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Category Archives: Reference
Presidential Musical Playlist
Happy Election Day. The musical is one of America’s unique art forms. Though many examples are little more than escapist entertainment, some shows have tackled the difficult questions of our American experiment. When you’ve returned from your polling site, please … Continue reading
Posted in Playlists, Reference
Tagged 1776, Assassins, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, First Daughter Suite, Hamilton
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Today in Musical History: Wicked
The Broadway production of the mega-musical Wicked opened at the Gershwin Theatre on Oct. 30, 2003, after its world premiere at San Francisco’s Curran Theatre. The idea for the show began when Stephen Schwartz read Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked. … Continue reading
Posted in History, Reference
Tagged Idina Menzel, Joel Grey, Kristin Chenoweth, Stephen Schwartz, Wicked, Winnie Holzman
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History of Musicals: Broadway Goes Bust
Broadway’s Roaring Twenties came to a roaring close with the rise of Hollywood’s “talkies” and the fall of the stock market. The subsequent exodus of talent posed a serious challenge for stage musicals. In 1929, Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern … Continue reading
Posted in History
Tagged Americana, Anything Goes, As Thousands Cheer, Cole Porter, Ethel Merman, Ethel Waters, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, George Abbott, George Gershwin, Hellzapoppin, Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, John Houseman, Kaufman & Hart, Knickerbocker Holiday, Kurt Weill, Marc Blitzstein, Marilyn Miller, Maxwell Anderson, Of Thee I Sing, Olsen & Johnson, Orson Welles, Otto Harbach, Pal Joey, Pins and Needles, Roberta, Rodgers & Hart, Schwartz & Dietz, The Band Wagon, The Cradle Will Rock, The Threepenny Opera, Victor Moore, Vivienne Segal, Walter Huston, William Gaxton, Yip Harburg
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History of Musicals: Hollywood Beckons
Short sound films were a popular novelty in nickelodeons at the turn of the 20th century. One of the most successful systems was Cameraphone, created in 1907 by James A. Whitman. In the fourth floor studios above Daly’s Theatre, not … Continue reading
Posted in History
Tagged 42nd Street, Arthur Freed, Astaire & Rogers, Babes in Arms, Busby Berkeley, Irving Berlin, Jeanette MacDonald, Jerome Kern, Love Me Tonight, Rodgers & Hart, Shirley Temple, Snow White, The Broadway Melody, The Great Ziegfeld, The Jazz Singer, The Little Colonel, The Singing Fool, The Wizard of Oz, Top Hat
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History of Musicals: First Golden Age
It’s been noted that the form of modern musical theater came from operetta, but its soul came from the music hall. This union of body and soul took place during the first two decades of the 20th century, beginning with … Continue reading
Posted in History
Tagged Andy Razaf, Eubie Blake, Fats Waller, George Gershwin, George M. Cohan, Guy Bolton, Harry B. Smith, Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Little Johnny Jones, Noble Sissle, Oscar Hammerstein, Otto Harbach, P.G. Wodehouse, Princess Theatre, Rida Johnson Young, Rodgers & Hart, Show Boat, Shuffle Along, Very Good Eddie, Ziegfeld Follies
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History of Musicals: American Roots
As I noted the other day, commedia dell’arte and opera are the dual threads that eventually spun into what we call musical theater. We’ve explored opera’s role, now let’s take a closer look at that first thread. Commedia dell’arte began … Continue reading
History of Musicals: European Roots
Commedia dell’arte and opera are the dual threads that eventually spun into what we call musical theater. Let’s take a closer look at that second thread and its journey toward early musical theater. As I wrote yesterday, in the 18th … Continue reading
Posted in History
Tagged Franz Lehar, Gilbert & Sullivan, Jacques Offenbach, Johann Strauss II, Naughty Marietta, Oscar Hammerstein, Otto Harbach, Pirates of Penzance, Reginald de Koven, Richard D'Oyly Carte, Rose-Marie, Rudolf Friml, Sigmund Romberg, The Desert Song, The Merry Widow, Victor Herbert
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Essential Film Musicals: Frozen
In 1937, Walt Disney had an idea for a biographical film about Hans Christian Andersen. In 1940, he arranged a co-production with Samuel Goldwyn, who would shoot live-action sequences to accompany Disney’s animated sequences, but World War II brought an … Continue reading
Essential Film Musicals: Beauty and the Beast
After the success of Snow White (1937), Walt Disney began looking for other fairytales to adapt, including Beauty and the Beast. His team continued working on that story through the 1930s and into the 1950s, but it “proved to be … Continue reading