office: win 2.166, phone: - · pdf fileaddition to studying each musicals’ libretto and...

TC 357 Fall 2005 [#42660]

TTH 12:30-1:45, WIN 1.164

Musical Theatre in American Culture

Professor Stacy Wolf

Office: WIN 2.166, Phone: ,

email:

Office Hours: Wed 12 noon – 3 p.m. (sign up on office door) and by appointment

Course Description

This seminar explores one of the most quintessentially “American” forms of performance—the Broadway musical theatre—in the context of mid-to-late 20th-century U.S. culture. We will begin with 1943 and the “Golden Age” of the “integrated” Broadway musical, continue with the “concept” musicals of the mid-1960s, move through the so-called “death” of the musical in the later 1960s, and end with contemporary musicals. In addition to studying each musicals’ libretto and cast album, we will view taped Broadway or film versions whenever possible. We will also examine a range of academic and popular historical, analytical, and critical studies of musicals.

We will consider the American musical from at least three different perspectives:

1. As a work of art with unique conventions of aesthetics and form. To this end, we will ask, How do the different elements of the musical—script, blocking (stage movement), casting, acting (characterization, gesture, voice), music, lyrics, choreography, and design—work together to create a performance? What are the conventions of the musical and

how did they develop over the course of the later 20th century?

2. As an entertainment media that shaped and was shaped by its historical, cultural context. To this end, we will ask, Why have musicals been an important part of U.S. culture? What is their relationship to other entertainment media?

3. As a viable performance form for the 21st century. To this end, we will ask, Why do musicals continue to be popular? What is significant about their popularity? How do they function as a form of art, culture, and entertainment today? How do recent musicals converse with those of the past? Which musicals should be revived and performed, and why, and how?

Other key questions include:

What kinds of messages about gender, race and ethnicity, sexuality, and the meaning of “America” have musicals conveyed?

How can a critical approach to musicals both make them more pleasurable and also increase the audience’s awareness of their meanings?

Goals of the course include: · Analyzing musicals as texts and as performances, which include music, lyrics, script, staging, design, and dance

· Describing the development of the musical in the mid-to-late 20th century as a key element of U.S. culture

· Identifying the contributions of significant creators of musicals

· Interpreting a range of historiographical and critical methods to examine musicals

· Theorizing the significance of a given musical as a form of art and entertainment in its cultural context

· Considering the musical as contemporary-historical performance

· Doing original research on, writing clearly and persuasively about, and presenting ideas to the class on an unstudied musical

Texts (at the Co-op)Required Books:

1. My Fair Lady, Alan Jay Lerner (in the same volume as Pygmalion by Shaw) [ISBN # 0-451-52476-4]

2. West Side Story, Arthur Laurents (in the same volume as Romeo and Juliet) [IBSN # 0-440-97483-6]

3. Gypsy, Arthur Laurents [ISBN # 1-55936-086-0]

4. Sweeney Todd, Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler [ISBN # 1-557830665]

5. The Making of Cabaret, Keith Garebian [ISBN # 0889626510]

6. Caroline, or Change, Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori [ISBN # 1-55936-248-0]

7. COURSE READER at Abel’s Copies (University Towers, 715-D W. 23rd Street, Ph: 472-5353). Requires two trips, one to pre-order and pay for a copy in advance and another to pick up.

Required Libretto on E-Reserves:

1. Oklahoma!, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II

Required Librettos on Blackboard, Course Documents:

1. Cabaret, Joe Masteroff

2. Phantom of the Opera, Andrew Lloyd Webber

Recommended books:

1. Readings on West Side Story, Mary E. Williams, ed. [ISBN # 0-7377-0694-5]

2. From Assassins to West Side Story: A Director’s Guide to the Musical, Scott Miller [ISBN 0-435-08699-5]

3. The Musical, Richard Kislan [ISBN 1-55783-217-X]

4. The Cambridge Companion to the Musical, Eds. William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird [ISBN #: 0-521-79639-3]

CDS: (Recommended but not necessary to buy. Also on reserve at FAL and available on E-Reserves. Broadway cast album preferred, film version okay.)

1. Oklahoma!

2. South Pacific

3. My Fair Lady

4. Gypsy

5. West Side Story

6. Cabaret

7. Sweeney Todd

8. The Phantom of the Opera

9. Rent

10. Caroline, or Change

Filmed versions: (Viewing each film version is required but it’s not necessary to buy them. All are on reserve at FAL; they are also easily available to rent.)

1. Oklahoma! [original film or tape of staged revival]

2. South Pacific [original film or made-for-tv version]

3. My Fair Lady

4. West Side Story

5. Gypsy [original film or later film version]

6. Cabaret

7. Sweeney Todd [taped stage version]

8. Phantom of the Opera

9. Recommended: Broadway, the American Musical [in FAL: DVD 3036]

Course Schedule

Ò indicates reading in Course Reader

Part I: Weeks 1 and 2: Methods of Musical Theatre Scholarship: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! and the “Integrated” Broadway Musical

►This part of the course introduces musical theatre analysis and historiography, with Oklahoma! as the central case study.

Thurs, Sept 1: Introduction to you, me, class, goals and expectations

Tues, Sept 6: Script, Music, and Dance in Musical Theatre

Oklahoma! [libretto on e-Reserves]

Oklahoma! cast album [on e-Reserves].

Oklahoma! on film—watch either 1955 film or taped version of 1999 revival or both.

Rec: Richard Kislan, The Musical, Chapters 10-14 (“Elements of the Musical”)

Thurs, Sept 8: Researching Musical Theatre: Primary and Secondary Sources

Timothy P. Donovan, “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’: The Musical Oklahoma! and the Popular Mind in 1943,” Journal of Popular Culture 8.3 (Winter 1974): 477-488.

Rec: Richard Kislan, The Musical, Chapters 1-6 (“Forms of Musical Theatre”) and Chapter 8 (Rodgers and Hammerstein)

Additional assignment: Bring a book to class that could be useful in researching Oklahoma!

Guest: Helen Adair, Performing Arts Curator at the Harry Ransom Center

Meet at the HRC.

Part II, Weeks 3-8: Ways of Approaching Musical Theatre in Culture

►This section of the course surveys a number of musicals during its “Golden Age” from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s. Assignments in this section of the class will allow students to approach musicals in different ways. Each student will complete one assignment for each of the five plays: 1) Creative response, 2) Analytical notes on the libretto, 3) Essay on a musical number, 4) Précis and critique of an essay, and 5) Dramaturgical research presentation and annotated bibliography.

You can choose which technique to practice on which play (thus, each student will work on each of the five plays listed below, and every student will construct a different combination of assignments and plays). You must sign up in advance for the dramaturgical research presentation, but can decide later about the other assignments and plays.

Details explained below.

South Pacific (1947)

Tues Sept 13:

South Pacific, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Six Plays by Rodgers and Hammerstein (New York: Random House, 1953), 267-366. Ò

[libretto, cast album, film version, either with Mitzi Gaynor or Glenn Close as Nellie]

**Creative responses, analytical notes, music/dance analyses due.

Thurs Sept 15:

Andrea Most, “’You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught’: The Politics of Race in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific,” Theatre Journal 52 (2000): 307-337. Ò

Rec: Ann Sears, “The Coming of the Musical Play: Rodgers and Hammerstein,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Musical, 120-136.

**Research presentations: 1) ______________ 2) _______________ 3) ______________

**Précis/critique papers due.

My Fair Lady (1954)

Tues Sept 20:

My Fair Lady, Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe

[libretto, cast album, film version]


Thurs Sept 22:

Geoffrey Block, “My Fair Lady: From Pygmalion to Cinderella,” Enchanted Evenings: The Broadway Musical from Show Boat to Sondheim (New York: Oxford UP, 1997), 225-244. ®

Susan J. Douglas, “Fractured Fairy Tales,” Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media (New York: Random House, 1994), 21-42. ®

Rec: Scott Miller, “My Fair Lady,” 176-188.


**Précis/critique papers due (choose one essay or compare them).

West Side Story (1956)

Tues Sept 27:

West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents


*Creative responses, analytical notes, music/dance analyses due.

Thurs Sept 29:

Alberto Sandoval-Sánchez, “A Puerto Rican Reading of the America of West Side Story,” José, Can You See?: Latinos on and Off Broadway (Madison: U of Wisconsin Press, 1999), 62-82. Ò

Rec: Mary Williams, ed. Readings on West Side Story

Rec: Scott Miller, “West Side Story,” 220-238.



Tues Oct 4:

In-class video: Broadway, The American Musical, Episode 4: “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ (1943-1960)”

Guest: Chase Bringardner, PhD student in Theatre and Dance

(Rosh Hashanah holiday)

***Post response to video on BB by Wednesday Oct 5.

Gypsy (1959)

Thurs Oct 6:

Gypsy, Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents

[libretto, cast album, film version with Rosalind Russell, Tyne Daly, or Bette Midler as Rose]

*Creative responses, analytical notes, music/dance analyses due.

Tues Oct 11:

Stacy Wolf, “Ethel Merman,” A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002), 89-130. Ò

Rec: Scott Miller, “Gypsy,” 84-94.



***Proposal for final projects due on Tuesday Oct 11

Thurs Oct 13:

In-class video: Broadway, The American Musical, Episode 5: “Tradition (1957-1979)”

Guest: Chase Bringardner, PhD student in Theatre and Dance

(Yom Kippur holiday)

***Post response to video on BB by Tuesday Oct 18.

Cabaret (1966)

Tues Oct 18:

Cabaret, John Kander, Fred Ebb, Joe Masteroff

http://libretto.musicals.ru/text.php?textid=529&language=1

and on BB as a word document



http://libretto.musicals.ru/text.php?textid=529&language=1

Thurs Oct 20:

Keith Garebian, The Making of Cabaret

Rec: Scott Miller, “Cabaret,” 27-41.

Rec: Thomas L. Riis and Ann Sears with William A. Everett, “The Successors of Rodgers and Hammerstein from the 1940s to the 1960s,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Musical, 137-166.



Part III, Weeks 9-12: More Musicals

►This section of the course allows a group of students to decide how we will explore a specific musical. Details below.

On each Tuesday, several students will lead the class. On Wednesday, half of the class will “check-in” on Blackboard (specifics TBA). On Thursday, we will all build on the work of Tuesday and continue the discussion (I’ll facilitate).

**Please complete all of the reading, listening, and viewing for each Tuesday’s class.

Oct 25 and 27: Sweeney Todd (1979)

Sweeney Todd, Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler

[libretto, cast album, filmed stage version]

**Facilitators: 1) _____________ 2) _____________ 3) ____________ 4) _____________

Nov 1 and 3: The Phantom of the Opera (1988)

The Phantom of the Opera, Andrew Lloyd Webber

http://www.theatre-musical.com/phantom/libretto.html or http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Stage/1425/libretto.html

and on BB as a word document


**Facilitators: 1) _____________ 2) _____________ 3) ____________ 4) _____________

Nov 8 and 10: Rent (1996)

Rent, Jonathan Larson, The New American Musical: An Anthology from the End of the Century, ed. Wiley Hausam (New York: TCG, 2003), 99-228. ®

[libretto and cast album]

**Facilitators: 1) _____________ 2) _____________ 3) ____________ 4) _____________

Nov 15 and 17: Caroline, or Change (2004)

Caroline, or Change, Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori

[libretto and cast album]

**Facilitators: 1) _____________ 2) _____________ 3) ____________ 4) _____________

Part IV, Weeks 13-15: Musicals in the Future

Tues Nov 22: Work day [No class.]

Thurs Nov 24: Thanksgiving holiday

http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Stage/1425/libretto.html

http://www.theatre-musical.com/phantom/libretto.html

Tues Nov 29: Final presentations

Thurs Dec 1: Final presentations

Tues Dec 6: Final presentations

Thurs Dec 8: Final presentations; sum-up

**Friday, Dec 9, 5 p.m.: Final projects due.

Course Requirements General expectations: All assignments for the class are required. Lateness on any assignment lowers the grade by one letter for every day of lateness. If any assignment is missed or not turned in, the student cannot pass the course. All written work may be revised within two weeks of its return. I’ll return papers within two weeks of the date they’re turned in.

All written work should be:

1) TYPED IN 12 PT FONT2) DOUBLE-SPACED3) 1” MARGINS ALL AROUND4) PAGES NUMBERED, WITH YOUR NAME ON EACH PAGE, AND STAPLED TOGETHER

5) PROOFREAD FOR GRAMMAR, SPELLING & COHERENCE (I will return papers with excessive mistakes and will not grade them until they are fixed. Papers returned for mistakes cannot be revised.)

Distribution of Grades

10% Participation and short assignments, including BB posts

10% Analytical notes

10% Creative response

10% Dramaturgical research presentation

10% Précis and critique of essay

10% Musical number analysis

20% Group project/presentation/discussion facilitation

20% Final project

100%

Explanation of Assignments

10%: Attendance, class participation, and short writing assignments through the semester

100% attendance and excellent, consistently engaged participation are expected. After three excused or unexcused absences, your final grade for the course will drop by a full letter (that is, a final grade of “A” becomes a “B” with four absences). Two latenesses (of any length) or early dismissals (of more than five minutes) equal one absence.

Spoken participation in this class is essential, both to maintain a high level of discussion and to encourage you to practice your spoken communication skills. You will be graded on both the quality and the quantity of your participation, as well as your ability and willingness to listen and to respond graciously and generously to other students’ ideas. After about a month of class, I will let you know how you're doing participation-wise. I expect you to sustain a consistent interaction with the course material and to develop a critical

perspective, critical voice, and critical relationship to the work.

Short writing includes two mid-week Blackboard posts: During the student-facilitated section of the course, each student will “check-in” twice (less than 150 words and not on the week you are facilitating) to Blackboard between Tuesday and Thursday’s classes, either extending the conversation, raising new questions, making observations about the material, pointing to issues that we have not discussed. Due by 5 p.m. on Wednesdays. Specific dates TBA.

50% total: Part II: Five Assignments, 10% each : You will complete one assignment for each of the 5 musicals in this section of the course—a different assignment for each musical. You can choose which assignment to complete for which musical.

1) Creative Response : a response to the play that is in a form other than a written analysis. This could be visual art: a collage, a drawing, a painting; sculpture or a “prop” or tool or machine; music or sound; movement, gesture, or dance. The purpose of this approach is to encourage a different, perhaps more intuitive response to and analysis of the play. Also, please include a short (less than one page typed d.s.) explanation of your response. Due on the first day we study that musical to be presented in class.

2) Analytical Notes on the Libretto : a compilation of your notes and thoughts and ideas on the musical, including a study of form, structure, plot, characters, symbols, motifs, tone, style, images, and so on. They may be in actual note form (or paragraphs, if you prefer) but must be typed. These notes should use the questions on “Some Questions for Play Analysis” as a guide. They should be detailed, have specific quotations and examples from the play, and be supplemented with other ideas, observations, questions, and thoughts. These notes will chart your engagement with the play itself. Aim for 1 page of notes per area of questions (see “Some Questions for Play Analysis), for 6 pages total. Due in class on the first day we study that musical.

3) Essay on (a) Musical Number(s) : a 2-page paper (around 500 words) that analyzes a musical number (or numbers) in the week’s musical, focusing on the music or the dance or both. Your essay should consider, for example: What does this musical number mean? How do you know (that is, what is your evidence for your argument?)? How does music, and/or lyrics, and/or choreography, and/or staging make meaning? What is significant about the number? How does it contribute to the musical as a whole? Why is it essential to the show? To answer one or more of those questions; that is, to articulate an argument about the musical number, you should focus on a close reading of the music, the lyrics, and/or the choreography or staging (in a film version). Due in class on the first day we study that musical.

4) Précis and Critique of an Essay: a 2-page paper (around 500 words) on the week’s assigned critical reading in which you first concisely summarize the assigned essay (first 2/3 of the paper) and then take a position in relation to it (last 1/3 of the paper). Questions to consider include: What is the author’s argument? What is his/her perspective on the musical? With which other fields does the essay converse? How is the essay structured? What kinds of evidence does the author use? Is the argument persuasive? What are the high points of the essay? What do you learn from it? What do you find useful about the essay? What do you find problematic, missing, or unpersuasive about it? Due in class on the second day we study that musical.

5) Dramaturgical Research Presentation and Annotated Bibliography: a 10-minute presentation on a significant element of one musical. Topics may include the one or more of the musical’s collaborators’ (composer, lyricist, librettist, director, designers, choreographer) lives and influences; the social, historical, and cultural context during which the musical was written and/or first performed; the context of the world of the musical; past performances of the musical and reviews and/or other critical responses.

Please choose a topic according to your interests and do consult me for ideas or suggestions. You will need to sign up

in advance for this assignment. I encourage you to use visual or aural aids, to provide handouts, to create a lively presentation (to get an A on this assignment, you must use AV or performance in some way). You will be penalized one letter grade for going over 10 minutes. You should also turn in: 1) (typed) research notes (may be in note or paragraph form) or a “lesson” or presentation plan and 2) an annotated bibliography of your sources for the presentation.

20%: Part III: Group presentation/performance/discussion facilitation : This section is intended to build on the skills and techniques of analysis and research and response developed in Parts I and II of the course.

A group of students will lead the class on our first day studying each musical in this section of the course. You should frame the class to consider the musical itself (including the libretto, the cast album, and the film version, if available) and can supplement discussion with research on any related topic or issue either of context or issues raised by the show. You can construct the class session in any way you choose, but I encourage you to be creative in your pedagogy and to use the various exercises of the first part of the course as a basis for your work here. Some of the class session may be lecture, some student-focused activity, some performance, some discussion, for example.

Questions you may want to consider: Is the American Broadway musical outdated? Is its appeal solely nostalgic? What might be the issues and concerns of performing these musicals today? What is the relationship between the musicals’ original performance context and the present moment? What has happened to American culture and to the Broadway musical since this musical’s original production and how do these musicals reflect those changes (or not)?

A few ideas for in-class activities include: (These are only a very few possibilities!)

1) Performing a scene based upon an original and coherent collaborative vision of the show.

2) Performing the same scene or musical number in more than one way, to demonstrate the significance of different elements in interpretation.

3) Creating and showing lobby displays or program notes for a production of the play.

4) Staging a game show related to the play and its context.

5) Presenting research in a lively and interesting way.

6) Facilitating a discussion of key issues raised by the play.

On the class following your facilitation day, each student will turn in:

1) any research notes you have taken

(don’t produce extra writing, please, just turn in whatever you have done, whether it’s hand-written or typed)

2) a log of your work and the group’s work

3) a self-evaluation of the class session

You will be graded as a group as follows:

1) creativity of the class session

2) usefulness of the class session in understanding or raising questions about the musical

3) explicit engagement with the question of a musical’s context and meaning(s)

4) ability to keep the class discussion focused, moving, and useful

5) collaboration within the group; ability of the group to work together and to distribute tasks fairly

It is possible to receive a grade lower than your group if you do not participate fully. All groups are required to see me at least a week in advance to discuss ideas.

20%: Part IV: The Future of Musical Theatre: Final Project: The Pitch Assignment The final project of this class allows you to choose your favorite musical (or a new one that you are curious about), which you will analyze in detail, research, and then “pitch” to the class, who will serve as an imaginary board of directors of a theatre. You should, ideally, use all of the tools that we have practiced in this class to analyze the musical that you select. The final project is due in the following parts:

1) Proposal that states: the musical you want to study; the reason(s) for your interest in it; your previous experience with it, if any; your key questions about it; and the issues on which you plan to focus (1-page d.s., due Tuesday October 11th)

2) Draft [optional but recommended, anytime before Thursday Nov 10th]

3) Pitch presentation: Why this play at this time for this audience? [Specify locale and presumed audience. 7-10 minutes. Use visual or aural aids or performance.] [20% of grade for final project]

4) Final written project [due Friday Dec 9 by 5 p.m.]

Part I: Analytical notes on libretto, music, and choreography [6 pp.] [20%]

Part II: Research [annotated bibliography of 6-8 sources with full citation, brief description of source, and an explanation of reasons for choosing] [20%]

Part III: Creative response—images, photographs, design [10 images] [20%] Part IV: Letter to the board of the theatre [2-3 pp] [20%]

a) Why this play at this time for this audience?

b) Issues, problems, concerns, challenges, and likely rewards

c) Synthesize key ideas in the analytical notes, the research, and the creative response. Explain your ideas, concept, questions, and/or reflections about the musical.

* * * * * *

How to access libretto of Oklahoma! and all music for the course on E-Reserves:

Go to the UT library home page. Go to Library Services. Go to Reserves.

Under “Student,” click “Find.” Look up TC 357 using the course number or my name.

Click on link to course.

It will ask for the course reserves page password, which is: musical. Click “accept.”

Click on specific file name to download libretto or to access sound files.

Under “WEB/OPAC link,” click on “click here for more information” (this is how you open the music files).

A window will come up that asks for User Name, which is: tc357 and Password, which is: musical.

Then it should work. Please email me ASAP if you are not able to open the files.

* * * * * * *

On Academic Integrity: While some of the work in this class is collaborative, I assume that all work is your own. Please give appropriate credit and use proper citation form for all materials.

On disabilities: The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Student at 471-6259, 471-4641 TTY.

I encourage you to come to see me or to communicate via email with questions, ideas, suggestions, and comments.