The Amazing Story Of Musical Theater

Music theatre is a term that emerged in the 1960s . It’s a type of theatrical performance that incorporates music from dissimilar forms; this could include operas, ballets, cabarets and contemporary music. Also, music theatre does not just use music and theatre but it uses different forms of media such as film and radio, this helps the performance become more music driven. Music in music theatre is major because music is linked to the success of delivering routines and without music the performance will not be as strong and it will lack meaning.

​Musical theatre is an art of theatrical performance that uses a set of theoretical techniques such as music, songs, acting as well as spoken dialogue to tell a story to the audience . The story and the emotions of the characters are communicated through the use of music, words and moment. Music is used in musicals because helps reinforce the play as a storytelling device; songs describes the audience what is happening during the play and provides insight into how the character is feeling and how the characters have grown to show their journey through the play.

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Dialogue is used alongside side dance and a song and sometimes the songs can manifest into ‘spoken word’ an example of this would be a character Henry Higgins play, he speaks his song in the musical My Fair Lady, which was based on a George Bernard Shaw play. Musical theatre stemmed from the ancient Greek, during this time the Greek comedies and tragedies had used a musical component such as songs and dance in their plays.

The Roman theatre used dancing and they created tap shoes; they had chips of mental on the bottom of the shoe. This helped the performers because they were able to hear their steps more clearly and allow the audience to acknowledge their presence, especially in large theatres.

​Musical theatre and music theatre are different in terms of they are they performed. The purpose of musicals is to provide audiences with a form of entertainment through humour and pathos. Musicals hold the power to attract audiences and engage emotions and they have since remained successful in attracting audiences. Music theatre, however, focuses more on being creative rather than telling stories, but this has caused music theatre to become less attractive in theatres as it remains to be a small scale of theatrical work. Also, a musical is also different from a play with music, in that it gives as much importance to the songs and music as other elements of the production.

​One similarity between musicals and music theatre is they both continue to have an impact on our lives. Musical theatre is therapeutic because it offers those a release of pain ‘‘My hunch is that theatre won't just survive the recession it will help us to endure it by offering that special sense of community of a theatre audience and a temporary escape into other worlds and other lives’. Musical theatre helps people get back in touch with their humanness they know they have. Musical theatre has a connection with the audience emotions and can awaken people in a way that no other medium can. Furthermore, it demonstrates that musical theatre is not just something you see as an audience member, but what they are witnessing can be personal and can help individuals relieve challenging or traumatic experience. Music theatre is used in the education system such as schools; in class, children are provided with instruments and a plot to come up with while experimenting with the instruments to see what sounds they can create, this aids children’s musical creativity .

Moreover, people are able to acquire trained singers, actors and dance with musical theatre whereas with music theatre they make the lines more distant from the actors which cause the performers to become equal. Also, musical theatre has been more assessable than music theatre because they performed in big venues such as Broadway and advertised through social media which encourage the public to attend. Music theatre, on the other hand, is more difficult to access because they are mostly advertised in academic initiations. Musical theatre composes music for their shows, whereas music theatre does not compose their own music but rather uses music from recent times.

​Disney Aladdin demonstrates aspects of musical theatre; the play featured some production numbers such as “One Jump Ahead”, this song explored Aladdin adventure in the marketplace which The play elevated with the Genies' song ‘Friend Like Me’ which included a dancing number which kept the audience on their feet. One of the best numbers was a ‘Whole New World’ which featured the characters Aladdin and Jasmine on a flying carpet on the stage, but the carpet was flying above the audience. There were some moments of humour as well, during some stage of the where the Genie (played by Trevor Dion Nicholas) told some jokes which entertained the audience and garner some laughs. The whole cast demonstrated some impressive vocal ability which kept the audience interested. It was a great show which lots of activity and this will capture families’ interest as well as children.

​Hairspray, the play also demonstrates aspects of musical theatre. The story follows a dance-loving teenager, Tracey Turnblad and she auditions for a place on the Corny Collins show. The play included a section of 1960s style dance, music and downtown rhythm blues; this allowed the audience to be drawn to the 1960’s style. There was an impressive vocal performance by one of the characters and they brought an Aretha Franklin style.

​Lastly, Misty displays aspects of musical theatre. The play revolves around a performance by Kene himself that blends comedy, drama, rap alongside reggae, spoken word against visual images, and love versus hate. There was a good use of the two on-stage musicians, one was positioned both sides of the stage and provided a percussion score and sometimes they would play music in the background and the music would be included with other characters. Personal magnetism was created through, the use of rap, gig theatre and instruments. The show was powerful, influential and a pleasure to watch and it’s a voice for people who feel wrongly represented in London culture.

In conclusion, musical theatre is an art form of theatrical performance that has favoured the stages of Broadway using techniques such as songs, dance (or movement), acting and dialogue to create and story and entertain audiences, whereas music theatre is performed as a reactive in which spoken dialogue is supported and translated through the use of music.

Works cited

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5. Gordon, R. (2010). The Oxford Handbook of Music Education (Vol. 2). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195394733.001.0001
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9. Smith, C. R. (2018). The Function of Song in Contemporary British Drama: “The Articulate Sound of Affect”. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93722-1
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