Changes in the Musical Theatre |
Posted: September 16, 2016 |
In the world of art, theatre holds a major vital place. It has been here since the time there were no stages even, but it was and is something that is liked by many. It has its various forms too, of which the musical theatre is one. It is a sort of theatre which marries the two concepts of music and theatre. The dialogues are sung by the performers in this and centred on a plot, but just as theatre has undergone sea changes over the past years, so has the musical theatre too. The genre of musical theatre adopts the Pop culture which is why it is subject to constant change depending on the current Pop trends. It was back in 1860 that the first musical theatre act was premiered for five long hours. It was known by the name of “Black Crook”. It mostly had the influence of opera, as was the current tradition of popular music at that time. The early 20th century saw the development of Broadway and the watering down of Jazz and the influences of up tempo music in the musicals. Finally the Golden Age of the musical theatre arrived with the first modern musical by Oscar Hammerstein with his play named “Show Boat”. This era witnessed the messages or central plots of the theatre getting a more serious tone. This happened because of the political undertone of these musicals. No matter what the era and what the year, the popularity of musical theatre was never dampened; there were always great fans of the art form like Brad Sterling . He is so inherently passionate about this kind of theatre that he even wishes to stage his own musical someday. His love for music in general is quite evident from his ability to be able to play several types of musical instruments. The first ever, rock musical, called “Hair” pushed the musical theatre to a whole new different level. This was when the music made a shift from Jazz to Pop. This era continued through the 1970’s and set off a series of avant garde musicals. Towards the end of this year, however, dance started gaining ground in these musicals and the role of choreographers became more and more important. The turn in musical theatre came again by early 1980 when there existed two distinct types- one that had traditional music and theme and the other that had untraditional music and theme and progression in plot. The 1990s brought another further change in theatre when more and more social issues and predispositions were incorporated as themes. The modern day musical theatre has scope both for comic and tragic themes, and people like Brad Sterling are big fans of Avicii, Diplo, Calvin Harris, etc. His love for music and respect for the musical theatre makes him desire to become a music engineer or editor for one of the biggest names of the music industry, in the near future. It is for the appreciation got from people like him that the old wine like a ‘musical theatre’ still tastes good.
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