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Attitudes towards women, and their role in American Musical Theatre.
For my essay, I am going to look at the attitudes towards women, both
from men and other women, and the significant role that that women had
in telling the stories in American musical theatre.
Showboat was the first musical of its kind. Up to this point, musicals
consisted of songs and dances, with often feeble storylines based
around the big stars. Showboat had a real story, adapted from a novel,
and both the singing and dancing told the story.
At the beginning of Showboat, after we have been introduced to the
main characters, we hear the main female characters attitude towards
men and love.
'Fish got to swim, birds got to fly,
I got to love one man till I die.
Can't help lovin' dat man of mine.'
Julie seems like a surrogate mother to Magnolia, giving her advice, as
we see Magnolia's relationship with her own mother is very strained.
Parthy doesn't want her daughter to have anything to do with the stage
or Ravenal, the two things her daughter is most passionate about.
Julie, on the other hand, just offers Magnolia advice and listens to
her. We see Magnolia and Parthy's differences highlighted by the
composer's use of the perfect fourth to show Magnolias closeness with
the river, and the augmented fourth or tritone to show Parthy's
distance from the river and its ideals.
We see a mother-daughter relationship, where the mother wants one
thing for her daughter and her daughter wants the opposite.
The action in the musical then jumps forward and we see a now married
Magnolia, destitute in a boarding house. She has been abandoned by
Ravenal, just as her mother predicted. We then see Julie, now an
alcoholic, who has also been abandoned by her husband. Magnolia comes
to audition for a job where Julie is working. She sings 'can't help
lovin' dat man' and Julie leaves her job so Magnolia can have it.
Magnolia doesn't see Julie, but Julie supports her in this way. The
musical ends happily, with Magnolia, Ravenal and their daughter Kim
being reunited.
Showboat was totally revolutionary, and tackled issues that had never
been looked at through this medium before. It paved the way for all
kinds of other issues to do with women to be looked at.
Porgy and Bess was a totally new concept. Not only did it have a black
cast, but it showed the life t...
... middle of paper ...
... but out
of place in the liberal seventies.
In conclusion, the attitude towards women has changed and developed
with that in the developed world. Musicals have both reflected this,
whilst at the same time maintaining a continuity of strong female
characters. Musicals, whilst being looked at as 'light entertainment,'
constantly looked at new issues, often to do with women, to challenge
their audiences and society at large. The role women played was
obviously integral to the musical's stories as well as also in raising
these issues. The roles women played varied widely from mother,
daughter, strong, weak, and authoratitive. The issues varied from
domestic violence to single parents, and forced society to pay
attention to the way these were affecting women's lives. This focus
helped play a part in getting equal rights for women and reflects on
the society we have today.
Bibliography
Enchanted Evenings - Geoffery Block
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Ethan Morden
Gonzl's book of the Musical theatre
Kurt Gonzl and Andrew Lamb
The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter
Hamish Hamilton
http://musicals.net
http://libretto.musicals.ru
http://www.stlyrics.com
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