1. What are the ingredients essential to a hit musical? The ingredients that are essential to a hit musical according to, Jack Viertel are the characters, story, and point of view. These are created after starting a play from scratch and creating an outline of where you want the story to go. Finally, the process ends with readings and rewrites to get it just right. Viertel also says that you have a general idea about whether a play will succeed in the first read through if it has these qualities. If it does, then great and if not a decision has to be made on whether it is possible for the play to be successful through additional rewrites to create the essential qualities needed in a hit musical. 2. What steps do producers take to ensure
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein were both writers and producers in the theatre, but, their collaborative venture in the 1940’s introduced a new era of musical theatre. First, they wrote the first musical in which every element: music, lyrics, narrative, and even dance contributed to telling the story, each part blending and woven into the whole. Their new idea was a huge sensation with audiences, and brought with it, new recordings of shows with albums and records to follow and revival productions around the world. The duo changed the fate of musical theatre practically overnight, but, it couldn’t have been done without the projects, big or small, that got them there, their
RENT the Musical There's a scene in the new musical "RENT" that may be the quintessential romantic moment of the '90s. Roger, a struggling rock musician, and Mimi, a junkie who's a dancer at an S/M club, are having a lovers' quarrel when their beepers go off and each takes out a bottle of pills. It's the signal for an "AZT break," and suddenly they realize that they're both HIV-positive. Clinch. Love duet.
Horowitz, Mark Eden. "The Craft Of Making Art: The Creative Processes Of Eight Musical Theatre Songwriters." Studies In Musical Theatre 7.2 (2013): 261-283.Humanities Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
Ever heard of a story that sings of the “Angel of Music” and the “Phantom of the Opera”? A tale that once you have listened to the sweet melody that you will realized that you've pasted the “Point of No Return”? This love triangle has captivated multitudes ever since the 1910 original Phantom of the Opera was published in France by Monsieur Leroux, although most story lovers recall the musical of the same name by Andrew Lloyd Webber or the motion picture adaption. Although this story has been entertaining people for over a century, in this new era have prerecorded voices and movements begun to overshadow the talented performers of live theater? Although “The lavish screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera (2005) only deepened the damage” of the dislike of musicals made into film “with non-stars in the leads and an unimaginative production,”(Musical),which version, the live performance or the film, makes the story more attractive? To answer these questions, permit this essay to analyze two methods of storytelling: 2011 live performance Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall and the 2005 film, and decide if music and story lovers everywhere have too “turned from true beauty”.
Redeye’s 24 Hour production of Shrek: The Musical can be defined as a performance. Although normally deemed as a musical event or sports game, essentially, a performance is an event that can captivate an audience which consists of an action, interaction or relationship. The performances can be planned and practiced or be spontaneously done at one’s aggression. Performances normally involve multiple participants as well as spectators and change the identity of the performer. Redeye’s 24 Hour production of Shrek: The Musical can be properly called a performance because the ensemble, both actors, directors, managers, and stage crew, diligently worked for twenty-four hours timelessly rehearing, building sets, dancing, and collaborated to produce a finished product that would tell a story to the audience and virtually transports them into the world of Duloc and into the swamps where Shrek resides.
The final element that I thought was very important to the play was the theme. The theme was the main thing that the musical was about and basically the whole reason for several actors, directors, producers, prop designers, etc. to spend so much time and effort to put on the play. One major theme in the musical was the theme of acceptance. Ogres aren’t typical characters in fairy tales that are accepted very much. The story of Shrek and Fiona teach people that it’s okay to be different and to be yourself which i think is a very important lesson.
Rent. To most people it is associated with an apartment, house, or another object. This word rarely conjures pleasant memories, but more often annoyance and stress. However, when someone mentions rent to me, my mind races to some of the most memorable experiences in my life.
The genre i have studied is musicals. A musical is a film which has musical performances from the actors to express their feelings. The films from this genre that i studied are 'Singin' In The Rain' (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, 1952), 'Grease' (Randall Kleiser, 1978) and 'Hairspray'(Adam Shankman, 2007). I studied two characteristics of the musical genre (Breaking Into Song And Dance and The Grande Finale) that are shown in the films studied. The identifying characteristics of 'Breaking Into Song And Dance' and 'The Grande Finale" are always seen in musicals. These characteristics are expected to be in a musical by the audience and ultimately make a musical what we predict it to be, a film that expresses characters feelings through song while
Theatre is composed of two major show types, straight plays and musicals. Both shows have their pros and cons, typically resulting in the audience liking one over the other. These two show categories make a theatrical season, usually consisting in a fall play and a spring musical, allowing drama students to have an option of what show they would like to audition for. However, actors enjoy performing in both straight plays and musical for different and complex reasons.
In this section, I will argue that La La Land meets and engages with enough of Rick Altman’s criteria for an American film musical to be considered a proper one. Altman outlines two different sets of criteria: the semantics and the syntax. The semantics covers the basics of essentially any musical: format, length, characters, acting, and sound. The syntax, however, is far more specific. It details the specifics the narrative and technical structures of the film must meet in order to be considered a film musical. La La Land meets most the semantic criteria with ease. With a runtime of 128 minutes, it is a feature length film. The narrative of the film focuses on the development and achievements of a heterosexual romantic couple, Mia and
The Lion King musical is a well-known musical that has taken the stages of Broadway, West End and the rest of the world by storm (The Lion King, 1997). Regarding the process of the musical, Artistic Director Julie Taymor’s first thoughts for choosing the Lion King as the next big thing on stage, was classed as ‘impossible’ due to the film’s lack of theatrical material (The Lion King, 1997). Therefore, staging this particular work contained a great deal of uncertainty and the need for taking huge risks. Taymor (1997) suggests how ‘the Lion King was the worst idea possible to create a stage show.’ It has become evident that a number of significant barriers had to be overcome to secure the practicality of the production. In view of this controversy, this dissertation will critically analyse the success of the Lion King by exploring two significant aspects that have helped to make the musical a success. Firstly, the essential components that make up this theatrical production will be explored and secondly, the roles of each producer within the Lion King and their combined and individual influences they have had from the production will be evaluated. By analysing these two central themes, this paper will show how and why this musical has developed and achieved its phenomenal success.
Movie: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart The movie takes place in Vienna, Austria in the 1700's. The film begins with the attempted suicide of Antonio Salieri, a court composer of the Austrian Emperor. He is placed in a mental asylum where a priest visits and asks for his confession.
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
As said in Wicked, “I don’t know if I’ve been changed for the better, but because I knew you I have been changed for good.” This quote is true for me and many other people who have discovered comfort in Broadway Theatre. I polled a facebook group what their favorite Broadway show was out of Wicked, Phanton of the Opera, Hamilton, and Dear Evan Hansen to see what the two most popular shows are. A total of fifty people answered and Wicked came out on top with nineteen votes and Phantom of the Opera came in second with fourteen votes. Broadway is a popular genre that many people enjoy and Broadway has opened many musicals and plays. In my speech, I will be discussing a short history of Broadway and then the shows Wicked and Phantom of the Opera. Now as the show begins, please turn off cell-phones, thank you and enjoy the show!
... tragedy. I think as a director the acting skills I would use most likely with my actors is to know if they are capable approaching indirect action on stage, I think that’s something that the production will consist of repeatedly. The theme throughout the play is constant illusion of self awareness and others around you. I need an actor who can go on stage and become the place and time. The set would consist of few elements, major obstacles of what I want to get across to the audience, by doing that it won’t take away from the feel of the play and what’s it trying to convey. This is a story of an idealistic son of a corrupt merchant exposes his father’s duplicity, but in the process he destroys the very people he wishes to save. Gregers Werle forces his friends, the Ekdals to confront the truth about their lives, but the truth only serves to wound them further.