MUSICALS
Margo Gordon
Allison Venida
Pooja Shah
History of Musicals
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Illustrations of show musical begin with America’s
first talkies
First Musical: Jazz Singer (1927)
Musicals from 1930’s focus more on dancing than
singing. ( there was a combination of music, singing,
dancing, and spoken dialogue)
The system of recording and projecting sound took
25 years to perfect.
1940’s:
Conventional musicals hinted at the
postwar malaise
 Comedy had a bitter age
 Personal relationships started to be
portrayed as difficult to maintain between
two creative people (mostly shown in
Backstage storylines)
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1950’s:
-The pinnacle of musicals.
-Celebrated imagery over reality.
- This was the time when the majority of the
audience wanted to watch musicals and felt
as if they could relate.
- Examples: An American in Paris, Singin’ in
the Rain, The Band Wagon
1960’s
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The 1930’s to 1960’s were known to be the golden
age for Musicals in the Western world
Arthur Freed, a producer from MGM made
technicolor remakes in order to transition into a
newer kind of musicals.
Rock and Roll was a music style that had an impact
on the Musicals as well.
The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins were two of
the most famous during that time.
1970’s
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In the 1970s, film culture and the changing
demographics of moviegoers placed greater
emphasis on gritty realism, while the pure
entertainment and theatricality of classical era
Hollywood musicals was seen as old-fashioned.
Hays Code was finally terminated, and so more
options to express in musicals.
1980’s- Present
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Musicals are less popular because musical
tastes have become more diversified than
they were back then, and there are more
listening choices. Back then, there were
fewer genres and sub-genres of music to
chose from, and people were more likely
to listen to the same music. Because of
that, it's harder to market a new musical
that would have widespread (aka
profitable)
Iconography
In most musicals, it is expected that the props
nearby would be used in the following
performance.
 Usually there is a stage which helps transition
many of the songs that will be performed.
 The setting is also a part of iconography as it
is most times a set in which it is easy to perform
with.
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Mood
The moods for the majority of musicals were
more or less happy.
 Accoriding to the time period of the musicals,
some of them were grim (ex: during the
Depression)
 They were meant to make the moods lighter
which is the reason subgenres of these include
Fantasy and Children’s Musicals which make
reality seem less harsh and more fun.
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Plot
Backstage Musical: a narrative centering
on singers and dancerse (ex: Singin’ in the
Rain)
 Revolved around a promising young
performer searching for her big-show
business break or a talented singer/
dancer protagonist pressured by another
source such as a love interest.
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Straight Musical: where people may sing
and dance in situations of everyday life.(
usually romantic comedies)
Use songs to express fears, longings,
and joys.
* Traditional Musicals used romantic
comedies for their narrative template.
Integrated Musicals
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Freed the genre from the Broadway setting
Assimilated dancing and singing with conventional
spoken dramatic action: characters now could burst
out into a song/dance for any situation.
Sometimes these songs are delivered to another
character, or are inward like a soliloquy, or directed
at the viewer.
Hollywood Musicls: Celebrate American
ideals
 Examples
1) Ambition is Rewarded
2) Romance ends Happily
3) High ideals are justified
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Cinematic Style
Musicals can be brightly lit to set off cheerful
costumes and sets and to keep the choreography
of the dance numbers clearly visible.
 In musicals , the lightning that are usually used
are bright and high-key. For bright musicals, the
shots will be sharply focused. The composition is
wide shots that play big, and are open and
uncluttered.
 Musicals utilize carefully choreographed camera
moves to go with the choreographed dances
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Character Type
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Characters were generally happy and their singing
or dancing helped emphasize this as well.
In later Musicals such as Meet me in St. Loius showed
that anyone could sing or dance (portrayed
characters from the middle-class)
Usually had a conflict to pursue, and many times it
was in the show business itself, making the songs
transition more smoothly.
Costumes and Symbols
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Costumes are generally cheerful
During the Depression, however, there were symbols
that made the entire film express the sadness.
Impact on Society
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During the Depression, there were musicals which
were tragic and musicals such as “Pennies from
Heaven” which evoked the grim atmopshere of
Depression and characters lip-synced to recordings
from that era.
Grim realities of life
Actors/ Directors
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Busby Berkeley: one of the first choreographers who
believed that having the dancing and singing on
screen would be more interesting than the one on
stage.
 His
ballets were purely cinematic creation.
 Camera was a huge part of choreography.
Awards
Film in the 1940’s
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This was the War and Post-War years
The world was headed toward rearmament and
warfare in the early to mid-1940s, and the movie
industry, like every other aspect of life, responded
to the national war effort by making movies
The US government's Office of War Information
(OWI), formed in 1942, served as an important
propaganda agency during World War II, and
coordinated its efforts with the film industry to
record and photograph the nation's war-time
activities.
The 40s also offered escapist entertainment,
reassurance, and patriotic themes
 Although it was mainly black and white films,
technicolor became more and more popular
during the decade.
 Hollywood enjoyed its greatest financial year
in history in 1946. An all-time peak in annual
box-office receipts, at $4.5 billion, was
achieved
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The introduction of Film Noir was also introduced during
this time.
The film noir 'genre' reflected the way Hollywood felt as
it faced its greatest challenges during the war and postwar periods - darker and more cynical.
Gangster Movies also had their revival
Animated films cartoon characters Bugs Bunny, Tom and
Jerry, Woody Woodpecker, Mighty Mouse, and Casper
(among many others) made their film debuts in the 40s
decade.
Some Problems During the 1940s
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the coming of television forcing potential moviegoers to
remain at home
blacklisting and McCarthyism
a 1945 studio labor union strike that raised salaries
25% for studio employees
a short-lived 75% import duty, from 1947-1948, that
restricted the import of all US films into the UK
the gradual decline of theatre-attending audiences
inflation that raised film production costs
anti-trust rulings by the US government against the
studios