The Musical as Drama

looks like book material. The Egermanns receive an invitation for a weekend in the country. Anne Egermann does not want to accep ...

Figure The original cast of A Little Night Music singing “A Weekend in the Country.” Used by permission of the photographer, M ...

CHARACTER AND VOICE OF THE MUSICAL 75 of plot are all sung to the same tune, a standard AABA struc- ture in fast 6/8, which allo ...

Most American literature, and most American drama, is cast in a realist mode and takes the portrayal of the individual char- act ...

basic questions as the next steps. What does it mean for indi- viduals in a musical to break into song, and how does this con- v ...

Chapter Four THE ENSEMBLE EFFECT Chorus Lines W E HAVE just seen why singing and dancing cho- ruses have been such a long-standi ...

ber softens Voltaire’s original “we must cultivate our garden” ending, but it sets forth the penchant for inclusion that the mus ...

The older musicals normally began with a chorus number in order to establish the ensemble convention from the begin- ning. This ...

Anna’s aria after her death in Street Scene, one could say that Sam is a sensitive character, but that is not the full point. Th ...

“This Was a Real Nice Clambake,” sung by the citizens of whatever Maine town one imagines as the setting for Carousel, who have ...

ble basis of the musical helps to explain the enormous success of Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, and The King and Iin the 1 ...

Morning,” even a cappella for a minute, is a classic case of an unusual opening,^6 but the basic idea came from the source play. ...

unison-minded singers and dancers, so when in the second act they all come down to the footlights and sing the number “Oklahoma! ...

did not know who the characters were in the pantomime. Now we are finding that the sexy barker from the carousel, who wants to b ...

Figure Hornpipe danced after “Blow High, Blow Low” in the original production of Carousel . Billy Rose Theatre Collection, The ...

reason the song is so powerful is that its sentimental message coordinates with the means of its performance. Nettie can sing it ...

overture). Anna Leonowens and her young son are on a ship approaching Bangkok, courage is required, and Anna’s solution is “I Wh ...

character plays, but how many one-character musicals? Ham- let is not an ensemble performer. Romeo and Juliet build their charac ...

contrast between the ensembles for the poor and the ensem- bles for the rich, which have also been added to Shaw’s play. The Asc ...

point, with the triumph of the older tradition, My Fair Lady (opened March 1956), playing at the Mark Hellinger, a few blocks fr ...