THE 103 Seminars in Theater: American Musical Theater from the Beginnings to 1943
Theater with music dates from the origins of the stage in the ancient
world, but musical theater as it is understood today is a quintessentially
American art form mixing elements of high and low art. This course will
examine the musical’s variant theories of origin from ballad opera and
operetta to minstrels, jazz, and vaudeville, as well as its evolution from
the ethnic entertainments of innocence and optimism that gave way to more
complex reflections of the diversity, spectacle, and individualism of
early twentieth century American life. Through lecture, musical theater
from its beginnings through the mid-twentieth century will be explored
through study of the work of composers and lyricists including George M.
Cohan, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern,
Noble Sissle, Eubie Blake, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, and Oscar
Hammerstein II, among others. Attention will also be paid to influential
performers and directors, and the form and themes of musical theater will
be studied through examination of representative texts and scores
including Little Johnny Jones (1904), Shuffle Along (1921),
Show Boat (1927), Animal Crackers (1928), Of Thee I Sing!
(1931), As Thousands Cheer (1933), Anything Goes (1934),
Porgy and Bess (1935), Pal Joey (1940), and Oklahoma!
(1943). This course is offered in the fall (first half of semester).
Credits: 1/2
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