Musical Theatre in America Richard Davidson INTRODUCTION We all have a soundtrack to our lives. It’s filled with special songs that serve as mnemonic devices, exclamations of love, and sweet escapes. In his succinct and wonderfully eloquent fashion, Sir George Martin reminds us that music ―helps us remember and it consoles us when we want to forget. In fact, it’s difficult to imagine an existence without music.‖ Aside from musicians, I cannot think of a group that makes music such an integral part of their lives as do adolescents. The well-crafted lyric melded with an accessible tune often creates powerful emotions, which touch a listener in a profoundly personal way. An artist’s song somehow becomes ―ours‖ or ―mine.‖ While many of us lose this intimate connection to music as we grow older, it is an integral part of adolescence. In a similar manner, creativity and self-expression are important to children of all ages. Likewise, aside from artists, this need for self-expression often wanes with age. To see just how important creativity is in our students’ lives, all we have to do is look at children drawing while they should be doing their class work, folding origami during their ―free time,‖ and dancing and singing in the hallways between classes. In Martin’s Rhythm of Life, Bobby McFerrin could be speaking for the children in my classes when he says, ―I think it’s a primal need, a food … that’s simply there for us. And we must sing, we must play, we must dance, or we die.‖ I plan on capitalizing on McFerrin’s ―primal need‖ and creating, with my students, an ethnic musical. The overall learning potential in such a project is phenomenal. Students will explore the extensive history of musical theatre in the United States and analyze and interpret the figurative language of poetry and song, while acquiring the technical and performance skills of theatre. HISTORICAL INFORMATION Native American Ritual European-style musical theatre has a long and varied history in America. But long before Europeans came to America, Native Americans had established a unique style of ritual musical performance that was highly symbolic and complex. Richard Crawford points to the first-person accounts of French priests, traders and Spanish conquistadors who experienced, and sometimes participated in, Native healings, peace pipe ceremonies and ritual blessings. One particular healing ceremony that Crawford describes, performed on a Jesuit priest in 1634, has all the trappings of a musical spectacle: special costumes, choreography, music, astounding (and at times frightening) vocalization, and 1 improvisation based upon an unwritten script. In these ceremonies, there seems to be no little or no distinction between what we would refer to as the performers and audience, with everyone in attendance joining in the singing, drumming and dancing in order to assist in the healing process. Similarly, the Calumet, or peace pipe, ceremony was one in which there was no ―audience,‖ per se. During the ceremony, the precise movement of the dancers was determined by the tempo of the singers, and a mock battle was fought in time to the slow beat of a drum. One contemporary account states that the dancing was suitable for ―a very fine Entry of a Ballet in France.‖ Another French chronicler of the Calumet ceremony describes the pipe dancing, where each person in turn takes the pipe and dances with it, to the cadence of the songs. The lead dancer displays the pipe, turning around so all can see it, while executing a wide variety of pipe movements and dance steps. Crawford stresses the strong narrative quality of the dance, another essential element of theatre. The Chickasaw house-blessing ceremony is also filled with music, dance and symbolism. A description of one such ceremony, told by a trader, details the movement, singing and even the direction the shaman faced during the blessing. The shaman began the ritual bent halfway over, with arms spread out to the north and south for a minute or more. Suddenly standing straight up, and glancing fearfully from the southwest to the north, he began to gutturally sing short phrases, changing the accent and pitch as the phrases were repeated. From time to time, he looked upward, with his neck contorted backward. In this ceremony, which lasted about 15 minutes, the shaman was humbly asking the Great Spirit to protect the trader’s home from any ―evil spirits of the north, south, east or west.‖ The trader did not understand the symbolism, or indeed the meaning, of the ritual until the shaman explained them to him. Another blessing was performed prior to beginning trade transactions. Crawford relates the story of William Beresford, whose diary details tales of trade and travel near present-day Sitka, Alaska. In the late 1700s, Beresford transcribed a Native trading song, specifying solo vocal parts for the leader. He describes the leader, who wore a ceremonial robe and shook a stick rattle that had bird beaks and berries dangling from it. The leader began each of the many stanzas and then the rest of the tribe joined in, harmonizing their separate part on top of his. This ritual combination of music, voice and dance continued for half an hour, accompanied by clapping and keeping time with paddles. As the priest healed by the Huron tribe said, ―all their religion consists mainly of singing.‖ Ballad Opera and Olios As early as 1732, European-style musical theatre was being performed in the American colonies. One of the first such productions was the English import The Beggar’s Opera. Daniel Kingman tells of the first Colonial theatre, built in 1716 in Williamsburg, Virginia, and the use of musicians in the playhouse from ―the very beginning.‖ He explains that nearly all the productions were, loosely speaking, musicals. Even such 2 works as Shakespeare ―were usually presented with interpolated songs, dances, and incidental music.‖ Though another ballad opera, Flora, or the Hob in the Hole, had been performed in Charleston, South Carolina, a few years prior to The Beggar’s Opera, it’s generally accepted that the 1746 production of The Beggar’s Opera introduced America to musicals. Julian Mates points out that it was the imported English ballad operas and broadsides that dominated the stage through Colonial and Federal times. It was not until the days of Jacksonian expansion that American music truly came into its own. In the eighteenth century, the distinction between light and serious music became blurred and both historical and literary sources were often used as a basis for musicals and ballad operas. The simple beauty of a ballad opera is the use of popular tunes as a basis for a song cycle. The reasoning is that if you change the lyrics to a recognizable, well-liked song, you are almost assured to have a hit song. It made good business sense to take an already popular tune and utilize it for more entertainment and profit. Ballad opera also incorporated a touch of commedia dell’ arte, with stock characters, convoluted subplots and satirization of the upper class. While the ballad opera had its origin in England and fell out of favor there within a couple of decades, its popularity continued in America for quite some time. As the role of the individual composer became more important, in the second half of the eighteenth century, comic opera began to replace ballad opera as a theatre mainstay. Here, the music is more complex and more integral to the plot. A musical style known as pastiche, or pasticcio, evolved as a sort of intermediate stage between the two. As the name implies, the tunes here were often ―borrowed‖ as they were in ballad opera, the difference being that the songs were more sophisticated and more closely related to the storyline than in ballad opera. In comic opera, a single composer composes music for a specific play. Still, many of these originated in England, although there were a considerable number of American composers and lyricists working with very American subjects. Two of the first to successfully do so were lyricist James Nelson Barker and composer John Bray, with their adaptation of the Pocahontas and John Smith love story. Kingman points out that this production reversed the trend, with The Indian Princess becoming the first musical play to cross the Atlantic the other way and become a (pirated) success on the London stage. The spirit of commedia dell’ arte survived in pantomime, which included musical accompaniment written for stage movement and speech. Here, stock characters such as Harlequin and Columbine improvised, as well as performed set pieces to, ―action music.‖ The use of wordless music, or melodrama, was another stage of a trend seen in The Indian Princess, and continuing into the silent film days. Melodrama was evident in the circus, to enhance the excitement of the performances, as well as in olios. Olios were rather hodge-podge affairs, featuring recitations, duets, musical burlesque, and instrumentals. Basically variety shows, olios helped usher in minstrel shows and revues, as well as serving as an early template for vaudeville’s success. Blackface Minstrelsy 3 The blackface minstrel show, while an indigenous American musical form, had its roots in foreign soil. At the heart of minstrelsy was human fascination with what has now become known as ―the other.‖ Racial stereotypes were nothing new in theatre, with Irish and Scottish characters being well represented on the American stage. Yet Crawford claims that neither institutionalized racism nor the appropriation of black artistry can fully explain the enormous significance of minstrelsy in its day. Rather, it was often the social satire presented by blackface minstrels that appealed to white audiences.