musicals

“Musicals are, by nature, theatrical, meaning poetic, meaning having to move the audience's imagination and create a suspension of disbelief, by which I mean there's no fourth wall.”

~ Stephen Sondheim

You may hate them, you may love them but how much do you actually know about American Broadway musicals? Do you understand their structure? Can discovering more about the structure and components of a musical expand your own writing, costume design, sculptures, paintings, etc?

Visit the website: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/hello/index.html for a rather comprehensive look at the history of musicals.

Can the form serve you in some way? Can you twist and manipulate it to create a new way to express yourself?

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

Rent a DVD of a musical – doesn’t matter if it’s an oldie such as West Side Story or Singin’ In The Rain a more recent offering like Rent or Moulin Rouge. Maybe rent both the old version and updated version of a musical like Gypsy or Chicago and compare the two.

It can be a musical film or it can be an adapted from the stage version or it can be a taped performance of a live show, does not matter. Whatever you prefer.

As you are watching the movie/performance, pay attention to how the music, lyrics and movement work together to create a story. What does each particular song have to accomplish in order to drive the plot forward? How does the visual support the song?

Play the same scene again. This time, close your eyes and just listen to the song. Without the visual, what’s different?

Play the same scene again. This time, mute the volume and watch the visual. What can you tell just from the movements?

Play the same scene again. Mute the volume and instead, play a completely different song from your music library at the same time – what happens when you change the song? What happens if you add a rap song underneath the visuals of Evita?

Watch the whole move with a completely different soundtrack of songs. Was there any synchronicity? Were you able to create a narrative of seemingly random pieces?