“Just a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down” - Mary Poppins

So, what was the point in creating this genre called Musicals? Working and middle class people created Vaudeville which was a show put together using different acts that were not linked. Eventually the audience craved more story and meaning to what they were watching, and so musicals were created. As I have said in previous blogs, all musicals hold and underlying serious meaning (except for most of Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s musicals, he has managed to disprove most of my theories!), musicals were used to brighten moods and give everything some what of a sugar coated glaze for what was going on at that particular point in time. For example, “Oklahoma!” was first staged in the 1943 during the second world war. The narrative structure was the same as any musical, there was a love story, lively songs, dancing and death at the end. However, this particular musical was about ‘the home land’ and protecting it at all costs. Curly, the lone cow boy comes back to his home land after travelling through the dessert and falls in love with Laurey, she can be described as, ‘the girl the men were fighting for’. Within the musical, there are songs about how amazing the home land is.

Oh What a Beautiful Morning!

“Oklahoma!” was shown to soldiers in the second world war to remind them about what they were fighting for. That the home land needed to be protected, or girls like Laurey, would be taken by the Germans.

“Musicals became a favoured form for audiences, especially during the Depression. These films celebrate spontaneity, both in terms of trying to replicate the experience of a live performance and having characters frequently pick up a prop and jump into a folksy number. In this way, classical musical films often gave the impression of an amateur's inspired and immediate performance--a type of sudden liberation and celebration that many claim makes for the most escapist-yet-intoxicating of the classical Hollywood genres.”

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

Another musical that uses this technique is “West Side Story”, first performed in 1957, this musical looked at the gangs and teenagers. Of course the musical wasn’t as violent as anything that you see today, but teenage gangs in America at that time ran on racism of different ethic minorities, just like The Jets and The Sharks. The Jets, were the home grown America boys with denim and leather. The Sharks were the Puerto Rican’s with silk and bright colours. The narrative again follows the generic musical line. There are hearty songs, forbidden love, dancing and death at the end. However, “West Side Story” just like every other American musical made

(Skip to 2.23) I Like to be in America!

“West Side Story” only raised more awareness of gang crime rather than actually do anything about it. It also raised the idea of racism being wrong, in a Romeo and Juliet round about way.

Most Musicals, depending on when they were written, will include some form of storyline about what is going on in that particular time. By doing this, even if it is a dyer situation, such as the second world war, people will feel better about the subject, because lets face it, music is the one thing that can pick us up when we are truly feeling down.