Critical Perspectives on American Musical Theatre Thea. 80200, Spring 2002

David Savran, CUNY

Feb 4—Introduction: One Singular Sensation To be read early in the semester: DiMaggio, “Cultural Boundaries and Structural Change: The Extension of the High Culture Model to Theater, Opera, and the Dance, 1900-1940;” Block, “The Broadway Canon from Show Boat to West Side Story and the European Operatic Ideal;” Savran, “Middlebrow Anxiety”

11—Kern, Hammerstein, Ferber, Show Boat Mast, “The Tin-Pan-Tithesis of Melody: American Song, American Sound,” “When E’er a Cloud Appears in the Blue,” Can’t Help Singin’; Berlant, “Pax Americana: The Case of Show Boat;”

18—No class

20—G. and I. Gershwin, Bolton, McGowan, Girl Crazy; Rodgers, Hart, Babes in Arms ***Andrea Most class visit*** Most, Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of her manuscript, “We Know We Belong to the Land”: Jews and the American Musical Theatre; Rogin, Chapter 1, “Uncle Sammy and My Mammy” and Chapter 2, “Two Declarations of Independence: The Contaminated Origins of American National Culture,” in Blackface, White Noise: Jewish Immigrants in the Hollywood Melting Pot; Melnick, “Blackface Jews,” from A Right to Sing the Blues: African Americans, Jews, and American Popular Song

25— G. and I. Gershwin, Kaufman, Ryskind, Of Thee I Sing, Shall We Dance Furia, “‘S’Wonderful: Ira Gershwin,” in his Poets of Tin Pan Alley, Mast, “Pounding on Tin: George and Ira Gershwin;” Roost, “Of Thee I Sing”

Mar 4—Porter, Anything Goes, Kiss Me, Kate Furia, “The Tinpantithesis of Poetry: Cole Porter;” Mast, “Do Do That Voodoo That You Do So Well: Cole Porter;” Lawson-Peebles, “Brush Up Your Shakespeare: The Case of Kiss Me Kate,”

11—Rodgers, Hart, Abbott, On Your Toes; Duke, Gershwin, Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 Furia, “Funny Valentine: Lorenz Hart;” Mast, “It Feels Like Neuritis But Nevertheless It’s Love: Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart;” Furia, Ira Gershwin: The Art of the Lyricist, pages 125-33

18—Berkeley, Gold Diggers of 1933; Minnelli, The Band Wagon Altman, The American Film Musical, Chaps. III, IV, V, VII, IX

Apr 1—Weill, Gershwin, Hart, Lady in the Dark; Berlin, H. and D. Fields, Annie Get Your Gun Kubie, “Lady in the Dark and Psychoanalysis;” McClung, “Life After George: The Genesis of Lady in the Dark’s Circus Dream,” “Psicosi per musica: Re-examining Lady in the Dark;” Mast, “Say It with Music;” Donovan, “Annie Get Your Gun: A Last Celebration of Nationalism;” Most, “The Apprenticeship of Annie Oakley; or, ‘Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly’”

8—Rodgers, Hart, O’Hara, Pal Joey; Rodgers, Hammerstein, Oklahoma! Furia, “Conventional Dithers: Oscar Hammerstein;” Mast, “As Corny as Kansas in August, As Restless as a Willow in a Windstorm: Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein;” Donovan, “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’: The Musical, Oklahoma! and the Popular Mind in 1943; “ Most, “‘We Know We Belong to the Land’: The Theatricality of Assimilation in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!”

15—Rodgers, Hammerstein, Logan, South Pacific, The King and I Locke, “Reflections on Orientalism in Opera and Musical Theater;” Beidler, “South Pacific and American Remembering; or, ‘Josh, We’re Going to Buy This Son of a Bitch!;’“ McConachie, “The ‘Oriental’ Musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein and the U.S. War in Southeast Asia;” Most, “‘You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught’: The Politics of Race in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific” 22—Bernstein, Sondheim, Laurents, West Side Story; Adams, Strouse, Odets, Gibson, Golden Boy Sandoval-Sanchez, “A Puerto Rican Reading of the America of West Side Story;” Wells, “West Side Story and the Hispanic”

29—Styne, Sondheim, Laurents, Gypsy Miller, Place for Us; Wolf, “Introduction,” “Ethel Merman” ***First draft of final paper due***

May 6—Sondheim, Furth, Goldman, Company, Follies Banfield, “Bit by Bit,” “Sondheim and the Art That Has No Name;” Bristow and Butler, “Company, About Face! The Show That Revolutionized the American Musical;”

13—Flaherty, Ahrens, McNally, Ragtime; Larson, Rent; LaChiusa, Wolfe, Wild Party Carby, “The Multicultural Wars,” Parts One and Two

Critical texts that I suggest you buy: Furia, Poets of Tin-Pan Alley Altman, The American Film Musical Miller, Place for Us Rogin, Blackface, White Noise Plus libretti that are in print