Musicals are theatrical performances that feature dance, spoken words, art, singing, play, and dialogue. The content of a musical can be original ideas, or founded on a film, play, other books, or novels. The themes and emotions of the musicals such as love and humor are usually communicated to the audience through live performances of music, word and actions. Musical theatres have gained popularity and have become integrated with the popular culture of many societies. Musical performances have long been combined with theatrical presentations in the early days, but the contemporary musical theatres especially the American musical, bear their origin in the nineteenth century. It is with no doubt that, the musical theatre is part of the contemporary America’s popular culture.
Dance is one of the most important aspects in American musicals in the 1920s and 1930s. Dance in stage musicals was instrumental in telling the story depending on the plot of the musical. Therefore, dance actually played a role as an instrument to drive the plot. Dance in the American musical used to be performed as choruses or with audible steps that would facilitate communication of a certain message in the narration of a play (John, 2000). Dance movements, like any other actions or word, would represent humor and passion especially depending on the theme of the play. For example, a dancing couple might have been used to demonstrate love and romantic passion. Dancing to various songs expressed deeper feelings and thoughts of the characters concerned in the dance moment. Women and men used to wear differently while dancing and their costumes represented various meanings. For example, in various plays, a large number of women could dance wearing different attires to communicate different themes and sometimes the dressing could be sexually offensive. In addition, dance played the role of entertainment between performance sessions to revive the audience while connecting the plot and the characters with a thrill. Dance could be used to divert the attention of the audience or to take necessary breaks in the play sessions. However, entertainment was the key role of dance since the entire musical was for entertainment.
Dances such as “black bottom” and “turkey trot” for jazz and ragtime music were some of the styles that became part of the American culture resulting from African American culture. Ragtime and jazz genres of music were a result of influence of African American culture, which the whites assimilated and it has become part of their popular culture not only in America, but also in other European countries. The Broadway musicals became prominent in the period, and many other theatrical musicals followed. While dance depended on the age of the performers and the themes involved, the number of dances and dancers solely depended on the plot of the narration. Oklahoma musical features songs such as “I can’t say no”, “people will say we’re in love,” “the surrey with the fringe on top,” and “oh what a beautiful morning.”
The Oklahoma musical made its first performance on stage on 31 March 1943. Oscar Hammerstein and Richard Rodgers were the main writers of Oklahoma with the Broad-way production, which was also, was created by them in the same year (Carter, 2007). The musical play is a romance narration of a cowboy and a farm girl, and another cowboy with his fiancée. The cowboys are engaged in a rivalry, which regards the fight for rights of water and fences for their cattle. The first rivalry is between Curley and Jud, who have both fallen in love with Laurey, the farm girl. There is another rivalry where Ado Annie, Ali Hakim and Will are in controversy. On the other Ado Annie is involved with Ali Hakim, and Will is also in love with Annie.
Trevor Nunn directed the musical with Agnes de mille as the choreographer. Rodgers and Hammerstein successfully created the Oklahoma and integrated music and lyrics for a dramatic plot development of plays. Since then the American musicals have changed tremendously with the standards of musical creation being advanced with creativity and innovative tendencies. The latter musicals by Broadway production have taken the steps of Rodgers and Hammerstein and their collaborators to develop play characters and plots with songs, drama, dance and other on-stage performances. Oklahoma’s story is based on a play with the title, Green Grow the Lilacs, and the entire story mixes music and dance to create moods and various themes. The setting for Oklahoma is Indian, and it demonstrates a story of love between two local cowboys in a farm. The musical show a rocky journey of love that the audience is eager to know whether they will succeed in joining for a life together.
Oklahoma was unique as compared to previous musicals in various ways. First, the Oklahoma musical was based on innovation of previous musicals such as show boat in terms of the storyline and thematic representations. The musical represent a story of a well-structured dramatic plot with the ability to draw out emotions rather than mere entertainment with humor like the previous musicals did. Second, musicals are characterized by main characters as actors who sing and dance, and in rare cases as singers who act. This was the case for previous musicals before Oklahoma. Oklahoma featured singers and dancers who had the ability to act in a play thereby making the works of Rodgers and Hammerstein unique and different. In addition, Agnes de mille, the choreographer, was the first female choreographer to feature in musicals especially for Broadway productions. Oklahoma was the first ever musical to bring out a narration in the form of music, lyrics, and dance without the presence of spoken lines, monologs or dialogs. The musical composition of Oklahoma was the first to be recorded entirely, thereby making it to have an original album of cast. Previous musicals were recorded as separate scores.
The contemporary American musical theaters are characterized by numerous dance incidences. Dance plays alongside with songs play a critical role in in shaping the direction of themes and emotions. While they act as a source of entertainment, musicals involve emotional kindling by the dance and the lyrics of the songs. Dances sometimes represent emotional climax scenes where the story takes a different turn in terms ideas, mood change, and actions. Dance has been known to be a major source of entertainment in musicals. Most contemporary musicals take longer and diverting attention to dance hence encourages the audience to keep track of the performance. The contemporary society in America shows delight and social acceptance to body exposure when dancing. In this case, dancers, especially female dancers perform with brief dresses or tight clothes that expose various body parts thereby enticing the audience to take more attention to the performance. A stage with such sexually provocative performers attracts a big audience, and this is an advantage to the production. Dance also advertises fashions such as clothes, new dance skills, hairstyles since the audience come to like different aspects of the performers. Cultural aspects have been transferred to different societies through the dances portrayed in musicals. In fact, various dancing styles such as tango were learned through such dances in musicals. The American styles of dancing have integrated borrowed aspects from musicals of other cultures.
In conclusion, musicals have evolved with social change, and they are increasingly changing with time. I think musicals depend on the genre of the film or the play. Tremendous improvement has been in musicals, but their importance in the film has not changed. Since plays and films seek to entertain, dance and music spice the plot of the performance in order to be more appealing. It is inevitable for musical genres of films to have music, lyrics, and dance. Songs are mostly prevalent in Indian films although American films also feature dance and music. In most cases, romantic films feature dance and music to demonstrate emotional peak, celebrations or social functions. Most films feature live performances and dance in clubs and other social functions such as wedding ceremonies. In addition, many celebrities have increasingly been engaged in acting, and they sometimes bring performances in the films. At the same time, musicals entirely based on songs and dance without dialog have become rare irrespective of the genre. The Oklahoma musical set the beginning of the new approach to musicals with innovation, creativity and relevance to the audience being the focus.
References
Broadway: The American musical. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNgE085lJZU
Carter, T. (2007). Oklahoma!. New Haven: Yale University Press.
John, K. (2000). The history of musicals: The cyber encyclopedia of musical theatre, film and television. Retrieved from http://www.musicals101.com/history1.htm
