Musical Theatre’s Essentials

Ms. Lirette

Fall 2014

Structure

Shows since Rogers and Hammerstein

Succeed due to their structure

Even when the audience doesn’t know it.

Until Show Boat (1927), musicals were

mostly revue-style shows

Librettos with stock characters

Cliché situations

Songs and plots not necessarily linked

Tin Pan Alley

Vaudeville

Spice of 1922

Shuffle Along

Broadway

1921 first financially successful

Broadway play to have African-American writers and an all African-American cast

Songs and Theatre

Intellectual and emotional response

Connected to the plot?

What is the aim of a song?

Possible aims of a theatrical song

Pleasant musical interlude

In integrated musicals

Tell something about the character

Create the proper mood for a scene

Advance the plot

Disadvantages to this model? Songs may NEED the context of the show to succeed.

Sell the show “production number”