Chapter 16 Outline

Musical Theatre in America

"By its very nature, a musical show is produced collaboratively. The integration of narrative, song, and dance characteristic of the American musical comedy from the 1940s on made choregraphers more equal partners than they once had been, but even when a few gained overall control as directors, their contricutions had to be coordinated iwth those of others. (In film even more considerations came between the choreographer and the dance)" (Reynolds 674).

"Indeed, virtually every major choreographic innovator of the twentieth century has found refuge in the commercial theatre (including vaudeville) or in Hollywood at one time or another. (The list ranges from Fuller to Tharp and includes Fokine, Massine, Graham, Humphrey, Nijinska, Ashton, Balanchine, Limon, Robbins, Holm, and de Mille)" (675).

In the early part of the century, dance was primarily used as a distraction or an entertainment and was not and integral part of the plot. This included burlesque, vaudeville, the circus and minstrel shows. Male dancers were not appreciated and often feigned clumsiness (679).

George M. Cohan (679-680)

• Often called "father of musical comedy."
• Best known male song and dance man at turn of the last century
• Served as author, lyricist, composer, director and star!
• Plot usually minimal
• Known for his patriotism, including You're a Grand Old Flag, Over There, Give My Regards to Broadway

Vernon and Irene Castle (680-681)

• The epitome of vernacular dance performance
• Popularized ballroom, including the hesitation waltz, the Castle Walk, the one-step and the fox trot
• Vernon was the creative half of the partnership and when he crashed in when in the Air Force, Irene was unable to recreate the magic

Ziegfeld Follies (682-684)

• 1907-1931--"Ziegfeld set the stande for [American revues] with a formula discreetly modeled after the Folies-Bergere: he glorified beautiful women and surrounded them with the best comedians, singers, and dancers that the field of variety had to offer" (682).
• Performers (many trained by Ned Wayburn) included Ann Pennington (hootchy dancer); Marilyn Miller ("happy" dancer); Evelyn Law (tricks); Gilda Gray (shimmy); Harriet Hocter (ballet with backbend).
• "Wayburn introduced more modern, slender chorus dancers, whom he divided according to size, coloring, and training" (682).
• "Ziegfeld was among the first producers to use dance numbers excerpted from Harlem's lively black musicals. However, black performers were never part of the deal, although black dance directors sometimes traveled downtown to stage numbers for soloists. Most black performers remained on the (segregated) vaudeville circuits until 1921, when Shuffle Along moved from Harlem to Broadway" (684).

African Americans on Broadway in the 1920s and 30s (684-685)

• Early successful artists included: Florence Mills, Josephine Baker, Ethel Waters, Adelaide Hall, Buck and Bubbles, the Mills Brothers and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.
• "Black jazz dancing, an adaptation of the dances of minstrelsy and ragtime to new syncopated rhythms, resembled the impromptu cadenzas of jazz music in that its vernacular eccentricities were inimitable" (684).
• Codified into "jazz steps" and "flash steps" and tap steps
• Robinson brought a lightness and an upright posture to tap dancing

Integration of dance with dramatic action (686-687)

• Jerome Kern's Show Boat (1927) incorporated the dancing into the dramatic action of the storyline for the first time.
• "The tremendous success of Show Boat (which was produced with unerring taste by Ziegfeld) proved that given enough enchanting melody tied to believable dialogue, performances by singing actors could be taken seriously, and audiences would welcome somehting other than the escapism of Cinderella musical" (687).

Ballet on Broadway (687-695; 700)

• Ballet became popular in musicals and several ballet choreographers were hired to choreograph for Broadway in the 1930s and 1940s.
• Ballet artists and choreographers on Broadway included: Albertina Rasch, Alexandra Danilova, George Balanchine, Vera Zorina, Robert Alton, Agnes de Mille, Tamara Geva and Michael Kidd.
• Notable dance scenes from this period included: "Dancing in the Dark" from The Bandwagon (Rasch); "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" from On Your Toes (Balanchine); "Laurey Makes up Her Mind" from Oklahoma! (de Mille); prologue and 2nd act dream sequence from Carousel (de Mille); Brigadoon (de Mille); Guys and Dolls (Kidd).

Modern Dance on Broadway (695-696)

• Modern dancers who supplemented their incomes on Broadway beginning in the 1930s included: Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Helen Tamiris and Hanya Holm.
• Notable musicals include: Annie Get Your Gun (Tamiris 1946); Kiss Me Kate (1948), My Fair Lady (1956), Camelot (Holm 1960).

Jack Cole (696-697)

• Trained and performed initially with Denishawn and Humphrey-Weidman before moving to Broadway revues.
• His work combined many exotic forms, and "his style also reflected the dances of Harlem, the Caribbean, and Latin America in a sexy blend of modern dance, orientalism, Latin, and jazz dancing that was so unlike anything seen before that it tended to demarcate his work in any context" (696).
• Notable musicals include: Kismet (1957); A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) and Man of LaMancha (1965)
• "Of the hundreds of dancers on whom Jack Cole left his mark, some of the best known are Gwen Verdon, Carol Haney, Matt Mattox, Buzz Miller, Rod Alexander, Bob Hamilton, George and Ethel Martin and Lee (Baker) Theodore" (697).

Jerome Robbins (697-700)

• Integrated jazz, street dance with ballet and modern dance.
• Notable musicals include: On the Town (1944); The King and I (1951); Peter Pan (1954); West Side Story (1957); Gypsy (1959) and Fiddler on the Roof (1964).
• West Side Story integrated dance seamlessly into the plot with Robbins serving as director-choreographer with nearly total artistic control of the end product.
• "Critical response to West Side Story was ecstatic, and in spite of its unforgettable score, Robbins's dances were given most of the credit for the show's extraordinary success. Broadway audiences were impressed by its timely social implications and awed by the pace of Robbins's direction. Critics seemed surprised that he was able to communicate so much through sheer movement. There was general relief that dance no longer had to be part of a dream sequence in order to enrich the plot line of a show and that jazz dancing had finally found a dramatic application" (698).

Bob Fosse (700-702)

• No formal dance training, mainly good at copying others.
• Fosse "developed an anomalous style based on personal movement preferences--a bent-kneed gait, percussive isolations, a street-hip slouch. HIs clever use of props, particularly hats and canes, helped conceal certain technical limitations. When his habits were copied by other dancers, they took on the deliberateness of a distinctive style that made his choreography instantly recognizable" (700).
• Notable musicals include: The Pajama Game (1954); Damn Yankees (1955); Sweet Charity (1966); Chicago (1974) and Cabaret (film).
• "Fosse's work contained elements of exhibitionism and barely restrained libidinous impulses. In an era of unprecedented sexual liberation, his jazzy style provided the perfect metaphor for everything up to date..." (702).

Other Notable Artists (702-707)

• Gower Champion--musicals included: Bye, Bye Birdie (1960); Hello Dolly (1964) and 42nd Street (1980).
• Michael Bennett--directed, choreographed and conceived A Chorus Line (1975).
• Revival of tap in the 1980s with Gregory Hines, Tommy Tune and Savion Glover. Also revivals of all kinds beginning in the 1970s.
• British invasion of the 1980s led by Andrew Lloyd Weber "depended on dance from curtain-up to curtain-down to sustain their single themes" (705). Notable musicals included Cats, Phantom of the Opera and Starlight Express.
• Stephen Sondheim--not much dancing.
• All-dance musicals in 1990s and 2000s such as Contact, Swing, Movin' Out.