In society there is a longing for a story to have a nice and neat happy ending. Broadway and the theater originally would give this to their audience, especially in America. Give the audience what the want! They want happy endings that mirror their own values and interpretations of how the world should be and at the end of it should be, “and they all lived happily ever after.” The fairy tale ending is something society hopes, dreams, and strives for since we could listen to our parents read us fairy tales with these sweet stories of finding true love and having to fight the odds to be the Prince or Princess you deserve to be. With Into the Woods, Lapine and Sondheim sought out to explore what could go wrong with “happily ever after.” Effectively leaving the audience with the adage, “be careful what you ask for…”
Into the Woods was written by James Lapine with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The partnership of the two writers came off the break-up of the duo of Sondheim and Hal Prince (Stempel, 544). Sondheim recalls how the difference impacts his writing and what comes out of the creative process as a whole:
Hal is my age, we’ve had a more than thirty-five-year collaboration, and it’s something of a marriage…Jim is twenty something years younger and quiet, soft-spoken. He comes from an off-Broadway background where there is a different way of working and there’s more of a community feeling; everybody feels much more like a family. (Stempel, 545).
Lapine’s off-Broadway experienced definitely helped him create his style of writing, which in turn rubbed off on Sondheim even after their time as collaborators was over. Lapine felt that he championed visual theater with less reliance on text to tell the story (Stempel, ...
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...d insight to the details of how Lapine and Sondheim wanted Into the Woods to be structured. Information about how the duo referenced the psychoanalysts to create their paradigm of fairy tales and true life. Lapine’s book was interwove expertly and deftly, and Mankin’s work helped me field the thesis of how the musical brought our inner child out to realize our true struggles in life.
Stempel, Larry. Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theater. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print. Stempel’s work gave more insight to the relationship between Lapine and Sondheim, especially after the separation of Sondheim and Hal Prince’s long partnership.
Sutton, Brian. “Sondheim and Lapine’s Into the Woods.” Explicator (Expl), 55.4 (1997):
233-236. Print. This source by Sutton gave intel to the creation and lyrics by Sondheim and Lapine.
Rachel M. Harper’s The Myth of Music intentionally weaves together 1960s era jazz music and a poor African American family via metaphor and allusion to show a deep familiar bond between father and daughter.
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
In Dialogue: Theatre of America, Harold Clurman said, “we make theatre out of life” (27), and it was precisely this view that motivated him to help create a uniquely American theatre. Clurman, considered one of the most influential directors of the modern American theatre, had a unique vision of what the American theatre could become. One of the founders of the quintessentially American troupe, the Group Theatre, Clurman was a contemporary of Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg, and even married to Stella Adler for twenty years. At a ceremony honoring Clurman, Elia Kazan stated that Clurman’s “greatest achievement [was] himself” (Harold Clurman: A Life of Theatre). An important figure in our theatrical past, Clurman’s theories on theatre and directing require close attention. In this paper, I will first provide a brief biography of Clurman, second, examine his theories of theatre and directing, and lastly, I will explore his criticisms of the then-contemporary theatre, and draw conclusions to the current state of the Broadway theatre.
Kenrick, John. Musical Theatre A History. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008. Print.
The chapter on fecundity addresses the bizarre ways that nature has evolved to ensure the continuity of a species. As the title suggests, fecundity deals with the fertility of species where Annie Dillard explores the inefficiency of fertility and the brutality of nature’s evolution. In the end, Dillard concludes that death is a part of life.
As one of North America’s leading playwrights, Neil Simon has definitely been instrumental to the world of theater. He has experienced a somewhat shaky personal life, but he has found that this only adds to the texture of his work. He began his career working on radio and television, and found that writing for stage was significantly different than his previous experiences writing. His first attempts at theater were rough, but it didn’t take him long to achieve excellence. He has also achieved great success with his work in the film industry. He is very fastidious when writing his work, and also quite critical of both the final written product, as well as its resulting production. However, no matter how uncertain he is of his work, it is apparent that audiences worldwide appreciate his writings, and he has been awarded numerous times to prove it. It is quite clear Neil Simon holds a place of importance in the world of dramatic arts.
On a Wednesday night I saw Texas State Theatre and Dance Department's performance of A Chorus Line. The main plot of the musical entails the audition of 17 dancers for several Broadway roles on the chorus line. However, during their auditions the director Zach asks for personal stories of each dancer's life. Though the plot of this musical is seemingly simple in its twist on the traditional audition, it explores themes that reveal the human experience, the search for individuality, and the sense of self.
In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien is a novel narrating a story of a man referred to as John Wade and his wife Kathleen. Wade is a politician of Minnesota. It is clear from the novel that he has just lost his election to the United States senate. The reason behind his loss is that all the facts about John have been revealed. There is solid evidence of John getting involved in a mass killing that happened in the Vietnamese village of Thuan Yen also referred to as My Lai. In this massacre, John is found responsible for the deaths of two people. On the other side, Kathleen was always on his side. Their relationship started back when they were college mates. One day Kathleen mysteriously disappears from their rented cottage in the north of Minnesota after John lost his election, a mass reach of water and the wilderness that separates the United States from Canada. Among all the events in the novel, the main theme that seems to appear most is the theme of the covered side of life of the people. Many things that take place in the novel are not openly seen, and the author develops this using some characters to reveal the concealed actions of the characters.
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.
“I was raised to be charming, not sincere.” This is a famous line from the play and movie Into The Woods. The production follows a baker and his wife, and the characters from Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Little Red Riding Hood. The play Into The Woods was much better than the movie. The play was done by Stephen Sondheim. The new movie of Into The Woods is a Disney production. There is a more extensive plot, better casting, and better costumes in the play.
When studying musical theater, or any type of theater, you cannot just expect to start at Wicked, without understanding how shows of that magnitude came to be. We look at musical theater today, and sit in the theater seats, in awe at the spectacle that we were so fortunate to get orchestra tickets to. Yet, when studying, we need to begin somewhere. This episode is that somewhere. It highlights an individual crucial to the creation of the modern day production. Through his work, other directors and producers have been able to bring their ideas to the stage. Florenz Ziegfeld is an inspiration to any student, artist, or anyone with a passion for musical theater. Miles Krueger said, “The history of Musical Theater is divided into two eras- everything before Showboat and everything
I think Tim O'Brien chose to display the topic of My Lai accurately in order to convey a sense of legitimacy to his audience. Because O'Brien presents Calley as a monster by portraying his actions of ordering Charlie Company to commit the horrors of My Lai. O'Brien focuses on how Calley mutilated the bodies of Vietnamese women and children., Tim O'Brien pulls parts of William Calley's court-marshall interview. O'Brien copies the questions and responses from the trial exactly, however, he changes a few words, adding or deleting the information presented to the reader, and in making historical events accurate, he convinces the audience that the rest of the book has valid content whereas it might not.
Into the Woods is no ordinary fairy tale. James Lapine wrote a story that brings numerous fairy tale characters together. Lapine published his book in 1987. Five popular stories are incorporated to create the plot of the novel. Into the Woods connects to the real world by creating different social class levels. The novel provides an enjoyable twist to everyone’s favorite fairytales. Into the Woods brings Fairy tales into a single story to connect with real world society.
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.
I chose to research the genre of fairytales because the genre retold by Grimm’s caught my attention. Fairytales in modern day usually have a happy ending after the good versus evil concept. Rapunzel specifically, isn’t told in its original form.Theres much more darkness and even though happily ever after is in play, not all fairytales end that way. Fairytales have much more depth than people realize in modern day. It portrays the real struggles we face growing up. In Rapunzel, her mother gave her away and she was raised by an enchantress who locked her away. This very much explains child abandonment or a child that has been given up for adoption and the things they face growing up.Theres a connection between these fairytales and real life situations .Fairytales have a way of expressing real life situations in a way that uses a few elements that help tell the story in a way children can understand. Some of the elements include: magic, morals, royalty and love.