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Broadway and American Theater - Let’S Get on with the Show in the 19Th Century Major American Cities Competed in Touching Upon Social Or Moral Topics

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Broadway and American Theater - Let’S Get on with the Show in the 19Th Century Major American Cities Competed in Touching Upon Social Or Moral Topics Broadway and American Theater - Let’s Get On with the Show In the 19th century major American cities competed in touching upon social or moral topics. Everyone can fi nd the number and design of new theaters. Playwrights something to their liking in a performance of this kind. produced numerous plays. Especially important, more and more theaters were opened on what was soon to The 20th century, the century of the modern musical, become the main theatrical street - New York’s Broad- was marked by productions which ran for decades. way, today home to 40 large professional theatres. Performances were counted in thousands. The popu- While American theater searched for its own identity, it larity of shows triggered the movie industry. Movie hits refl ected political and economic troubles of the time. In based on musicals are now commonplace (e.g. Chi- 1849 street riots brought about by class tensions broke cago, West Side Story, Mamma Mia - originally based out outside the Astor Place Theater. Entertainment di- on Abba’s hits.) Books with a good story become a can- vided rather than united the American society with a vas for new stagings. It works the other way around, division line between highbrow and lowbrow art. too, a Hollywood musical production which proves a box-offi ce hit can be adapted for the stage (for example Soon after that, however, American audiences were Dirty Dancing, The Producers, Hairspray.) The musical brought together. The so-called American Museum on has become an industry with its own stars, directors, Broadway - an idea of Phineas Taylor Barnum - which producers, and choreographers. Popular musicals go was a combination of a museum, lecture hall, a show, on tours around the world. and a more serious “educational” drama - contributed to it. So did a uniquely American entertainment, min- Today, New York’s Broadway and London’s West End strel show, which showed all tensions that challenged often mirror each other. With about the same number the young country: class, racial, ethnic, gender and po- of venues, they offer similar repertoire. The two great- litical. But the greatest merit for uniting American the- est “theatre lands,” they offer the highest level of com- atergoers goes to a genre born in the second half of the mercial theatre in the English speaking world, and have 19th century - the musical. become a must for regular theatergoears and tourists who visit the two cities. Musicals such as Show Boat, Musical combines dance, music, and dialogue. While Oklahoma!, West Side Story, The Fantasticks, Hair, A entertainment lies at its core, and it can be light, hu- Chorus Line, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Op- morous, and witty, it can also be food for thought by era, and The Producers are the classics of the genre. The cast and Abba members gather on the theater balcony prior to the premiere of the movie version of the musical ‘Mamma Mia’ in Stockholm, July 4, 2008, Photo © AP Images From Tragic Romance to Social Novel a glimpse of Magnolia, an eighteen-year-old daughter There is no set time-frame for a musical. It usually of Captain Andy. She is equally attracted to him. During has two Acts and though some musicals last be- the rehearsal for the show, Julie and Steve learn that tween one and a half to two hours, many will keep the sheriff of the town is coming to arrest them. Steve audiences in the theater for three hours or more. takes a knife, makes a cut on Julie’s hand and sucks One of the reasons is that the plot of a musical is blood from it. When the sheriff comes in the company usually complex and has many turns in the story. of Pete, he wants to cancel the show on account of The three synopses below show that a Shake- miscegenation, a marriage between a mulatto woman spearean tragedy, a French Gothic horror story or and a white man, which is prohibited by local law. Julie an early 20th century American social novel can all is pointed at as the culprit and she does not deny the be adapted into a successful musical. charge. Steve, having sucked Julie’s blood, claims that he too is a mulatto. Nevertheless, the couple leave the The longest running Broadway musical is The Phan- town, much to the grief of Magnolia who hates to see tom of the Opera composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. her friend Julie go. The vacant role of the leading man Based on a novel by a French writer Gaston Leroux, it is offered to Gaylord and Magnolia is the new leading tells the story of a beautiful and talented young singer, lady. They fall in love with each other and get married. Christine Daaè, who is taught singing by a mysterious Years later they move to Chicago with their daughter, individual who hides his face behind a mask. Christine but due to Gaylord’s gambling, they can hardly make believes he is an Angel of Music sent to her by her ends meet. Ashamed of himself, Gaylord leaves his deceased father, when in fact he is a musical genius, family. Unaware of the secret sacrifi ce on the part of composer, and magician who lives in a lair under the Julie who quits the Trocadero club so that her old friend Paris opera Populaire hiding his deformed face from can become a singer there, Magnolia gets a job and the world. He is known as the Phantom of the Opera before long becomes a great musical star. More than and claims the right to make decisions about the reper- twenty years later, in 1927, Captain Andy arranges a toire and cast. He falls in love with Christine and wants meeting between his daughter and Ravenal. Magnolia her in the major roles. He will not stop short of killing forgives him and together with their daughter they re- those who oppose his will. One night he takes Christine turn to the Cotton Blossom. to his underground dwelling and she manages to see his face. She is repelled by the sight, but the Phantom With a plot based on William Shakespeare’s Romeo is nevertheless close to her heart. There is one other and Juliet, music composed by Leonard Bernstein and man in love with Christine - her childhood sweetheart lyrics written by Stephen Sondheim, West Side Story and now the patron of the opera, Raoul. The Phantom was a breakthrough in the history of the American mu- discovers their relationship and threatens to take re- sical. Hatred and rivalry between the Verona families of venge. In one of the fi nal scenes the Phantom seizes the Montagues and the Capulets became a canvas for Raoul and challenges Christine. If depicting a confl ict between two gangs she stays with him in his lair, he will in New York. Social and ethnic problems spare Raoul, if not, he will kill him. were featured in the limelight. Today this Christine kisses the deformed face 1957 Broadway production is best re- of the Phantom, and he, overcome membered for its songs “America,” “One with feelings, releases Raoul and Hand, One Heart,” “Cool,” “Somewhere,” lets him take Christine away. and “I Feel Pretty.” One of the most infl uential musicals The musical shows the story of unfortu- of all time is the 1927 Show Boat, nate love between Maria, an immigrant a musical that helped shape the from Puerto Rico and Tony, an American. genre, by giving a more serious tinge Two gangs, The Jets and The Sharks, to what - before it - was closer to an are engaged in a ruthless fi ght for domi- operetta or a light musical comedy. nance. Maria’s brother Bernardo is the The musical was based on a novel leader of The Sharks. When he fi nds out by Edna Ferber. that his sister is clandestinely dating a man from the rival gang, he decides to The story starts in 1880. The show take revenge. In the next street fi ght Ber- boat Cotton Blossom drops anchor nardo kills Tony’s best friend Riff. Believ- in Natchez, Mississippi, but the fi rst ing that Maria is dead, Tony takes reck- “show” is a real fi st fi ght between less revenge and kills Bernardo. Maria the leading man, Steve, and the suffers greatly, but she forgives Tony. boat engineer, Pete, over Steve’s At the end, Chino, who hoped to marry wife, Julie. Pete loses and leaves Maria, shoots Tony. Tony dies in Maria’s swearing revenge. Gaylord Rav- Rehersal of West Side Story, arms. Photo ©AP Images enal, a handsome gambler catches Click to Listen A Catwalk for ... Cats And now it is time for pure Pushdragon.) He certainly knew a lot about their entertainment, time for the ways. musical Cats. The stage is taken by fantastically clad Even if the poems were written in the form of the domestic animals; domes- so-called nonsense verse, they create in a witty tic, but not fully tamed... for and humorous way a charming world in which cats cats have their own paths, habits, and matters. live, work, play, and entertain. No one cat is like The colorful and vivid world of cats unfolds any other. They all have their unique character through stage antics, dancing, and singing of and different past behind them. They each bear a cats and by cats. special, if a little strange, name: Skimbleshanks - the railway cat, Mungojorrie and Rumpleteazer - a T.S. Eliot would have been overjoyed, if he knew pair of notorious cat-burglers, Asparagus (or Gus) of the success of the musical based on a collec- - a theatre cat, Macavity - a villain, the “Napoleon tion of his poems Old Possum’s Book of Practical of crime,” The Rum Tum Tugger, a curious and Cats.
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