The Musical Theatre Of America

There are currently 40 theatres in operation on broadway right now (“Broadway Theatres in NYC”) and there are many shows on tour. People travel to New York from all over to attend a broadway musical, many high schools perform an annual musical, and a movie production of a musical comes out every now and then. During the 2013-2014 season, over 12.2million people attended a broadway musical (“Broadway Season Statistics”). That is a lot more people that the 6.7million that attended an opera ("Quick Opera Facts."). There aren’t as many opera houses and you’ll be lucky to find a high school that performs an opera. There aren’t too many opera movies out there either. Operas are becoming less and less popular while the popularity for musicals is increasing. It may be because people can understand more of what is happening during a musical and they aren’t just listening to the

During this period, musicals (which were labeled “musical comedies” at the time) were in the form of acceptable of guilty pleasures - the appeal of women and their sexuality, silly characters that made fools of themselves, or the goofy country girl dancing through the chores of the day. Ziegfeld’s Follies, Marx brother shows, and Al Jolson playing his character in blackface are great examples of these shows that focused on showing off the stars and gave little care to the

The Globe Theater was a theater that was built and owned by Shakespeare and the group he belonged to called the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Although it is not known exactly when the theater was built, the first record of it shows that it was built before the end of 1599. The Globe Theater was built using lumber from a theater that was not very far away. Even though the Globe Theater was built with wood from a dismantled theater, it was not the same as the previous theater. In fact the globe theater was much larger than the previous one. The theater was a great success for many years; nevertheless, it was burned down in summer of 1613 during a play of Henry VIII. During the performance something happened to a theatrical cannon to cause it to misfire

Theatre and Musical Theatre has been a form of entertainment since before North America was “discovered”. Broadway shows have been dated back to the early 1920’s and 1930’s. By 2016, over 25,000 tickets are sold to Broadway shows in a week. Thousands of people enjoy the shows that are featured on Broadway but have no idea the work and process that brought it to life. The process of getting a show on to Broadway can be broken down into three phases: pre-production, staging, and performance/promotion.

In the 1920‘s they started experimenting with musical theater by taking popular vaudeville songs and connecting them into one story. When Showboat opened in December 1927, it was unlike anything Broadway had ever seen. Showboat featured dramatic themes and the first-ever completely integrated book and score.

The Golden Age began the tradition of transforming classic literature into musical theater. During the 1950s, directors and collaborators took a central role in integrating movement and dance fully into musical theater productions. Many productions emphasized the storytelling power of dance. West Side Story (1957), a musical where dance held an integral part in, was a retelling of Romeo and Juliet to modern-day New York City. Guys and Dolls (1950), My Fair Lady (1956), The Music Man (1957), and Gypsy (1959) were all very influential and successful musicals of that time. The 1950s ended with Roger and Hammerstein’s last hit, The Sound of Music, and with its extremely successful film version, it became one of the most popular musicals in history.

The Globe Theatre became what it is today because of its history. What was its history exactly? Unfortunately, those are two questions many people don’t have an answer to. So, what is the history?

The Black Crook (1866), Show boat (1927), and Oklahoma! (1931) are some examples of early musical theater compositions.

Built in 1855 the Longstreet Theater on Greene Street at the University of South Carolina is one of its oldest buildings. Completed two years later than predicted, it was supposed to be a college hall. However, it was first used as a military hospital during the civil war, and then as an arsenal and armory, before being remodeled into a theater house in 1976. Resembling a Roman temple, the theater has four stories; one of which is underground, with access to the surface by an elevator. The theater room is circular, with a “theater in the round” stage that allows the audience to get a full view of what is happening. Nevertheless, in some situations the stage is made into a temporary “thrust stage” according to need. Moreover, the room was dark

The Broadway Theatre will discuss possible shows for the 2016-2017 season at a play selection committee meeting October 5. This is open to the public and will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the Broadway Theatre 216 East Broadway.

Vaudeville, the forgotten type of theatre. During the mid-1800’s, people from across the world were starting to settle in the United States. The newly found ‘spike’ of the diversity of cultures and population, vaudeville quickly became the central point for the American cultural life.

For decades people found theatre one of the most enjoyable form of entertainment all across the world. With every play comes a cost. A value which somebody's story is told. Obviously it can be comic drama or despairing,. Each second of these plays are genuinely delightful and exceptional. Where the performing artists show a totally distinctive side of characters to the group of onlookers where they demonstrate to them something new and pleasurable. And behind the theatre and its plays is one person who keeps it all in check and that is the director. The director is like the heart of a person. You don’t see the heart but you know if it’s doing its job correctly

Realism provides only amoral observation, while absurdism rejects even the possibility of debate. (Frances Babbage, Augusto Boal). The cynicism of this remark reflects the aberrant attitude towards absurdism, yet there is truth to it. Theatre of the absurd is an esoteric avant-garde style of theatre based on the principles of existentialism that looks at the world without any assumption of purpose. Existentialism and Theatre of the Absurd became identified with a cultural movement that flourished in Europe in the 1940s and 1950s, after the Second World War. The idea that man starts with nothing and ends with nothing is a common theme amongst most absurd plays. Despite this strange philosophy, Theatre of the

has been recognized as a new kind of musical play that denied its Broadway audiences many of their most treasured traditions, says David Ewen in American Musical Theatre. There was no opening chorus line, no chorus until midway through the first act, in fact. There was rather a serious ballet and other serious overtones, including a killing in act two. The story, which was so simple, seemed to engage the audience in more than mere evening diversion. (248) These changes, far from disappointing to viewers, were upheld by a success that had never been seen in the history of musical theatre.

Musical Theatre is an art that I always envisioned myself pursing at the collegiate level and what I want to make a career out of as well. My perfect musical theatre program that I would want, would be a program that would help me to achieve a better understanding of who I am as a musical theatre artist first and then hopefully I can expand my artistic goals and further develop myself through whichever institution that I am attending. The musical theatre training that I have received in high school through my creative arts high school New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) whether its been in dance, vocal, acting, or the productions that I have been cast