Musical theatre overview

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining				good example). While an opera singer is primarily a
music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The				singer and only secondarily an actor, a musical
emotional content of the piece â€“				theatre singer is usually an actor first, who can at
humor, pathos, love, anger â€“ as well as				least hold a tune and "put over" a song, but is
the story itself, is communicated through the				often not a professional singer as such.
words, music, movement and technical aspects of				Composers of music for musicals often have to
the entertainment as an integrated whole.				take the limitations of such performers into
Musical theatre works, usually referred to as				account, and theatres staging musicals generally
"musicals", are performed around the world. They				use amplification of the actors' singing voices in a
may be presented in large venues, such as big				way that would normally be disapproved of in an
budget West End and Broadway theatre				operatic context.
productions in London and New York City, or in				In isolation, at least, none of these features is
smaller Off-Broadway or regional productions, on				truly "defining", and in practice it is often difficult
tour, or by amateur groups in schools, theatres				to distinguish among the various kinds of light
and other performance spaces. In addition to				musical theatre, including "operetta", "comic opera",
Britain and the U.S., there are vibrant musical				"light opera", "musical play", "musical comedy",
theatre scenes in Germany, Austria, France,				"burlesque", "travesty", and even "revue". Some
Canada, Japan, Eastern Europe, Australia, and				works (e.g. by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen
other places.				Sondheim) have received both "musical theatre"
Some famous musicals include Oklahoma!, The				and "operatic" treatment. Similarly, some older
Sound of Music, West Side Story, Les				operettas or light operas have had modern
MisÃ©rables, Cats, The Phantom of the				productions or adaptations that treated them
Opera, Rent, and The Producers.				very much as musicals. Sondheim said, "I really
The three main components of a musical are the				think that when something plays Broadway it's a
music, the lyrics, and the book. The book of a				musical, and when it plays in an opera house it's
musical refers to the "play" or story of the show				opera. That's it. It's the terrain, the countryside,
- in effect its spoken (not sung) lines; however,				the expectations of the audience that make it
"book" can also refer to the dialogue and lyrics				one thing or another." This article primarily
together, which are sometimes referred to (as in				concerns musical theatre works that are
opera) as the libretto (Italian for â€œlittle				distinctively "non-operatic", but there inescapably
bookâ€). The music and lyrics together				remains some overlap between lighter operatic
form the score of the musical. The interpretation				forms and the more musically complex or
of the musical by the creative team heavily				ambitious musicals: a grey area, in which
influences the way that the musical is presented.				production values are almost as important as
The creative team includes a director, a musical				actual musical or dramatic content in defining into
director and usually a choreographer. A musical's				which artform the piece falls.
production is also creatively characterized by				As with a well-crafted operetta or opera, a
technical aspects, such as set, costumes, stage				"book" musical's moments of greatest dramatic
properties, lighting, etc. that generally change from				intensity are often performed in song. Proverbially,
production to production (although some famous				"when the emotion becomes too strong for
production aspects tend to be retained from the				speech (or recitative) you sing; when it becomes
original production, for example, Bob Fosse's				too strong for song, you dance." A song is (ideally
choregraphy in Chicago).				at any rate) crafted to suit the character (or
There is no fixed length for a musical, and it can				characters) and their situation within the story;
range from a short one-act entertainment to				although there have been times in the history of
several acts and several hours in length (or even				the musical (e.g. the 1920s) when this integration
a multi-evening presentation); however, most				between music and story has been very tenuous.
musicals range from one and a half hours to				A show very often opens with a song that sets
three hours. Musicals today are typically presented				the tone of the musical, introduces some or all of
in two acts, with one intermission ten to 20				the major characters, and shows the setting of
minutes in length. The first act is almost always				the play. Within the compressed nature of the
somewhat longer than the second act, and				musical, the writers must develop the characters
generally introduces most of the music. A musical				and the plot. Music provides a means to express
may be built around 4-6 main theme tunes that				emotion. However, typically, many fewer words
are reprised throughout the show, or consist of a				are sung in a five-minute song than are spoken in
series of songs not directly musically related.				a five-minute block of dialogue. Therefore there is
Spoken dialogue is generally interspersed between				less time to develop drama than in a straight play
musical numbers, although the use of "sung				of equivalent length, since a musical usually
dialogue" or recitative is not unknown, especially in				devotes more time to music than to dialogue.
so-called "sung-through" musicals.				Many familiar musical theatre works have been
Musical theatre is closely related to another				the basis for popular musical films, such as The
theatrical performance art, opera. These forms				Sound of Music, West Side Story, and My Fair
are usually distinguished by weighing a number of				Lady (although some movie musicals have been
factors. Musicals generally have a greater focus				disappointing, as compared to the stage works)
on spoken dialogue (though some musicals are				or were adapted or even written for television
entirely accompanied and sung through, such as				presentations (for example Rodgers and
Jesus Christ Superstar and Les MisÃ©rables;				Hammerstein's Cinderella). Recently, some popular
and on the other hand some operas, such as Die				television programs have set an episode in the
ZauberflÃ¶te, and most operettas, have some				style of a musical. There has also been a recent
unaccompanied dialogue), on dancing (particularly				revival of the movie musical, such as Chicago.
by the principal performers as well as the chorus),				Similarly, India produces numerous musical films,
on the use of various genres of popular music (or				referred to as "Bollywood" musicals, and Japan
at least popular singing styles), and on the				produces a considerable number of Anime stage
avoidance of certain operatic conventions. In				musicals. Conversely, there has been a trend in
particular, a musical is almost never performed in				recent decades to adapt musicals from the
any but the language of its audience. Musicals				screen to the stage, both from popular animated
produced in London or New York, for instance,				film musicals, such as Beauty and the Beast) and
are invariably sung in English, even if they were				live-action films, such as The Producers and The
originally written in another language (again, Les				Color Purple.
MisÃ©rables, originally written in French, is a

Opera Unmet

Musical theatre overview