Wednesday 24 March 2010

"Don't ask where I'm going, just listen when I'm gone, and far away you'll hear me singing softly to the dawn." -Pippin

Within more than 90 percent of musicals there is a romance that is some how forbidden and must conquer over all. 50 percent of the time this ends in one of the couple dying in the others arms, ‘Moulin Rouge’ is a prime example of this.


“The music man most often is distracted by some Hollywood siren - an alluring, morally questionable type who appeals to his more primitive qualities. She (the heroine) may be a hustling chorus girl, or a wealthy patron in search of a gigolo, but whatever the situation she is in, by contrast she amplifies the hero’s virtues.” (Hollywood Genres, Thomas Schatz pg 197. ) This quotation talks about how within musicals opposites attract and a love story stems from this opposition. Quite often the opposition is the fact of class or rank, which makes the love forbidden and so the romance becomes stronger and attempts to defeat all objects, however not always succeeding.

Musicals do not such produce romantic issues of contradiction, there are many other forms of it within a cultural and formal situation - Object/image, reality/illusion, story/ performance, work/play, stasis/movement, repression/expression, community/ individual, and particularly man/women.
Many examples can be given for each of these, and several musicals use more than two of each of these contradictions. For story/performance the best example is ‘Into The Woods’ which is a musical based on several fairytales such as Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Red Riding hood and several more all meeting. The musical shows the story/performance contradiction by entering the narrator into the storyline and feeding him to the giant in an attempt to save their own lives, This is also an example of reality viruses illusion. Repression/expression is present in most musicals as one of the main narrative plotlines. An ideal example of work/play can be seen within ‘Sweet Charity’, Charity (the heroine) is a stripper and mixes in with a higher class than her own, resulting in some strange occurrences. The work viruses play contradiction is presented by her enjoying her job when she first started but then her realising the sacrifice that the other dances have had resulting in their inability to leave the strip club.

For object/image, there can be several examples, however, as ’Cats’ holds none any of the above contradiction except for community/individual, it is probably best to use it as an example. Grisabella, was once the ‘glamour cat’ of the angelical cat troupe but after her owners die she goes from glamour to sleaze. The community of cats scorn Grisabella, bullying her as the individual. She constantly interrupts the angelic cats celebration and begs for that second chance and in the end is granted to be ‘the angelic choice’, meaning that the community chooses her, the individual, to be re-born. Object/image also relates to Grisabella, as she was once an image of perfection, however is now an object suffering.
Within all musicals, they hold at least three of the above contradictions, sometimes more than that. These contradictions support the narrative structure and give the musical depth and create the conflict that is needed to make most musicals poignant and satisfying.

Tuesday 23 March 2010

“Where there is music, there’s love” - Written on a wall sampler in a diner, in ‘For Me and My Gal’

“Typically, the biggest difference between film and stage musicals is the use of lavish background scenery which would be impractical in a theatre. Musical films characteristically contain elements reminiscent of theatre; performers often treat their song and dance numbers as if there is a live audience watching. In a sense, the viewer becomes the deictic audience, as the performer looks directly into the camera and performs to it. The 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s…”

http://www.freebase.com/view/en/musical

Musicals as a genre have developed in vast amount since they were first created in the late 1920’s and early 30’s. Broadway was unable to compete with Hollywood’s large budget and salaries and so became standard fare for all theatres, even the expensively built ones.
There are three different kinds of musicals, Musical Play, Musical Revue, and Pseudo comedies. A musical play is where the storyline is supported by songs, not the other way round, and there are more pieces of drama and dialogue than songs. An example of this is
‘ The Rocky Horror Picture Show’


A musical revue is where the musical is communicated purely through the art of song. No words are spoken within this musical, only singing, an example of this is ‘Cats‘ as there is no form of speech within it. Even Rum Tum Tugger’s meow’s are in tune.


.Pseudo comedies are where random pieces of entertainment are inserted into the middle of the musical for some comedy relief. For example, in ‘Sweet Charity’ when the posh party animals suddenly break out in to a series of strange dances.
The Aloof, The Heavyweight, The Big Finish.

One of the most well known film musicals is ‘Moulin Rouge’, which set the bar for all new film musicals of this generation.
“That same year, the even stranger Moulin Rouge (2001) captured the imagination of millions of filmgoers by presenting a pedestrian love story through a wild mixture of musical sequences and eye-catching images. Director Baz Luhrmann threw together a dizzy hodgepodge of old and new pop songs, and kept the screen whirling with MTV-style quick cut editing. Nicole Kidman and Ewan Macgregor looked and sounded sexy in musical sequences that flew by at such speed that their lack of musical talents hardly mattered. Most critics and film goers overlooked the often confusing pace and turned Moulin Rouge into the first real musical screen hit of the new century.”

http://www.musicals101.com/2000film.htm

In 1927, ‘Showboat’ what can be described as the first musical play, was brought to the stage by Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical brought about ideas of racism and culture as this large showboat travelled down the Mississippi river bringing entertainment to all. However, when one of the female performers is found to have had a black mother, she is cast off the boat. And of course, with all musicals, there is a forbidden love story that triumphs over all in the end.
All of this taking place on the boat, you can imagine how ambitious this was for the worlds first musical. ’Show Boat’ set the standards from here onwards, and created the convention of having a serious underlying storyline. ’Showboat’ commented on how, even though Magnolia was white, she was still treated differently due to her black origins. Although racism was an obvious problem in the 1920’s, it was never really addressed by anyone, but for the first musical to come along and comment about the injustice of it was a very risky thing to do. Considering it was also the first musical, by making racism a large part of the storyline, Oscar Hammerstein II could have doomed musicals as a genre forever, however, by placing such a taboo narrative within, has made it a convention for the musical genre.

Sunday 14 March 2010

Introduction

Musicals are one of the oldest forms of genre in the books. Originally stemming from Vaudeville, which consisted of a few acts, such as singing, dancing, acting and juggling as a form of entertainment for the working class. Eventually people got bored with this very saming show and wanted more depth and storylines. So, musicals were written. They always have a serious storyline behind the uplifting songs and bitter sweet romances. I plan to look at all forms of musical films from the dark and gruesome 'Sweeney Todd' to the light and breezey 'State Fair', looking closely at the musical film genre and what conventions run throughout.