Post-Classical Musical Conventions

Musicals have been a form of entrainment for many years, in many different formats, either in the form of a theatre production or as a form of films. A musical has always been a form of escapism and entertainment, from the classical and now the post –classical versions of musicals. Over the years, many conventions of musicals have changed in the transition from theatre to film, but many fundamentals that make up a musical have stayed the same. In this essay, I will be commenting on these changes and any differences and similarities of classical and post-classical musicals.
Some of the conventions of a musical that have stayed the same throughout its long history; from the early days in the theatre the more recent rendition of the film, is the
Generally, these are the only genres that can take on these sometimes taboo subject matters, by softening the reactions of audiences due to the light-hearted nature of the films, either through the use of song and dance in musicals or humour in comedies, this has been a constant convention in both classical and post-classical musicals. With many of the more successful musicals having a dark underlying nature to them, some that on first glance are either to out there or didn’t sound like they would work in a musical format, for example, Sweeney Todd (2007) a horror musical about a barber that ‘slaughters’ his clients and eventually makes them into pies, not the usual premise for a musical, set in 1846, London, still has many of the attributes of musicals including the social representation of the time it was set, Victorian London was the perfect backdrop, exploring dark, scary and violent story’s line, with the dark nights and alleys, that are very
Shown through the Crony Collins show, where there are two different shows, one for the white kids and one for the African Americans, once a month they would have a crossover show, where both are on the same show, many of the ‘nicest kids in town’ did not agree. This is a comment on the social times of the 60’s with the Civil Rights Act coming into power, which gave African-Americans the right to vote and have a voice within government. This change in government is shown towards the end of the film, where the African Americans were to be on the same show each time, instead of separate