A Critical Analysis of Cosmic Symbolism in Musical
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HARMONIZING WITH THE COSMOS: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF COSMIC SYMBOLISM IN MUSICAL THEATRE ________________________________________________________________________ A Dissertation presented to the faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri – Columbia ________________________________________________________________________ In partial fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy ________________________________________________________________________ by REBECCA HOLLEY Dr. Cheryl Black, Dissertation Supervisor JULY 2018 © Copyright by Rebecca Holley 2018 All Rights Reserved The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled HARMONIZING WITH THE COSMOS: A CRITIAL ANALYSIS OF COSMIC SYMBOLISM IN MUSICAL THEATRE Presented by Rebecca Holley, a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy And hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. Professor Cheryl Black Professor David Crespy Professor Cat Gleason Professor Brad Carlson Professor Michael Budds This dissertation is dedicated to Kathryn Holley and Kate Holley. I could not have done this without your unwavering support and belief in me. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank my committee – Cheryl Black, David Crespy, Cat Gleason, Brad Carlson, and Michael Budds - for their service and expertise. They have been simultaneously encouraging and challenging, pushing me to dig deeper into musical theatre and the cosmos, and guiding me when I stray. I especially want to thank Dr. Cheryl Black whose mentorship on this process has been invaluable: thank you for supporting my wild ideas even in their early stages and thank you for helping me to craft my ideas into a completed dissertation. I have learned so much from Dr. Black along this process. I also want to thank Rachel Bauer, my friend and colleague, for traveling this road with me and for being my accountability buddy in the early mornings at Kaldi’s; this dissertation would have taken much longer without your constant support. Gratitude, also, to my students, colleagues, and friends who were so understanding during this process. Finally I want to thank Kathryn Holley and Kate Holley, without whom this dissertation would not be complete. Thank you for always having my back, Mom, for being a listening ear, and for believing in me. Thank you for always believing in me, Kate, sending me encouraging packages and notes during this last semester, and staying up with me one very late night. Both your support and love means so much to me and I really could not have done this without having you both in my corner. I also want to thank all the academic women who traveled this path before me: thank you for paving the way for women to attend university and to earn a PhD. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. ii LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................v ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................1 Purpose ............................................................................................................................ 8 Justification ..................................................................................................................... 9 Methods and Procedures ............................................................................................... 16 Literature Review.......................................................................................................... 20 Organization .................................................................................................................. 26 CHAPTER 2: MUSICAL SYNOPSES ..........................................................................28 Paint Your Wagon (1951) ............................................................................................. 28 Fiddler on the Roof (1964) ........................................................................................... 31 Man of La Mancha (1965) ............................................................................................ 33 Hair (1968) .................................................................................................................... 35 Pippin (1972) ................................................................................................................ 38 Evita (1978) .................................................................................................................. 40 Les Misérables (1985)................................................................................................... 43 Rent (1996) ................................................................................................................... 46 Notre Dame de Paris (1998) ......................................................................................... 50 Wicked (2003) .............................................................................................................. 53 Billy Elliot (2005) ......................................................................................................... 56 Hamilton (2015) ............................................................................................................ 58 Bright Star (2016) ......................................................................................................... 61 Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812 (2016) .................................................. 64 CHAPTER 3: THE COSMOS AS SYMBOL OF COMFORT ...................................67 The Stars Look Down: Cosmic Bodies as Witness to Human Life .............................. 69 Filling the Darkness with Order and Light: Assurance of a Cosmic Plan .................... 82 Let the Sunshine In: Hope ............................................................................................. 98 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 102 CHAPTER 4: THE COSMOS AS SYMBOL OF HUMAN EXCEPTIONALISM 107 To Reach the Impossible Star: Cosmic Bodies as Symbols for Human Ambition ..... 109 iv Beautiful as the Sun: Cosmic Bodies as Symbols for Characters’ Passion ................ 121 You Outshine the Morning Sun: Cosmic Bodies as Symbols for Exceptional Nature or Power of Human Characters ....................................................................................... 135 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 140 CHAPTER 5: THE COSMOS AS A SYMBOL OF TIME AND MORTALITY....145 Sunrise, Sunset: Passage of Time ............................................................................... 146 Tell the Universe: The Brevity of Human Life Compared to the Longevity of the Cosmos ........................................................................................................................ 154 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 165 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION......................................................................................170 Summary and Discussion of Findings ........................................................................ 171 Significance of the study ............................................................................................. 187 Implications for Further Research .............................................................................. 189 APPENDIX A: TABLE OF INSTANCES ANALYZED IN THIS STUDY .............191 APPENDIX B: ADDITIONAL INSTANCES OF COSMIC SYMBOLISM ...........193 APPENDIX C: TIME FRAME OF COSMIC SYMBOLISM USE ..........................194 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..........................................................................................................195 VITA................................................................................................................................225 v LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Chapter Three: The Cosmos as Symbol of Comfort……………………............ 68 2. Chapter Four: The Cosmos as Symbol of Human Exceptionalism…………… 108 3. Chapter Five: The Cosmos as Symbol of Time and Mortality………………... 146 vi ABSTRACT Humankind has long possessed a fascination with the cosmos and the cosmic bodies they can see from their earthly home. Overtime humans began to associate deities with the cosmic bodies, and religions developed to explain the cosmos and humans’ place within it. Early humans created artifacts, using the imagery of cosmic bodies to mark the passage of time and to symbolize their relationship to the cosmos. When they began writing, this use of the cosmic bodies appeared in their literary works and in the works of Ancient Greek and Roman playwrights, William Shakespeare, Arthur Miller, and Thornton Wilder, among many others. Musical theatre, integrated into a unique theatre genre in the mid-twentieth century, similarly followed this impulse to use cosmic bodies to elucidate character and themes. The relationship of these instances, however, to the long traditional symbolic use of cosmic symbolism in Western thought and the ways in which the cosmic symbolism reveals