of 2010. A special side note is that Rachel Potter, one of Mrs. Baraban’s friends, took…
The performing arts allow one to become another person and indulge in different parts of his personality. On stage, actors can explore key themes and issues within humanity. However, some populations, such as women, feel that their emotional struggles and triumphs are often secondary or, worse yet, absent from the plot entirely. In numerous shows, the female leading role serves solely as the beautiful love interest, while the plot centers around the leading male’s conflicts. Genevieve Flati, a seasoned performer and writer with over 23 years of experience, decided to create the musical revue “(Wo)men Rule Broadway” with the help of musical director Kelly Rogers to portray these human experiences from a woman’s perspective. Flati says, “Our…
Florenz Ziegfeld’s career highlights include his annual Follies, with the slogan “Glorifying the American Girl,” along with the musicals Sally (1920) and Show Boat (1927). His start with production was making Eugene Sandow the star of his father’s exhibit for the World’s Fair (Kenrick). The Ziegfeld Follies ran for a total of twenty-three years. There were four more productions after his death in 1932 (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica). He stopped the showing of the Follies during 1927, however, he resumed production during 1930, just as the Great Depression was starting. During the hiatus, Ziegfeld produced shows such as Rio Rita and Show…
By the early 1930’s, the theater and film capital of the United States was separated across the continent. In the Great Depression, artists had to make a choice: stay in New York, where the winters were harsh, and business was sparse, or move to Hollywood; sunny year round, and business and money was everywhere. Which would you choose? It is, of course, a trick question. Movie studios quickly tired to add musicals after The Jazz Singer in 1927, however they lacked the technology to actually make one; the sound was awful and camera movement was minimal. But in 1933, with the production of 42nd Street, Warner Brothers was finally competitive with the Broadway counterparts. Soon after more studios were making their own musicals, such as Paramount, MGM, and RKO.…
In every great musical, there is a showtune that defines it. Where would Dorothy be without Somewhere Over the Rainbow? Similarly, for every decade of show there is an occurring theme. Showtunes can be recognized by decade through a multitude of things, including; vocal sound, instruments used, and tone. Many things in showtunes have changed throughout the course of time while some have stayed the same. Each decade does have very important aspects, and here is why;…
A Streetcar Named Desire and Running were two of the plays I attended this semester, saying both plays did a fantastic job is an understatement. Each play had interesting storylines that kept me intrigued throughout the duration of the entire showing. All the characters and respective directors did an awesome job as well. Although I had not been to many plays before coming to Washington College, had the plays not been mandatory I feel I still would have enjoyed attending them regardless. Both plays had clear objectives, obvious character identities, identifiable locations, consistent voice and movement, active listening and focus, and kept me interested as well as being believable. Attending the plays were the best decisions I could have made.…
Films translated to stage (& back again), Musical & NON-musical - - ex. Hairspray, Producers…
Welcome! Playhouse Square’s Broadway Update will be published twice monthly with curated content about the latest news on Broadway and around the country. We’ll keep you updated on what Broadway’s finest are up to—cast album releases, new productions, and backstage looks.…
“I hand him a lyric and get out of his way.”—Hammerstein on Rodgers. “He’s a meticulously hard worker and yet he’ll roam the grass of his farm for hours and sometimes days before he can bring himself to put a word on paper.”—Rodgers on Hammerstein. Rodgers and Hammerstein changed the face of American musical theater by blending the elements of drama, music and dance. Six of their eleven musicals were a huge success. Their first production, Oklahoma! was on Broadway for five years (1943-1948). They brought musical theatre closer to classical…
As far as the development and demise of vaudeville, there is much to be said. But to truly understand its rise and fall, first one must understand what vaudeville is. Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of entertainment that was popular in the United States from the early 1880s until the mid 1930s. Each performance consisted of a series of unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Types of acts included classical musicians, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, impersonators, acrobats, illustrated songs, jugglers, scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, and movies.…
What made this musical so popular, was the combination of Rodgers and Hammerstein nack of producing successful songs and lyrics but also they argued to be the right men at the right time. H comment that that the first ten minutes of any musical theatre piece should define the style and themes to follow” this advice given from H is clearly presented within the beginning of the creation of the sound of music.…
During the 1930s, the American Dream had become a nightmare because of the Great Depression. The sudden drop in stock exchange had threatened the land. What was once the land of optimism, had become the land of despair. The promise for success was clearly not fulfilled.…
When researching a topic such as this, one must go beyond reading. One must not only dive into a script or a periodical or academic journal, one must immerse themselves into the films that have come about as a result of the transformation of turning a play into a cinematic experience. When going about researching this topic, I watched the movie Chicago (Dir. Rob Marshall, 2002) as well as looked over the original Broadway script (By Jon Kander, Fredd Ebb, and Bob Fosse 1975). The original Broadway production opened June 3, 1975, at the 46th Street Theatre and ran for 936 performances. Chicago's 1996 Broadway revival holds the record for the longest-running musical revival and the longest-running American musical in Broadway history, and is the fourth longest-running show in Broadway history. After all the success, What better way to continue the magic of this thrilling show than create a movie out of it? The story tells of two women (Roxie Hart and Velma Kelley) who live in Chicago and are responsible for murdering their husbands and must fight to get out of prison, in order to pursue their dreams of Broadway stardom.…
There have been many debates on whether or not Broadway musicals are considered “serious” art forms. People feel that a musical can never be taken seriously if the character is always singing sporadically, which is very unusual in real life. However, musicals have been around for quite some time now, many musicals are being adapted into major motion pictures, many children are raised on the famous Disney musical cartoons and everybody( whether they’ll admit it or not) has seen at least one musical in their lifetime and are able to sing some of the songs from it. It seems that musicals have made an impact on society but yet are still not taken seriously.…
A common thread in the theory literature on price discrimination has been the ambiguous welfare effects for consumers and the rise in profit for firms, relative to uniform pricing. In this study I resolve the ambiguity for consumers and quantify the benefit for a firm. A model of price discrimination is described which includes both second-degree and third-degree price discrimination. The model is designed to analyze ticket sales for a Broadway play. Heterogeneous consumers choose between tickets for various seat qualities, tickets sold at a discount booth, and tickets requiring a coupon available to a subset of the potential consumers. Using data from a Broadway play, the structural…