Communicating in Song: the American Sung-Through Musical from in Trousers (1979) to Caroline, Or Change (2004)

Communicating in Song: The American Sung-Through Musical from In Trousers (1979) to Caroline, or Change (2004) A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Division of Composition, Musicology, and Theory of the College-Conservatory of Music by Alexandre Bádue BM, Federal University of Paraná, 2007 MM, University of Cincinnati, 2012 Committee Chair: bruce d. mcclung, PhD ABSTRACT In the American musical theater, the book musical has always presented a conspicuous alternation of songs and spoken dialogue. The former interrupt the latter and provides additional means to depict the characters and the dramatic situations. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, however, a second subgenre of the musical came to prominence: the sung-through musical, in which the entire script—monologues, conversations, turning points—all occur in song, eschewing spoken dialogue and contrasting with the aesthetics of the book musical. This dissertation demonstrates that by avoiding spoken dialogue and increasing the amount of music, American sung-through musicals from 1979 until 2004 challenged the means of structuring musicals. This study investigates how creative teams of sung-through musicals have used songs alone to create, organize, and communicate dramaturgy, questioning the limits between singing and speaking in musical theater. This study comprises twelve sung-through musicals that were written and composed in the United States and originally produced in New York City’s Broadway or Off-Broadway circuits. It does not consider the British sung-through musicals that were successful on Broadway during the same time period. This study considers songs the main unit of the dramatic action in a sung-through musical and argues that communication occurs through the sequence of songs: an alignment and order of songs that create the dramatic action and assume the functions of dialogues, monologues, and soliloquies. On one hand, this study considers structural similarities that these musicals share: their songs acquire similar dramatic functions, and the sequence of songs can occur in two ways: as a song-cycle or with an embedded-song structure. On the other hand, I investigate changes that each musical went through during its compositional process. Changes made to song content and song order in each of the musicals establish compositional techniques that fueled the ii development of the sung-through aesthetic. Finally, this dissertation contextualizes the American sung-through musical as postmodern. Using literary critic Fredric Jameson’s conceptualization of pastiche in postmodernism, this study explores how the practice of referencing several different genres of popular music in a sung-through structure has allowed musical theater to enter and thrive in the postmodern era. This study’s methodology includes musical and dramatic analyses of the selected musicals; archival research on their inception, compositional process, and reception; and personal interviews with six of the eight composers. This dissertation ultimately defines the processes and innovations that the American musical theater underwent in the last two decades of the twentieth century in order to continue its tradition and to remain relevant after its prosperous Golden Age. iii Copyright 2017 © by Alexandre Bádue All rights reserved iv To my parents “Assim como a canção só tem razão se se cantar…eu não existo sem você.” v ACKOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to the six composers who offered their time to be interviewed and answer my questions about their compositional process: William Finn, Michael John LaChiusa, Andrew Lippa, Jeffrey Lunden, Galt MacDermot, and Jeanine Tesori. They helped to shape and to define the purpose and content of this study. I was a fan of musical theater before I became a musical theater scholar, and having the chance to meet and talk to these successful composers and learn more how they see their role in the development of the American musical theater, as well as their opinions, tastes, and personal stories, was an honor. They all provided insightful comments on their own music and important information about their musicals that I could not have found anywhere else. I will be forever grateful for their willingness to meet with me and provide such assistance. I would like to also thank the individuals who helped me contact these composers and schedule the interviews: Steven Cahn, John Grimmett, Bryan Matechen, Vince and MaryAnne McDermot, Nick Myers (from The Dramatist Guild), Steve Swayne, and Ben Wexler. I also thank Brad Lorenz from Samuel French for granting me access to the piano-vocal scores of several of the musicals. I am thankful for having had access to the archival materials housed in the following libraries and the support offered by staff members: The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and the Library of Congress, especially Mark Horowitz for his help before, during, and after my three-week stay in Washington, DC. My research at the Library of Congress could not have happened without the support and permission of the Larson State, especially Jonathan Mills. I could not have completed my research in these two libraries without the generous financial support from the Theodore Presser Foundation and the Cincinnati Branch of the English Speaking Union. I am also grateful to the University of Cincinnati’s Graduate School vi for a Graduate Dean’s Fellowship for the 2016–2017 school year, which was instrumental in helping me to finish my writing and to schedule my defense. I would like to thank Kim Kowalke and Howard Pollack for the help that I received from them during my research. I am also thankful to my cognate advisor, Trish Henley, whose seminars and vast knowledge of theater and comparative literature helped to shape the interdisciplinary nature of my research. I am also thankful to individuals who in one way or another helped me during my research process: Juliana Botero, Veronica Buchanan, Doris Haag, Juan Montoya, and Sarah Pozderac-Chenevey. I am thankful also for insightful conversations with other musical theater fans and specialists Dan Blim, Erik Haagensen, and Michael Kennedy. I am very thankful to the musicology faculty at the University of Cincinnati’s College- Conservatory of Music (CCM). The classes and conversations through my eight-and-a-half years as a graduate student have had a great impact on my life: not only have they enhanced my musical knowledge, but also prepared me to be an efficient teacher, a resourceful researcher, and a better musician. I would like to thank especially Stephanie Schlagel (who put great effort into bringing me to CCM when I applied) and Jonathan Kregor and Mary Sue Morrow. My dissertation would not have the structure and organization that it has now had it not been for Stephen Myer’s interest in my research and progress during my writing process. I thank him for valuable conversations and suggestions. I am also thankful for the support from CCM musical theater professors Roger Grodsky and Diane Lala. Professor Grodsky brought two of the musicals considered in this study (The Human Comedy and Hello Again) to my attention, and I was able to see these productions during my years at CCM. The first time I saw Falsettos was also at CCM. I thank professor Grodsky for his insights on directing these musicals and also for conversations about musical theater in general. vii I thank David Carson Berry for serving on my dissertation committee and introducing me to scholarship on American popular songs beyond musical theater. Jeongwon Joe has been supportive of my growth as a scholar. I thank her for classes in twentieth-century music, help with my first publication in a journal, and for her support when I applied for travel grants and fellowships. I am also thankful to her for helping with scholarship and bibliography on postmodernism, and now for serving in my dissertation committee. I have learned in one of my favorite musical theater songs that “Each step is indispensable when you’re on the right track.” I am very thankful for being advised by bruce mcclung in all of the steps that lead me towards my PhD. Throughout my years at CCM, he helped and supported me in all of the indispensable steps: coursework, teaching experience, qualifying exams, finding a dissertation topic, grant writing, archival research, conference presentation, writing and defending this dissertation, and entering the job market. I am indebted to him for his careful readings of my drafts and insightful comments and questions. I thank him for doing all this with responsibility and professionalism that certainly have influenced me as a scholar. I thank him for helping me stay on the right track. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for supporting me since the day that I left them all in Brazil to pursue a career in the United States. The names are too many to mention here, but I would like to highlight four. First, my cousin Ana Flávia Bádue, with whom I can talk about anything from family gossip to the most recent scholarship on postmodernism. I thank her for bringing scholarship on pastiche to my attention and for helping me navigate through it. Second, my husband, Dmitry Uhlianitsa, whom I met when this dissertation was in its early stages and turned out to be not just a fantastic partner, but a supporter of my work, accompanying me in research trips and being very patient during the writing process. Finally, my parents, to whom I dedicate this dissertation. I thank them for instilling the values of having an viii education in me and my brothers, and for supporting me in all of the choices that I have made to grow personally and professionally.

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