This article centres on Jeanine Tesori’s Violet (book and lyrics by Brian Crawley) and Caroline, or Change (book and lyrics by Tony Kushner), both of which are set in the American south during a crucial period in American history running between the assassination of John F. Kennedy on 22 November 1963 and the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Both works musically capture the imaginative traditions of the American south through gospel, country, Motown, and blues in order to detail the complex negotiations of the titular female protagonists through challenges of isolation, entrapment and liberation in the months following Kennedy's assassination. This article argues that the promise and affordance of mobility within these musicals are rooted in an uncanny spiritual fervour expressed by Violet and Caroline, both of whom have defined a distinctive, and, as will be recognized by each musical’s conclusion, mistaken theology of personal devotion and faith that runs precisely counter to the liberating potentials in the world around them.
{"title":"The multiple mobilities of civil rights in Jeanine Tesori’s Violet and Caroline, or Change","authors":"Allan Kilner-Johnson","doi":"10.1386/SMT_00039_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/SMT_00039_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article centres on Jeanine Tesori’s Violet (book and lyrics by Brian Crawley) and Caroline, or Change (book and lyrics by Tony Kushner), both of which are set in the American south during a crucial period in American history running between the assassination\u0000 of John F. Kennedy on 22 November 1963 and the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Both works musically capture the imaginative traditions of the American south through gospel, country, Motown, and blues in order to detail the complex negotiations of the titular female protagonists through\u0000 challenges of isolation, entrapment and liberation in the months following Kennedy's assassination. This article argues that the promise and affordance of mobility within these musicals are rooted in an uncanny spiritual fervour expressed by Violet and Caroline, both of whom have defined a\u0000 distinctive, and, as will be recognized by each musical’s conclusion, mistaken theology of personal devotion and faith that runs precisely counter to the liberating potentials in the world around them.","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"14 1","pages":"243-253"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44213256","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The character of Rose from Gypsy has been compared to tragic characters such as Medea, King Lear and Willy Loman. She has been credited as one of the most psychologically complex characters in musical theatre history and is a role coveted by performers. Equally appalling and compelling, Rose, like characters in ancient Greek tragedies, is an imperfect human struggling to do her best in difficult situations but is ultimately misguided and suffers a tragic reversal of fortune. This article applies dramatic theory from Aristotle’s Poetics and Arthur Miller’s article ‘Tragedy and the common man’ to discover the dramaturgical practices the authors of Gypsy used to structure Rose, a figure from musical comedy, within the theoretical constructs of a tragic heroine.
{"title":"Momma Rose: An Aristotelian heroine in the mother of all musicals","authors":"Denise A. Walen","doi":"10.1386/SMT_00042_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/SMT_00042_1","url":null,"abstract":"The character of Rose from Gypsy has been compared to tragic characters such as Medea, King Lear and Willy Loman. She has been credited as one of the most psychologically complex characters in musical theatre history and is a role coveted by performers. Equally appalling and\u0000 compelling, Rose, like characters in ancient Greek tragedies, is an imperfect human struggling to do her best in difficult situations but is ultimately misguided and suffers a tragic reversal of fortune. This article applies dramatic theory from Aristotle’s Poetics and Arthur\u0000 Miller’s article ‘Tragedy and the common man’ to discover the dramaturgical practices the authors of Gypsy used to structure Rose, a figure from musical comedy, within the theoretical constructs of a tragic heroine.","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"14 1","pages":"293-306"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44108004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Traditional American musicals have often portrayed women in conventional, domestic roles like wives and mothers. Sondheim and Lapine’s Into the Woods (1987) abounds with maternal figures who, at first, appear musically and lyrically complex. The musical’s mothers transgress the confines of housekeeping and childrearing to pursue sexual fantasies, provide for and protect their children and explore their personal and emotional bonds. However, the actions of such transgressive mothers, including the Baker’s Wife, Jack’s Mother and the Witch, are narratively renounced, their agency contained and their stories cut short with fatal punishments. In contrast, Cinderella, the epitome of the pure good woman, prevails as the solitary mother figure of the show’s concluding family. This article argues that despite its overtures towards something more complex, Into the Woods’ depiction of motherhood merely reinforces reductive, patriarchal genre standards.
{"title":"‘Back to child, back to husband’: Containing transgressive mothers in Into the Woods","authors":"Trystan Loustau","doi":"10.1386/SMT_00046_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/SMT_00046_1","url":null,"abstract":"Traditional American musicals have often portrayed women in conventional, domestic roles like wives and mothers. Sondheim and Lapine’s Into the Woods (1987) abounds with maternal figures who, at first, appear musically and lyrically complex. The musical’s mothers\u0000 transgress the confines of housekeeping and childrearing to pursue sexual fantasies, provide for and protect their children and explore their personal and emotional bonds. However, the actions of such transgressive mothers, including the Baker’s Wife, Jack’s Mother and the Witch,\u0000 are narratively renounced, their agency contained and their stories cut short with fatal punishments. In contrast, Cinderella, the epitome of the pure good woman, prevails as the solitary mother figure of the show’s concluding family. This article argues that despite its overtures towards\u0000 something more complex, Into the Woods’ depiction of motherhood merely reinforces reductive, patriarchal genre standards.","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"14 1","pages":"331-341"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45100799","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Following on from John Osborne’s infamous play Look Back in Anger of 1956, London’s stage saw the emergence of the ‘Angry Young Man’, realistic portrayals of working-class men in a difficult age. Expresso Bongo and Lily White Boys, works of the mid-to-late 1950s, demonstrate that the angry young man was also present in London’s musicals, previously an upper- and middle-class genre. Featuring the Soho district, gangsters, prostitutes and rock music, this unique era of musical theatre changed expectations of what musical theatre could and would offer to a jaded urban audience. These astonishing musical theatre works offer potent commentary on British society, British identity and particularly disenfranchised young British men, and offer insights into American and British relations, gender roles and expectations, and the complicated role of working-class men in the new Elizabethan era.
继约翰·奥斯本（John Osborne）1956年臭名昭著的戏剧《愤怒中的回首》（Look Back in Anger）之后，伦敦的舞台上出现了“愤怒的年轻人”（Angry Young Man），这是对困难时期工人阶级男性的现实刻画。20世纪50年代中后期的Expresso Bongo和Lily White Boys的作品表明，这个愤怒的年轻人也出现在伦敦的音乐剧中，这之前是一种上层和中产阶级的类型。以苏荷区、黑帮、妓女和摇滚乐为特色，这个独特的音乐剧时代改变了人们对音乐剧能够为疲惫的城市观众提供什么的期望。这些令人惊叹的音乐剧作品有力地评论了英国社会、英国身份，尤其是被剥夺权利的英国年轻男性，并深入了解了美英关系、性别角色和期望，以及新伊丽莎白时代工人阶级男性的复杂角色。
{"title":"Expresso Bongo and Make Me an Offer: The ‘Angry Young Musical’ in the 1950s","authors":"E. Wells","doi":"10.1386/smt_00030_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00030_1","url":null,"abstract":"Following on from John Osborne’s infamous play Look Back in Anger of 1956, London’s stage saw the emergence of the ‘Angry Young Man’, realistic portrayals of working-class men in a difficult age. Expresso Bongo and Lily White Boys, works of the mid-to-late 1950s, demonstrate that the angry young man was also present in London’s musicals, previously an upper- and middle-class genre. Featuring the Soho district, gangsters, prostitutes and rock music, this unique era of musical theatre changed expectations of what musical theatre could and would offer to a jaded urban audience. These astonishing musical theatre works offer potent commentary on British society, British identity and particularly disenfranchised young British men, and offer insights into American and British relations, gender roles and expectations, and the complicated role of working-class men in the new Elizabethan era.","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"14 1","pages":"163-173"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47926897","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Review of: Imitation Artist: Gertrude Hoffmann’s Life in Vaudeville and Dance, Sunny Stalter-Pace (2020) Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 280 pp., ISBN 978-0-8101-4191-9, p/bk, $34.95
{"title":"Imitation Artist: Gertrude Hoffmann’s Life in Vaudeville and Dance, Sunny Stalter-Pace (2020)","authors":"S. Courtis","doi":"10.1386/smt_00036_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00036_5","url":null,"abstract":"Review of: Imitation Artist: Gertrude Hoffmann’s Life in Vaudeville and Dance, Sunny Stalter-Pace (2020)\u0000Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 280 pp.,\u0000ISBN 978-0-8101-4191-9, p/bk, $34.95","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"14 1","pages":"227-229"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48885309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Betty Comden and Adolph Green are well-known librettists and lyricists of stage musicals and musical films; their artistic style and verbal expression are considered to bear urban witness to a period understanding of the 1940s and 1950s. Nonetheless, previous studies have scarcely investigated the aesthetic features of their dramaturgy, especially with regard to linguistic expression. This article focuses on the radio comedy Fun with the Revuers, for which they wrote scripts and lyrics. Through a close look at the scripts and sound recordings, it analyses the ‘interruptive sound and voice’ functions that construct the show, and examines how these satirize the conventions of the format, as well as the essential features of the medium. This article will offer a new perspective on the generational dynamics of Comden and Green’s artistry.
贝蒂·科登和阿道夫·格林是著名的舞台音乐剧和歌舞片词作者;他们的艺术风格和语言表达被认为是对20世纪40年代和50年代时期理解的城市见证。然而，以往的研究很少探讨其戏剧的美学特征，特别是在语言表达方面。这篇文章关注的是广播喜剧《与狂欢者同乐》(Fun with the Revuers)，他们为这部剧写了剧本和歌词。通过对剧本和录音的仔细研究，本文分析了构成节目的“打断声音和声音”功能，并研究了这些功能是如何讽刺这种形式的惯例的，以及这种媒体的基本特征。这篇文章将提供一个新的视角来看待科登和格林艺术的代际动态。
{"title":"‘Salute to Radio’: The self-reflexive artistry of Betty Comden and Adolph Green in Fun with the Revuers","authors":"Sahoko Tsuji","doi":"10.1386/smt_00029_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00029_1","url":null,"abstract":"Betty Comden and Adolph Green are well-known librettists and lyricists of stage musicals and musical films; their artistic style and verbal expression are considered to bear urban witness to a period understanding of the 1940s and 1950s. Nonetheless, previous studies have scarcely investigated the aesthetic features of their dramaturgy, especially with regard to linguistic expression. This article focuses on the radio comedy Fun with the Revuers, for which they wrote scripts and lyrics. Through a close look at the scripts and sound recordings, it analyses the ‘interruptive sound and voice’ functions that construct the show, and examines how these satirize the conventions of the format, as well as the essential features of the medium. This article will offer a new perspective on the generational dynamics of Comden and Green’s artistry.","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"14 1","pages":"149-161"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42228974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The concept of the dithyrambic dramatist – introduced by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in the fourth essay of his Untimely Meditations of 1873–76 – is one of the most performance-oriented concepts to emerge out of the nineteenth century in which theatre was often associated with dramatic literature. This article investigates the nature of the dithyrambic dramatist by tracing, in the first instance, the underlying musical perspectives – already evident in The Birth of Tragedy of 1872 – which led Nietzsche to develop the concept. In the second instance, the author articulates what may be considered as its key conditions, namely the visible–audible and individual–collective relationalities. In view of the arguments brought forward, the concept of the dithyrambic dramatist is located as an interdisciplinary element that emerged out of an art form – music – to which Nietzsche was intimately associated in his youth as a composer. The author further proposes that, rather than a metaphor to philological tropes, the dithyrambic dramatist is a concrete manifestation of interdisciplinary and performative foundations that inform Nietzsche’s analytic perspectives.
{"title":"The dithyrambic dramatist: A Nietzschean musical-performative conception","authors":"Mario Frendo","doi":"10.1386/smt_00032_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00032_1","url":null,"abstract":"The concept of the dithyrambic dramatist – introduced by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in the fourth essay of his Untimely Meditations of 1873–76 – is one of the most performance-oriented concepts to emerge out of the nineteenth century in which theatre was often associated with dramatic literature. This article investigates the nature of the dithyrambic dramatist by tracing, in the first instance, the underlying musical perspectives – already evident in The Birth of Tragedy of 1872 – which led Nietzsche to develop the concept. In the second instance, the author articulates what may be considered as its key conditions, namely the visible–audible and individual–collective relationalities. In view of the arguments brought forward, the concept of the dithyrambic dramatist is located as an interdisciplinary element that emerged out of an art form – music – to which Nietzsche was intimately associated in his youth as a composer. The author further proposes that, rather than a metaphor to philological tropes, the dithyrambic dramatist is a concrete manifestation of interdisciplinary and performative foundations that inform Nietzsche’s analytic perspectives.","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"14 1","pages":"193-206"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42344333","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Review of: America in the Round: Capital, Race, and Nation at Washington, DC’s Arena Stage, Donatella Galella (2019) Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, ix + 303 pp., ISBN 978-1-60938-625-2, p/bk, $99.00
{"title":"America in the Round: Capital, Race, and Nation at Washington, DC’s Arena Stage, Donatella Galella (2019)","authors":"Barrie Gelles","doi":"10.1386/smt_00035_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00035_5","url":null,"abstract":"Review of: America in the Round: Capital, Race, and Nation at Washington, DC’s Arena Stage, Donatella Galella (2019)\u0000Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, ix + 303 pp.,\u0000ISBN 978-1-60938-625-2, p/bk, $99.00","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"14 1","pages":"224-226"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45743793","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article questions the critical appraisal of Six as a feminist musical and as a step forward for gender equality within the British theatre industry. When the show is viewed through a feminist lens, it is clear that, far from challenging the meanings of gender in popular culture, Six reproduces them with demeaning stereotypes that conform to the ideals of the male gaze. I conclude that the positive critical reaction to Six owes more to a need within the theatre community to have a successful British musical than to the merits of the show itself, and a wariness on the part of critics in a post-Weinstein era to be seen to question the artistic quality of a female-centric show that women clearly experience as empowering.
{"title":"‘My sleeves may be green but my lipstick’s red’: Deconstructing the ‘feminism’ in Six","authors":"G. Barnes","doi":"10.1386/smt_00028_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/smt_00028_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article questions the critical appraisal of Six as a feminist musical and as a step forward for gender equality within the British theatre industry. When the show is viewed through a feminist lens, it is clear that, far from challenging the meanings of gender in popular culture, Six reproduces them with demeaning stereotypes that conform to the ideals of the male gaze. I conclude that the positive critical reaction to Six owes more to a need within the theatre community to have a successful British musical than to the merits of the show itself, and a wariness on the part of critics in a post-Weinstein era to be seen to question the artistic quality of a female-centric show that women clearly experience as empowering.","PeriodicalId":41759,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Musical Theatre","volume":"14 1","pages":"137-148"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49371483","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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