Historical Influence in Musical Theater I chose this topic for my I-Search because of my love of theater and history. I recently fell in love with the new hit musical, Hamilton, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. I now know all the songs in Hamilton, and the musical has taught me more about his life, and how America came to be. Hamilton isn’t the first musical to have a historical background written in the musical. Obviously, there is The Sound of Music, Le Miserable, The Fiddler on the Roof, Jesus Christ Superstar, Hairspray, The Book of Mormon, Hair, Rent, The King and I, Assassins, 1776, Evita, Finding Neverland, Big River, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Annie Get Your Gun, Oklahoma!, Inherit The Wind, Bonnie and Clyde, Newsies, Sunday in the
Before the life on Broadway, before famous hit musicals such as the Sweeney Todd, Phantom, Chicago and Annie, that drove people into New York to see America’s professional theatre. The America’s professional theatre was spread throughout the country. In the mid- to late-19th century, actors and managers would put together a company and tours playing for weeks at a time in cities such as Chicago, San Francisco and they also performed in little towns along the way. But then came the Theatrical Syndicate, which was often referred to as “The Syndicate.” Which composed of six men that would change the United States theatre forever.
People have dreams of what they want to do or accomplish in life, but usually musical theatre is just pushed into the non-realistic void. It isn’t a dream for me. In the past four years, musical theatre has been clarified as my reality. Musical theatre has been the only thing I have seen myself wanting to do. My first love was The Phantom of the Opera, seeing how I watched it almost every day and it was one of the first shows I saw. Of course, I started doing all of those cute shows in middle school and making a huge deal about it to my family and friends, but I have never felt so passionate about something. The minute I get up on that stage I throw away Riley for two and a half hours and it’s the most amazing feeling! Being able to tell a story
Lin-Manuel Miranda has encapsulated millions of people around the world with his musical Hamilton. I was exposed to the actor/broadway performer my junior year in American History. Our teacher put on his White House Poetry Jam performance, the first time he presented the concept of Hamilton. However, it was definitely not his last.
The selected musical Hamilton is based on the story of an implausible Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. It summarizes, his early life as an orphan in the Caribbean. Hamilton was born out of wedlock in the West Indies his father abandoned him, and his mother died when Hamilton was 12. By the of 19, Hamilton has made his way to the American colonies, a dedicated supporter of American independence. He served under Washington, as his right-hand man, he was a war hero, rebel, a loving husband (who had an affair with another woman), and he was also the head of U.S. Treasury. The musical is based purely on various incidences of Hamilton life. It features Thomas Jefferson, Eliza Hamilton, and George Washington that
The broadway hit play Hamilton, written by Lin Manuel Miranda, is viewed as an educational play about Alexander Hamilton, one of the United States’ founding fathers and the first Secretary of the Treasury. The play captures the spirit of Alexander Hamilton’s ambition, eloquence, and mistakes in a revolutionary format-as revolutionary as Hamilton himself! Combining rap, musical theater, and history, Hamilton is an enthralling and entertaining play that is mostly accurate to the real Alexander Hamilton. The details of Hamilton’s life and relationships that were misrepresented in the play to achieve the theatrical flair.
Lin Manuel Miranda changed the game with his hit musical that covered history with a musical twist in Hamilton but people have had problems accepting the casting calls that were made by him but he has very well reasons for this.
The text of The Erlking (1815), by Schubert, is a Germanic legend and is about the king of the elves. He is an evil and magical figure, who with his touch (whether you touch him or he touches you) can kill. In the text a father and his son are riding home at night and the son keeps screaming that he sees the Erlking and he was going to hurt him. The father doesn't know what to do b/c he's not sure if the son is really seeing the Erlking or if he is
Music has been around since the dawn of time, ever since man first inhabited this planet we have learned to communicate in ways other then conventional speaking. Different Cultures all have there own specific way of communicating through music. Music is basically broken into two specific groups Eastern Music and Western Music. Eastern music is mainly derived from the orient and India. While, Western music first emerged from Europe. Western music has developed in many ways since the middle ages through its form, sound, and message.
When Karl Marx wrote “the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,” he interpreted the historical stage and his writing of history as parts of a theatre: he writes;
At the center of the groundbreaking multi-award-winning new musical written by Lin-Manuel Miranda called Hamilton, is the story of founding father Alexander Hamilton, whose ambition drove him from the position of Caribbean outsider and bastard child to American war hero and George Washington's right-hand man. In the process, “Alexander Hamilton powerfully shaped America as we have come to know it -- and gave us all a template for what it means to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and realize the American Dream. This exploration of Hamilton's political mastermind is being called ‘the most exciting and significant musical of the decade.’ David Brooks of the New York Times declared seeing Hamilton to be ‘one of the most exhilarating experiences
The Harlem Renaissance was a period of flowering throughout literature and culture for African Americans in America. These growths can be traced back to the musical traditions, black folklore, and folk cultural ways of the African Americans prior to the Harlem Renaissance. Each of these aspects empowered the African Americans to reach the freedom that they deserved. It was a continuous fight but their cohesiveness strengthened their fight.
The two decade period beginning in the late 1940s and concluding in the late 1960s represented the height in popularity for the Hollywood musical. With every major production proving to be box office gold, the level of critical approval was high establishing the Hollywood musical as a genre. Born with the coming of sound, the Hollywood movie musical derived from two sources: opera and operetta, brought over by European emigres, and the American tradition of vaudeville, the inspiration behind so many “backstage” musicals, the plots of which revolved around putting on a show. The interesting alliance between dream and reality in the musical gave directors, designers, and cinematographers the most creative scope within the commercial of Hollywood. Being able to experiment with elements like color, split-screen techniques, and surreal settings made the musical an important force in imaginative filmmaking, without it being attacked by cautious studio moguls. Fortunately, musicals could also easily bypass the censorious Hays Code, which was instigated in the 1930s as a moral guideline for film studios. Although guidelines like “ dances which suggest or represent sexual actions”, “dances intended to excite the emotional reaction of the audience”, and “costumes permitted to undue exposure” were condemned, musicals were full of “shocking” dances and scantily dressed women. Scantily dressed women and sexual innuendo almost went unnoticed by the censors as long as they remained within the seemingly harmless confines of the musical as if nothing immodest could happen in the context of the make believe world the family entertainment inhabited.
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary the Eleventh Edition states that music is “The science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity. It can created by vocals, instrumental, or mechanical sounds having rhythm, melody or harmony.”
Throughout history, civilizations have evolved in many different facets. One of these components would be communication and in a narrower aspect, entertainment. We will delve in how entertainment has evolved, enlightened, and transformed throughout time. Each era beginning with Thespis in 6th century BC to present will be discussed and detailed to show the impact that entertainment has made upon generations and how it continues to advance: from men being the only performers allowed on stage to women’s entrance into entertainment; performances once held in amphitheaters to now transmitted via satellites and broadcasted live in our homes are only a few of the many topics that will be examined in what you are about to read.
My experience watching a live theatre performance on stage was a fascinating one, most especially since it was my first time. I attended a staged performance of “The History Boys” in a small theatre called “The Little Theatre of Alexandria” at 8:00 pm on Wednesday June 8, 2016 in Alexandria, Virginia. The overall production of the play was a resounding experience for me particularly the performance of the actors and the design of the scene made the play seem real.