'The Progression of the American Musical\r'

'The origination Two ample writers of American tuneful subject field, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, had one common idea. They cute to fork up to the American public a recent, subverter tuneful theater that would stand out among the rest. They cute to make an impact on the societies of the era. They wanted to be creative and do something that was considered rebellious. When they in the long run combined their ideas unitedly they make believed an American masterpiece: o strike!.This was the prototypic Rodgers and Hammerstein collaboration, st frauding the well-nigh(prenominal) victorful creative artnership in the record of American medicational theater comedy family. In the years before okeh! was created, Broad room was dying. New and retrieve euphonyals were a rare occasion and when an artificer tried to create something that he hoped his earshot would like, he was sadly disap berthed. Broad mode was suffering from a lack of what it was revered for: astounding rolep rests and melodiouss. Its prison term of glamour and glitz was some forgotten, and was in need of being saved.That is why okay! is considered a rebirth of the American musical theatre at the period. It brought Broadway back to flavor, plectrum theatre seats with nthusiastic consultations who embraced the changes of this impertinently theatre musical with open arms and make it a legend. okay! set in the raw bars for unequivocal American theatre by introducing new techniques of presenting the musical to the hearing, introducing a new genre of music into the theatre, and strayed away from the vulgar classic form and structure of a musical that audiences had gr let used to.It was a beat of change, a time of eagerness, and a time of setting standards for the future. Almost from the number 1 performance at the St. James field on March 31, 1943, okey! has been recognise as a new mixed bag of musical rook that denied its Broadway audiences ma ny an(prenominal) of their most see customs, labels David Ewen in American tuneful Theatre: â€Å" in that location was no initiative utter bound, no emit line until center(prenominal) through the initiatory act, in fact. There was rather a serious c at oncert leap and other(a) serious overtones, including a kill in act two.The story, which was so simple, seemed to invade the audience in more than than specified sluicetideing diversion” (248). These changes, far from disappoint to viewers, were upheld by a success that had neer been seen in the history of musical theatre. He continued to say that with their offset printing collaboration, Rodgers and Hammerstein shered in a new era for the musical theatre This bonny folk p take down agnise amply that which the earlier Rodgers and stag musicals had been striving to obtain: a synchronizing of entirely the elements of the musical theatre into a single entity.At best Oklahoma! could lay legitimate claim to micturate conservatively woven a new element, leaping, into the distorted fabric of the modern musical. No hourlong would singers sing and then Dance was non a new element in the theatre realm. It had been used for years as a way of interpretation of flavorings of a font that the writer or theater director wanted the audience to feel visually. by dint of movement, expression of those feelings was portrayed and back uped the audience to somewhat experience that single emotion of fear, hate, love, or guilt responsibility along with the character on storey. unless what was usual was that it was never brought together with the music and singing. The song was normally followed by the decorative bounce. A song followed by a dance would usually mixed-up the audiences attention, or even if the dance was in like manner long or did non malefactor back 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 restrain a meaning and a purpose in the play and erect the exc particularent in the musical.And in many instances, it would further the while or at best help the audience to fully understand the unmarried 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 corner special. It was part of the story. (248) According to Gerald Bordman, the author of American melodious Comedy, the idea hat integration, something new and desperately needed, took h aged of Broadways thinking.In fact, it became so in to integrate dance into the musical, that it was sometimes injected when it served no dramatic purpose, and sometimes even when it hindered the blossom forth of the story. (160) After a epoch dance became overused, which s eemed to interrupt what Rodgers and Hammerstein had set out to do (the incorporation of dance to heighten the meaning of the musical). some other writers or choreographers who inserted dance were not adding it when it would help the musical. Directors came to believe that dance was a fate in a musical, for it was ne of the get reasons why Oklahoma! as so successful. So the summing ups were make, save were not real 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 term if the musical even required the dance at all. So, this problem developed into a frenzy, adding dance safe for the mere spectacle of it. But in Oklahoma! , everything fit into its place. For the first time, not precisely were the songs and story insepar suitable, just to a fault the dances heightened the drama by beat out he fears and desires of the leading characters.According to Bordman, Richard Rodgers once said, â€Å"when a make deceases 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 do Oklahoma! work… it was a work created by many that gave the impression of having been created by one” (160). collaboration. Joseph Swain adds that much was made at the time of the heros killing the scoundrel on stage in Oklahoma!. This too was not new. But while the claim to originality was once again exaggerated, Oklahoma! virtue of its huge hotity, a popularity in no way reduced by an unpleasant scene, did open doors. (74) Oklahoma! was in the genre of musical Comedy, and many critics felt that villains and execution were not elements that should appear in a harlequinade. It was thought that such items would scrap audiences away from Oklahoma! , having the idea of liberation to see a comedy and departure feeling like they had seen a murder mystery, and not laughing at all was not the main documental of comedy theatre. But once again, these elements were a key part of the musical. David Ewen pointed out in The accounting of Americas melodious Theatre that the original play had both villains and a murder, and Rodgers and Hammerstein had no intention of removing them from their musical. Ewen quotes Hammerstein saying, â€Å"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 people feel when they have adopted the right and just approach to a problem” (180).But once the doors opened 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, eve n with a villain and a murder. The audiences were at first disturbed to see these elements in a comedy, entirely soon came into transcription 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 articulation of all the other elements of song, dance and dapple in the musical, which was what the writers were trying to avoid at all costs.Along with dance and villains, Rodgers and Hammerstein alike took on a new pproach to forming the music that they include in the musical. In Gerald Bordmans second apply American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle, he stated that long before they wrote their first lyric to â€Å"Oh What A beautiful Mornin”, Rodgers and Hammerstein had arrived at an all-important decision. The â€Å"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, crowd stage scene. Oklahoma! ould begin patently: a single character would be seen on the stage (a woman roily 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 appearance until middle(a) through the first act (535). wager a certain magical and overbearing beginning to a musical, starting with excitement and volume. This was also criticized; many feeling an audience would not stand for their most nurtured attributes of a play being interpreted away.But Rodgers and Hammerstein once again took another risk, and it proven 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 behavior 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 interested in the unfolding of the musical until the final chorus line and curtain call.It built uncertainty 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 operetta and comic opera by dividing his singers and assigning them various parts, not ever the principal melodic line (535).Once again, Oklahoma! was making breakthrough innovations in the musical theatre valet de chambre. A denial of raw material characteristics of the original musical comedy could have upset the audience, and push Oklahoma! into an field of battle of outcast music als that all writers fear. But Rodgers and Hammersteins ideas were undeniably refreshing to the American audiences. Rodgerss music also marked a new path for the writer in Oklahoma!. He reinvented his style of music from what he knew was popular to the audience to a rugged flatness.Davis Ewen also states in his book The Story of Americas Musical Theatre, that most musical comedies expected the music to be written before the lyrics, since the lyrics were something serviceable tacked on to the subscriber line. But the writers were so fixed to make each word an infixed 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 â€Å"Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin ” is a waltz. The melody of â€Å"The Surry With The smash On Top” captures the clippety-clop of a one dollar bill pulling the vehicle.Rodgers long-sustained opening note of his claim song coupled with the driving melody that follows was of the freshest inventions of the sort and the impeccable blending of row and music in â€Å"People result Say Were In Love” justifiably made it the most popular of the year. a great deal proclaiming ensued over how well the songs and plot were unified (535). This coordination of musical rhythm and words was amazing. They were able to catch simple sounds of the actions on stage and incorporate them into the song, as if the lives of the characters could only arrive with the music.This combination of audience mustiness 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 silly 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 tip of it would throw the whole work of art off.It was a work of complete totality 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 military position of the American people at the time it was presented. In The World of Musical Comedy, Stanley special K adds that World warfare 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 days 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 her itage for inspiration (160). Playwrights were beginning to complete the vast amount of inspiration the American country could provide for the new alteration of musicals. During the time of and after World War II, pride in America was gaining dexterity 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 showed how beautiful older American culture was. Oklahoma! was a musical of Americas expansion into the horse opera front and the western culture. In more ways that one, Oklahoma! was a way for city dwellers in New York city who sat in the audience to find their way to the west without ever go forth the city. Rodgers and Hammerstein had experienced 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 feeli ng like they had Just returned from an misadventure 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. hence 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 argue 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 score and dances that were necessity ingredients to advance the story line (536). It is only fair to agree with him. Rodgers and Hammerstein added the exact â€Å"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 prominent old with the passing of time, it still demands find 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 noted 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 forever treasure for its beautiful integration of song and dance.\r\n'