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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2017 It's like I've Walked Right out of My Dreams: Dream Ballets in the Broadway Musical Natalia Alexis Perez Follow this and additional works at the DigiNole: FSU's Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC “IT’S LIKE I’VE WALKED RIGHT OUT OF MY DREAMS”: DREAM BALLETS IN THE BROADWAY MUSICAL By NATALIA ALEXIS PEREZ A Thesis submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music 2017 Natalia Alexis Perez defended this thesis on July 13, 2017. The members of the supervisory committee were: Charles E. Brewer Professor Directing Thesis Michael Bakan Committee Member Michael Buchler Committee Member The Graduate school has verified and approved the above-named committee members and certifies that the thesis has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am indebted to my advisor, Dr. Charles Brewer for his constant support and encouragement. Throughout this writing process, there were many moments of uncertainty, and without Dr. Brewer’s unwavering belief in me, I wouldn’t have been able to complete this project. I appreciate how he always let me come to conclusions on my own and encouraged me to be the scholar he knew I could be. I would also like to express my gratitude to my other committee members, Dr. Michael Bakan and Dr. Michael Buchler, both of whose suggestions helped this thesis reach its full potential. Their undeniable passion for their work and their expertise inspired me to keep writing even when it felt impossible to do so. The courses I took with them remain two of my favorites throughout my entire time at FSU. I would also like to thank the faculty of the musicology department, all of whom were very influential in my development not only as a scholar, but also as a writer. Their wisdom and guidance were the drivers of my ambition, inspiring me to pursue as many opportunities as I could. Everything I accomplished while at FSU is a testament to their teaching. To my colleagues and friends: thank you for your companionship, words of wisdom, and endless support in me. You are the reason I was able to survive moving to a new state and taking on a project of this magnitude. When I lost faith, your confidence in me never wavered. Thank you for being there in my times of strength and weakness, for sharing my experience, and for never letting me feel alone. To my family: I cannot thank you enough for your emotional and financial support throughout my educational endeavors. Thank you for supporting my never- ending quest to quell my curiosity as I pursued many career paths until this point. Last and certainly not least, I must thank all aficionados and scholars of musical theater. While I am studying the genre in a time when it has reached a higher degree of acceptance in iii academia, my predecessors did not have the same luxury. Your decision to research musicals despite the professional repercussions is my biggest inspiration. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ vi Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER 1: RAISING THE CURTAIN: INTRODUCING THE DREAM BALLET ................1 CHAPTER 2: DEFINING DREAM IN AMERICAN CULTURE FROM THE 1930s TO 1950s ..............................................................................................................................................16 CHAPTER 3: BETWIXT AND BETWEEN: DREAM BALLETS AND THE LIMINOID .......35 CHAPTER 4: THE AESTHETIC DREAM BALLET ..................................................................61 CHAPTER 5: TOWARD THE SOCIALLY RELEVANT DREAM BALLET ...........................81 CHAPTER 6: FINAL BOWS: SO WHAT DO WE MAKE OF THE DREAM BALLET? ......118 APPENDICES .............................................................................................................................123 A. DE MILLE’S ORIGINAL STAGE SCENARIO FOR OKLAHOMA!’S DREAM BALLET ................................................................................................................................123 B. DE MILLE’S SCENARIO FOR TRANSLATING DREAM BALLET SEQUENCE IN OKLAHOMA! TO SCREEN MAY, 1954 .............................................................................126 C. HAMMERSTEIN’S ORIGINAL BALLET SCENARIO FOR OKLAHOMA! ....................129 D. HAMMERSTEIN’S SCENARIO FOR THE DREAM BALLET IN CAROUSEL ..............131 E. ORIGINAL SCENARIO FOR THE DREAM BALLET IN WEST SIDE STORY ...............132 References ...................................................................................................................................135 Biographical Sketch ....................................................................................................................144 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: A Re-Created Model of Glass’s Plans for Dreamland ................................................24 Figure 3.1: Freytag’s Pyramid and Liminality ...............................................................................39 Figure 3.2: Liminoid Cross-Section of Freytag’s Pyramid ............................................................46 Figure 3.3: Oklahoma!’s Plot Diagram ..........................................................................................51 Figure 4.1: West Side Story’s Three-Act Set List ..........................................................................69 Figure 4.2: Bernstein’s Notes on Ballet Sequence.........................................................................72 Figure 4.3: Stages of Bifurcation ...................................................................................................75 vi ABSTRACT This thesis analyzes selected dream ballets, examining their appearances and investigating how they were used throughout their existence, offering a new perspective on an often-neglected dramatic device of American music theater. Each chapter analyzes the dream ballet from a different interrelated perspective: (1) as a transformative, liminal stage in the course of plot through which the main character(s) undergo some rite of passage (e.g., a “coming of age” ritual); (2) as a device of theatrical artifice rather than an engine of dramatic action; and (3) as a vehicle of political agency. My study analyzes four iconic examples: the dream ballet sequences of Oklahoma! (1943), Carousel (1945), West Side Story (1957), and Billy Elliot the Musical (London, 2005). A relatively unexamined field in academic discourse, the dream ballet has rarely been the focus of scholarly investigation. Many of the secondary sources I use in this paper are either studies of the genre generally or of specific productions or biographies on significant figures of my research. My primary sources are housed in archival manuscript collections at the New York Library for the Performing Arts or the Library of Congress, where I conducted my research during the summer of 2016. I integrate such sources with theoretical approaches derived from psychology, cultural anthropology, gender studies, and other fields—Sigmund Freud’s classic formulations in The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), Victor Turner’s anthropological concept of liminality, and Ellen Koskoff’s work on performing gender—to move beyond the specific case studies toward a broader musicological consideration of the dream ballet as a dramatic device. Through this approach, I bring the dream ballet to the fore of musicological thought, both creating a theoretical framework through which to interpret the device and revealing new insights into the musical, cultural, and performative dimensions of music theater. vii CHAPTER 1 RAISING THE CURTAIN: INTRODUCING THE DREAM BALLET “The dream is the liberation of the spirit from the pressure of external nature, a detachment of the soul from the fetters of matter.” –Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert1 This thesis analyzes selected dream ballets, examining their appearances and investigating how they were used throughout their existence, offering a new perspective on an often-neglected dramatic device of American musical theater. Each chapter studies the dream ballet from a different interrelated perspective: (1) as a transformative, liminal stage in the course of plot through which the main character(s) undergo some rite of passage (e.g., a “coming of age” ritual); (2) as a device of theatrical artifice rather than an engine of dramatic action; and (3) as a vehicle of political agency. My study investigates four iconic examples: the dream ballet sequences of Oklahoma! (1943), Carousel (1945), West Side Story (1957), and Billy Elliot the Musical (London, 2005). Towards a Definition of the Dream Ballet The dream ballet can be roughly defined as a dance interlude, separate from and/or intertwined with the production’s core plot, usually without spoken dialogue. Fusing music and dance, the dream ballet is typically a figment of the main character(s)’s imagination. It introduces an 1 While often misattributed to Freud, this quote is actually from German physician, Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert. Freud quotes him in On Dreams (1914). Freud didn’t include a citation, but this quote is likely from Schubert’s Die Symbolik des Traumes (The Symbolism