Golden Age” Narrative
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Reconsidering the “Golden Age” Narrative for the American Musical in the New Millennium A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology by Arreanna Christina Rostosky 2017 © Copyright by Arreanna Christina Rostosky 2017 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Reconsidering the “Golden Age” Narrative for the American Musical in the New Millennium by Arreanna Christina Rostosky Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology University of California, Los Angeles, 2017 Professor Raymond L. Knapp, Chair This dissertation proposes that we consider Broadway’s history and genre development to be periodic rather than a singular trajectory of growth and inevitable decline. Situating the structural, musical, and aesthetic changes on Broadway within a periodic model, we begin to see phases of aesthetic cohesion and fragmentation emerge within a recurring pattern taking place every fifteen to twenty years. In reframing the evolution of Broadway as a model of continued regeneration, rather than a model of inevitable decay, we can see how various stylistic and structural elements from previous generations of musicals rematerialize in contemporary shows. More importantly, by removing the “Golden Age” as a fixed point of comparison in our analysis, we can come to understand the significance of shows often overlooked in more traditional analyses. ii Each chapter of this dissertation after the introductory chapter supports this view by offering a case study of a significant trend found on twenty-first century Broadway between 2000-2015 and situating that trend within the proposed periodic model. Chapter Two offers a close analysis of the scenographic practices in the output of the Disney Theatrical Group after 2000. I consider how the use of advanced stage technology in their musicals developed, and differs, from the pure technological spectacle of the megamusical. Chapter Three looks at the intersection between popular culture, camp, and the Broadway musical. The chapter traces the shift in camp sensibilities in self-reflexive musicals specifically developed to appeal to mainstream audiences, from being grounded in theater-related humor to being primarily popular culture-based. Chapters Four and Five explore productions from the post-millennium that more directly complicate the traditional “Golden Age” narrative. In Chapter Four, I provide a scenographic and socio-historical comparison of the concept musical with its post-millennium counterpart that I call the “neo-conceptual musical.” And, in Chapter Five, I compare how differently the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein and the work of Stephen Sondheim are approached and revived in recent years, and offer a reflection on how issues of nostalgia, “Golden Age” preferentialism, and politics of taste play out in the business of reviving (and revising) musicals in the post-millennium. iii The dissertation of Arreanna Christina Rostosky is approved. Robert W. Fink Elizabeth Randell Upton Stacy Wolf Raymond L. Knapp, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angles 2017 iv To my parents, Andrew and Diane Rostosky, who encouraged me to be curious always and to go “to infinity and beyond” And to my late aunt, Christine Tully, M.D., who, in our late-night conversations, inspired and shared with me her insatiable appetite for learning v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE, INTRODUCTION “I’m alive!”: Nostalgia, taste, and the death(s) of Broadway 1 CHAPTER TWO “I’m practically perfect in every way!”: Disney’s (attempted) Broadway takeover 18 CHAPTER THREE “Where did we go right?”: The reemergence of mainstream camp on Broadway 69 CHAPTER FOUR Neo-conceptual musicals and commercializing the avant-garde 119 CHAPTER FIVE “How to Succeed in (Show) Business Without Really Trying”: Revivals, “revisals,” and critical nostalgia on Broadway 159 BIBLIOGRAPHY 187 ! vi LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES FIGURES FIGURE 2.1: Detail of scrim of Tarzan ...........................................................................................38 FIGURE 2.2: The Greystokes suspended while “swimming” .........................................................39 FIGURE 2.3: Overhead view of the Greystokes on the beach .........................................................40 FIGURE 2.4: Detail of harness device for opening sequence ..........................................................41 FIGURE 2.5: 3M Radiant Light Film as used in a set model by Tsypin .........................................44 FIGURE 2.6: “Fathom’s Below,” The Little Mermaid ....................................................................46 FIGURE 2.7: Disney’s The Little Mermaid (1989) ..........................................................................48 FIGURE 2.8: Newsies window card .................................................................................................54 FIGURE 2.9: Towers with Newsies Banner projection ...................................................................59 FIGURE 2.10: Pulitzer’s office ........................................................................................................60 FIGURE 2.11: The World distribution dock ....................................................................................60 FIGURE 2.12: View of stage zones with Aladdin cast members .....................................................65 FIGURE 2.13: Examples of mic placement on performers ..............................................................66 FIGURE 3.1: Hitler’s transformation ...............................................................................................78 FIGURE 3.2: The Phantom of the Opera vs. Spamalot visual comparison .....................................88 FIGURE 3.3-3.5: Musical examples for “Song That Goes Like This” ............................................91 FIGURE 3.6: The final pose in “Bride’s Lament” .........................................................................104 FIGURE 3.7: The Book of Mormon (2011) vs. Hill Cumorah visual comparison .........................111 FIGURE 4.1: American realist style in Oklahoma! (1943) ............................................................123 FIGURE 4.2: Postmodern style in Company (1970) ......................................................................123 FIGURE 4.3: Post-millennium megamusical, Wicked (2003) .......................................................124 FIGURE 4.4: Neo-conceptual musical, Urinetown (2001) ............................................................124 FIGURE 4.5: Francis Bacon, “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” (1969) .........................................139 FIGURE 4.6: Boris Aronson’s set for Company ............................................................................139 FIGURE 4.7: Set for A Chorus Line (“I Hope I Get It”) ................................................................140 FIGURE 4.8: “One” in A Chorus Line ...........................................................................................141 FIGURE 4.9: A scene from a Rockettes revue ...............................................................................141 FIGURE 4.10: Realist set with rock-inspired lighting design for Les Misérables .........................143 FIGURE 4.11: Abstract set with rock-inspired lighting for Next to Normal (2009) ......................143 FIGURE 4.12: Lighting examples from Urinetown .......................................................................145 FIGURE 4.13: Lighting example for book scene in Spring Awakening ........................................146 FIGURE 4.14: Lighting example for musical number in Spring Awakening ................................146 FIGURE 5.1: Comparison of Yeargan’s and Mielziner’s set designs for South Pacific ................166 FIGURE 5.2: Comparison of Yeargan’s and Mielziner’s set designs for South Pacific ................168 FIGURE 5.3: “Gun Song” in Assassins (1991) ..............................................................................172 FIGURE 5.4: Comparison of 1991 and 2004 set design for Assassins ..........................................173 FIGURE 5.5: The Presidential shooting range in Assassins (2004) ...............................................174 FIGURE 5.6: Shot of the 1979 production of Sweeney Todd ........................................................177 FIGURE 5.7: The British Beehive curtain .....................................................................................177 vii FIGURE 5.8: John Doyle’s 2005 Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd ..........................................178 FIGURE 5.9: John Doyle’s 2005 Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd ..........................................179 TABLES TABLE 3.1: Musical numbers from The Book of Mormon ................................................... 109-110 TABLE 4.1: Capitalization and recoup figures of select neo-conceptual musicals .......................157 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It takes a village to write a dissertation, so it is only right to thank the village of individuals who guided me along the way. First, an enormous thank you to my committee members, Robert Fink, Raymond Knapp, Mitchell Morris, Elizabeth Upton, and Stacy Wolf, for their steadfast support of my project over the years. I would like to especially thank Mitchell Morris, as a non-certifying member of my committee, for his dedication and time in reviewing my work and in providing inimitable wisdom on topics great and small. My thanks to Bob Fink for our extended conversations