Topic Seven: Musical Theatre
I.
II.
III.
European Musical forms which influenced American Musical Theatre:
A.
Opera
B.
Comic Opera
C.
Operetta
Early American Musical Variety Entertainments
A.
Minstrel Show (1830’s—declined by 1870’s)
B.
Burlesque (1850’s—declined by 1940’s)
C.
Vaudeville (1880’s—1930’s)
D.
Spectacular/Extravaganza
E.
Revue
a.
Spectacular Revue
b.
Intimate Revue
American Musical Theatre
A.
Origins
B.
Types:
1.
Musical Comedy
2.
 Annie Get Your Gun
 Hello, Dolly!
 42nd Street
Musical Plays
3.
 Showboat
 Fiddler on the Roof
 Camelot
Modern Operettas
4.
 A Little Night Music
 The Fantasticks
 The Sound of Music
Modern Opera



Porgy and Bess
Anything by Andrew Lloyd Webber—Evita, The Phantom of the Opera
Les Miserables
C.
5.
Concept Musicals
6.
 Sunday in the Park with George
 A Chorus Line
 Cabaret
 Grand Hotel
Postmodern (POMA) Musicals
 The Wild Party
 Parade
 Passion
The Golden Age of Musicals (roughly from “Oklahoma” in 1944 to Hello, Dolly! in
1965) Major composers:
1.
Richard Rogers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics)—Oklahoma, South
Pacific, Carousel, The King and I, The Sound of Music
2.
Irving Berlin—Annie Get Your Gun
3.
George Gershwin—Girl Crazy (later revived as Crazy for You), Of Thee I Sing,
Porgy and Bess
4.
Leonard Bernstein—West Side Story, On the Town
5.
Alan Jay Lerner (lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music)—My Fair Lady,
Brigadoon, Camelot
6.
Stephen Sondheim—A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,
Follies, Company, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods
D.
Decline of the Musical—and trends for the Future