Kristy Cox

Musicals as a Genre

Definition:

            A theatrical or film production, often elaborately costumed and staged, with dialogue developing the story line and an integrated musical score featuring songs and dances in a popular idiom.  (Webster’s New College Dictionary. 3^rd ed. 1997.)

The creator of musicals, George Edwardes.

www.geocities.com/Broadway/1833/history.htm - 9k

Musical Comedy suggested a light hearted, escapist type of entertainment, which made no serious demands on the audience; and this was exactly what it was. The story was less important than show stopping 'numbers' - catchy songs delivered by popular performers - which generally interrupted rather than carried forward the action. But since the stories were mostly sentimental and comfortably predictable, this did not matter much.

www.geocities.com/Broadway/1833/history.htm - 9k

Example: Show Boat, Based on Edna Ferber’s novel, directed by George Sidney; year 1951.  The musical celebrates the loves and heartbreaks of a Mississippi riverboat troupe.  

Representational genre: Musical = Dialogue + Dialogue in music form + narrator

Performers participate in normal dialogue while implementing song and dance routines that represent dialogue.

Narrative genre: Romance, Comedy, and Tragedy

Subject genre/audience appeal: Musical, appeals to a board spectrum examples: Older generations: Sound of Music; Middle aged: Evita; Young adult: Grease; Children: The Wizard of OZ.

Identifiable highlights of genre in example: The two performers break the normal dialogue into dialogue in music form. 

Alternative names/related genres: lyrical poetry, live theatre, film, song, opera, and operetta

Additional examples of genre: Rogers and Hammerstein Oklahoma!,  Meredith Willson’s The Music Man and Rogers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music.

Questions:

Musicals produce two extreme reactions in people, you either love them or hate them. Why do you feel that this genre produces this result? (Paula Kay Thomson, summer 2000)

Over the years why have musicals remained popular?   What keeps them alive?

 Class Comments

Question 1      Musicals produce two extreme reactions in people, you either love them or hate them.  Why do you feel that this genre produces this result?

Jennifer L.:       I believe you are influenced by your exposure to musicals.  I have grown up with musicals as a child.  You have to have some kind of background with musicals to enjoy them.  Of course, some people think musicals are cheesy, especially the romantic musicals like Showboat.

Diana:               I agree you do have to like musicals to enjoy them.

Reani:               I think that every Disney movie is a musical.  Pocahontas and The Little Mermaidhave elements of a musical.  Both have songs that kids readily imitate and remember.

Dr. White:         You mean you see them as musicals because when you go to the theater they are not billed as musicals.

Question 2      Over the years, why have musicals remained popular?  What keeps them alive?

Kelly:               I love Seven Brides for Seven Brothers—that is one musical that sticks in my mind.  Showboat does not appeal to me.  I do believe your age influences what appeals to you.

Dr. White:         With Showboat, there is no irony; however, if you watch Grease there is irony.  The characters in Grease know they are singing and dancing, but Showboat characters do not.  I did not even know he had his arm around a dress.

Jennifer L.:       You can see how issues change from musicals like Sound of Music (based on true story) to Rent.

Diana:               Some musicals have plots.  I love Showboat and I think Grease is silly, but both are entertaining.  Musicals that are more modern get involved with social issues like Rent.  In addition, audiences find that quality appealing.  However, if you do not like singing and dancing, you will not like musicals.

Amy:                I like musicals because my undergraduate degree is in music.  The music causes the play to progress.  In Westside Story, you have a scene where the characters pretend to marry--that shows wit and emotion.

Diana:               The songs in a musical let you know what is going on.

Amy:                Grease is old but people remember it because of the songs. 

Janet:                The music in Grease is hokey, but I agree that you do remember it.

Dr. White:         Music gives it life.

Kelly:                Every Disney movie has a soundtrack that makes you remember it.

Candy:              If you like music, you become enthralled with it, but you have to personally like music.

Brenda:             Although musicals have a value, I do not like musicals.  When I go to the theater, I want to hear the words not songs.  However, musicals expose generation after generation to rhyme, rhythm, and repetition that kids can relate to.  I loved the soundtrack to Nightmare before Christmas.

White:               That raises the issue of genres.  Musicals blend many genres.

Amy:                Music does stick in kids’ heads.  My students remember songs from My Fair Lady, and I hear my students singing those songs in the hallway.

Dr. White:         Narrative is comparable to lyrical poetry, which is like a musical.

Jennifer:            I am a realist, so I cannot suspend my disbelief when people break into song.

Dr. White:         Musicals ask you to believe that people will break into song and reply to you in song.  Although musicals happen in live theater, you also find musicals happen in animation.  I am impressed with musicals because they are hard to do.

Diana:               Take Cats, if you see it in theater, the cats have real problems.  My son was talking about the show after and explaining how cats resolve their problems.

Jennifer:            When you go to Cats, you know it is people in costume pretending to be cats unlike Showboat. In Showboat, you do not expect people in a conversation to break out into song.

Dr. White:         Although musicals seem frivolous, they can engage real issues.  When you get the minds of people acclimated to change, you can get people to accept the issues.