Musical Theatre

AMERICAN MUSICAL

The american musical was first adapted by the already popular worldwide artform of opera. The american musical is described often and categorized as a production set on a stage in front of an audience of viewers, much like that of a play, actors and actresses act throughout the scenes of a story, while also having a song and musical dance acquired through each scene, sometimes more than one in a single scene. American musicals first began to appear in the 1800's in mainstream and soon became a very popular art form throughout the entire country especially with the capital of the world being New York City and the development of musicals on broadway. With many great musicals from such innovators in the musical field as Roger & Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, The Sound of Music, The King And I, as well as newer generation such as Godspell, Grease and Damn Yankees.

-What is it like to see a musical theatre performance?

When viewing a musical theatre performance the room is usually shaped for a stage with one in front of the viewers, the musical usually starts off with a large number as an introduction into the story to see all the characters, or sometimes it is used to jump right into the middle of a story with no explanation other than what you are witnessing, theyre is a great deal of use of the lights, many colors and many motions all over the stage in order to brighten everything, the sound and speakers are going from slow to sometimes concert-hall type songs for each of the song's moods, most of the time people dance on and off the stage as they sing, curtains are either used to cover the backstage people to switch scenery and props around or they are not used and the lights are just turned out momentarily. Musicals are also alot more bright and attractive than regular plays due to the singing and moving around of people.

AMERICAN MUSICAL

FACTS