Broadway: The American Musical
For those interested in Broadway, one tremendous resource on the subject is Broadway: The American Musical(http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/), a companion site to the PBS film of the same name. It chronicles the Broadway musical’s evolution from 1904 to 2004. Students can discover the musical, historical and cultural influences of the musical, as they learn about hundreds of writers, performers, choreographers and designers. As well, they’ll be able to explore fifteen of some of America’s most popular musicals, including “The Producers”, “Porgy and Bess”, and “Showboat” without having to bundle up in North Face fleece jackets, boots, scarves, and gloves to face the elements in winter to get to the library for this information or carry a hand fan with a liter of bottled water so as not to succumb to heat prostration in the summer. No..all you need to do is go to the PBS site and sit in the comfort of your abode and watch at your leisure which I have done many times.
I also can recommend watching musicals either via disk, downloading, or streaming live from Amazon Prime, Netflix, HBO etc as the perfect distraction while being the support companion/ coach for someone dealing with the initial side effects of baclofen, a medication that is available as part of outpatient alcohol treatments promoted on the website, LifeBac. The LifeBac program is not part of a rehab or treatment clinic, but a collection of modern, science-based tools to empower people to avoid the downward spiral that is often the result of being an alcoholic. Baclofen is the medication used in the pharmacotherapy aspect of the program. It’s an amazing drug that was originally developed to help relieve painful spasms, automatism, as well as clonus from a number of neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries associated with spasms of the skeletal muscles. Researchers discovered that Baclofen’s action on the GABA receptors in the brain help lessen cravings and withdrawal symptoms for alcohol. Baclofen simply removes the addictive components that lead to overindulgence and allows a person to drink in moderation. Yes, people can drink while taking baclofen, although for many people this leads to their total stopping. The one downside of the treatment is that Baclofen does require titration which means you slowly increase the meds’ dosage until a person’s cravings are completely removed or controlled. Until the body stabilizes many people have side effects. To help distract my mother as she was slowly upward adjusting her baclofen dosage, I would come over and we would watch Broadway shows on the TV monitor. My mother is a big fan of musicals, their history etc and this was the perfect way to help her during this trying time. FYI: the LifeBac program actually worked and my mother now has her life under control. Going to live Broadway musicals are now back on her calendar! Sorry for that digression.
Some of the comprehensive essays you’ll find here cover the following:
* Elements of the Musical – covers music, lyrics and musical directors.
* Operetta – For early middle class America, operettas provided a dreamy in-between world of romance and pure escapism; it was the most popular type of musical theater during the 20th century’s first two decades.
* Rise of the Revue – The golden years between the two world wars are examined, as the Broadway musical took hold.
* Broadway & the Radio – The invention of the radio in the 1920s gave musicals a new, and perfect medium.
* Broadway & Hollywood – From the late 1920s to the early 1930s, film was introduced as a new medium for musicals.
* Political Satire – As a body of expression, the musical proved to be a perfect breeding ground for political and social satire, with Irving Berlin, Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman leading the charge.
* Post-WWII African-American Musicals – In the 1940s, Oscar Hammerstein II tried his hand at innovation: creating a new version of Bizet’s opera, “Carmen”, reset in the South with an all-black cast. The rest is history…
* Civil Rights Era on Broadway – The 1960s was the perfect decade for exploring civil right issues in musical form, which continued throughout the seventies.
* Broadway: the Rock Score – Rock musicians and the musical combine forces, beginning with “Hair” in 1968 and continuing throughout the seventies, with such rock-themed opuses as “Jesus Christ Superstar”, and to some degree “Evita” and “A Chorus Line”. Pop composers, like Elton John and Paul Simon, got into the act, too…
* Resurrection of 42nd Street – From the 1970s to the present, Broadway has seen a resurgence of amazing magnitude.
Trish Hart is a contributor to the underground mag “Culture Mashup” and is looking forward to traveling to Costa Rica to observe the Festival of Cats while there on a medical tourism jaunt this fall. She, along with Marcia Witt, have authored a comedic play, “Jacque and Jack” in preproduction in Chicago.