Musicals: in the Splendid Theater or in the Technological Movies It is curious to see the great star of the musical Wicked on Broadway, Indina Menzel, giving her voice to a character in Disney’s Movie, Frozen. This movie, that is an example of success, has won many awards, among them the Oscar for the best animation movie and music. However, does a musical produced in a theater such as Les Miserables or Chicago have the same success and prestige as the movie version? The advance of technology in the field of cinema that has been possible to adapt and improve the stories of books, real facts, and of course, musical theater presentations, makes everyone think the answer is no. Hence, even though the musicals produced in theater and for movies are very similar in the presentations, they have certain differences, such as audience and production that make one more successful than the other. The audience is an important factor to determine the success of a spectacle. It is known that there is no spectacle without audience. The musical theater presentations are known for their number of people, which according to the Broadway League (n.d.), the 2013 season reached attendance of 11.57 million. However, the number of spectators has been decreased in comparison with the peak of popularity for musicals in the last century. The first reason for that is that the spectators of musical theater presentations were a more specific group such as wealthy and intellectual people that used to go to this type of presentation, and this pattern has been consistent until now, as it can be seen in the price of a Broadway spectacle that is very expensive. Second, the spectators have to go where the spectacles are set up, which makes the live presenta... ... middle of paper ... ...g is very popular in the musical theater presentations because it is a thing to entertain the audience. This tool is often found in films as well, not common in animation, but used. Even though there are differences such as the audience and production, the magic of watching the performance in dancing, singing and acting are the same. This kind of art would be appreciated by the people through onstage or a cinematic production. However, in both ways of appraising, this is something beautiful to be enjoyed. References Broadway Season Statistics. (n.d.). The Broadway League. Retrieved April 22, 2014, from http://www.broadwayleague.com/index.php?url_identifier=season-by-season-stats-1 Breznican, A. (2012, October 31). "Les Miz Soars Again". Aaron. Retrieved April 22, 2014, from http://aarontveit.net/photos/displayimage.php?album=188&pid=4381#top_display_media
Kenrick, John. Musical Theatre A History. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008. Print.
There are two main centres for musical theatre in the world – it's London in the UK (West End) and New York in America (Broadway). Suddenly, in the last five or ten years there has been an enormous global explosion of the love for the musical theatre. Some of the places are really surprising – for example Korea, with huge musical theatre interest and from 55 to 100 professional productions going on any time just in the capital of Seoul. Other places are Hong-Kong, Singapore, India, Australia, China (has very recently shown a huge interest in musi...
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
On May 5th, I watched the production of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” at the University of Wisconsin, Parkside. While I do enjoy musicals, I tend to have a drier sense of humor and was worried the comedy would not resonate with me. With this paper, I will be addressing the performance space, the design elements, and the major strengths.
Jukebox musicals began in film and later shifted to theatre. They had begun to make theatre more popular with the public, which had begun to gravitate towards film and music. By combining the two, they gain some of the same as well as a whole new audience. I will discuss how this came to be by speaking of the shift that occurred.
It is true that the art of performing stories with music in front of large audiences dates back in time to Ancient Greece. The great Greek playwrights commonly included music and dance in some of their stage comedies and tragedies. These performances contributed in the development of musical theatre as we know it today. Theatre coupled with song and dance became more popular in the 1600 -1700’s. Ballad operas became popular, using some comedy and popularly known songs. Some critics of the theatre do not believe that musical theater descended from opera, and in fact, they feel it does not try to imitate grand opera. Despite being called “comic operas”, shows on Broadway such as Robin Hood were not really operas at all they were more musicals.
“The theatre was created to tell people the truth about life and the social situation,” says Stella Adler. Theater is unique and intriguing because it blends literary and visual arts to tell a story. Throughout the course, I have learned that understanding aesthetics and sociopolitical history is essential for appreciating and applying theater in the real world. Brechtian and musical theatre styles, such as applying musical theatre in RENT, are effective methods to convey crucial historical and social messages, utilizing theater as a platform outside of the arts and for a greater purpose of positive social change.
From the ‘American Dream’ to the ‘Rock-Opera’. 1950 to 1978 were the hopeless years for the musical. American musical theatre had been showing signs of exhaustion. This most seemingly illogical of genres carries its own ‘ideological project’. Before this, musicals not only demonstrated singing and dancing; they were about singing and dancing, explaining the importance of that experience. Not only did musicals give the most intense pleasure to their audience but also supplied a good reason for that pleasure. With the increase in number of radio stations and the availability of portable radios, recorded music was in high demand; people wanted more.
Theatre has heavily evolved over the past 100 years, particularly Musical Theatre- a subgenre of theatre in which the storyline is conveyed relying on songs and lyrics rather than dialogue. From its origination in Athens, musical theatre has spread across the world and is a popular form of entertainment today. This essay will discuss the evolution and change of musical theatre from 1980-2016, primarily focusing on Broadway (New York) and the West End (London). It will consider in depth, the time periods of: The 1980s: “Brit Hits”- the influence of European mega musicals, the 1990s: “The downfall of musicals”- what failed and what redeemed, and the 2000s/2010s: “The Resurgence of musicals”- including the rise of pop and movie musicals. Concluding
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.
While I grappled with defining my position as an actor, I reckoned that I should at least contribute something to the production. After all, I had a slight glimmer of hope that I could still prove my devotion to theater, and I still truly loved the art as well. Yet, amid this need to prove myself, over the course of the show I began to realize and appreciate the technical elements of theater. In the back of my head I always knew that tech was important, but I never understood the artistic value of it. How a hue of light could draw out a certain emotional response or how a set piece could bring an entire audience into a new atmosphere. I understood the copious hours of work technicians poured into their craft, and felt proud to be a part of that precious community that is undermined too often. Even when I was cast a few months afterwards in the ensemble of the spring musical, I chose to be a part of running crew, and ended up feeling more significant in that crew than the actual
This essay is going to discuss about the transformation between film and theatre and how American film and television has affected the performing arts in general today. The essay is also going to look at when exactly did television became a huge influence in the American culture which led to changes in the whole Performing arts industry.
Since before the Common Era, people have found new ways of showing emotions and talent on stage. This is also referred to as stage performance, or Theatre. From play writes, to costumes, to acting, all of these things have contributed over the centuries to the modern plays that you see today, whether it be in New York, London, China, or at your local college. Beginning with the early Greeks, to the Chinese Dynasties through Shakespeare and into modern times, theatre has continuously evolved as an art form. However, it still remains a commentary on society.
Through the evolution of the performing art, the market and industry of performing start to rise in popularity. Going to theater is cool because people are able to enjoy the visual effects of live shows that people cannot experience when watching television at home. The concept of going to theater as being cool is manifested through watching live shows to strongly present the conceptual definition of cool. Live shows not only reveal the beauty of performing art through the magnificent performance but also demonstrate the integration of diverse cultures into the art performance. People in modern life are more inclined to enjoy the comfortable indoor activities instead of participating in the outdoor events. The tendency of staying at home largely reduces the opportunities for people to experience multi-cultural combination art performance and the valuable lesson for life. Live shows lead people into the world of aesthetic art form with the actors performing.
Theatre is constantly evolving in order to stay interesting for audiences. As mentioned in chapter 1, Technology is a huge part of our culture today and has found its way within the world of theatre, This can been seen within many performances by different theatre companies around the world such as, The Wooster group and Kneehigh theatre Company. One of the more recent uses to incorporate technology into theatre is by broadcasting live performances to cinemas, one of the benefits for this collaboration is making theatre more accessible to a wider audience. This chapter will be focused around broadcasted theatre.