Song Character Analysis Worksheet - The University of North ...
Song Character Analysis Worksheet - The University of North ...
Song Character Analysis Worksheet - The University of North ...
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Casino <strong>The</strong>atre in Manhattan. <strong>The</strong> revue continued the olio vaudeville tradition but soon<br />
was best known for its requisite chorus line <strong>of</strong> long-limbed dancers, romantic singers<br />
(male and female), and top-<strong>of</strong>-the-line comedians, such as Al Jolson, Fanny Brice, Sophie<br />
Tucker, and the Williams brothers. <strong>The</strong> musical revue was an important representation <strong>of</strong><br />
American pluralism. It was an amalgam <strong>of</strong> everything available in entertainment:<br />
comedians, skits, song and dance numbers, animal acts, body builders, and, especially,<br />
beautiful girls. Fierce competition raged between three main New York City companies<br />
that reached its zenith in the 1910s and early 1920s. <strong>The</strong>se were <strong>The</strong> Ziegfeld Follies, a<br />
revised version <strong>of</strong> <strong>The</strong> Passing Show, and the George White Scandals. <strong>The</strong> most<br />
successful producer <strong>of</strong> musical revues, however, was Florenz Ziegfeld. He originated the<br />
seasonal tradition <strong>of</strong> an annual show that highlighted current fashions, awe-inspiring set<br />
designs, nationally acclaimed musical stars, and up-to-the-minute song styles. <strong>The</strong>se<br />
popular songs kept the new Tin Pan Alley song pluggers working overtime, competing to<br />
write the next national nickel sheet music best-seller, introduced by one <strong>of</strong> Ziegfeld’s<br />
stars. 17<br />
Musical Comedy<br />
A new composite <strong>of</strong> comic opera and vaudeville, billed as “musical comedy,”<br />
initiated a fresh trend in American theatre with the premiere <strong>of</strong> A Gaiety Girl in 1893.<br />
This sub-genre began as an expanded version <strong>of</strong> vaudeville skits and developed into a star<br />
17 Several <strong>of</strong> the most successful composers <strong>of</strong> musicals in the 1920s and 1930s began their<br />
careers as pianists for these publishing houses, including Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, and Irving<br />
Berlin. Ziegfeld employed Victor Herbert as a resident composer from 1918 to 1923, and Irving Berlin had<br />
his first national success with “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody” in the Ziegfeld Follies <strong>of</strong> 1919.<br />
22