Song Character Analysis Worksheet - The University of North ...

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vehicle with contemporary satirical humor. Musical comedy actually began in London and was imported to New York where American songwriters would “Americanize” the music and humor. 18 The first quintessential American musical comedy was George M. Cohan’s Little Johnny Jones (1904), not surprisingly set in London. 19 Although the plot is almost non-existent, it is important to the canon of classic musicals for its patriotism and its introduction of the American classics, “Yankee Doodle Boy,” “Give My Regards to Broadway,” and “Life is a Funny Proposition After All.” Cohan continued to write many popular comedies, but with the success of The Merry Widow and its Viennese operetta style, musical comedy was overshadowed until after World War I. This interlude allowed composers time to hone their skills and work toward an original American comedic style, described by Cecil Smith in Musical Comedy in America, as “its manifest destiny as a native and genuinely popular expression.” 20 Princess Theater Shows An important event in the development of American musical comedy occurred when composer Jerome Kern and librettist/lyricist Guy Bolton became creative partners for the Princess Theater in 1915. The “Princess Theater Form” is labeled as intimate because of the small house (only 299 seats), the use of simple costuming, sparse but 18 The origin of British musical comedy is attributed to George Edwards at the Gaiety Theater in London. Burkholder, 765. Jerome Kern cut his compositional teeth by working in London’s West End, where he interpolated songs into British musical comedies. He returned to New York’s Broadway to do the same thing, American-style. 19 The plot is about an American jockey who must clear his name after being charged with cheating at the English Derby. Cohan wrote the music and lyrics, directed, and starred in the original production while only in his early twenties. 20 Quoted by Elaine Small Klein, “The Development of the Leading Feminine Character in Selected Librettos of American Musicals from 1900 to 1960” (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1962), 40. 23
functional sets, and an eleven-piece orchestra. Richard Rodgers described this format as “a creation separate and distinct from other theatrical ventures. It employed no chorus, it rarely changed sets, but it did impart to a small audience the feeling that the whole com- position of the evening had been created for two ears of a single listener.” 21 Lyricist P. G. Wodehouse soon joined the collaborative team and a new style of light, witty, sophisticated comedies became the next wave of musical comedy. These were loosely integrated book musicals of contemporary stories with modern rhythms and clever lyrics for a more sophisticated New York City crowd. In the next decade, the team at the Princess Theater produced many new shows, including their most successful titles, Oh Boy! (1917) and Oh Lady, Lady (1918). In the 1920s they moved the “Princess” format to Ziegfeld’s New Amsterdam Theater for Sally (1920) and Sunny (1925). The American musical theatre’s position as one of the leading influences on America’s conceptions of sexual and national identity coalesced in the 1920s. This leadership was particularly important for portraying the freedom of the “Flapper Girl” in musical comedy. Elaine Klein explained this phenomena: “Although leading feminine characters in musicals always enjoyed a greater degree of freedom than did their sisters in real life, feminine freedom (evidenced in ‘know-how’ and the ‘wise-crack’) became the leitmotif [sic] of music in the twenties.” 22 According to theatre critic and author Ethan 21 “Jerome Kern: A Tribute,” The New York Times (7 October 1951). Reprinted in The Richard Rodgers Reader, ed. Geoffrey Block (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002). Rodgers also admitted to spending his allowance as a teenager for repeated viewings of many of these shows from the cheap seats in the gallery. 22 Klein, ii. This type of lead character is evidenced in the roles of Sophie Tucker, Ginger Rogers, and Ethel Merman. Charles J. Shindo proposed that because of “the emergence of the ‘new woman’ the twenties are often seen as the first ‘modern’ decade.” “The Twenties” in St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, vol. 4, eds. Tom and Sara Pendergast (Detroit: St. James Press, 2000), 711-712. 24
Page 1 and 2: LEWIS, ANNE, D.M.A. An Examination
Page 3 and 4: APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation has
Page 5 and 6: TABLE OF CONTENTS iv Page ACKNOWLED
Page 7 and 8: for research, this paper will explo
Page 9 and 10: MacDonald, labeled musical theatre
Page 11 and 12: The musicals that have entered the
Page 13 and 14: and individually as handwriting.”
Page 15 and 16: Methodology The base of research fo
Page 17 and 18: Feminine Character in Selected Libr
Page 19 and 20: from the 1920s, they are timeless i
Page 21 and 22: e helpful to recognize the specific
Page 23 and 24: as a Cinderella-type heiress who ma
Page 25 and 26: Vereen described the “blackface c
Page 27: Casino Theatre in Manhattan. The re
Page 31 and 32: The History of the Musical, Show Bo
Page 33 and 34: amount of instrumental music, the d
Page 35 and 36: Ferber’s novel begins with the na
Page 37 and 38: Act II begins four years later as G
Page 39 and 40: CHAPTER III SOCIETAL STEREOTYPES OF
Page 41 and 42: communion.” 5 This bias continued
Page 43 and 44: children, however, did allow mother
Page 45 and 46: unhealthy, sub-human environments.
Page 47 and 48: dominated by masculine traits in ap
Page 49 and 50: magazines, including Ladies Home Jo
Page 51 and 52: Nineteenth Century Stereotypes of W
Page 53 and 54: usiness. She was responsible for th
Page 55 and 56: gender) inequality forced them inst
Page 57 and 58: The 1920s was the Jazz Age, a time
Page 59 and 60: CHAPTER IV THEATRICAL STEREOTYPES O
Page 61 and 62: peoples . . . to save us from our o
Page 63 and 64: separate seating arrangements). The
Page 65 and 66: Feminine Aesthetic in Theatre Any a
Page 67 and 68: gossip columns. 17 Exploitation on
Page 69 and 70: means to economic or career advance
Page 71 and 72: Florenz Ziegfeld, reportedly, was q
Page 73 and 74: in a subservient role as a domestic
Page 75 and 76: looked, Magnolia decided, as if the
Page 77 and 78: When he holds me close, Close as we
Page 79 and 80:
In the novel, Parthy Ann is a three
Page 81 and 82:
opens her handbag and takes out a p
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“hero”) and the piano player (t
Page 85 and 86:
the nineteenth century’s gender r
Page 87 and 88:
of that time. Performance practice
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possibilities for manipulation and
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order while the musical number repr
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“Finding in that sound all the ki
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often distorts vibrant voices, rend
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elationships with other characters
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Finally, the process includes a mus
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any other theater music heard up to
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een presented in previous chapters,
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“Though the cold and brutal fact
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[Bridge]: When he goes away dat’s
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angelically while caught in the act
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The song appears twice more as a pl
Page 113 and 114:
CHAPTER VI CURTAIN CALL The musical
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theatre performance practice. They
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BIBLIOGRAPHY General Sources Burkho
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Long, Mary Anne. “‘All Our Girl
Page 121 and 122:
Kerber, Linda K., and Jane Sherron
Page 123 and 124:
Levine, Lawrence W. The Opening of
Page 125 and 126:
Song Title: Show Title: Lyricist: C
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