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Diversity within the movie industry essay
Analysis of hamilton the musical
Diversity within the movie industry essay
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On August 6, 2015, Hamilton: An American Musical, written and composed by Lin Manuel Miranda, a New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent, premiered at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, immediately achieving fame and success among theatre critics and fans alike through its conscientious non-white casting and melding of contradictory Hip-Hop/R&B beats with traditional show tunes. This argumentatively progressive musical contributes to our understanding that our current society may be a post-racial one; that is, an American society that has shed all examples of racial bias and prejudice and seemingly resolved its long history of racism. The multiracial cast depicts the story of the American Revolution, specifically the story of Treasurer Alexander Hamilton, …show more content…
By making it a point to cast minority groups and those who are racially "other", Miranda actually resists changing the way we see race as a society, as visual culture is sensory and therefore, "seeing" race is making race. The main concern of this paper is how does this musical specifically reflect who we are as an American society, something that scholar Raymond Knapp serves to answer in a broader sense in The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity, written almost ten years before the premiere of Hamilton. In his thematic approach, questioning what do musicals do within a culture, he questions whether a musical reflects "Whose America?" or "Who is …show more content…
Taking shape under the title The Hamilton Mixtape in 2009, Miranda performed what would become "Alexander Hamilton", the show's opening number, at the White House Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word. It is important to consider the timing of this musical, as he first showcased its rough beginnings during the Obama Administration, one that many presumed was evidence that America had entered a post-racial era; that is, electing an African-American president could only mean that there were no longer racist people living in America. The 2016 Presidential Election, occurring less than a year after the premiere of the musical, would prove this assumption greatly incorrect as the election of current-president Donald Trump would allow for white supremacists to come out from behind the shadows, causing for a recent refocusing on "whiteness". After a performance on November 18, 2016, attended by the at the time Vice President-elect Mike Pence, Brandon Victor Dixon (Aaron Burr) addressed Pence, stating: "We, sir -- we -- are the diverse Americans who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. We truly hope that this show has inspired you to
Kislan, Richard. The Musical: A Look at the American Musical Theater. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1980. 84, 110, 116-121, 125-127, 128, 134, 163, 195, 201, 209. Print.
“You’ve got to be right with yourself before you can be right with anyone else.” This is a quote that August Wilson knows all too well. In America’s beginning, there has been somewhat of a lack of a voice for the world that African-Americans live in. Whether it is in literature or in media, there is usually misrepresentation or some type of stereotype being shown to the public’s eyes about their culture. To rectify this situation, a numerous amount of African-American authors, poets, and playwrights write about their experiences throughout America’s inception. In his time period, Wilson was one of these voices who wrote out how he felt on the issues. His Pulitzer Prize winning play, The Piano Lesson, is an example of the literary depth he wanted to accomplish. However, with many things in the world changing how well does this man’s word resonate with today’s audience? How powerful are Wilson’s works and how do they teach his audience and be criticized by others?
Then, in the play, Wilson looks at the unpleasant expense and widespread meanings of the violent urban environment in which numerous African Americans existed th...
Lin Manuel Miranda is mainly known for his musical contributions to Broadway, which includes In The Heights and, most famously, Hamilton. Hamilton is a revolutionary musical about the founding father, Alexander Hamilton. Manuel Miranda has inspired and taught many people, including me, about the history of the United States, while joining hip-hop and Broadway. I look up to Lin Manuel Miranda’s musicality, being a musician myself, and I aspire to be as great of a musician as him. His lyrical brilliance and interpretation of history educates me each time I listen to Hamilton. It has changed my perception of history. Lin Manuel Miranda has changed the world of music forever, and he has taught me to never throw away my shot.
Hamilton: The Revolution is a nonfiction book about the conception and creation of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama winning Broadway musical, Hamilton, as well as the musical’s full annotated libretto . The book was published in April 2016 by Grand Central Publishing, and written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter. The first half of the book discusses how Miranda developed the idea for the musical, as well as the steps to and process he took in writing it, while the second half discusses the musical’s Workshop, Off-Broadway , and Broadway runs. Due to the length of the chapters and the book, I will only be focusing on Chapter I- Chapter
Musical theatre is a type of theatrical performance combining music, dance, acting and spoken dialogue. Written by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, ‘West Side Story’ is a classic American musical based on William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The through-composed score and lyrics are used to portray different characters and their cultures, the rivalry between the Jets and Sharks, and the emotions felt as the story progresses. This essay will be exploring the music and how effective the score is in realising the world and characters of the musical. Furthermore, it will discuss how Bernstein and Sondheim relate characters’ diverse ethnicities to particular musical ideas and motifs.
It is human nature to tell stories and to appreciate and participate in theatre traditions in every society. Every culture expresses theatre and may have their own traditions that have helped pave the way for how they are today. The involvement of African-Americans has increased tremendously in theatre since the nineteenth century and continues to increase as time goes on. African-Americans have overcome many obstacles with getting their rights and the participation and involvement of Theatre was something also worth fighting for. American history has played an important role with the participation of African-Americans in theatre. Slavery occurrence in America made it difficult for blacks in America to be taken seriously and to take on the characters of more serious roles. With many obstacles in the way African-Americans fought for their rights and also for the freedom that they deserved in America. As the participation of African-Americans involvement within the theatre increase so do the movements in which help make this possible. It is the determination of these leaders, groups, and Theaters that helped increase the participation and created the success that African-Americans received throughout history in American Theatre.
Most of all, those values that the American musical celebrated — and that is those values of American life, American philosophy, American belief — what we find is by the mid-1960s all of those beliefs, all of those philosophies, are being challenged, are being upset. As in all genres, the musical has had its share of failures. Some worthy dramas have been pressed into service and musicalized and sometimes butchered in the process, and audiences have had to watch a fine play diluted into a mediocre musical. But the successes have been many and spectacular, and they have left a long lasting effect on the American art and culture.
Shortly after Rachel was written in 1916, the New Negro Movement began to gain traction in the African American community. This broad cultural movement focused on promoting a public image of African Americans as industrious, urban, independent, and distinct from the subservient and illiterate “Old Negro” of the rural South. Unlike his predecessor, the New Negro was self-sufficient, intellectually sophisticated, creative, knowledgeable and proud of his racial heritage (Krasner, Beautiful Pageant 140). While these concepts had been promoted since the turn of the century, it was not until 1917-1918 that they began to crystalize as a concerted effort among African American intellectuals. These men actively supported the creation of black drama because they recognized that “At a time when African Americans had virtually no political recourse, their voice could best be heard through…a creative and humanistic effort to achieve the goal of civil rights by producing positive images of African Americans and promoting activism through art” (“New Negro Movement” 926).
This project/presentation was intended to educate on a musical that, despite its importance to the American musical, may be easily glanced over because it doesn’t fit the criteria for what makes a musical in the twenty first century. Shuffle Along adds another layer of history to the New Negro Movement and the civil rights movement. Negro theatre is very much responsible for the creation of the modern musical and it’s important to know where things come from. This topic was interesting because I had previously taken a class in African American Music and now seeing Shuffle Along and understanding how that ties in to something that I love helps put the world into a different perspective for me.
I think this play is a lot about what does race mean, and to what extent do we perform race either onstage or in life:
The musical Hamilton, by Lin-Manuel Miranda tells of Alexander Hamilton’s impressive journey from an all but irrelevant street child, to one of the most important men in American politics. It is based off of a true story of growth, heroism, and determination. In writing this musical, Miranda takes a dry, historic story, and turns it into a captivating performance. His project to take the story of Alexander Hamilton and make it relatable to the average American is extraordinarily successful, mostly because the methods by which he does this are unprecedented. His unique methods and practices have resulted in Hamilton being so popular that it was awarded a record breaking sixteen Tony nominations (Paulson). The musical tells how Hamilton doesn’t
I experienced Chicago, the Broadway musical, and because I had seen the movie many times before, I knew all the songs and dances by heart. I loved it, but it was actually the movie that influenced me to become a “Chicago fan.” The movie is based on the 1996 Chicago revival of the original musical version of 1975. It was thrilling knowing that the making of the musical into a mainstream production would increase its accessibility and widen its distribution into all the corners of the world; now there is no excuse for people not to experience Chicago, and though not everyone can go to Broadway to see it, just about anyone can indulge themselves in this dazzling movie in the comfort of their homes. In addition to a fantasy world of singing, dancing and Vaudeville, the film also provides a narrative that is explicitly presented through Roxie’s point of view, creating a counter-human side to Roxie’s fantasy world so that the audience can easily identify and engage.
thesis of how the musical brought our inner child out to realize our true struggles in life.
The 2000s/ 2010s brought in a wave of movie musicals- adapted from the stage shows. These brought new audiences into the theatre world, and for the first time in 20 years, brought a love to some of the timeless musicals. With slightly altered songs to appeal to a newer audience, these films brought in much needed money into the industry, with films including: Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Hairspray, Mamma Mia, Fame- and many more. Together with this, musicals began to push the concept of the songs in them, with a wave of new styles being written. Rap musicals such as ‘Hamilton’ and ‘In The Heights’, Pop musicals including ‘Waitress’ and ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ and Rock musicals of ‘American Idiot’ and ‘Spring Awakening’. Together they pushed boundaries of a ‘traditional’ musical theatre sound, and brought in something never before seen. Due to the influence of ‘Rent’, controversial issues and themes began to be explored more, such as Teen suicide, Murder, Ethnic barriers and everything else, which brought with them, a world of opportunities. It was clear that musical theatre was once again showing for a promising