Musical Theatre, Realism and Entertainment
2013; Routledge; Volume: 70; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2769-4046
Autores Tópico(s)Cinema and Media Studies
ResumoMillie Taylor, Musical Theatre, Realism and Entertainment. Basingstoke: Ashgate Studies in Opera Series, 2012. Cloth, 202 pp., $99.95. ISBN 978-0-7546-6670-7 ashgate.comDespite their similarities to opera, musicals are firmly situated in popular culture-in contrast to opera's status as high art. This new book by director and music theater professor Millie Taylor explores what exactly makes music theater so entertaining for audiences. One of the newest additions to the Ashgate series Interdisciplinary Studies in Opera, it is an interesting examination of canonic musicals.Taylor begins by raising concerns about the current discussion of musicals. Music theater works are incredibly diverse, spanning narrative and musical genres-in spite of which, scholarship seems focused on tracking the increase of integration in musicals; that is, works that feature a narrative as the defining feature of the combined musico-dramatic text. Many musicals, however, do not feature a linear narrative, such as The Last Five Years or Cabaret, two of Taylor's notable examples. Moreover, many musicals are performed in revue style, where the musical numbers are not connected to the action (be they diegetic or not), such as early Tin Pan Alley revue musicals and more recent jukebox musicals like Jersey Boys and We Will Rock You. Because these do not fit into the narrative of integration, Taylor offers a new way to talk about musicals, one that seeks to account for all variations of musicals.Taylor begins with more general observations, asking what the music is doing, regardless of the experience of the audience. Specifically, she attends to what is symbolized by the text and vocal range. Her observations from chapter one and two focus on how class is musically portrayed in HMS Pinafore and the mix of jazz-influence and bel canto singing styles of Show Boat, respectively. As the author moves on to more complex examples, her thesis regarding the pleasure of anti-integration musicals becomes clear. Subsequent chapters touch on works that are less and less linear. She begins in chapter three with the example of Sweeney Todd, examining the breaks in the story, where music and plot are interrupted by character interjections or chorus narration, then moves to perhaps the most discussed nonlinear musical: Kurt Weill's Aufsteig und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny. To be sure, in chapter four alone, Taylor does not allow time for a full explication of Brecht's ideas of epic theater, choosing to consider instead on how the music and text play off each other in ironic ways, jolting the audience out of emotional involvement. The rest of chapter four and the whole of chapter five are devoted to descriptions of nonlinear musicals, including the examples offered by Cabaret and Kiss of the Spider Woman, which rely on alternative formats such as montage, collage, or nonlinear time structuring. Taylor builds her argument on conclusions by both neuroscientists and French theorist Roland Barthes that pleasure is had when the brain must synthesize discrete aspects of a performance or text, in this case, the gaps in the narrative.Taylor focuses in the next two chapters on audience experience. Chapters six and seven explicate opposite sides of the spectrum: first, realism (How do audiences forget that they are watching a theatrical piece?), and second, live performance (How do audiences revel in watching a performed piece?). This dichotomy is striking, and here Taylor offers valuable musical description. In the case of West Side Story, rhythmic dialog and instrumental introduction are used to transition from the spoken to the sung, which keeps the shift from being too abrupt for the listener. (In this chapter, she also explains John Doyle's work with actor-musicians, a fascinating postmodern production tactic that has the actors performing on an instrument when they are not singing. …
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