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All material copyright Yellowbrick
Publications 2008
On
this site you will find musical plays, play scripts, comedy
play scripts, musical scores and backing tracks. Our material
is available in a number of formats either to download instantly
(in PDF, MP3 or WAV) or to order in printed copy. Popular
plays abound, such as Peter Pan, Robin Hood, Snow White, Cinderella,
Ali Baba, Treasure
Island ,
The Wind in the Willows, Puss in Boots, Dick Whittington,
King Arthur and many more. Whether you are looking for a school
play script or a new comedy for a professional production,
there is something on this site for everybody.
Interesting Musical
Theater Facts:
The three main components of a musical are the music, the lyrics,
and the book. The book of a musical refers to the story of the
show – in effect its spoken (not sung) lines; however,
"book" can also refer to the dialogue and lyrics together, which
are sometimes referred to (as in opera) as the libretto (Italian
for “little book”). The music and lyrics together
form the score of the musical. The interpretation of the musical
by the creative team heavily influences the way that the musical
is presented. The creative team includes a director, a musical
director and usually a choreographer. A musical's production
is also creatively characterized by technical aspects, such
as set, costumes, stage properties, lighting, etc. that generally
change from production to production (although some famous production
aspects tend to be retained from the original production, for
example, Bob Fosse's choregraphy in Chicago). The 20th century
"book musical" has been defined as a musical play where the
songs and dances are fully integrated into a well-made story,
with serious dramatic goals, that is able to evoke genuine emotions
other than laughter.[2] There is no fixed length for a musical,
and it can range from a short one-act entertainment to several
acts and several hours in length (or even a multi-evening presentation);
however, most musicals range from one and a half hours to three
hours. Musicals today are typically presented in two acts, with
one intermission ten to 20 minutes in length. The first act
is almost always somewhat longer than the second act, and generally
introduces most of the music. A musical may be built around
4-6 main theme tunes that are reprised throughout the show,
or consist of a series of songs not directly musically related.
Spoken dialogue is generally interspersed between musical numbers,
although the use of "sung dialogue" orrecitative is not unknown,
especially in so-called "sung-through" musicals such as Les
Misérables and Evita. A Gaiety Girl (1893) was one of the first
hit musicals. Musical theatre is closely related to another
theatrical performance art, opera. These forms are usually distinguished
by weighing a number of factors. Musicals generally have a greater
focus on spoken dialogue (though some musicals are entirely
accompanied and sung through, such asJesus Christ Superstar
and Les Misérables; and on the other hand some operas, such
as Die Zauberflöte, and most operettas, have some unaccompanied
dialogue), on dancing (particularly by the principal performers
as well as the chorus), on the use of various genres of popular
music (or at least popular singing styles), and on the avoidance
of certain operatic conventions. In particular, a musical is
almost never performed in any but the language of its audience.
Musicals produced in London or New York, for instance, are invariably
sung in English, even if they were originally written in another
language (again, Les Misérables, originally written in French,
is a good example). While an opera singer is primarily a singer
and only secondarily an actor (and rarely needs to dance at
all), a musical theatre performer is usually an actor first
and then a singer and dancer. Someone who is equally accomplished
at all three is referred to as a "triple threat". Composers
of music for musicals often consider the vocal demands of roles
with musical theatre performers in mind, and theatres staging
musicals generally use amplification of the actors' singing
voices in a way that would normally be disapproved of in an
operatic context. Some works (e.g. by Leonard Bernstein and
Stephen Sondheim) have received both "musical theatre" and "operatic"
productions. Similarly, some older operettas or light operas
(such as The Pirates of Penzance byGilbert and Sullivan) have
had modern productions or adaptations that treat them as musicals.Sondheim
said: "I really think that when something plays Broadway it's
a musical, and when it plays in an opera house it's opera. That's
it. It's the terrain, the countryside, the expectations of the
audience that make it one thing or another."[3] This article
primarily concerns musical theatre works that are distinctively
"non-operatic", but there inescapably remains some overlap between
lighter operatic forms and the more musically complex or ambitious
musicals: a grey area, in which production styles are almost
as important as actual musical or dramatic content in defining
into which art form the piece falls. In isolation, at least,
none of these features is truly "defining", and in practice
it is often difficult to distinguish among the various kinds
of light musical theatre, including "operetta", "comic opera",
"light opera", "burletta", "musical play", "musical comedy",
"extravaganza", "burlesque", "music hall" and "revue". A "book"
musical's moments of greatest dramatic intensity are often performed
in song. Proverbially, "when the emotion becomes too strong
for speech (or recitative) you sing; when it becomes too strong
for song, you dance." A song is ideally crafted to suit the
character (or characters) and their situation within the story;
although there have been times in the history of the musical
(e.g. the 1890s and 1920s) when this integration between music
and story has been tenuous. As New York Times critic Ben Brantley
described the ideal of song in theatre in reviewing the 2008
revival of Gypsy, "There is no separation at all between song
and character, which is what happens in those uncommon moments
when musicals reach upward to achieve their ideal reasons to
be."[4] A musical often opens with a song that sets the tone
of the show, introduces some or all of the major characters,
and shows the setting of the play. Within the compressed nature
of the musical, the writers must develop the characters and
the plot. Music provides a means to express emotion. However,
typically, many fewer words are sung in a five-minute song than
are spoken in a five-minute block of dialogue. Therefore there
is less time to develop drama than in a straight play of equivalent
length, since a musical usually devotes more time to music than
to dialogue. The material for musicals is often original, but
many musicals are adapted from novels (Wicked and Man of La
Mancha), plays (Hello, Dolly!), classic legends (Camelot), historical
events (Evita) or films (The Producers and Hairspray). On the
other hand, many familiar musical theatre works have been the
basis for musical films, such as The Sound of Music, West Side
Story, My Fair Lady, Beauty and the Beast and Chicago. India
produces numerous musical films, referred to as "Bollywood"
musicals, and Japan produces Anime-style musicals. Another recent
genre of musicals, called "jukebox musicals" (Mamma Mia!), weaves
a popular artist's songs into a story.
Source: www.wikipedia.com
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