Musical Theatre Through Time

1920’s

Stars of Broadway

• Marilyn Miller – Sally/ Peter Pan
• George M. Cohern – Playwrite/ Composer/Star
• Fanny Brice – When A Man Loves A Women
• Egbert Williams – Broadway Brevities/Under The Bamboo Tree
• Al Jolson – The Jazz Singer
• Fred + Adele Astire (sister) – Lady, Be Good!

Movie Musicals

Almost 150 musical reviews opened in New York in the 1920’s.
Audiences were captivated by beautiful stars and magical song.

In August 1926 – Viterphone Systems were invented in New York

Pre-recorded sound  + the moving picture could be perfectly synchronised and in 3 years 2,000 short movies were made to show off this technology.

The Broadway Melody

• 1929
• Director = Harry Beaumont
• MGM
• Opens with a variety of different music styles as if to say: ‘this movie will have something for everyone‘.
• It cost 35 cents for a cinema ticket – Broadway Melody grossed over 2 Million Dollars
• 2nd Ever Academy Award for Best Motion Picture
• Man and women in a hotel room – ‘You were meant for me’ – Relaxed and layed back – it makes the intensity of their relationship at that particular moment absolutely real.

It introduced a vital ingredient that stuck with the movie musical to this very day = The Show-Stopper

In 1929 music had taken over the movies = 9 of Hollywood’s Top 10 grossing films were musicals

1929 – Stock Market Crashed = The Great Depression

1930’s

Broadway

The Great Depression had left many actors out of work due to lack of demand.

In 1935, The Federal Theatre Project was created to help with the problems facing the theatre community.

Many plays produced at this time often offered escape through comedy.

Stars Of Broadway

• The Marx Brothers – A Day At The Races
• Henry Fonder – The Farmer Takes A Wife
• Ethel Merman – It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Broadway
Anything Goes – 1935 – Bettina Hall, Cole Porter

Movie Musicals

This film saved Warner Bros from bankruptcy!

Love Me Tonight

• Director = Rouben Mamoulian
• Paramount Pictures
• 1932
• Inspired by French director Rene Clair and Le Million
• It’s ‘set piece’ is near the beginning not the end in order to set the tone for the movie – ‘Isn’t it romantic’ – catchy and relaxed
• Last major movie musical that the musical numbers were filmed and recored at the same time
• Used trick photography – 2 people from two different recordings, faded onto the screen (like a power point slide)

Early 1930’s, censorship was introduced to crack down on the suggested dialogue and the ‘risky’ costumes. Scripts and songs had to be submitted for approval before production started.

The Wizard Of Oz

• MGM
• 1939
• Judy Garland

In just 10 years the movie musical had travelled from Broadway to the world of imagination. Just 2 weeks after the release of The Wizard Of Oz, WW2 began.

Big Stars of the 1930s

Fred Astaire

• Turned dance into story telling
• Had a stage career with his sister for 27 years
• Tap Danced

Flying Down to Rio – 1933 (RKO Radio Pictures)

1940’s

• Was an era that aimed to reflect the pain that the country was going through, while still remaining upbeat and positive about the future
• The start of the 2nd Golden Age of Musical Theatre

Broadway

• Cabin In The Sky (1940) (1943)

First all black cast, one of the least expensive productions of 1940’s, ‘Happiness is a thing called Joe’ – nominated for a Tony Award for best original song.

• The Wizard Of Oz (1939) MGM (1942) MUNY

Did not follow the film adaptation, followed the book by L. Frank Baum

Stars Of Broadway

• Margaret Wycherly – Dear Judas
• Gladys Cooper – The Importance Of Being Ernest
• Elsa Lanchecter – Thirty Minutes In A Street

Movie Musical

With the musical icons Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers making their very few and final appearances on the big screen in this decade, that left big shoes to fill.

You Were Never Lovelier – 1942 – Fred Astaire

The Barkleys on Broadway – 1949 – Fred Astire and Ginger Rogers

And this gap in musical theatre was filled by none other than Gene Kelly.

And what better way to show off his talent than to dance alongside himself in the film that really brought him stardom ‘Cover Girl’, which came to our screens in 1944.

In the famous ‘Alter Ego’ number, Kelly, not only did something that was deemed impossible and has never been done prior or since, he joined the long time, once separate: impersonal, girl-filled, cinematic pyrotechnic extravaganzas of Busby Berkeley (who worked closely with Kelly, Galand, and Sinatra) with the intimate personality and straight forward theatrical approach of Fred Astaire changing the way movie musicals were made forever.

Other iconic moments the decade that Kelly is remembered for is his duet in Anchors Aweigh (1945), when he danced with animated-cartoon icon, Jerry the Mouse mouse and in The Pirate (1948) he staged the first of his many filmed ballets, blending solo dancing, mass movement, offbeat camera angles, and vibrant colours to tell a story in purely visual terms.

Kelly also changed the way MGM, the biggest producers of movie musicals at the time, filmed their show-stopping hits.

• 5 Filming days in New York
• Shooting was hard
• Rained alot
• Constantly followed by crowds
• Had to improves scenes because Sinatra was so well know, ‘the kids would have torn him apart’

This film was a perfect example of movie musicals of the time trying to reflect the pain of the war while staying positive about the future – The plot involves saloirs on shore leave who, for 24 hours, have nothing to think about apart from having fun.

The extremely famous ‘New York, New York. What a wonderful town’ – number cleverly written by Leonard Burnstien, had the lyrics nailed to the melody line, which gives the song constant energy and punch. This was also the case with the title song On The Town and this small detail was crucial as it made the songs really drive the film.

And a mixture of the clatter on the city streets being mirrored in Burnstien’s score as well as the energy from the stars post war joy made this classic film evermore powerful effect on the already buzzing audiences.

Singing in the Rain

• MGM
• 1952
• During filming, Debbie Reynolds had to be carried off set because of burst blood vessels in her feet.
• One of the greatest movie moments fo all time
• This musical reflects the history of its genre, specifically Hollywood’s troubled transition from silent to talking pictures at the end of the 1920’s.
• The Broadway Melody Number was completely created by Kelly

Summer Holiday

• Ivy Productions
• 1963
• Cliff Richard
• ‘Bachelor Boy’ was added last minute as the film was too short

By making pop stars into film stars, this transformed the fortunes of the native movie musical.

My Fair Lady – (1956)(1964)

Westside Story – (1957)(1961)  – Director = Robert Wise

Mary Poppins – 1964

The Sound of Music – 1965

Biggest movie musical hit to date

• Director = Robert Wise
• Biggest movie musical hit to date
• July Andrews

The post war American dream was fading by this point and the ‘summer of love’ was far from the ideology of the classic movie musical.

As for the movie musical, this is what Hollywood was putting on our screens.

• Singing Knights
• Richard Attenborough dancing with a 2 headed llama
• Rex Harrison serenading a seal
• A sensative Clint Eastwood talking to the trees

The Bob Fosse came along and revitalised the genre.

Sweet Charity

• Director Bob Fosse
• 1969
• It reflected the ‘hippy love’ that American culture was so obsessed with
• Box Office takings were less than 1/5 of its 20 million dollar budget.

Cabaret

• Bob Fosse
• 1972
• Liza Minnelle
• First ever X-rated movie musical
• Unlike any other American movie musical, you didn’t know what was going to happen next
• Gained 8 Oscars

All That Jazz

• 1979
• Bob Fosse’s last movie musical

With it’s never before seen footage of a polysexual dance routine, it paved the way for the movie musical to reinvent itself once again.

Saturday Night Fever

• 1977
• John Travolta
• Showed how the movie musical had to evolve to keep up with the times

New York, 1970s. High crime rate and financial blink.

New York, New York

• 1977
• Director = Martin Scorssese
• Liza Minnelle
• A tribute to the Big bands and even bigger sets of the classic movie musical

One From The Heart

• 1981
• Entire set was built from scratch
• Cost 27 million dollars to make and grossed less than 1 million
• This cause Zoetrope Studios to go bankrupt

However, the audiences didn’t connect with what these films were paying tribute to anymore.

The audiences had that nostalgia bug for their own childhood – the 50s.

Mel Brooks

• The Produces – 1967
• Blazing Saddles – 1974

American Graffiti

• Director = George Lucas
• 1973
• Cost less than 1 million to make and has, to date, earned 140 million

Grease (1971)(1978)

That’ll Be The Day (1973)

• David Essex, Ringo Star, Billy Fury

Ken Russel

• Tommy
• 1975
• The Who
• Elton John
• British

Bugsy Malone

• Alan Parker
• 1976
• A cast of children

The Wiz

• African American take on The Wizard Of Oz
• 1978
• Micheal Jackson

Judy Garland

Meet Me in St Louis – 1944

A Star is Born – 1954