest to Canadians, Rose‐Marie (1924), with music by the Czech‐born Rudolf Friml.

Rose‐Marie was set in Canada, with locations from the Rocky Mountains to the Château Frontenac in Quebec City. It was the first Broadway show with a Canadian setting and possibly the first to deal with a murder. Yes, the Mounties got their man, but “he” turned out to be a woman.


The First True Broadway Musical Something really different, even revolutionary, happened in 1927. That was the year Show Boat opened. Here, finally, was the complete integration of music, lyrics, book, production numbers, character and humour. Driving the show was a coherent, credible story line based on Edna Ferber’s novel about life on the Mississippi River. Music, songs and dances all ultimately derived from the story.

Prior to 1927, musical theatre had focused on the positive, the upbeat, the lightweight, the purely entertaining. But Show Boat probed sensitive, controversial issues like racial prejudice, marital stress and the rough, gritty life of longshoremen as portrayed in the show’s most famous song, “Ol’ Man River.” The lyrics and book were by Oscar Hammerstein II, the music by Jerome Kern, that “veritable magician of melody.” He has been called the father, the teacher, the master, the king of American theatre composers. Most of all, there was a brash but indefinable “American” quality to his music.

Rodgers and Hammerstein Another landmark in Broadway history came in 1935, with the opening of the first product of the Rodgers and Hart collaboration, Jumbo. This was followed by On Your Toes, renowned above all for its great, innovative ballet sequence “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue.” Then came Babes in Arms, The Boys from Syracuse (adapted from Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors) and Pal Joey. It was artistically a richly rewarding relationship. But even before Hart died in 1942, Rodgers had started looking for a new collaborator. This turned out to be his old friend Oscar Hammerstein II. Oklahoma! It was an artistic marriage made in theatrical heaven. “Rodgers and Hammerstein” became virtually synonymous with Broadway itself. Their first show together was Oklahoma! (1943), which was as unconventional as Show Boat had been fifteen years earlier. This was no comedy of mistaken identities or misunderstandings. It was about ordinary people in real‐life situations. There were no irrelevant displays of long‐legged chorus girls. This was real theatre. As Canadian author Peter Riddle notes, “it had become the fashion to call all musicals ‘comedies’ in the 1930s and early 1940s, excepting only such works as [Gershwin’s folk opera] Porgy and Bess.” But Oklahoma! required that a new and more encompassing definition be created, one that became much more common later in the century: ‘music drama.’” The influence of Oklahoma! on other composers and lyricists was immediate, profound and long‐lasting. It ran for 2,212 performances, more than any previous show by a good margin and a record not broken until My Fair Lady many years later.


DID YOU KNOW? Over the 16‐year period from 1943 to 1959, the Rodgers and Hammerstein partnership resulted in 11 shows, of which eight were major hits. No other team created so many musicals or had so many hits. In addition to Oklahoma!, these included such classics as State Fair, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and Flower Drum Song. Their last musical was The Sound of Music (1959), possibly the best‐loved and best known of all their creations.

Other Broadway Hits of the 1940s and 1950s Concurrent with Rodgers and Hammerstein, another famous pair brought forth a handful of Broadway classics: Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, who together wrote Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, Camelot and My Fair Lady. The latter, adapted from an original play by the famous Irish author George Bernard Shaw, has been called “the most influential musical of the Fifties and one of the most distinguished productions of all time and perhaps the most faithful reworking of classic literature ever realized on the Broadway stage, done with unerring intelligence, taste and style.” (Stanley Green). Riddle calls it “the quintessential Broadway classic.”

Other outstanding musicals of the forties and fifties include Kiss Me Kate (with music and lyrics by Cole Porter), Kismet, Peter Pan (based on the play by James M. Barrie), The Music Man (music, lyrics and book all by Meredith Wilson) and the extraordinary West Side Story, in which the concept of the integrated ballet was taken to new heights by choreographer Jerome Robbins using Leonard Bernstein’s magnificent score and Arthur Laurents’ book. The lyrics were by the 27‐year‐old Stephen Sondheim, who would go on to a stellar career.

The British Invasion of Broadway The most recent wave to roll over Broadway has crossed an ocean to get there. In a

sense, history has come full circle with the so‐called British Invasion. Recalling that the first musical to play in New York was from England (Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera), we now find that a number of Broadway’s best and brightest shows are coming from London’s West End, with the name Andrew Lloyd Webber (b. 1948) in tow. Among his thirteen musicals are such super hits as Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, Starlight Express and The Phantom of the Opera.

Les Misérables and Miss Saigon are two more British imports that struck gold (over 4,000 performances each). These and other mega musicals feature sensational sets, extravagant costumes, pop‐rock music and sentimental plots but lack either an American accent or, in most cases, the use of dance as an integral element of plot development. This is not to say the American musical is on the way out. Broadway is constantly reinventing itself, and one of its current trends is to go for fewer but bigger successes. What’s next is anyone’s guess.


Record‐Breaking Broadway Hits!

The longest running Broadway show to date is The Phantom of the Opera, which has been playing at the Majestic Theatre on 44th Street since January 26, 1988. That’s almost twenty‐one years!! How many performances does that make? At eight shows per week, that’s more than 8,500 and counting. Phantom’s closest rival is Cats, which ran nearly as long (1982‐2000) and racked up 7,485 performances. Third place goes to Les Misérables, with 6,680 performances, followed by A Chorus Line (6,137), the revival of Oh! Calcutta (5,959) and Beauty and the Beast (5,461). Rent just closed on September 7th after a run of 12 and a half years, but still going strong are The Lion King and the revival of Chicago, both of which have been running for well over ten years.

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A great deal of time, money and effort go into getting a show “just right” so as to ensure the most favorable reviews from the critical press and to generate a “buzz” that will fill seats for weeks, months and even years to come. It has been estimated that a big show must run for at least one thousand performances – that’s nearly three years! – before it starts turning a profit. A show usually plays for a few weeks in another city (the “tryout”) before it opens on Broadway, thus giving its production team the opportunity to iron out the kinks, to evaluate the effectiveness of every song and dance number and to exploit the (hopefully favorable!) critical and public response in its advertising campaign.

Fascinating Facts: The Business Side of Broadway

Broadway shows sell over one and a half billion dollars of tickets annually, more

than the entire gross national product of some countries.

(Some Broadway fanatics will try to tell you that Broadway is a country!)


Off Broadway However, the longest‐running show of all time, anywhere, didn’t happen on Broadway at all. It was part of an industry known as “Off Broadway.” Off Broadway consists of a collection of smaller theatres that have between 100 and 499 seats and generally do more experimental shows, operate on a smaller scale, cost less to run and charge less for admission.

On May 3, 1960, The Fantasticks opened at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village (a district in lower Manhattan) and ran there for 42 continuous years. How many performances does that make? Over 17,000!!! But that’s not the end of it. There have also been more than 11,000 additional productions in over 2,000 American cities and towns, including those given by fifteen touring companies, plus hundreds more in nearly seventy countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe in dozens of languages. In Canada alone there have been over 200 productions. There have also been television and film versions. The total number of people who have seen The

Fantasticks is beyond counting. And consider this: If you had contributed to the modest initial investment of just $16,500 for this production, you would have realized a return of more than 10,000% on your money. As they say, The Fantasticks statistics are fantastic. The show is currently up and running again as a revival, currently at the Snapple Theatre Center on West 50th Street.

Sometimes a show that began Off Broadway will move over to Broadway. Examples include A Chorus Line, Godspell, Rent, Hair, Little Shop of Horrors and Sunday in the Park with George.

Broadway on Tour Touring is an important additional source of revenue for a show. Not everyone can get to Broadway, so Broadway comes to them. A new cast and crew is assembled to

travel around the country, stopping in major cities for a week or more at a time. The most popular shows may even have several touring companies going at once. Smaller cities are visited by “bus and truck” companies, with performers traveling by bus and the sets and equipment by truck. Performances in these smaller cities may be “split weeks” (half a week here, half a week there) or “one‐nighters.” Wicked played in Ottawa for two and a half weeks this past August, and Monty Python’s Spamalot arrives in Ottawa in early November for a five‐day run.


Broadway in the Movies Popular shows are often made into films as well. Over the years, dozens of Broadway productions have appeared on film, thus bringing shows to millions of viewers who cannot make it to Broadway. Sometimes, as in the case of Sweeney Todd, an actual stage performance is filmed incorporating close ups, pans, dissolves and other cinematic techniques. More often, though, films are newly conceived. In some cases they are faithful

reproductions, at other times they are distorted, misguided renditions that do little honour to the original show. Peter Riddle sympathetically writes that “by attempting too often to reproduce Broadway on film, [Hollywood] understandably falls short more often than it succeeds, but filmmakers should be credited for their occasional masterpieces, such as The Music Man, The King and I and My Fair Lady. Better that they tried often and failed than that they tried too rarely and missed giving us films that bring Broadway musicals to those who may never have the opportunity to see them on stage.”

Classroom Activities 1. Write a plot summary of your favourite Broadway show. If you don’t have a favourite, choose one with a title that sounds interesting. 2. Compile a list of “hit” songs from Broadway shows. Indicate which ones you personally like best and why. To make the list more manageable, you might choose to concentrate on a single decade, or to limit yourself to just a few from each decade, starting with Show Boat. 3. You be the critic: Buy, rent or borrow a DVD of a Broadway show. Evaluate it in all its aspects: the acting ability of the stars, how well they sing, the quality of the music, the coherence of the story line, the appropriateness of the sets and props, the costumes, the lighting, the dancing (if present), the camera work, and anything else that strikes you as being particularly good or bad about the production. This can be either an exercise for an individual or a group assignment, with each member of the group reporting on a different aspect of the film.

Performance Hall Etiquette


Teachers: Help us ensure that everyone enjoys the performance!

As a teacher bringing your students to a performance at the National Arts Centre, please keep in mind that you are responsible for the behaviour of your students. It is up to you to ensure that the students behave in a respectful and attentive manner towards the performers on stage as well as NAC staff. Use the guidelines below to brief your students about behaviour in the performance hall before you attend your NAC performance. ✓ Performers on stage rely on the audience for the energy to perform: audiences need to be attentive, quiet and respectful in order to help create the magic of live performance. ✓ Performers can see and hear everything that you do, just as you can see and hear everything that they do, so:

❏ Please save your snacks, drinks, candies and gum for another time ‐ the performance hall is no place for eating and drinking. ❏ Please discuss what you like and dislike about a performance ‐ but definitely do it after you leave the hall, not during the performance. ❏ It is important that you be comfortable in your seat in the hall ‐ but please don’t leave your seat once the performance has started. It’s distracting to those on stage. ❏ Be sure to turn off cell phones, pagers and anything that beeps before you enter the hall.

✓ Musicians love to have their performance acknowledged by your applause, but remember to wait until the whole piece is over. Some composers choose to write music in several movements. It may seem like the end of the piece when the performers come to the end of a movement, but often a piece of music is made up of several movements. If you get confused about when a piece of music is finished, watch the performers on stage—you’ll be sure to know when the piece is over when the conductor turns and faces the audience. ✓ Remember that there are a lot of people who work very hard to put on a performance: not just actors, dancers and musicians, but administrators, front‐of‐house and technical staff. Everyone will have a different opinion of what they see on stage, but consider that constructive criticism is always appreciated more than purely negative criticism. ✓ Through the performing arts we can explore other points of view, learn new and different things about ourselves and about others. Everyone who views a performance will experience it in a different way. It is important to respect this process of exploration in yourselves and those around you.

Bibliography

of Resources Available at the Ottawa Public Library Compiled by Janis Perkin

Children’s Services, Ottawa Public Library


HISTORY OF BROADWAY

Brantley, Ben ed. THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF BROADWAY: ON THE AISLE FOR UNFORGETTABLE PLAYS OF THE LAST CENTURY St. Martin’s Press, 2001

Maslon, Laurence BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL Bullfinch Press, 2004

Mordden, Ethan BEAUTIFUL MORNIN’: THE BROADWAY MUSICAL IN THE 1940s Oxford University Press, 1999

Mordden, Ethan COMING UP ROSES: THE BROADWAY MUSICAL IN THE 1950s Oxford University Press, 1998

Mordden, Ethan THE HAPPIEST CORPSE I’VE EVER SEEN: THE LAST TWENTY‐FIVE YEARS OF THE BROADWAY MUSICAL Palgrave Macmillan, 2004

Mordden, Ethan ONE MORE KISS: THE BROADWAY MUSICAL IN THE 1970s Palgrave Macmillan, 2003

Mordden, Ethan OPEN A NEW WINDOW: THE BROADWAY MUSICAL IN THE 1960s St. Martin’s Press, 2001

Mordden, Ethan SING FOR YOUR SUPPER: THE BROADWAY MUSICAL IN THE 1930s Palgrave Macmillan, 2005

Sheed, Wilfred THE HOUSE THAT GEORGE BUILT: WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM IRVING, COLE AND A CREW OF ABOUT FIFTY Random House, 2007

Simon, William L. ed. UNFORGETTABLE MUSICAL MEMORIES Reader’s Digest Association, 1984

Suskin, Steven ed. MORE OPENING NIGHTS ON BROADWAY: A CRITICAL QUOTEBOOK OF THE MUSICAL THEATRE, 1965 THROUGH 1981 Schirmer Books, 1997

CAMELOT

Citron, Stephen THE WORDSMITHS: OSCAR HAMMERSTIEN 2ND AND ALAN JAY LERNER Oxford University Press, 1995

Lees, Gene INVENTING CHAMPAGNE: THE WORLDS OF LERNER AND LOEWE St. Martin’s Press, 1990

Lerner, Alan Jay THE STREET WHERE I LIVE W.W. Norton, 1976

White. T.H. THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION HarperCollins, 1977

CAMELOT (DVD/Video) Warner Brothers, 1967

CAMELOT (CD – Soundtrack) Columbia, 1985

Bibliography continued from page 20

GUYS AND DOLLS

Breslin, Jimmy DAMON RUNYON Ticknor & Fields, 1991

Garebian, Keith THE MAKING OF GUYS AND DOLLS Mosaic Press, 2001

Loesser, Frank GUYS AND DOLLS Chappell‐Morris, 1953

Loesser, Susan A MOST REMARKABLE FELLA: FRANK LOESSER AND THE GUYS AND DOLLS IN HIS LIFE: A PORTRAIT BY HIS DAUGHTER D.I. Fine, 1993

GUYS AND DOLLS (DVD) MGM/UA, 2000 [1938]

MAN OF LA MANCHA

Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de DON QUIXOTE Ecco, 2003

Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de THE PORTABLE CERVANTES Viking Press, 1951

Leigh, Mitch MAN OF LA MANCHA: A MUSICAL PLAY Cherry Lane Music 1965

MAN OF LA MANCHA (VIDEO) MGM/UA 1991 [1972]

Wilkinson, Colm STAGE HEROES (CD) BMG Records, 1989

SOUTH PACIFIC

Citron, Stephen THE WORDSMITHS: OSCAR HAMMERSTIEN II AND ALAN JAY LERNER Oxford University Press, 1995

Fordin, Hugh GETTING TO KNOW HIM: A BIOGRAPHY OF OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II Random House, 1977

Hammerstein, Oscar 6 PLAYS BY RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN Modern Library, 1955

Michener, James TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC Elmfield Press, 1976

Mordden, Ethan RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN Harry N. Abrams, 1992

Nolan, Frederick W. THE SOUND OF THEIR MUSIC: THE STORY OF RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN Musson Books Co., 1978

Rodgers, Richard MUSICAL STAGES: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY Random House, 1975

Secrest, Meryle SOMEWHERE FOR ME: A BIOGRAPHY OF RICHARD RODGERS Knopf, 2001

SOUTH PACIFIC (DVD) Walt Disney, 2001

SOUTH PACIFIC (DVD) Twentieth Century Fox, 1999 [1958]


Bibliography continued from page 21

VIDEOS AND SOUND RECORDINGS

BROADWAY MELODY (VIDEO) MGM/UA, 1989

BROADWAY’S LOST TREASURES (VIDEO) Acorn Media, 2003

BROADWAY’S LOST TREASURES II (DVD) Acorn Media, 2004

BROADWAY’S LOST TREASURES III: THE BEST OF THE TONY AWARDS (DVD) Acorn Media, 2005

FOLLIES IN CONCERT (DVD) Image entertainment, 2001



Be sure to check out all of this season’s NAC Orchestra Student Matinee Teacher Study Guides

available for free download on the ArtsAlive.ca Music website! (see Music Resources, Resources for Teachers)

Kindergarten—Grade 3

Discover your Orchestra! Tuesday, March 3, 2009 10:00am‐11:00am (English) Tuesday, March 3, 2009 12:30pm‐1:30pm (English)

Wednesday, March 4, 2009 10:00am‐11:00am (French)

Grades 4—8

Bravo Beethoven! Tuesday, April 7, 2009 10:00am‐11:00am (English) Tuesday, April 7, 2009 12:30pm‐1:30pm (English) Thursday, April 9, 2009 10:00am‐11:00am (French)

Grades 7—12

Broadway Spectacular Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:00am‐12:00pm (bilingual) Friday, November 21, 2008 11:00am‐12:00pm (bilingual)

cynthia teacher study guide -...

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