Have you ever met someone so good, yet they are evil to everyone around you? In the 21st century, the musical Wicked became a popular hit. With the tragic wars, disease, and new presidencies making history in the United States, theatre has always been an escape. Theatre has grown from audiences helping make it such a success. 21st century plays, specifically Wicked, were greatly impacted by the changes going on in the United States.
One of the changes going on was the United States transitioning into this war with some of the middle-eastern countries. As the horrid terrorist attack revolving around the twin towers happened on September 11, 2001, the country hit a new low. President George W. Bush took action by going to war with Afghanistan about a month later on October 7 (Lub). As the war continued, the United States kept sending more troops in, and this put the whole country on edge for years. We were also in a war with Iraq. This war started in 2000 when President Clinton bombed well over 100 Iraqi targets. He bombed these targets in the no-fly zone. This brought us to war and Bush kept trying to expand it. On March 21, 2003, the United States attacked Baghdad. We then continued by sending Paul Bremer to Iraq to be the caretaker until the government stabilized. In 2001, Bremer issued Order Number 1 that fired every employee in the Ba’ath Party and made it so that they could never be hired as a public employee ever again. About 50,000-100,000 people in this party lost their job. Two years later, Bremer issued Order Number 2 that fired the whole army. There were about 400,000 soldiers that lost their jobs. In the 21st century, George W. Bush was elected president in 2000. One of the programs Bush started was the “Blue Print for...
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...always trust the people you look up to. People are not always who they say they are. Elphaba was actually more good than anyone else, yet she was tricked into the title of wicked.
As Wicked was a powerful play of the 21st century, it was meant to reach out to people. This musical showed people the difference between good and evil. Teenagers related very well to this play because of the similar problems going on. It communicated the problems that go on in friendship and how to resolve them. The musical has a modern spin on the things going and it grabs everyone’s attention. The one important event that affected theatre in the 21st century was 9/11. Broadway fell for a few days, which was tough and scary. But with all the amazing productions, they pulled through. The changes going on through the 21st century had a big impact on plays and musicals, especially Wicked.
If there is truly tradition to be found among the great theatres both on and off Broadway, then certainly the Sullivan Street Playhouse and its long running production of The Fantasticks rates as one of the most celebrated of New York theatrical traditions. Maintaining its place as the longest running production Off Broadway, The Fantasticks remains an enchanting and insightful tale of both young love and bitter disillusionment. It also reminds one, in this age of spectacle and the mega-musical, how powerful and truly inspiring theatre itself can be. Clearly, one of the great strengths of this production and a large part of its appeal for audiences over the last four decades lies in the fact that both the story and the style of presentation compliment each other so completely. Here we find the non-essentials are stripped away, and we are left to rely simply on the imagination of both the audience and the performers to create a magical evening.
Motion pictures from Hollywood had taken Broadway’s place as the king of entertainment. The main reason behind this was that because it was culturally relevant and coming out with new flashy techniques such as Todd-AO and Cinerama.
“He’d look out from under his eyebrows, his cigarette a smoke screen between him and the rest of the world, and nobody knew what he was thinking” (Beddow xi). This is how Margery Beddow describes Bob Fosse in her book, Bob Fosse's Broadway. There is no question about whether or not Fosse was extremely innovative in the world of theatrical dance. His technique, style, personality, and achievements throughout his career speak for themselves. You may have seen him in movies such as Kiss Me Kate, My Sister Eileen, Damn Yankees, The Little Prince, and Thieves, however, he also helped direct and choreograph several of other films such as Sweet Charity, Lenny, All That Jazz, Star 80, and more. Although Fosse did contribute a lot to the film industry,
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.
These strong people have help not only with the growth of the Broadway musical, but also with the beginning of the modernization of musical theater during this period. Particularly the growth and change in the types of characters being used in Broadway musicals. Such as the Cinderella type characters are in the rag to riches stories, where they are struggling in the beginning of the act, yet at the final curtain they have a happy ending. Women and men during this period are beginning to show more personality in their acting and their struggles on stage. This was also the period where talking pictures, started to become a growing industry, it was no longer about just the Jazz period of the 1920’s. However, all good things must come to an end; it was the crash of the stock market during this period that brought an end to the feverish pitch of Broadway.
As in all genres, the musicals have 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.
On Saturday, December 21 at 8:00 p.m., I saw the play Wicked in Chicago at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts with my family. I had always heard how spectacular the play was. My parents even saw it on Broadway in New York years ago and absolutely loved it and wouldn’t stop talking about it. Well let me tell you, describing Wicked as being a spectacular show is dead on, maybe even an understatement. Wicked was by far one of the best plays I’ve ever seen! Between the actors, lighting, scenery, and music, it was an amazing show and grabbed your attention at all times. I would highly recommend seeing this phenomenal production to all ages!
Stephen Sondheim was born in New York on March 22, 1930. His mother was a fashion designer, and his father a dress manufacturer. At age ten, Sondheim’s parents divorced, and he moved to rural Pennsylvania with his mother shortly after (“Stephen Sondheim- Academy of Achievement”). In Pennsylvania, Stephen befriended his neighbor, James Hammerstein, as well as James’ parents Dorothy and Oscar. The Hammersteins would become like a second family to Stephen. He especially admired Oscar, a musical theatre giant, saying of the man, “I wanted to be whatever Oscar was… if Oscar had been a geologist, I would have become one too” (“The World of the Play: Stephen Sondheim”). Sondheim, mentored by Hammerstein, went on to study music and, eventually, became one of the most distinguished composers in musical theatre (“The World”). Stephen Sondheim’s writing redefined American musical theatre and inspired creativity among others in his field. He has worked on some of the most iconic modern musicals and continues to make meaningful contributions to the world of musical theatre (Miranda).
This fearlessness was something that Broadway idealized, ultimately opening the doors for playwrights and composers to speak their mind by means of the shows they produced. A few leading shows in this field were the musicals Chicago, Pacific Overtures, and A Chorus Line. Each of the three plays tackled their own social injustices all while also embedding individualized views of the glorified American Dream inside their works. Chicago and A Chorus Line take you behind the scenes in the world of Broadway, one tackling the injustices of the media and glorification of crime, and the other puts a light on the “small people” often forgotten in
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
Theatre-In-Education The theatre education industry/movement has seen some rapid changes since its initial developments and establishment in the 1960’s. However its origins mainly lie in the early years of the last century. It was the initial establishment of companies such as Bertha Waddell’s in Scotland and Esme Church’s in the north of England that thoroughly established the main roots of TIE.
In this paper, I will be focusing briefly on my knowledge and understanding of the concept of Applied theatre and one of its theatre form, which is Theatre in Education. The term Applied Theatre is a broad range of dramatic activity carried out by a crowd of diverse bodies and groups.
Development Of American Musicals The Musical is classified as the incorporation of song, dialogue and dance. Musicals, which many confuse with opera, is classified as having a narrower pitch range in comparison to opera and it operates on an AABA or verse and chorus form in its music. (Wikipedia, 2016) Furthermore, musicals generally have a “feel good” element attached to them and are intended to keep the audience happy and content. Musicals also differ from any other type of genre of music through the fact that they consist of spoken dialogue.
Theatre will always survive in our changing society. It provides us with a mirror of the society within which we live, and where conflicts we experience are acted out on stage before us. It provides us with characters with which we identify with. The audience observes the emotions and actions as they happen and share the experience with the characters in real time.
For thousands of years, people have been arguing that theatre is a dying art form. Many people think theatre is all just cheesy singing and dancing or just boring old Shakespeare, but there is much more to theatre than those two extremes. Theatre is important to our society because it teaches us more about real life than recorded media. Theatre has been around for thousands of years and began as a religious ceremony that evolved into an art form that teaches about the true essence of life. Theatre can incorporate profound, and provocative, observations of the human condition that can transcend time; lessons found in Greek plays can still be relevant to the modern world. People argue that the very essence of theatre is being snuffed out by modern