American Musicals

According The Complete Book of Light Opera (1962), the birth of the American Musical dates back to the European burlesque shows and American minstrel shows of the early 19th Century (Lubbock 753). By the end of the 19th Century, however, American production companies were attempting to take advantage of the popularity of such Operettas from overseas as The Mikado and were creating musical shows that were loosely connected by plot or event. So that by the beginning of the 20th Century the American Musical had evolved into the familiar form that combined the American personality with the popular appeal of show stopping tunes and happy endings (Lubbock 753). This paper will compare the American musical, Oklahoma! (1955), with the French musical, Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (The Young Girls of Rochefort) (1968), in particular noting the universality of the American archetype in both musicals.

Oklahoma! (1955), directed by Fred Zimmerman, can now be considered to be one of the musicals that most typifies the American form. The setting is the Indian territories, or Oklahoma, at the turn of the century, when farmers were still vying with ranchers for land use. The story is the typical "boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back" tale of romance between Curly (Gordon McRae) and Laurey (Shirley Jones), with of course a happy ending. Although most musicals tend to have a thin plot that is merely a framework for song and dance pieces, Oklahoma! was the first musical to u

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Category: Arts - A