Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Ideas For A School Project On Musicals From The 1950s

Costumes from the movie "My Equitable Female" are correlative to those from the contemporary theatrical Industry.


My Fair Musical

The 1950s was a productive decade for many noted Broadway composers. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein produced five of their classic musicals between 1951 and 1959, including classics adoration "The Caesar and I" and "The Sound of Harmony." Alan Jay Lerner and Freidrich Loewe composed enduring hits cognate "Tint Your Wagon," "Brigadoon" and "My Correctly Gentlewoman" throughout the 1950s, and legendary composer Leonard Bernstein debuted works as several as "On the Town," "Candide" and "West Side Book" during this decade also.


With spectacular Industry numbers, captivating stories and unforgettable melodies, musicals from the 1950s yet inspire and enthral voguish audiences. Unbefitting the spangled exterior adumbrate backstage stories, authoritative personalities and trenchant political issues that shaped these iconic musicals of the episode and Shade. A institute project on musicals from the 1950s allows students to dig into both the deviceful arts and the socio-political issues that framed the decade.


Trial the works of a specific composer or gang, focusing on the similarities among their works very as the diversity in Everyone euphonious's style. Demonstrate clips from the musicals or play selections from the soundtracks for your classmates.


From Stage to Screen


Many musicals of the 1950s were adapted into films, including "My True Noblewoman" and "The Sound of Classical." These Shade musicals ofttimes differed drastically from their leaf counterparts, resulting in two correct clashing stories. Choose a event euphonious from the 1950s and study the differences between the theatrical script and the movie story. Trial which scenes were section, what songs were added, who from the theatrical throw played the equivalent role on sheet and on Shade and who was replaced (Julie Andrews was famously passed over in favour of Audrey Hepburn for the film version of "My Unprejudiced Lady") and why these changes were made. Ask friends to help you perform a scene from the stage version, then play a film clip of the scene to highlight these differences.


A Woman's Touch


The plots and roles available to women in stage and film musicals of the 1950s are far different than the raw, uninhibited performances that populate modern musical adaptations; it's difficult to visualize 1950s musical star Doris Day playing a role like Roxie Hart in "Chicago" or Mimi in "Rent." Explore how gender is constructed and enforced in musicals of the 1950s, from Day's historically inaccurate and thoroughly feminized role in the 1956 film "Calamity Jane" to the physical abuse endured by Julie in "Carousel" to the outright abduction of the townswomen by a band of brothers in "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." Examine how gender is treated and framed in these musicals, and examine male gender roles too, like the "Boys-will-be-boys" behavior of the Pontipee brothers who kidnap the titular "Seven Brides."


You've Got to Be Taught


Both stage and screen musicals of the 1950s dealt with questions of racism and ethnicity, resulting in powerful artistic explorations of a social and political issue that is still relevant. Focus on different representations of race in musicals, from the choice to cast Caucasian actress Natalie Wood as Maria, the Puerto Rican love interest of "West Side Story," to the questions of cultural assimilation posed by the stage debut of "Flower Drum Song," which concerns a Chinese community in San Francisco. Examine how the composers, directors and actors used music to forward their arguments and philosophies, as Rodgers and Hammerstein did in their iconic song about learning racism "You've Got to Be Taught," which reached a wider audience with the premiere of the 1956 film adaptation of "South Pacific."