THEA104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Konstantin Stanislavski, Anton Chekhov, Leonard Bernstein
Document Summary
Story that has original songs that moves the plot forward. No more popular songs (what everyone was doing up to that point). Story that has original songs & choreography that moves the plot forward. Classical book musical using an entire orchestra. Against backdrop of wwii: formative on us and uk. Lyrics by stephen sondheim: successful composer, lyricist in broadway history. Unsuccessfully tried to get his compositions produced for years. Wrote lyrics for many other shows: gypsy. Book musical drawing: shakespeare"s romeo and juliet. Tragedy rather than melodrama change in types of stories being told via musicals. Immigration concerns (defines american-ness in the late 20th century). 1st broadway show to demand triple threats equally strong actor, singer, dancer. Nearly every event after west side story requires triple threat actors. One of the 1st musicals to end in tragedy: witness of a murder. Most previous shows (oklahoma!, or thee i sing) typically ended with a wedding.
