The Progression of the American Musical

The orb Two abundant authors of the Statesn melodic mansion, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, had one gross idea. They wanted to present to the American public a tonic, revolutionary musical theater that would stand out among the rest. They wanted to make an impact on the societies of the earned run average. They wanted to be creative and do something that was considered rebellious. When they fin in in ally combined their ideas together they created an American masterpiece okay.This was the world-class Rodgers and Hammerstein collaboration, starting the or so booming creative artnership in the history of American musical theatre. In the years before okay was created, Broadway was dying. untried and refreshing musicals were a rare occasion and when an artist tried to create something that he hoped his audience would like, he was sadly disap transfered. Broadway was suffering from a lack of what it was revered for astounding plays and musicals. Its sentence of glamour and glitz was near forgotten, and was in need of being saved.That is why okay is considered a rebirth of the American musical theatre at the time. It brought Broadway back to life, filling theatre seats with nthusiastic audiences who embraced the changes of this new theatre musical with open harness and made it a legend. okey set new standards for classic American theatre by introducing new techniques of presenting the musical to the audience, introducing a new genre of music into the theatre, and strayed away from the usual classic form and structure of a musical that audiences had grown used to.It was a time of change, a time of excitement, and a time of setting standards for the future. Almost from the first performance at the St. James Theatre on March 31, 1943, okeh has been recognized as a new kind of musical play that denied its Broadway audiences many of their most treasured traditions, says David Ewen in American melodious Theatre There was no coal scuttle let loose line of business, no chorus until midway through the first act, in fact. There was rather a serious ballet and some other serious overtones, including a killing in act two.The story, which was so simple, inspectmed to engage the audience in more(prenominal) than pure horizontaling diversion (248). These changes, far from disappointing to viewers, were upheld by a success that had never been seen in the history of musical theatre. He continued to say that with their first collaboration, Rodgers and Hammerstein shered in a new era for the musical theatre This beautiful folk play realized fully that which the earlier Rodgers and Hart musicals had been tune to obtain a synchronicity of all the grammatical constituents of the musical theatre into a single entity.At best Oklahoma could lay legitimate claim to spend a penny carefully woven a new element, spring, into the artful material of the modern musical. No hankerer would singers sing and then Dance was not a new element in the theatre realm. It had been used for years as a way of interpretation of feelings of a consultation that the writer or director wanted the audience to feel visually. Through movement, expression of those feelings was portrayed and helped the audience to somewhat experience that single emotion of fear, hate, get by, or guilt right along with the point of reference on stage. provided what was usual was that it was never brought together with the music and singing. The strain was usually followed by the decorative bounce. A song followed by a dance would usually lost the audiences attention, or even if the dance was too long or did not correspond to the song or story line what so ever. Rodgers and Hammerstein set a standard that incorporated the two elements (music/song and dance) so that the audience would ind more logic in the dance. It would come a meaning and a purpose in the play and heighten the excitement in the musical.And in many instances, it would furth er the plot or at best help the audience to fully deduct the individual characters feelings at that point in the musical. David Ewen uses the example of Agnes de Milles (choreographer of Oklahoma ) ballet, which brought to life the heroines dream and provided her motive for refusing the heros invitation to a box special. It was set aside-taking of the story. (248) According to Gerald Bordman, the author of American melodious Comedy, the idea hat integration, something new and urgently needed, took hold of Broadways thinking.In fact, it became so fashionable to integrate dance into the musical, that it was sometimes injected when it served no dramatic purpose, and sometimes even when it hindered the unfolding of the story. (160) After awhile dance became overused, which seemed to ruin what Rodgers and Hammerstein had set out to do (the incorporation of dance to heighten the meaning of the musical). Other writers or choreographers who inserted dance were not adding it when it woul d help the musical. Directors came to believe that dance was a necessity in a musical, for it was ne of the key reasons why Oklahoma as so successful. So the additions were made, but were not really thought about their purpose when they were added. What was forgotten was the obvious need for the dance at all. Dance was thought to be a want of the audience, not taking into consideration if the musical even required the dance at all. So, this problem developed into a frenzy, adding dance Just for the mere spectacle of it. But in Oklahoma , everything fit into its place. For the first time, not wholly were the songs and story inseparable, but in any case the dances heightened the drama by revealing he fears and desires of the leading characters.According to Bordman, Richard Rodgers once said, when a show works perfectly, its because all the individual parts complement each other and fit together in a great musical, the orchestrations sound the way the costumes look. Thats what made O klahoma work it was a work created by many that gave the conceit of having been created by one (160). collaboration. Joseph Swain adds that much was made at the time of the heros killing the villain on stage in Oklahoma. This too was not new. But while the claim to pilot burnerity was once over again exaggerated, Oklahoma virtue of its huge popularity, a popularity in no way reduced by an acrid scene, did open doors. (74) Oklahoma was in the genre of Musical Comedy, and many critics felt that villains and murder were not elements that should step up in a comedy. It was thought that such items would turn audiences away from Oklahoma , having the idea of going to see a comedy and leaving feeling like they had seen a murder mystery, and not laughing at all was not the main objective of comedy theatre. But once again, these elements were a key part of the musical. David Ewen pointed out in The Story of AmericasMusical Theatre that the original play had both villains and a murder, a nd Rodgers and Hammerstein had no end of removing them from their musical. Ewen quotes Hammerstein saying, We realized that such a course was experimental, amounting almost to the breach of an implied contract with the musical-comedy audience. I cannot say truthfully that we were worried by the risk. Once we had made the decision everything seemed to work right and we had the inner confidence hoi polloi feel when they have got adopted the right and honest approach to a problem (180).But once the doors unresolved and tickets began to sell and shows eventually became old out, Rodgers and Hammerstein really did not have anything to fear. Their show soon showed itself to be a success, even with a villain and a murder. The audiences were at first disturbed to see these elements in a comedy, but soon came into agreement with these new additions and liked its originality and creativeness. Also if these two elements had been removed, it would have disturbed the synchronization and union of all the other elements of song, dance and plot in the musical, which was what the writers were trying to avoid at all costs.Along with dance and villains, Rodgers and Hammerstein also took on a new pproach to forming the music that they included in the musical. In Gerald Bordmans minute of arc book American Musical Theatre A Chronicle, he stated that long before they wrote their first lyric to Oh What A Beautiful Mornin, Rodgers and Hammerstein had arrived at an all-important decision. The flotsam and Jetsam of musical comedy would have to be abandoned in translating a sensitive, poetic folk play for the musical theatre. Musical comedies traditionally opened with a big, crowded stage scene. Oklahoma ould begin simply a single character would be seen on the stage (a woman churning butter), and from off-stage would come the trains of the first song. Musical comedies usually started with a dazzling line of chorus girls from the stage aprons early in the production, but Rodgers and Hammerstein decided to delay its bearing until halfway through the first act (535). bring a certain magical and triumphant start-off to a musical, starting with excitement and volume. This was also criticized many feeling an audience would not stand for their most treasured attributes of a play being taken away.But Rodgers and Hammerstein once again took another risk, and it proved to be a risk that was not too bad to take. Audiences were at first disappointed with the deletion of the opening chorus, but eventually excused it, for they fell in love with the style of musical that Rodgers and Hammerstein were presenting to them. The play grew from a simple opening to a grand finale, which built the excitement of the audience and kept them stimulated and interest in the unfolding of the musical until the final chorus line and curtain call.It built suspense and a burning for more. Rodgers and Hammerstein obviously knew what they were doing, even if the critics thought they did not. Bordman also noted that the shows musical director, Jay Blackton, appreciating he works nature, discarded the common musical comedy practice of having the entire chorus sing only songs melodies. Instead, he reverted to the tradition of light opera and comic opera by dividing his singers and assigning them various parts, not always the principal melodic line (535).Once again, Oklahoma was making breakthrough innovations in the musical theatre world. A denial of basic characteristics of the original musical comedy could have upset the audience, and push Oklahoma into an area of outcast musicals that all writers fear. But Rodgers and Hammersteins ideas were undeniably refreshing to the American audiences. Rodgerss music also marked a new direction for the writer in Oklahoma. He reinvented his style of music from what he knew was popular to the audience to a confused flatness.Davis Ewen also states in his book The Story of Americas Musical Theatre, that most musical comedies expected t he music to be written before the lyrics, since the lyrics were something functional tacked on to the melody. But the writers were so determined to make each discussion an crucial part of the text that they agreed at once for Hammerstein to write the lyrics first, and Rodgers would write the music from the lyrics (180). Bordman reiterates that it is sometimes hard to realize that Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin is a waltz. The melody of The Surry With The Fringe On Top captures the clippety-clop of a horse pulling the vehicle.Rodgers long-sustained opening note of his title song coupled with the driving melody that follows was of the freshest inventions of the furcate and the impeccable blending of words and music in People Will Say Were In live Justifiably made it the most popular of the year. Much proclaiming ensued over how salutary the songs and plot were integrated (535). This coordination of musical rhythm and words was amazing. They were able to catch simple sounds of the a ctions on stage and incorporate them into the song, as if the lives of the characters could only survive with the music.This combination of audience must be made to believe that the characters life is a song. It is essential that the character make the audience feel like the music is not Just a dotty addition to the developing plot, but an existing item that has and will always exist at that point in time. The audience must be pulled into the world of the musical, not Just simply entertained. And once again, Rodgers and Hammerstein had achieved that goal. They ere well on their way to creating a musical that was so seamless that extracting one minor detail of it would bemuse the whole work of art off.It was a work of complete union and an accomplishment that was in no way easy to create in the first place. One factor in the success of Oklahoma that cannot be overlooked was the attitude of the American people at the time it was presented. In The World of Musical Comedy, Stanley Gre en adds that World War II was more than a year old when the musical opened, and those who remained at home were becoming increasingly aware of the heritage they enjoyed as a free people. Seeing the happier, sunnier years that were so much a part of this heritage gave audiences both an escape from daily headlines and a feeling of optimism for the future (212).In American Musical Comedy, Bordman believed that Oklahoma s importance lay elsewhere. The show made the American musical theatre look at Americas own heritage for inspiration (160). Playwrights were beginning to recognize the grand amount of inspiration the American country could provide for the new revolution of musicals. During the time of and after World War II, pride in America was gaining strength and so was the nterest of writing plays and musicals that showed that pride of how great America was. Oklahoma n turn brought more than Just new innovations of song, music, and dance to the stage, but a love for musicals that s howed how beautiful older American culture was. Oklahoma was a musical of Americas expansion into the western prior and the western culture. In more ways that one, Oklahoma was a way for city dwellers in in the buff York City who sat in the audience to find their way to the west without ever leaving the city. Rodgers and Hammerstein had undergo achievement when they could tell a story through song and dance and transport the udience into the setting of the musical.Playgoers would leave the theatre feeling like they had Just returned from an adventure out west, which is a playwrights exclusive objective when creating a play. The audience must be made to believe that they are experiencing the plot right along with the actors on stage. Thus is the main objective of theatre in general to capture the audience and bring them to a different place and time where the plot of the play is the only struggle in the world at the time. Bordman writes in American Musical Theatre A Chronicle that what started in 927 was perfected in 1943 when Oklahoma premiered.It is considered by many to be the first musical comedy to have a plot, musical account statement and dances that were necessary ingredients to advance the story line (536). It is only fair to agree with him. Rodgers and Hammerstein added the exact ingredients to create a magical and over the world to this day. Although Oklahoma premiered 70 years ago, and its style of music and dance have grown old with the passing of time, it still demands respect for its combination and imaginative ideas that revolutionized the musical industry at the time. Rodgers and Hammerstein were the dominant force in musical comedy in the 1940s and 50s.Even their flops had notable songs. Several of their shows became successful films. Oklahoma s importance in opening a new era in the American Musical Theatre will never be challenged. It has become an American classic that society will eternally treasure for its beautiful integration of son g and dance.