The flowers are in bloom and so is Selinsgrove Area High School's Spring musical. Beloved librarian and managing director Laurie Knitter was in a deep search of a musical that offered a splendid affair. After being on a quest for a musical that was a hysterically, humorous comedy that drew in heaps of laughter, family friendly, and gave mirthful opportunities to the students, Mrs. Knitter unearthed the marvelous ensemble which was full of color and amusing costumes—Xanadu. Xanadu is a Broadway musical which showed in the year 2007 and was so well liked that it achieved to run for over five hundred performances. Xanadu give the audience a bundle of divergent emotions such as love, woe, and joy. Somehow, Xanadu has accomplished the impossible
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.
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.
People have dreams of what they want to do or accomplish in life, but usually musical theatre is just pushed into the non-realistic void. It isn’t a dream for me. In the past four years, musical theatre has been clarified as my reality. Musical theatre has been the only thing I have seen myself wanting to do. My first love was The Phantom of the Opera, seeing how I watched it almost every day and it was one of the first shows I saw. Of course, I started doing all of those cute shows in middle school and making a huge deal about it to my family and friends, but I have never felt so passionate about something. The minute I get up on that stage I throw away Riley for two and a half hours and it’s the most amazing feeling! Being able to tell a story
Generation X has finally taken out a lease on the future of theatre, and it looks like it is more than able to pay the "Rent" (Coulbourn 43). "Rent" is a musical for our time, for our generation and for generations to come. It has won numerous Tony Awards including best musical, book, score, lyrics, and ensemble performance. This musical is an excellent representation of cultural religion and it has had a profound impact on society both in the 90's and today. "Rent" is not only a representation of the culture of the new millennium but is an excellent representation of the faith of a new generation.
Chicago is an American musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Set in Prohibition-era Chicago, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same name by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins about actual criminals and crimes she reported on. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal." Fred Ebb explains: “So I made it [Chicago] a vaudeville based on the idea that the characters were performers. Every musical moment in the show was loosely modeled on someone else: Roxie was Helen Morgan, Velma was Texas Guinan, Billy Flynn was Ted Lewis, Mama Morton was Sophie Tucker,” (Kander, Ebb, and Lawrence 127). Velma indeed is a reincarnation of Texas Guinan who “acted as hostess…for the entertainment…she was also a born press agent, constantly inventing stories and promoting herself,” (Slide 218). Roxie’s “Funny Honey” Amos is eerily reminiscent of Helen Morgan’s “Bill” from Kern and Hammerstein’s 1927 classic Showboat. Amos, too, in his “Mr. Cellophane” number, imitates Ziegfeld Follies star Bert Williams’ iconic hit “Nobody” “right down to Williams’ famous costume of oversized clothes and white gloves,” (Miller).
On a cold, brisk Tuesday night, I attended the musical called Urinetown by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis. Urinetown was held in Rowand-Johnson Hall, at the Marian Gallaway Theatre. As I quickly walked in the entrance, I noticed that people were wearing casual attire. I gave the usher my ticket and walked to my seat. This time my seat was located up at the front so I had a great view of the stage. This particular theatre is my favorite, it is very open and you can see from every seat. This musical is known to be a musical comedy which deals with different themes, unique text, and extraordinary technical elements.
Canadian identity has always been difficult to define. This definition is essential in order to evaluate theatre in Canada. French Canadians appear to have no difficulty in establishing their own identity, both on and off the stage, as they share a distinct tradition. We, as English-Canadians, have continued to define ourselves by reference to what we are not, American, rather than in terms of our own national history and tradition. For English Canadians, this tradition comes not from the nation but instead from community and region. Because English-Canada has such a great cultural diversity, nationality and relevance to our outstanding values and attitudes must define the Anglophone Canadian identity, both on and off the stage.
One of the very first electrified streets in the United States was Broadway. This gave it many opportunities to become a large icon for our nation. As we know now it is one of the most well-known places for great entertainment. However Broadway was not always the iconic entertainment center it is today; it was stolen, had New York City emerge around it, and persevered through many difficult economic and cultural times.
Hamilton: An American Musical, the spellbinding play by Lin-Manuel Miranda, nominated for a record breaking sixteen Tony Awards and winning eleven. How have they gotten their success? It doesn't only consist of an amazing sore and script, actors can make or break a musical/play. What makes Hamilton: An American Musical revolutionary is not only the talent and experience of the cast its the background and races of the cast. Though all the characters are white, the main actors are all different races. The founding fathers and mothers of the United States are played by an assortment of African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, Pacific Islanders, Puerto Ricans, and Caucasians. 2016-17 has proved to be a very diverse year for Broadway, with revivals
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.
Sater, Steven. "Preface ." Sater, Steven and Duncan Sheik. Spring Awakening: A New Musical. New York: Theatre Communications Group, Inc. , 2007. VII-XV. Print.
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
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.
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.
Although it started out as just another type of dance, Kabuki eventually emerged into an important and fascinating theatre where elaborate makeup and costumes combined to put on entertaining performances for audiences throughout the centuries.