- Home
- A-Z Publications
- Studies in Musical Theatre
- Previous Issues
- Volume 3, Issue 2, 2009
Studies in Musical Theatre - Volume 3, Issue 2, 2009
Volume 3, Issue 2, 2009
-
-
The Curious Case of Kykunkor: a dansical/musical exploration and reclamation of Asadata Dafora's Kykunkor, or the Witch Woman (1934)
More LessIt has never been easy to categorize or define the 1934 Broadway phenomenon that was Asadata Dafora's Kykunkor, or the Witch Woman. To date, the production, comprised of African song and dance, has been almost exclusively claimed, analyzed, and anthologized by dance scholars who frame the work as a formative example of black concert dance and African diaspora. This article refutes (and broadens) the sole concert dance definition and position of Kykunkor by situating the work within the musical theatre arena. In doing so, Kykunkor is shown to be not only an antecedent of the contemporary dance-dominant musical (or dansical) but also an example of the musical theatre Gesamtkunstwerk (Total Art Work), with its integrative musical construct/aesthetic. As such, Kykunkor represents a liminal form of the musical, setting the precedent for future musical theatre hybrids, variants, and/or mutations while serving as an example of complexity, diversity, and fluidity within the genre.
-
-
-
Chorus boys: words, music and queerness (c.1900-c.1936)
More LessWhile a great deal has been written about the fin-de-sicle chorus girl's subjection to the so-called male gaze, comparatively little has appeared regarding the chorus boy. This article attempts to redress the balance by concentrating on the specific problems of the West End chorus boy from the turn of the century up until the mid-1930s. As well as discussing questions of queerness, it addresses other issues such as working conditions, salaries, audience perception and World War I. However, while there are a number of articles, reviews and even novels regarding chorus girls, material on chorus boys is relatively meagre. Primary source research for this article has therefore relied mainly on occasional media references. But there have also been two main areas that have given a more complete depiction of the working life and activities of the chorus boy. Firstly, the fairly extensive media coverage of Noel Coward's deployment of the Dancing Boys in his 1932 revue for C.B. Cochran, Words and Music, to be found in the C. B. Cochran files of the V&A Theatre Collections. The other important source has been a rare article on Chorus Gentlemen by Cyril Butcher, who was a member of the Words and Music chorus. This attempts to defend the chorus boy against accusations of effeminacy and homosexuality, while offering a useful insight into his working life. Otherwise material exclusively about the West End chorus boy is sparse, and this necessitates a certain amount of conjecture.
-
-
-
Pal Joey: reconstructing a Classic Rodgers and Hart Score
More LessThis article describes the restoration of the score to the Rodgers and Hart Broadway musical Pal Joey. Details of methodology are provided as well as specific reference to lyrics and songs in the reconstruction process. Information concerning the original production and subsequent versions is outlined for historical reference.
-
-
-
Popular voices: amplification, rock music and vocal quality in Grease
More LessGrease is rarely thought of as a revolutionary or groundbreaking musical in musical theatre history. However, it is part of an uneasy period of the musical when rock music challenged the conventions of the golden age form. The voices heard in Grease and other 1970s rock musicals emulated sounds created for mediatized environments rather than the traditional live theatre, creating a rift in the perception of vocal quality. Through its nostalgia for the 1950s and infectious sound, Grease's characters have become recognizable worldwide. Sandy Dumbrowski is the picture of a good girl at the beginning of the show, but she displays visual and aural characteristics of her 1970s creation by the end. This essay argues that the rock musical techniques used in Grease contribute to a shift in the vocal quality heard from the 1950s women characters.
-
-
-
Thank You For the Music: Catherine Johnson's feminist revoicings in Mamma Mia!
More LessMamma Mia! has achieved tremendous popular success by trading on a nostalgia for both the music of Abba and the feminism of the 1970s, two things that are often very much at odds. Abba's principal singers, Agnetha Fltskog and Anna-Frid Frida Lyngstad, sang the songs that their husbands wrote for them songs that frequently portrayed the women as desperate, dependent, and deeply indebted to their husbands for writing them songs at all. This article explores how librettist Catherine Johnson's strategy of re-gendering the singers and placing Abba's familiar pop songs in a narrative context (one that ends in a rejection of husbands and fathers) has subverted their original meanings, imbuing both the story and the songs themselves with a cultural feminist message that has been seen by a massive global audience.
-
-
-
Special Theatrical Event: Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
More LessThis article examines how theatrical productions that blur the line between play and musical can be classified. In particular, the article explores the recent revival of Tom Stoppard and Andr Previn's play for actors and orchestra, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, at London's National Theatre in winter 2009, and whether such a production, typically classified as a play, might be more accurately termed a musical.
-
-
-
Reviews
Authors: Jessica Hillman, Ellen Mary Peck, Judith Sebesta and Kristin StultzKander and Ebb [Yale Broadway Masters], James Leve (2009) New Haven: Yale University Press, 365 pp., ISBN 9780300114874, Hardback, $40
Musical Theatre: A History, John Kenrick (2008) New York: Continuum, 424 pp., ISBN 9780826430137 (paperback), 16.99
Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz from Godspell to Wicked, Carol de Giere (2008) New York: Applause, 544 pp., ISBN 9781557837455, Paperback, $24.95
The Ziegfeld Follies: A History in Song, Ann Ommen van der Merwe (2009) Lanham: Scarecrow Press Inc., 278 pp., ISBN 9780810867161, paperback, $49.95
-