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- Volume 6, Issue 3, 2012
Studies in Musical Theatre - Volume 6, Issue 3, 2012
Volume 6, Issue 3, 2012
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‘Everyone should have the opportunity’: Alan Doggett and the modern British musical
More LessAlan John Doggett (1936–1978), conductor, composer and choir master, has usually been unfairly treated as a mere footnote in the careers of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. This article examines his close involvement with them in the period 1967–1969 in particular, as well as his continuing, if less close, involvement in the following years. It is argued that Doggett played a crucial role in the development and evolution of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the work which launched Lloyd Webber and Rice’s careers, and that he was effectively a third member of the team prior to the international success of Jesus Christ Superstar. Doggett wrote his own musical, Jason and the Golden Fleece (1973), in a similar style to Joseph, though its purpose was significantly different – the difference is elucidated with reference to the contemporary theoretical concepts of Jacques Attali.
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Sondheim’s use of the ‘Herrmann chord’ in Sweeney Todd
More LessWhen Stephen Sondheim approached the score for his 1979 musical thriller Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, he felt compelled to write it as if it were the score for a horror film. Particularly inspired by the music of film composer Bernard Herrmann, Sondheim crafted his score around a quintessential harmony that Hermann used in most of his film scores: a minor/major seventh chord, or 4–19 (0148). Since this unstable sonority has qualities of both major and minor, its ambiguous particulars allow for many harmonic possibilities. Although the ‘Herrmann chord’ is conceived as a vertical harmony in a specific inversion (seventh in the bass), both Sondheim and Herrmann use this sonority in other fascinating ways. For this reason, my analysis will extend the ‘Herrmann chord’ to consider its intervallic constituents employing Pitch-Class Set Theory, which will allow for a broader, more expansive contextual study of Sweeney Todd.
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introduction to bruce Kirle Memorial Panel debut papers in music–theatre–dance
More LessIn 2007, the distinguished scholar of musical theatre Bruce Kirle died unexpectedly. In tribute to his contribution to this field of scholarship, the music–theatre–dance focus group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) established a competition for new scholars researching in the field. This is now the fourth season in which three prize-winning entries to this competition have been presented both as conference papers (at the 2012 ATHE Conference in Washington, DC) and as written articles in Studies in Musical Theatre. Elizabeth Wollman, respondent to the papers at the ATHE Conference, introduces them in this short preamble.
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Follies embodied: A Kleinian perspective
More LessDirector Eric Schaeffer’s revival of Follies, which transferred to Broadway’s Marquis Theatre in August 2011 after a limited run at the Kennedy Center, is, like all previous incarnations of the musical, deeply concerned with the functions and dysfunctions of the human mind. This article examines the representation of mental life in the 2011 Broadway revival of Follies through the lens of psychoanalytic theorist Melanie Klein. Interpreting Sally Durant Plummer as a constitutive force of the show’s complex psychological landscape, the article analyses the ways in which Schaeffer’s staging of the ‘Loveland’ sequence treats and resolves the psychic tensions in Follies. The conclusion probes into the psychosocial implications of Schaeffer’s mise-en-scène and suggests a way of re-evaluating the musical’s finale in dialogue with Klein.
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Acts of recognition: Gesture and national identity in Agnes de Mille’s ‘Civil War Ballet’
By Ryan DonovanThrough both her dances and writings Agnes de Mille explored what it means to be American. I argue that, in addition to the explicitly America-themed material de Mille chose, her choreography performs national identity through its use of gesture – informed by de Mille’s interest in folk dance and the collective unconscious. When looking at much of de Mille’s choreography, one is visually struck by its Americanness. It is this act of recognition that begins this enquiry: how does one see de Mille’s choreography and recognize its intrinsic Americanness? How did de Mille’s choreographic process allow for the expression of national identity through gesture? These questions are explored through an analysis of de Mille’s ‘Civil War Ballet’ from Bloomer Girl (1944).
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Arms and the girls: Tthe powerful weapon that is women writing women for the musical stage
More LessDorothy Fields was a Broadway lyricist and librettist, whose career spanned from the mid-1920s until her death in the mid-1970s. For much of the Golden Age of the American musical, Fields was one of the only women writing for the Broadway theatre. As such, her voice is distinct in many ways. The project of this article is to determine that voice and, in so doing, to establish her unique contribution to the canon of musical theatre. Illustrating Fields’ enigmatic voice is the primary intent of this article. A secondary purpose, to be addressed later, is examining the extent to which women today are following in her footsteps.
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Directing musical theatre: Spectacles, radical interpretations and nostalgia – an interview with Nikolai Foster
More LessNikolai Foster is one of the most exciting directors of his generation. He initially trained at the Drama Centre London and then under Michael Grandage at the Crucible in Sheffield. Nikolai has been director on attachment at the Sheffield Crucible, the Royal Court Theatre and the National Theatre Studio. He is currently Associate Director of the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds and has directed more than 40 productions, including radical interpretations of classics and a plethora of musical theatre works (Annie, Aspects of Love, Flashdance, Assassins and A Chorus Line). Here, Foster talks to George Rodosthenous about directing musical theatre, his influences, the importance of training, the megamusical spectacles and how ‘we are inherently afraid of taking risks in this country’ when it comes to new British musicals. He describes himself as ‘an interpretive artist’ and argues that ‘[i]n Europe, the director is much more of a creative force which places the director’s complete and absolute vision for a play on top of it, whether it fits or not’.
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‘Sometimes you have to make a little bit of mischief’: Matthew Warchus’ hybrid approach to musical theatre directing
More LessWhile the contemporary musical theatre adaptations Matilda (2010) and Ghost (2011) share a director, Matthew Warchus, and also have designers in common, their critical reception and grosses have been markedly different. With a pop score and special effects demonstrating the latest innovations in scenic and video design for the theatre, and based on a popular Hollywood film, Ghost was much maligned from its inception. While it continues to run in London’s West End, it shuttered after a brief season in New York. Meanwhile, Broadway is breathless in anticipation of the quirky, family-friendly literary adaptation Matilda. This article traces the development of these musicals through opposing production models – the risk of the commercial production and the relative security of the state-subsidized theatre – and explores how one director’s range and hybridity is bridging an increasingly polarized musical theatre industry. A survey of critical responses in London and New York, along with analysis of directing, acting and design will help to illustrate why Warchus shuttles so regularly across the Atlantic, and between subsidized and commercial theatre.
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REVIEWS
Authors: Miranda Lundskaer-Nielsen, Caroline Radcliffe and Karantonis PamelaMICHENER’S SOUTH PACIFIC, STEPHEN J. MAY (2011) Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 176 pp., ISBN: 978-0-8130-3557-4, h/bk, $24.95
SOUTH PACIFIC: PARADISE REWRITTEN, JIM LOVENSHEI MER (2010) New York: Oxford University Press, 266 pp., ISBN: 978-0-19-537702-6, h/bk, $27.95
MELODRAMATIC VOICES: UNDERSTANDING MUSIC DRAMA, SARAH HIBBERD (ED.) (2012) Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 314 pp., ISBN: 978-1-4094-0082-0, h/bk, £.60.00
ACOUSTIC INTERCULTURALISM– LISTENING TO PERFORMANCE, MARCUSCHENG CHYE TAN (2012) Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 259 pp., ISBN 978-0-230-35416-6, h/bk, £50.00
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