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katoagogo
Member
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Posted: Tue Mar 25th, 2008 08:09 pm |
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Interesting piece from NYTimes
Two Helpings of Pie From Broadway’s Fridge
By CHARLES ISHERWOOD
The opportunity to see revivals of “Gypsy” and “South Pacific” side by side underscores the distance the American musical traveled in the 10 years between them.
The near-simultaneous return to Broadway of these two landmark shows is essentially a matter of commerce and coincidence. But the opportunity to see them side by side underscores the distance the American musical traveled in the 10 years between them. The 1960s would begin with another Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, the syrupy “Sound of Music,” triumphing over “Gypsy” at the Tony Awards (with an assist from “Fiorello!,” which shared the Tony Award for best musical). Yet it is “Gypsy,” with its haunted heroine and undertow of anger, that would set the tone for the advances in the form that would follow, as the creators of the best musicals of the final decades of the 20th century stripped the gloss off the form and used it to explore darker territory.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/theater/23ishe.html?_r=1&ref=theater&oref=slogin
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katoagogo
Member
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Posted: Tue Mar 25th, 2008 08:21 pm |
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I think this is a great comparison:
"In “South Pacific” the plucky heroine, Ensign Nellie Forbush, thoroughly smitten for the first time, sings happily of her inauguration into the commonplace joy of romance. “I’m as corny as Kansas in August,” she exults. “I’m as normal as blueberry pie.” A touch of winning self-mockery perfumes the moist island air, but Nellie’s attitude to the cornfields of Kansas and the staple of the picnic table is undoubtedly complimentary.
'Rose, the ungentle giant who bestrides “Gypsy,” takes a rather different view. At the climax of her first great anthem of self-assertion, “Some People,” Rose hits upon the innocuous dessert as a symbol of all she does not want, the arid life she hopes to escape for the plusher pastures of show business success. “Goodbye to blueberry pie!” she all but shrieks."
Choosing to frame this story around the return of these two shows is very interesting, and points to the development of the American Musical Theater sensibility. I believe that current dramaturgy owes a lot to the emotional shorthand developed by musical theater. I'm a big fan of the genre -- plus as a singer I've performed in my fair share of them.
I've seen so many productions of South Pacific I can't count them all, but I've only sen Gypsy three times. Because I love R&H so much I keep going back. I enjoy the scale of South Pacific, and it was an important show for me to understand as a young adult. I also worked on the crew of a bang-up production of it one time, so there are fond memories of that production that are tied into the play itself.
Where South Pacific is expansive, Gypsy is insular. Perhaps Im drawn more toward the large landscape rather than the stark emotion when I go to see a musical. This article has got me thinking.
--Kato
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