Bell Work 1.Take out a Clean Sheet of Paper in your Notebooks 2.Entitle it: Modern Musicals and the 1960’s

MODERN MUSICAL HOW THE 1960’S CHANGED EVERYTHING

OBJECTIVES  Students will understand how the 1960’s changed this countries history and society  Students will understand how societies changed affected the theater and music that was being produced.  Students will compare and contrast the FACTUAL parts of Classical Musicals vs. the Modern Musical Era

LET’S REVIEW  What can we deduce that the Classical Musicals ALL had in common?

CLASSICAL MUSICALS  Here’s what we Viewed: 1.Oklahoma! 2.South Pacific 3.Brigadoon 4.How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying 5.The Music Man  What is the One Thing about their STORIES they all had in common?

ANSWER They were all Love Stories

CLASSICAL MUSICALS  Most of your classical musicals all dealt with the same basic story:  Boy meets girl  Little conflict that threatens the relationship  Boy looses girl for a little bit  Everything works out in the end  Lots of kissing….Yuck  Love stories were a common theme in the Pre-60’s era….Why?  Because Love is the most complex emotion in all of human nature.

SOCIETIES SHIFT  All of this changed with the coming of the 1960’s  What were some events that happened from that impacted society?

HERE’S SOME  JFK Election in 1960  JFK Assassination in 1963  Vietnam  Television  Beatle-mania  The British Invasion  The Hippie Movement  Woodstock  The Race to the Moon….AND WINNING IT  Martin Luther King Jr.’s fight for Civil Rights and Assassination

How Did Society Respond and Change?  Look at the Clothes

HOW DID THEATER RESPOND?  Remember: Theater is Always REFLECTIVE of the society. Plays and musicals will give you clues as to what was going on at the time they come out.

THEATER’S RESPONSE 1.With T.V. being the dominant form of entertainment, people did not need to be entertained for 3-4 hours. So the first thing composers did was shorten their shows. Here’s how they did it:  They either shortened or cut out the overture completely  Songs were not as long  Composers tended NOT to reprise songs more than once 2.Characters Became Darker and Deeper. They had a back-story and a reason why they’ve arrived at this point and time. 3.Most Importantly: Show’s became A LOT more political in nature.

EXAMPLES “Cabaret”-by Kander and Ebb  Wonderful Example of how stories and characters are darker.  Takes place during WW2 and speaks about the darker side of the war  Issues discussed throughout the musical:  The Holocaust  Alcoholism  Drugs  Abortion  Premarital Sex  Sexuality “Hair” by James Rado, Gerome Ragini and Galt MacDermot  Perfect Example of how Theater is Reflective.  Story about a farm boy who gets drafted into the Vietnam War and comes to the “Big City” to report for Boot Camp  Ends up getting swept up with the ideals involved in the Hippie Movement.  First time the audience saw nudity on the legitimate stage.

SINCE THEN….  Theater has followed this format of writing and is still being written this way today!

WHERE ARE WE AT NOW?  Right now, the musicals on Broadway fall into one of three categories. 1.The Revival  Broadway is currently reviving old shows to pay homages to those brilliant composers of old that paved the way for theater to be what it is today.  Here are some examples of shows currently playing on Broadway:  H2$, Porgy and Bess, Chicago, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, Mama Mia!, Anything Goes, Rent, The Fantasticks, and L’il Abner.

CATEGORY 2 2. The Family Oriented Show.  Broadway wants to make sure it’s image stays very family oriented, so they make sure to have about of a third of it’s musicals/plays be something that the whole family can enjoy.  Here are some examples of new shows currently playing on Broadway that are family oriented:  The Lion King, Mary Poppins, Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera, Spider-Man, Peter and the Star Catcher (based on the story of Peter Pan), Sister Act, Voca People, My Sinatra, The Berenstain Bears Live!, Newsies.

CATEGORY 3 3.The New and Edgy Musical  Broadway has always been, and will always be, a place where the envelope gets pushed. Composers will use this medium to get a message across either personally or politically and the public will decide, how much is to much.  Here are some examples of new shows that push the envelope on Broadway:  The Book of Mormon, Memphis, Rock of Ages, Million Dollar Quartet, Avenue Q, Sistas, Newsical the Musical: End of the world edition, Silence the Musical (based on Silence of the Lambs), Rated P for Parenthood, The Devil’s Music, Naked Boys Singing, Old Jews Telling Jokes

QUESTIONS  Are there any questions about Modern Musicals we will now study?  Any questions about the 1960’s…..remembering I was NOT alive during that time period

HAVE A GREAT DAY!!!! Peace!!!!