Course Programme (may be subject to some modification)
- The Business of Shows
This class introduces the concept of ‘light’ theatre and the qualities that define it. In particular we'll focus on a trait that has both ensured their survival and prompted critique: their commercial success. Mass appeal is often viewed with suspicion, seen as something which compromises the artistic integrity of a product. In order to take these shows seriously, we have to learn to celebrate profits, as indeed the shows themselves often did, reflecting the priorities of audiences from a wide range of economic backgrounds.
- Gilbert, Sullivan, and Burlesque
One of the complicated aspects of talking about lighter theatre is the profusion of genre labels used to describe different products. These terms were deeply meaningful to the creators, who needed to make sure they had the correct marketing, but they can seem unstable and porous in retrospect. Here we see how Gilbert, Sullivan and D’Oyly Carte navigated the question of what to call their new shows, settling in the end on ‘Savoy Opera’. Even though the term stuck and has deeply influenced their reputation, in practice these products drew heavily on another type of show altogether: the burlesque.
- Show Boat and Broadway
New York is often seen as central to the story of the musical, as indeed its theatrical products often tell us directly. The emergence of Broadway as a theatrical hotspot in the early decades of the twentieth century came against the thrills and contradictions of the Jazz Age. This new variety of American musical modernity was nonetheless tempered by substantial transatlantic exchange, with European products scoring big and influential hits on Broadway. This is the background to Show Boat, a piece which upended all the assumptions about the kinds of stories that a musical could tell.
- Cabaret, Kabarett, Revue
Here we turn our attention to the ways in which lighter entertainments might engage in political subject matter, and how this might change depending on the time and place. Within the intimate venue of a Cabaret (or the German equivalent, a Kabarett), audiences could expect musical satires of the latest headlines. In difficult circumstances, such as the Weimar Republic, these satires might gain the kind of angry edge that could cut to the bone.
- Crossovers/Halfways
Creators have often sought to create hybrids between different types of theatrical production. These pieces can have difficult afterlives, struggling to fit into the systems of marketing and performance that were built on clear-cut categories. However, some kinds of crossover fare better than others, and issues of status may be relevant. Critics might spill gallons of ink on musical/opera hybrids, trying to determine which side they really fall on, but musical/rock and musical/pop hybrids mostly pass unremarked, and now form central categories for the musical theatre experience.
- Socialist Realist Operetta, Industrial Musical
Operetta and musical comedy have often thrived in unexpected circumstances. The Soviet Union could have objected to the forms altogether, based as they were on ‘bourgeois’ principles and musical styles. In practice, they could not resist genres which the masses demonstrably loved, and compromise products emerged to cater to political circumstances. On the other side of the Iron Curtain, American companies were producing their own shows as entertainment and inspiration for their workers. Often created by the top artists of the day, these private products suggest that the two sides of the Cold War were not as separate as they might have seemed at the time.
- Sondheim and/or Lloyd Webber
Status distinctions don’t just come between genres but also within them. Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber are both (in different ways) credited with revolutionising musical theatre in the second half of the twentieth century. However, they generate very different responses from critics and audiences, stemming from their different training, different approaches to music and drama, and different target markets. In principle one need not choose between them, but many people do and insist that the decision matters, in ways that have long-standing historical precedents.
- Shows on Screen (and Back)
Film has been an essential medium for musical products ever since the invention of synchronised sound in the 1920s. American cinema was highly shaped by the Hayes Code, setting out what was and was not acceptable to show to the public, with consequences that lasted most of the way through the century. The constant traffic backwards and forwards between screen and stage also created opportunities and challenges for artists, especially around the issue of adaptation. Cuts, reorganisations, and rewritings made these shifts possible, showing important responses to the changing cultural landscape around them.
- Mental Health in Musicals
The fact that new musicals appear all the way through the twentieth century to the present day makes them an exciting resource with which to track changes in broader society. This (somewhat experimental!) class looks at how musicals depict issues to do with what we would now describe as ‘mental health’, indeed even showing the point where the topic meaningfully comes into existence. What changes over time? What do different markets want from this topic in the 21st century?
- Genre Beyond Borders
The final class draws together some of the threads that run through the rest of the course, especially to do with fluidity. These shows went through a mindboggling range of changes, reworkings, adaptations, translations, and reformatting, always being tailored to new environments. What to make of queer panto? Ballet adaptations of operetta? Netflix musicals? This diverse history suggests that fluidity ought to be central to our definitions of these forms, more so than the technical distinctions which might seem to set them apart from each.
Gaiety, glitz, glamour: the thrills of ‘light’ theatre have proved a winning formula in so many times and places. These shows have consistently delighted the masses, reaching audiences and profits that more high-minded products such as opera can only dream of. With such high rewards available, the types and formats have proliferated, catering to every taste.
Dr Bruno Bower is a lively and enthusiastic tutor whose love of music is infectious. He is a musicologist, performer, composer, and music editor, as well as a highly experienced teacher. He has taught at Cambridge University, University of Surrey, Brunel University, and the Royal College of Music, and his innovative teaching methods have been recognised by Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. Alongside his courses at Imperial, he currently teaches at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.