34N syllabus p. 1 Music 34N
Winter 2015
Performing America
The Broadway Musical
Instructor: Tom Grey tsgrey@stanford.edu Office hours: Fri. 11:00am-­‐12:30pm, Braun 219; 510-­‐541-­‐7175 Class meetings: Tuesday, Thursday 4:15-­‐5:45, Braun 103 COURSE DESCRIPTION Musical theater developed across the twentieth century as one of America’s most distinctive cultural products, always in dialogue with American culture at large. From the beginning, the popular musical theater centered in lower Manhattan, around Broadway and Times Square, together with the nearby music publishing business (“Tin Pan Alley”), merged the influences of European operetta, African-­‐
American ragtime and jazz, the marches of John Philip Sousa, Anglo-­‐Irish folk song, and the musical voices of immigrant communities of all kinds. This seminar looks at how the themes, characters, stories, and above all the songs of the Broadway musical reflect ideas of American identity over the last hundred years. Intersections with jazz starting in the 1920s, with the movies from the 1930s on, with rock from the late 1960s to the present are also essential to this story, as are social themes of race, class, gender roles, and sexual identity. Early “musical comedy” reflected social and class issues more indirectly, as a by-­‐product of the popular musical styles it put on stage. Around the time of World War II the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein promoted a new kind of thematically integrated “musical play” that explicitly engaged with contemporary social issues of the day, while still providing a series of popular tunes and dance numbers expected by Broadway audiences. Since the advent of rock idioms on Broadway after the late 1960s and the “concept”-­‐driven shows of Sondheim, Kander and Ebb, or A Chorus Line in the 1970s, Broadway shows continued to expand the range of subjects and musical styles (increasingly looking to popular films for material). In recent times “Jukebox” musicals like Jersey Boys, Memphis, and Rock of Ages dramatize the careers and personalities behind canonic rock and pop repertoire. For virtually every decade of the past 100 years, Broadway musicals provide a mirror of social values, political concerns, and changing musical styles within American culture at large. This course is structured partly around representative shows, including Showboat, Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Hair, Rent, Wicked, and Book of Mormon. We also consider the diverse sources of Broadway musical styles (such as the crucial African-­‐
American ingredients of ragtime, blues, and jazz), the work of influential songwriters, the role of directors and choreographers, the musical in contemporary media (Disney musicals, Glee, Smash, reality-­‐show competitions), and how individual songs become canonized from the “jazz standards” of the mid-­‐20th century to the competition repertoire of American Idol, America’s Got Talent, The Voice and so on. 34N syllabus p. 2 COURSE OBJECTIVES Above all we will think about the ways music, lyrics, story, choreography, and staging work together to make a successful “show”: how these ingredients were developed in the original production, and how they have been reconceived for films or revivals. How has musical theater responded to and “constructed” personal and communal identities over the last century, how does it communicate values, negotiate social conflicts? What is the relationship between commercial success and artistic value? The course aims to provide an understanding of the diverse musical languages of the Broadway musical by analyzing musical formulas used by some of the best songwriters in different periods and the element of successful lyrics. Throughout the term we will collaborate on informal performances of songs and scenes from shows under discussion. TEXTS AND MATERIALS • There is no assigned textbook for the course. Instead we will draw from three texts available on-­‐line through Stanford University Libraries: The Cambridge Companion to the Musical, ed. William Everett and Paul Laird (2nd edition, 2008) http://universitypublishingonline.org/cambridge/companions/ebook.jsf?bid=
CBO9781139001823 The American Musical and the Performance of Personal Identity by Raymond Knapp (Princeton University Press, 2006) http://site.ebrary.com/lib/stanford/docDetail.action?docID=10404086 Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical by Stacy Wolf (Oxford University Press, 2011) http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/97801953782
38.001.0001/acprof-­‐9780195378238 • Chapters from these other texts are available as PDFs on Coursework: The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity (2005) and The American Musical and the Formation of Personal Identity (2006) by Raymond Knapp Strike Up the Band: A New History of Musical Theater, by Scott Miller (2007) Showtime: A History of the American Musical, by Larry Stempel (2010) How Musicals Work, by Julian Woolford (2013) • Other video materials available at Green Media Center (downstairs) and the Music Library. 34N syllabus p. 3 • Sheet music, lyrics for discussion and performance will be distributed in class. • Piano-­‐vocal scores of numerous complete shows are available in the M1503 section of the Music Library (catalogued according to composer). ASSIGNMENTS • Two short response papers to prompts regarding topics discussed in class. These will be 2-­‐3 pages in length (500-­‐750 words), due Friday, 30 January and Friday, 27 February. You will have 3-­‐5 days to work on each paper. • Two short in-­‐class projects/presentations (week 2, weeks 7-­‐8) • Two in-­‐class presentations (small groups): one “classic” (weeks 5-­‐6) and one contemporary musicals (weeks 9-­‐10) • Two short quizzes will follow up on materials of your presentations (and a few short lectures from me) between week 5 and week 8 San Francisco field trip: Friday, 27 February and/or Friday 6 March we will make a trip to San Francisco to attend the winter touring production of the SHN series, Newsies. 34N syllabus COURSE OUTLINE p. 4 Reading: Any reading specific to class assignments will be announced in class and on Coursework announcements. Suggested readings for general topics and repertoire are given below. Week 1 (6, 8 January) Musical what? Musical comedy, musical theater, “American popular song” What was/is “American musical theater”? 100 years of Broadway Reading: Knapp 2005, 3-­‐18 Miller, Strike up the Band, “Overture,” 1-­‐8 Songs: “Surrey with the Fringe on Top” (from Oklahoma!); Jerome Kern, “Cleopatterer” from Leave it to Jane; “The National Pastime” and “Let Me Be Your Star” (from Smash/Bombshell) Week 2 (13, 15 January) The Song Biography project (in-­‐class project no. 1) Students choose one song of particular interest to them – from any show, style, period – and briefly research the “biography” of this song: basic data on composer and lyricist; original production and recording; thoughts on the role of this song in relation to character, story and theme; subsequent performances/recordings of interest. We will listen to examples, consider lyrics and show context in class. No written assignment. Further details will posted on Coursework. Reading: Chapter 9 (“Songs”) from Woolford, How Musicals Work Week 3 (20, 22 January) Musical comedy, “Tin Pan Alley,” and origins of the Broadway Ragtime, jazz, tap, and vaudeville George M. Cohan, “inventor” of Broadway: Little Johnny Jones, 1904; Yankee Doodle Boy (film, James Cagney), 1942. Reading: Knapp 2005: chapter 4, 67-­‐76 (Tin Pan Alley), chapter 5, 103-­‐109 (George M. Cohan) 34N syllabus p. 5 Miller, Strike Up the Band: chapter 2 “An Era Exploding” and chapter 9, 210-­‐11 on Ragtime (the musical) Songs: “Hello, My Baby,” “Look for the Silver Lining,” “Blue Skies”; “Give my Regards to Broadway” (From Little Johnny Jones); “Kansas City” from Oklahoma!; examples from Ragtime (Ahrens, Flaherty, McNally 1998) Week 4 (27, 29 January) African-­‐American roots of Broadway song and dance styles Race, ethnicity, nationality in the early Broadway musical Jazz and Ragtime (continued), blackface minstrelsy (Al Jolson) The “Cotton Blossom” (Showboat) and “The Cotton Club” Reading: Knapp 2005: chapter 8 (“Race and ethnicity”), 181-­‐94 Cambridge Companion to the Musical: chapter 5, “Images of African-­‐Americans: Porgy and Bess and Show Boat.” Larry Stempel, Showtime: chapter 5 (operetta and Show Boat) Repertoire and songs: Showboat (“Make Believe,” “Can’t Help Lovin’ dat Man,” “Ol’ Man River”) Films: The Jazz Singer (1929), Cabin in the Sky (1943), Stormy Weather (1943) Short paper no. 1 due Friday, 30 January (6 pm) Weeks 5-­‐6: Presentation no. 1 on “Classic Musicals” (small group presentations, 20 minutes each plus discussion): works from 1940s through 1980s Week 5 (3, 5 February) Growing up: pre-­‐war Musical Comedy vs. Rodgers and Hammerstein The American musical from the Depression to World War II and after Reading: Knapp 2005: 82-­‐85 (on “I Got Rhythm,” from Girl Crazy), 88-­‐100, 119-­‐34 (on Oklahoma!) CCM chapter 6: “The melody (and the words) linger on: America musical comedy of the 1920s and 1930s” Miller, Strike up the Band, chapter 3 (“Anything Goes: The 1930s”) 34N syllabus p. 6 Repertoire and songs: Gershwin bros., Girl Crazy (“I got Rhythm”); Cole Porter, Anything Goes (“I get a Kick out of You,” “You’re the Top,” “Blow, Gabriel, Blow”). Rodgers and Hammerstein: Oklahoma! and South Pacific Week 6 (10, 12 February) American myth and modern reality in the “Golden Age” musical Rise of the choreographer-­‐director Reading: Knapp 2005: chapter 6, 134-­‐44 (on Guys and Dolls), 144-­‐51 (Music Man), chapter 8, 204-­‐15 (West Side Story) CCM chapter 8 (“The coming of the musical play: Rodgers and Hammerstein”) and chapter 10 (on Leonard Bernstein) Miller, Strike up the Band, chapter 5: “Something’s Coming: The 1950s Stacy Wolf, Changed for Good, chapter 1: “The 1950s: Marry the Man Today” Repertoire and songs: Loesser, Guys and Dolls (“I’ll Know When my Love Comes Along,” “Adelaide’s Lament,” “Luck be a Lady,” “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat”), examples from Rodgers and Hammerstein, South Pacific; M. Willson, The Music Man; Bernstein, Sondheim, Robbins; West Side Story. Week 7 (17, 19 February) After the Age of Innocence: rock, sex, politics, and “concepts” New idioms on Broadway: 50s-­‐60s youth culture; Civil Rights and Vietnam, Sondheim and the “concept musical”; Moving “Off” Broadway Rock ‘n roll ‘n pastiche: Bye Bye Birdie (1960) and Hairspray (2004) Reading: Knapp 2005: chapter 7, 153-­‐61 (Hair) CCM chapter 11, (“Stephen Sondheim and the musical of the outsider”) and chapter 13 (“From Hair to Rent: is ‘rock’ a four-­‐letter word on Broadway?”) Miller, Strike up the Band, chapter 6 (“Let the Sun Shine In: the ‘60s”); Stempel, Showtime: chapter 13, “The Metaphor Angle” (“concept” musicals) Repertoire and songs: Hair (“Aquarius,” “Ain’t Got No,” “I Got Life”); Rent (“La Vie Bohème,” “Seasons of Love”); Hairspray (“You Can’t Stop the Beat”) 34N syllabus p. 7 In class project 2: Song types, from early Broadway to the present. After reviewing some of the most common recurring song types (waltz-­‐song, establishing song, torch-­‐song, ballad, combination song, tap number, etc.) each student researches a traditional type and looks for one recent example (weeks 7-­‐8). Reading: Chapter 6, “Song Spotting” from Woolford, How Musicals Work Week 8 (24, 26 February) “It’s the Hard-­‐Knock Life”: addressing socio-­‐economic inequality through musical theater from the Depression to Occupy Wall Street Reading: Knapp 2005 (The American Musical and National Identity), 110-­‐18 on The Cradle Will Rock; Miller, Strike Up the Band, 29-­‐31 on Threepenny Opera, 218-­‐20 on Urinetown; Ethan Mordden, One More Kiss: the Broadway Musical in the 1970s, 223-­‐29 on Annie. Repertoire and Songs: Examples from Weill-­‐Brecht, Threepenny Opera; Bliztstein, The Cradle Will Rock, Annie (1977, 2012 productions and 2014 film), Urinetown, the musical (2001), Hairspray and Newsies. Short paper no. 2 (write-­‐up of song types project) due Friday, 27 Feb. (6 pm) Weeks 9-­‐10 (3, 5 March; 10, 12 March) Themes and styles in the contemporary Broadway musical: 1990s through 2010s. Possible repertoire: Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Rent, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Spring Awakening, Legally Blonde, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Book of Mormon. Weeks 9-­‐10: Presentation no. 2 (small groups) on contemporary musicals – including group performance component. 34N syllabus p. 8 Projects, presentations, writing assignments, quizzes (overview) In-­‐class projects (1) Song biographies: week 2 (2) Song types: weeks 7-­‐8 Small group presentations (1) “Classic” musicals: weeks 5-­‐6 (2) Contemporary musicals: weeks 9-­‐10 Short papers (response to selected prompts) (1) 30 January (race, ethnicity, nationality in early musicals) (2) 27 February (song types, write-­‐up) Quizzes (1) Following group presentations round 1 (weeks 5-­‐6) (2) Following song types project (weeks 7-­‐8) Grading breakdown: Regular attendance and participation: 10% In-­‐class projects 1 and 2: 25% Contribution to small-­‐group presentations: 25% Short papers 1 and 2: 25% Quizzes: 15%