Category: Musicals

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MUSICALS 1980

The public ruled heavily in favor of the mega-musicals, so the 1980s brought a succession of long-running “Brit hits” to Broadway – Cats, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon were light on intellectual content and heavy on special effects and marketing.

• 1980 Lullaby of Broadway. The first musical super-hit of the 1980s was a musical comedy based on a classic Busby Berkeley film. 42nd Street (1980 – 3,486 performances) re-united producer David Merrick and director Gower Champion. Both had suffered a few failures and very much needed a hit to restore their reputations. The backstage plot about a chorus girl who takes over for the lead actress on opening night (“You’re going out there a nobody, but you’ve got to come back a star!”) was left in place, while the film score was augmented with other vintage songs by composer Harry Warren and lyricist Al Dubin.
• 1981 Woman of the Year (1981 – 770 performances) boasted a fine John Kander- Fred Ebb score and Lauren Bacall in the title role. However, the most memorable thing in this sophisticated musical comedy was Marilyn Cooper, whose mousy housewife character stole the comic duet “The Grass is Always Greener” from the glamorous Bacall.
• 1982 Nine (1982 – 732 performances) – Composer/lyricist Maury Yeston won acclaim with this adaptation of Fellini’s semi-autobiographical film 8 1/2. Tommy Tune’s innovative production cast Raul Julia as an eccentric Italian director trying to make a film while facing his mid-life crisis. Nine won all the major Tonys, including one for Liliane Montevecchi, who stopped the show with a seductive (though barely relevant) paen to the “Folies Bergere.”
• 1982 Little Shop of Horrors (1982 – 2,209 performances) was a hilarious Off-Broadway sci-fi spoof by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman. Based on Roger Corman’s low-budget 1960 film about a man-eating plant from outer space, its fresh score and witty script made the show an immediate hit. It toured the country for years and became a standard part of the musical theatre repertory. The serio-comic ballad “Suddenly Seymour” remained a favorite in piano bars for years to come.
• 1982 Cats. Andrew Lloyd Webber and director Trevor Nunn reshaped the theatrical landscape with Cats (1982 – 7,485 performances), a musical based on T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. They emphasized aerobic dance, high-tech effects and heavy-duty marketing tactics. Cats premiered in London, then came to New York – where it forced 42nd Street out of the Winter Garden and over to the Majestic Theatre. Lloyd Webber was so certain of the show’s success that he co-produced it with Cameron Macintosh, a move which made both men millionaires.  More a revue than a book musical, Cats depicted a gathering of felines in a garbage-strewn alley where one cat will be allowed to ascend (on an oversized hydraulic tire) “the heavy-side layer” – i.e., kitty heaven. The first and last fifteen minutes were so dazzling (thanks to heavy-duty lighting effects and prancing pussies) that few complained about the two tedious hours that yawned in-between. Cats cleaned up at the Tonys, with Best Book going to the long-dead Eliot, and Best Featured Actress going to Betty Buckley as the bedraggled feline Grizzabella.
• 1983 My One and Only (1983 – 767 performances) set vintage songs by George and Ira Gershwin in a new plot about a 1920s romance between an aviator and an aquacade star. The show almost sank in Boston, but star Tommy Tune took over the direction with an assist from A Chorus Line alumni Thommie Walsh. After exhaustive revisions and some rocky New York previews, My One And Only opened to surprise raves. Audiences cheered as Tune and Twiggy splashed through a watery barefoot version of “S’Wonderful,” and legendary tap star Charles “Honi” Coles won a Tony as the whimsical “Mr Magix.” After almost two years on Broadway, it proved even more popular on national tour. número conjunt, Honi Coles
• 1983 La Cage Aux Folles, Jerry Herman was a defiantly old-fashioned book musical that broke new ground by focusing on a gay couple dealing with their son’s marriage into a bigoted politician’s family. Playwright Harvey Fierstein provided a hilarious book, and Arthur Laurents helmed one of the most entertaining musicals Broadway had seen in years. Numerous Tony awards (including Best Musical and Best Score) ended years of creative frustration for Herman, the composer of Hello Dolly and Mame. George Hearn won a well-deserved Tony for his performance as the loveable drag queen Albin, and won cheers with his renditions of “I Am What I Am” and “The Best of Times is Now.”
• 1984 Sunday In the Park With George, Stephen Sondheim’s took an innovative look at the commercial and emotional challenges of being an artist, starring Many Patinkin as pointillist painter Georges Seurat and Bernadette Peters as his lover Dot. The action then switched to modern times, with Seurat’s grandson facing the same issues while an aging Dot looks on. Audiences cheered for a breathtaking first act finale that recreated Seurat’s “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grand Jatte” while the cast sang the ravishing chorale “Sunday.”

 

The other “Brit hits” of this decade were all brand new. Relying on pop rhythms, stage hydraulics and high-tech special effects, these shows came to be known as mega-musicals. In these behemoths, substance took a backseat to spectacle, and occasional hints of humor were buried in oceans of soap opera sentiment. Although these tech-heavy presentations came with a high price tag, the best mega-musicals ran for decades, selling tickets to millions of people — particularly tourists who had long since fallen out of the habit of going to the theatre.

• 1984 Starlight Express, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s  was a tremendous hit in London (1984 – 3000+ performances), with hydraulic ramps that allowed roller-skating actors to careen through the Apollo Victoria Theatre. It fared less well on Broadway (1987 – 761 performances), where critics dismissed it as a minor children’s show blown out of proportion. No one really cared who was in the cast. For the first time since the Hippodrome shows of the early 1900s, it was all about the spectacle. But Starlight Express did well on tour, enjoyed a long run in Las Vegas, and was revived with tremendous success in London.
• 1985 Les miserablesThe French team of Claude-Michel Schonberg & Alain Boubil first offered their musical version of Victor Hugo s epic novel Les Miserables as a recording, then as a Parisian stage spectacle, with a sung-through score that sounded like a pop version of grand opera. British producer Cameron Mackintosh became involved, teaming with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Cats director Trevor Nunn to revamp it into an international sensation. Mackintosh brought Les Miserables to the West End (1985 – London), Broadway (1987 NY – 6,680 performances), and most of the other cities in the civilized world. The English translation was no work of art, but the strong plot and hydraulic sets wowed most theatergoers. The logo, with little, bedraggled Cosette set against the French tri-color, became familiar on every imaginable sort of souvenir – including pricey re-prints of Hugo’s novel.
• 1988 The Phantom o fthe Opera. The following season brought Andrew Lloyd Webber s The Phantom of the Opera (1988 – 11,000+ performances, still running), with the composer and Cameron Mackintosh co-producing. The lush score featured uninspired, babbling lyrics set to lush pop-operetta melodies, and an ending that departed completely from Gaston Leroux’s classic novel. Harold Prince’s lavish production made the show another triumph of form over function. Broadway audiences did not mind paying a record-setting $45 a ticket when they could see the money on stage in scene after lavish scene. Stellar performances by Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman helped.

Pressed for new ideas, but as the 1980s ended, two Broadway musicals broke through to popular success:

• 1989 Grand Hotel (1989 – 1,077 performances) was a resurrected George Forrest & Robert Wright project that had closed on the road in 1958. Based on the classic novel, play and MGM film, it told of the intertwined fates of guests at a posh Berlin hotel in the early 1930s. To the dismay of the original composers, director Tommy Tune called in Nine’s Maury Yeston to replace about half of the score. The revised show got mixed reviews, but a combination of limited competition, good word of mouth and strong marketing kept the show running for several years. Big-name cast replacements – including screen dance legend Cyd Charisse – helped make Grand Hotel the first American musical since La Cage Aux Folles to top 1,000 performances on Broadway.
• 1989 City of Angels (1989 – 878 performances) won the 1989 Tony for Best Musical thanks to an occasionally hilarious Larry Gelbart libretto about a screenwriter interacting with the fictional characters in his latest script. The Cy Coleman-David Zippel score was pleasant, but some of the songs echoed numbers from previous Coleman shows — and the tech-heavy production (including computer animation sequences) left little room for profit.

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FILM 1980

Several big-budget screen musicals lost millions in the early 1980s, leaving behind a litany of titles that still cause heads to shake in Hollywood. Some were hopelessly bad ideas, but two were stage hits demolished by acclaimed directors who simply had no idea how to film a musical: Can’t Stop the Music (1980) featured the Village People, a posse of non-singing celebrities, a disco score and a production that repeatedly overstepped the line between camp and sheer idiocy. Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982) was a hit with a limited audience, but this series of rock songs was more a precursor of music videos than a musical. Legendary dramatic director John Huston decided to try his hand at musicals, turning the international stage smash Annie (1982) into a costly embarrassment. He had beloved comedienne Carol Burnett play Miss Hannigan as a hateful, humorless villain, just one of several serious misjudgments. Sir Richard Attenborough’s adaptation of A Chorus Line (1985) drained every ounce of inspiration from one of the most dynamic Broadway musicals of its time.

• 1980 Jim Henson’s Muppets had been entertaining Americans on television since the 1950s, winning their greatest acclaim on Sesame Street and The Muppet Show (1976-81). By 1980, the Muppets could claim an audience of 235 million viewers in over 100 countries. Henson took things a step further and brought the Muppets to the big screen, with the most successful new screen couple since Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. That the couple in question was a frog and a pig only added to their appeal.
  The Muppet Movie (1979) featured the loveable frog Kermit and the irrepressible Miss Piggy as the romantic leads. It was an international success and the song “Rainbow Connection” became a standard. Two more Muppet musicals followed. The Great Muppet Caper (1981) and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) did well, appealing to both kids and adults with a stylish blend of comedy, melody and sentiment. Henson focused his energies on non-musical fantasy films until his untimely death in 1990. His son Brian directed a new series of successful musicals including The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) and The Muppet Treasure Island (1996).
• 1982 Victor/Victoria (1982) was the best original screen musical since Gigi. It told the story of “a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman” in the nightclubs of Paris in the 1930s. That the film dealt with the touchy issue of sexual identity made its success all the more remarkable. Director Blake Edwards (best remembered for his Pink Panther films) provided a witty screenplay and memorable visual gags. Even without songs, Victor/Victoria would have been a first-rate comedy, but a wonderful score by composer Henry Mancini and lyricist Leslie Bricusse made the film all the grander. Julie Andrews (Edwards’ wife) provided the star power, giving one of the funniest performances of her career. From the uproarious “Le Jazz Hot” to the introspective “Crazy World,” she was in top form. When Robert Preston joined Andrews for “You and Me” or took center screen for an uproarious drag finale, the result was pure magic. This marked the final musical screen roles for both stars, It was also the last great live-action musical film of the 20th Century.
• 1989 The Little Mermaid (1989) was the finest animated musical in decades. The classic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale was given a Disney twist with singing sea creatures, a spunky title heroine and a humanoid octopus as the evil witch. Ashman and Menken’s score had a lush, traditional Broadway sound, and seasoned stage performers were brought in to make the most of every number. The ballad “Part of Your World” was worthy of any stage hit, and “Under the Sea” was the bounciest old-school “showstopper” in a generation. Disney’s Little Mermaid became the surprise hit of the year, grossing over 100 million dollars — and several times that figure when it hit home video. It received Oscars for Best Song (“Under the Sea”) and Best Original Score, won Grammys for its best-selling soundtrack CD, and inspired a successful animated TV series. Ashman and Menken were given the go ahead for more projects. Their efforts would make animated musicals one of the most profitable genres in the decade ahead.

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MUSICALS 1990

En general res remarcable, per un cop el món al revés i The Lion King procedent del cinema va triomfar.

By the 1990s, new mega-musicals were no longer winning the public, and costs were so high that even long-running hits (Crazy for You, Sunset Boulevard) were unable to turn a profit on Broadway. New stage musicals now required the backing of multi-million dollar corporations to develop and succeed – a trend proven by Disney’s Lion King, and Livent’s Ragtime. Even Rent and Titanic were fostered by smaller, Broadway-based corporate entities.

• 1996 Rent is a rock musical with music, lyrics, and book by Jonathan Larson,[1] loosely based on Giacomo Puccini’s 1896 opera La Bohème. It tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists struggling to survive and create a life in Lower Manhattan’s East Village in the thriving days of bohemian Alphabet City, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. The musical was first seen in a workshop production at New York Theatre Workshop in 1993. This same off-Broadway theatre was also the musical’s initial home following its official 1996 opening. The show’s creator, Jonathan Larson, died suddenly of an aortic dissection, believed to have been caused by undiagnosed Marfan syndrome, the night before the off-Broadway premiere. The musical moved to Broadway’s larger Nederlander Theatre on April 29, 1996. On Broadway, Rent gained critical acclaim and won several awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Musical. The Broadway production closed on September 7, 2008, after 12 years, making it one of the longest-running shows on Broadway.

Revivals de Chicago, Kiss me Kate i Cabaret

• 1996 Bring in Da’ Noise, Bring in Da’ Funk, The most successful black musical of the decade used a series of contemporary tap numbers to look dramatize and reflect on the history of Africans in America. The score was new, but the key issue was the dancing, which expressed every emotion from despair to rage to triumph. Savion Glover headed a spitfire cast and received a Tony for his groundbreaking choreography.
• 1997 Titanic. The best musicals of the late 1990s came from corporate producers that aimed for artistic integrity as well as profit. Composer/lyricist Maury Yeston (Nine, Grand Hotel) and librettist Peter Stone (1776), had built their reputations on making unlikely projects sing. When their Titanic (1997 – 804 performances) sailed off with five Tonys, including Best Musical, the theatrical community was shocked. The best new American musical in over a decade, it put creative aspects ahead of the marketing concerns. Over a dozen key characters were defined through songs which invoked various period or ethnic styles: the hopeful immigrants dreaming of life “In America,” the arrogance of the rich exclaiming “What a Remarkable Age This Is,” and the elderly Isador & Ida Strauss reaffirming that they “Still” love each other as they face death. A stronger director or solo producer might have sharpened the dramatic focus, but corporate thinking let matters lie. Whatever its imperfections, Titanic deserved its success.
• 1998 Ragtime (1998 – 861 performances) was another example of the corporate musical at its best, thanks to a spectacular score by American composers Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. The epic story told of a crumbling white middle class family, a black musician seeking justice, and a Jewish immigrant fulfilling the American dream for himself an his child. As with Titanic, a huge cast of characters was brought into focus by a score that invoked musical styles from the early 20th century and a book that wove disparate lives into a common pattern – the concept musical blown up to epic proportions. Ragtime was not afraid to use satire (“Crime of the Century”) or raunchy humor (“What A Game”) along with soaring chorales, ballads and rags. When Brian Stokes Mitchell (as musician Coalhouse Walker) and Audra McDonald (as his beloved Sarah) sang of how they would ride into the future “On the Wheels of a Dream,” it was pure, potent musical theatre. Though overproduced and under-directed, Ragtime was a musical with brains, heart, and a touch of courage.

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FILMS 1990

Poca cosa, a part d’Evita (1996)amb Madonna i Antonio Banderas (que cantava força bé), i un refregit de clàssics de Tin Pan Alley per Woody Allen,  Everyone Says I Love You.(1996).
The long-delayed screen version of Evita (1996), stylishly directed by Alan Parker, starred Madonna (who proved to be no actress) but was stolen by the surprisingly good singing of Antonio Banderas.

Els musicals seran de dibuixos de Disney:

• 1991 Beauty and the Beast was one of the best musical films ever made. The screenplay by Linda Woolverton made Belle a gutsy heroine, and the Beast became more touching than in any previous version of the classic tale. The Howard Ashman and Alan Menken score was worthy of Broadway, performed by a cast of voices that included Angela Lansbury as a teapot and Jerry Orbach as a Chevalier-esque candelabra. Standout numbers included the hilarious spoof of masculinity “Gaston,” the Busby Berkley-style “Be Our Guest” and the endearing title tune. When the unfinished Beauty and the Beast was previewed at the New York Film Festival, the audience responded with a wild standing ovation. Many (including this author) were overwhelmed to see musical film looking as big and lovable as ever, and heartbroken that lyricist Howard Ashman had not lived to see it happen. His death from AIDS a few weeks before had silenced a genius just reaching his creative peak. If anyone could have guaranteed that musicals would thrive into the 21st Century, it was Ashman. Beauty and the Beast won the musical Oscars (Best Song went to the title tune), and was even nominated for Best Picture. It earned hundreds of millions of dollars in worldwide box office sales, a figure that further skyrocketed when the film became available on home video. It became the first Disney film adapted into a smash hit Broadway show, running well into the next century and recreating its success in productions all over the world. At a time when stage musicals were in a serious decline, Beauty and the Beast proved that the musical could live on profitably in animated films.
• 1992 Aladdin Ashman had partially completed one more project with Menken. Lyricist Tim Rice helped to finish Aladdin (1992), which was even more of a box office sensation than Beauty. Robin Williams gave an inspired performance as the voice of the Genie, singing the Ashman & Menken showstoppers “Friend Like Me” and “Prince Ali.” In what was becoming a tradition, the Rice/Menken ballad “A Whole New World” received the Academy Award for Best Song.
  1994 The Lion King with a pop-style score by Tim Rice and Elton John and a story that mixed Hamlet with a generous dash of Bambi. Broadway clowns Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella sang the lighthearted “Hakuna Matata,” and many loved the soaring chorale “Circle of Life,” but the Oscar-winning score was otherwise mediocre. Even so, The Lion King became the highest grossing musical film ever, and its 1997 Broadway adaptation became one of the biggest stage hits of all time.
• 1995 Pocahontas, Alan Menken teamed up with veteran Broadway lyricist Stephen Schwartz. It won Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best song (“Colors of the Wind”), but many felt that the film took itself too seriously.
• 1996 The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Menken & Schwartz did not receive any Oscars but damn well should have. “Out There” and “God Help the Outcasts” were first rate songs, and the opening sequence was a masterpiece of musical narrative. Although the dark Victor Hugo story seemed a surprising choice for an animated musical, Hunchback was the most mature animated musical yet. Parents who thought nothing of letting their children see blood-drenched action films complained that Hunchback was “too intense.” (Go figure!) Despite limited domestic attendance in the US, Hunchback brought in over a hundred million dollars in worldwide box office and video sales – proving that America is not always the most perceptive audience for great animated musicals.
• 1999 South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999) – an independent animated feature that would have left Walt Disney’s ghost quivering in disbelief. Based on a popular cable television series, this foul-mouthed, artistically primitive and altogether brilliant satire spoofed obscene pop lyrics, overprotective parents, and the widespread obsession with blaming others for one’s problems. When American children start spewing profanities, their parents “Blame Canada” and the United States goes to war with its northern neighbor. Some of the songs were so explicit that several cannot be quoted (or even named) on this family-friendly site, but the score was one of the funniest ever used in a feature film. A few viewers found the film offensive, but it proved that screen musicals could still entertain. It also proved that animated musicals are not just for tots.

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MUSICALS 00

As the 20th century ended, the musical theatre was in an uncertain state, relying on rehashed numbers (Fosse) and stage versions of old movies (Footloose, Saturday Night Fever), as well as the still-running mega-musicals of the previous decade. But starting in the year 2000, a new resurgence of American musical comedies took Broadway by surprise. The Producers, Urinetown, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Hairspray — funny, melodic and inventively staged, these hit shows offered new hope for the genre.

[ Altres Witches Eastwick d’Andrew Lloyd Weber, Hairspray, Wicked, Jersey Boys sobre Franki VAlli, Woman in white

• 2001 The Producers is a musical adapted by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan from Brooks’s 1967 film of the same name, with lyrics written by Brooks and music composed by Brooks and arranged by Glen Kelly and Doug Besterman. As in the film, the story concerns two theatrical producers who scheme to get rich by fraudulently overselling interests in a Broadway flop. Complications arise when the show unexpectedly turns out to be successful. The humor of the show draws on ridiculous accents, caricatures of homosexuals and Nazis, and many show business in-jokes. After 33 previews, the original Broadway production opened at the St. James Theatre on April 19, 2001, starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, and ran for 2,502 performances, winning a record-breaking 12 Tony Awards. It spawned a successful West End production running for just over two years, national tours in the US and UK, many productions worldwide and a 2005 film version.
• 2003 Never Gonna Dance, revival de Swing Time
• 2003 Taboo (originalment a Londres, música de Boy George)
• 2010 Adams Family
• 2011 Book of the Mormon
• 2015 An American in Paris
• 2015 Hamilton, incorpora el rap a una història sobre un dels fundadors dels Estats Units.

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FILMS 2000

2001 Moulin Rouge. Rent (2005) and The Producers (2005) made their way to the big screen with most of their original Broadway cast members on hand, but the results were missing most of the magic of the original stage versions. Rent cost a modest $40 million and grossed $31 million — the more lavish Producers cost $45 million and grossed a pathetic $19 million.

What lies ahead in the future? It’s hard to say, but there will most assuredly be new musicals. The musical may go places some of its fans will not want to follow, but the form will live on so long as people like a story told with songs.

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MUSICALS 1970

Composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and director Hal Prince refocused the genre in the 1970s by introducing concept musicals – shows built around an idea rather than a traditional plot. Company (1970), Follies (1972) and A Little Night Music (1973) succeeded, while rock musicals quickly faded into the background. The concept musical peaked with A Chorus Line (1974), conceived and directed by Michael Bennett. No, No, Nanette (1973) initiated a slew of popular 1970s revivals, but by decade’s end the battle line was drawn between serious new works (Sweeney Todd) and heavily commercialized British mega-musicals (Evita).

• 1971 Jesus Christ Superstar. Broadway’s first full-fledged rock opera came from two British newcomers, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and librettist Tim Rice. . began life as a best-selling British studio recording. The intriguing premise was to examine the role popular fame played in Christ’s fate. At times fresh and impertinent, and ponderous at others, JCS was a world away from the rock musicals of the late 1960s. With all dialogue set to music, this work qualified as the first rock opera.
• 1972 Grease won America’s heart with a 1950s rock n’ roll pastiche score and a hokey story about white trash high school kids finding friendship and romance (“rama lama lama, ka dingy dee ding dong!”) during their senior year. It had enough low comedy, coarse language and general goodwill to entertain millions. After opening to good reviews at the Eden Theatre on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the show soon moved to Broadway, becoming the most commercially successful 1970s rock musical.
• 1972 Pippin used the story of Charlemagne’s forgotten son as a flimsy excuse to examine jealousy, sex, war, sex, love, sex, life, sex . . . and sex. When composer Stephen Schwartz disagreed with changes made to his score, Fosse barred him from rehearsals and made more changes. Thanks to Fosse’s erotically charged choreography and teasing TV ad, Pippin ran long and toured far. Critics complained about the uneven book, but Ben Vereen scored a personal triumph as the show’s sensuous narrator, and John Rubenstein – who introduced Schwartz’s ballad “Corner of the Sky” – charmed audiences in the title role.
• In time, Broadway producers and theatre-goers turned against rock. This may have been at least partly because of personal musical tastes, but mainly because too many rock musicals were amateurish embarrassments. Few rock composers had a clue as to how to write a coherent musical, or how to give a raw idea professional polish. Composer Galt MacDermot had succeeded with Hair and Two Gentlemen of Verona, but his shortcomings as a craftsman became apparent when he penned two expensive disasters that opened within weeks of each other.
  Five years after his bitter experience working as lyricist on Do I Hear A Waltz (1965 – 220 performances), Stephen Sondheim returned to Broadway as a composer/lyricist. He formed a creative partnership with producer/director Harold Prince, and the duo saw their innovative concept musicals become the most acclaimed hits of the early 1970s. They worked with a series of librettists on shows built around a “concept” (ie – single life vs. marriage, historic culture clashes, bittersweet reunions, etc.). Through this central issue, each show examined numerous interrelated characters and relationships. Sondheim and Prince were assisted in their first two efforts by choreographer Michael Bennett, who would independently create the most successful concept musical of all.
• 1975 A chorus line. The concept musical reached its peak with A Chorus Line (1975 – 6,137 performances), the brainchild of Michael Bennett. He had Broadway chorus dancers (known in the business as “gypsies” because they migrate from show to show) share memories while a tape recorder ran. Working with these tapes, Bennett built a libretto with writers Nicholas Dante and James Kirkwood. Concurrently, composer Marvin Hamlisch and lyricist Edward Kleban developed a vibrant score. The concept involved a Broadway chorus audition where a director demands that his dancers share their private memories and inner demons. Some dismissed this as staged group therapy, but most found the results riveting. A Chorus Line glorified the individual fulfillment that can be found in ensemble efforts. When the entire cast sang of being “One” while dancing and singing in rigid group formation, the effect was dazzling. Veteran chorus dancers Donna McKechnie, Carol Bishop and Sammy Williams won Tonys, as did the entire creative team. A Chorus Line’s popularity crossed all lines of age and musical taste, smashing every other long-run record in Broadway history. Many who came of age during its run dubbed it the best musical ever.
• 1975 Chicago, Fosse’s sexy choreography was also evident in the saga of two 1920s flappers seeking fame through marital homicide. This concept musical cast a cynical, merciless spotlight on social hypocrisy and media-based celebrity. Fosse helped shape the libretto, staged the scenes as a series of vaudeville-style acts. Gwen Verdon (in her final musical role) and Chita Rivera were the stellar killers, and Jerry Orbach played their “razzle dazzle” attorney. The John Kander and Fred Ebb score offered a parade of showstoppers, including “All That Jazz.” One of the most brilliant and biting musicals Broadway would ever produce, Chicago was overshadowed by the success of A Chorus Line (discussed on the next page of this site) and did not win a single Tony. It took a 1996 Broadway revival and a 2002 film version to bring this masterwork the popularity it deserved.
• 1976 Annie, Both critics and audiences melted for a shamelessly old-fashioned musical inspired by the comic strip Little Orphan Annie. It told how a penniless tyke met and captured the heart of billionaire Daddy Warbucks, finding love, adventure and a loveable mutt named Sandy along the way. Newcomer Andrea McArdle gave a disarming performance as the title orphan in search of “Tomorrow,” and Dorothy Loudon copped the Tony with a hilarious performance as Miss Hannigan, the harried orphanage director who has come to loathe “Little Girls” and wants to enjoy life on “Easy Street.” Composer Charles Strouse, lyricist Martin Charnin and librettist Thomas Meehan made Annie’s success seem deceptively simple, but it was so skillfully written and produced that few could follow in its creative footsteps. This multiple Tony winner became an international sensation, proving that the traditional musical could still win audiences. Annie was the first Broadway musical to gross over $100 million, astounding for a show which opened with orchestra seats at a mere $16. (Note: By the time it closed six years later, the same seats went for $45.)
• 1978 With Dancin’ Fosse took concept shows a step further and dispensed with a script and original score, building an entire evening of unrelated dance sequences around nothing more than a gifted cast, a title and pre-existing, non-theatrical musical sources like Benny Goodman’s jazz classic “Sing, Sing, Sing.” Alan Jay Lerner wired Fosse, “Congratulations. You finally did it. You got rid of the author, ” but the public and critics adored the results, making this one of Fosse’s most profitable productions. With demanding choreography that small theatre companies and amateurs could never hope to recreate, Dancin’ had almost no life beyond its Broadway run and national tour.
• 1978 The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas was inspired by the real-life political shenanigans that forced the closing of an infamous bordello. It became lasting hit thanks to Tommy Tune’s energetic staging, a bawdy libretto, and some catchy country-style tunes by Carol Hall. TV ads for the show had to bleep out the word “whore” in the title to meet federal broadcast standards — but as a lyric put it, there was “nuthin’ dirty goin’ on,” and audiences embraced the show.
• In musical theatre, revivals had been commonplace ever since the repeated success of the The Black Crook in the late 19th Century. But as an epidemic of nostalgia swept through American culture in the 1970s, theatergoers embraced revivals with unprecedented enthusiasm. Shows and stars of the past appealed to the growing number of older tourists who felt alienated by the cultural changes taking place around them — changes all too apparent in the increasingly harsh environment of midtown Manhattan. The surprise hit that set the nostalgia trend rolling on Broadway was a revival of 1925’s No, No, Nanette (1971 – 861 performances). Ain’t Misbehavin’ (1978 – 1,604 performances) revitalized the revue format with an all-black cast in beguiling vignettes built around songs either written or performed by jazz legend Fats Waller. Created by lyricist/director Richard Maltby, it brought stardom to rotund comedienne Nell Carter. She and Maltby won Tonys, and the show received the the award for Best Musical.

Canvis: It’s not so much that the public disapproved of these well-written but imperfect shows. Most Americans were not paying attention to the musical theatre anymore. Rock and disco were the predominant sounds in popular music, and neither genre had more than a token presence in most Broadway scores. Musicals had become a sort of subculture, and the potential sales for cast albums fell so low that major labels stopped recording them altogether.

[ comencen musicals amb produccions molt cares, com les que farà Hal prince, i shows que semblen tenir més a veure amb l’òpera que amb el jazz, amb Stephen Sondheim i Andrew Lloyd Weber]

• 1978 Eubie ! Recopila 23 cançons de Eubie Blake amb els germans Hines i grans números. Daddy, Hines bros
• 1979 Sweeney Todd de Stephen Sondheim. While Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd (1979 – 557 performances) used a conventional plot structure, its operatic score was Sondheim’s most ambitious effort to date. Going further, this blood-soaked tale of an unjustly persecuted man’s all-consuming quest for revenge in Victorian London explored emotional territory no musical had ever touched before. Not since Shakespeare had a poet of the theatre taken such an unflinching look into the darkest corners of the human soul. When Sweeney’s cast pointed at audience members and insisted that they had a murderous hate like Sweeney’s hiding inside them, it was bound to leave many theatergoers uneasy. Tony-winning performances by Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou added to the impact, as did a massive production helmed by Hal Prince. (Prince framed the action in the actual ruins of an old factory, trucked in from Rhode Island.) But this lofty accomplishment came at a crippling price. Despite a healthy run and numerous awards, the show was unable to turn a profit.
• 1979 By the time it reached Broadway, Evita (1979 – 1,567 performances) was a slick and stylish smash hit, with breakthrough performances by Patti Lupone as Evita and Mandy Patinkin as Che. A disco version of “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” became a hit single – one of the last showtunes to reach the pop charts in any form. Evita was a calculated triumph of stagecraft and technology, undeniably entertaining but in some ways as vapid as any of Ziegfeld’s Follies. Webber and Rice depicted Eva as a whore with flair and ruthless ambition, but gave no clue as to what made her complex character tick. Meaningful or not, people liked it. Running three times longer than Sweeney Todd, it made a massive profit from productions all over the world. With this flashy victory of matter over mind, the mega-musical was born.

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FILM 1970

• 1971 Director Norman Jewisohn filmed Fiddler on the Roof with enough sensitivity to make audiences overlook a butt-numbing three hour running time. Israeli actor Chaim Topol energized the film with a sensitive performance as Tevye, the milkman who sees his traditional Russian Jewish village shaken by the forces of change.
• 1972 Bob Fosse’s searing version of Cabaret turned a stage hit into a screen classic. The often harsh story of people caught in the political turmoil that gripped Germany in the early 1930s featured memorable performances by Liza Minnelli as amoral vocalist Sally Bowles and Joel Grey as the leering Emcee. Fosse, Minnelli and Grey took home Academy Awards

However, most of this decade’s Hollywood musicals – originals as well as adapted stage works – were mishandled. With millions of dollars poured into poorly produced projects, the early 1970s became the golden age of bad big-budget movie musicals. The commercial failure of several animated musicals, including the enchanting Charlotte’s Web (1973), coupled with the dismantling of the Disney Studio’s animation unit, seemed to spell the end of screen animation of any kind. Attempts to revive the genre drew tepid results until the 1990s, when animation would make an industry-shaking comeback. More on this in the chapters to come. Rock movie musicals had a mixed record in the 1970s. Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) and the Who’s Tommy (1975) appealed to youthful audiences despite overblown productions. Mindless mistakes like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) were dismissed by critics and the public. Hollywood’s most successful original rock musical was The Rose (1979), the story of a Janis Joplin-like rock diva who’s professional success sends her into a self-destructive spiral. Overcoming a melodramatic screenplay, pop diva Bette Midler made a dynamic screen debut.

• 1975 Despite a poor critical reception, The Rocky Horror Picture Show developed a one-of-a-kind cult following. Teenagers came back to see the film week after week, singing along, talking back to the screen and enacting scenes in costume. The film became a camp classic. Late night screenings for Rocky Horror buffs continued all across America right into the next century.
• 1977 New York, New York was Martin Scorcese’s attempt to do a dark big-band era musical (excuse me?). While the John Kander & Fred Ebb title tune was a major hit for star Liza Minnelli, the film was a cumbersome bore, made the worse by heavy studio editing. Years later, a home video release restored key footage, making the film easier to follow but still unsatisfying.
• 1978 Grease. By the late 1970s, the screen musical was considered a dinosaur, but a massive hit proved that the genre had some kick left in it. Grease and its white trash teens coming of age in a 1950s American high school became a world-wide phenomenon. The stage score was augmented by several new songs, including the new interpolated pop hits “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and “You’re the One That I Want.” Where the stage version stressed period spoof, the film stressed the love story involving a mildly rebellious leather jacketed boy and a squeaky-clean “Sandra Dee”-type girl. Ingratiating performances by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John and a spirited production delighted audiences, making the film a pop-culture landmark. Earning $159 million on its initial relesem it became the highest grossing film musical up to that time.
• 1979 Bob Fosse’s semi-autobiographical All That Jazz (1979) blended fantastic musical sequences with a self-indulgent story. Based on Fosse’s experiences during rehearsals for Chicago and earlier shows, this was the first musical (and with any luck, there will never be another) to include graphic footage of actual open heart surgery.
• 1979 Milos Forman adapted the radical Broadway hit Hair (1979) into a sometimes intriguing film, capturing the anti-war, pro-hippie spirit of the original show. But most filmgoers were not yet ready to rehash the often painful memories of the 1960s. This movie would not find a following until decades later.

1942 Ballin’ the Jack

• 1943 A thousand cheer

Mop dance

• 1944 Cover Girl

• 1945 Anchors aweigh

• 1947 Living in a big way, It had to be you

• 1948 The Pirate, Amb els Nicholas Brothers
• 1948 Slaughter on tenth avenue
• 1949 Take me out to the ball game
• 1949 On the Town

Amb Vera Ellen, ballet

When you walk downstreet with me

• 1950 Summer Stock

Dig dig for your dinner,

• 1951 An American in Paris

I’ve got Rhythm

Tra la ra

Escena 1, Escena 2, Escena 4,  escena 7 .

• 1952 Singin’ in the rain (dirida i coreografiada per Gene Kelly i Stanley Donen)

Fit as a fiddle, Make ’em laugh

Good Morning

Moses Supposes

Amb Cyd Charisse

Singin’ in the rain

• 1955 It’s Always fair weather

Patins

Split screen,

• 1954 Brigadoon

Almost like feeling in love

Heather on the Hill

• 1956 Invitation to dance, Simbad, resum

Tamara Tourmatova

 

 

 

El musical   Fred Astaire RKO

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1940 Fred Astaire i Paulette Godard

• 1940 Broadway melody, Beguin the beguine, Jukebox

• 1941 You’ll Never Get Rich (1941), Fred Astaire i Rita Hayworth catapulted Hayworth to stardom. In the movie, Astaire integrated for the third time Latin American dance idioms into his style (the first being with Ginger Rogers in “The Carioca” number from Flying Down to Rio (1933) and the second, again with Rogers, was the “Dengozo” dance from The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939)).

Ball a la presó,  So near and yet so far, Boogie Barcarole

• 1942 You Were Never Lovelier (1942), Fred Astaire Rita Hayworth was equally successful. (Jerome Kern)

The Shorty George, I’m Old Fashioned, Primer número, You never were lovelier, Finale

• 1943 The Sky’s the Limit. He next appeared opposite the seventeen-year-old Joan Leslie in the wartime drama. In it, he introduced Arlen and Mercer’s “One for My Baby” while dancing on a bar counter in a dark and troubled routine. Astaire choreographed this film alone and achieved modest box office success. It represented a notable departure for Astaire from his usual charming, happy-go-lucky screen persona, and confused contemporary critics.

One for my baby, Ballroom, A lot in Common

• 1945 The fantasy Yolanda and the Thief, Vicente Minnelli, Fred Astaire, Lucille Bremer featured an avant-garde surrealistic ballet.

• 1946 Ziegfield Follies, Gene Kelly Fred Astaire,The babbit and the bromide

• 1948 Easter Parade, Garland becomes Fred Astaire’s vaudeville dance partner in this romantic comedy set to mostly vintage songs by Irving Berlin. The two stars introduced the memorable hobo duet “A Couple of Swells.”

Stepping out with my baby, Drum crazy, A couple of swells, When the midnight train leaves for Alabama

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1948–1957: Productive years with MGM and second retirement

• 1950 Three Little Words with Vera-Ellen and Red Skelton was for MGM.

Mr ans Mrs Hoofer at home, Test Solo, Thinking of you, Where did you get that girl

• 1950 Let’s Dance with Betty Hutton was on loan-out to Paramount. While Three Little Words did quite well at the box office, Let’s Dance was a financial disappointment.

Piano dance

• 1951 Royal Wedding had Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling, partnering a hat rack (and making it look good), and joining Jane Powell for the knock-about duet “How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I’ve Been A Liar All My Life?” Stanley Donen directed, composer Burton Lane and lyricist Alan Jay Lerner wrote the score, and Lerner penned the story of what happens to a brother/sister dance team when sis wants to marry a British nobleman and big bro falls for a West End dancer (played by Winston Churchill’s real life daughter). This serviceable plot was inspired by Astaire’s real life story – his sister Adele had ended their long partnership in order to marry a British nobleman in 1932. (MGM).

You’re all the world to me (dansa al sostre), How could you believe me, Sunday Jumps, Open your eyes

• 1952 The Belle of New York (1952) with Vera-Ellen was a critical and box-office disaster.

I wanna be a dancing man (sand dance), Oops, Seeing is believing

• 1953 The Band Wagon  received rave reviews from critics and drew huge crowds. But because of its high cost, it failed to make a profit on its first release. Soon after, Astaire, like the other remaining stars at MGM, was let go from his contract because of the advent of television and the downsizing of film production. 953, The Bandwagon, MGM, Comden and Green wrote this brilliant backstage story of a stage musical struggling on its way to Broadway. Vincente Minnelli directed and Michael Kidd provided the witty choreography. Using songs from several Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz stage scores (plus the newly composed “That’s Entertainment”), it featured Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Nanette Fabray, Oscar Levant and British stage star Jack Buchannan. Astaire and Charisse shared a stunning pas de deux in “Dancing In The Dark,” Fabray, Astaire and Buchannan were riotous as “Triplets,” and the suave Astaire-Buchannan duet “I Guess I’ll Have To Change My Plan” is a rarely hailed moment of pure cinematic gold.

Girl Hunt ballet, Dancing in the dark, That’s entertaintment

• In 1954, Astaire was about to start work on a new musical, Daddy Long Legs (1955) with Leslie Caron at 20th Century Fox. Then, his wife Phyllis became ill and suddenly died of lung cancer. Astaire was so bereaved that he wanted to shut down the picture and offered to pay the production costs out of his pocket. However, Johnny Mercer, the film’s composer, and Fox studio executives convinced him that work would be the best thing for him. Daddy Long Legs only did moderately well at the box office.

Sluefoot, A la bateria, Something is gonna give

• 1957 His next film for Paramount, Funny Face, teamed him with Audrey Hepburn and Kay Thompson. Despite the sumptuousness of the production and the good reviews from critics, it failed to make back its cost.// 1957 Funny Face was conceived at MGM, but when Paramount refused to loan out Audrey Hepburn, several key members of the Freed unit (who knew they were in the process of being disbanded) made the film at Paramount. Arthur Freed’s longtime associate Roger Edens produced, Stanley Donen directed, and singer-composer Kay Thompson (Edens’ longtime MGM colleague) gave a film-stealing performance as a ruthless fashion magnate. Fred Astaire made everything from a raincoat to an umbrella come alive as dance partners in “Let’s Kiss and Make Up.” The score consisted of four classic George and Ira Gershwin songs, with several new numbers by Edens and Leonard Gershe. Hepburn gave a disarming performance as an intellectual beauty wooed by photographer Astaire while doing photo spreads for Thompson’s magazine. Impressive as the cast and score are, Donen’s unique sense of cinematic flow makes this film a standout. Every song flows out of the action surrounding it, and unforgettable images abound. Film buffs have long treasured Hepburn’s exuberant descent down a staircase in the Louvre, trailing a red tulle wrap in imitation of the sculpture “Winged Victory” (seen in the photo just above). Although visually stunning and thoroughly entertaining, Funny Face was such a box office disappointment that Paramount stopped making musicals altogether, and MGM allowed the Freed unit to fade away. However, the film developed a dedicated following over time.

funny face song

• 1957 Silk Stockings, MGM, musical film adaptation, filmed in CinemaScope, of the 1955 stage musical of the same name,[2] which itself was an adaptation of the film Ninotchka (1939).[3] Silk Stockings was directed by Rouben Mamoulian, produced by Arthur Freed, and starred Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. The supporting cast includes Janis Paige, Peter Lorre, Jules Munshin, and George Tobias repeating his Broadway role.[4][5] It was choreographed by Eugene Loring and Hermes Pan.//Similarly, Astaire’s next project – his final musical at MGM, Silk Stockings (1957), in which he co-starred with Cyd Charisse, also lost money at the box office.

All of you, Ritz rock and roll, All of you, The Red blues

Afterward, Astaire announced that he was retiring from dancing in film. His legacy at this point was 30 musical films in 25 years.

La Dansa  |    El musical

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During the 1950s, the music of Broadway was the popular music of the western world. Every season brought a fresh crop of classic hit musicals that were eagerly awaited and celebrated by the general public. Great stories, told with memorable songs and dances were the order of the day, resulting in such unforgettable hits as The King and I, My Fair Lady, Gypsy and dozens more. These musicals were shaped by three key elements:

Composers: Rodgers & Hammerstein, Loesser, Bernstein
Directors: George Abbott, Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse
Female stars: Gwen Verdon, Mary Martin, Ethel Merman

• 1950 Call Me Madam, Irving Berlin for Ethel Merman, providing her with Broadway’s first musical hit of the decade. Merman’s character was based on Perle Mesta, a real-life Democratic party fundraiser who was named ambassador to Luxembourg. The musical was set in mythical “Lichtenburg,” and spoofed America’s penchant for lending billions to other countries. Merman stopped the show with Russell Nype singing one of Berlin’s best counterpoint duets, “You’re Just In Love.” Dirigit per George Abbot. eorge Abbott was so revered that even longtime colleagues addressed him as “Mr. Abbott.” He had more than twenty years experience as an actor, playwright and comedy director when he staged his first musical, Jumbo (1935 – 233 performances). Over the next 27 years, he directed 26 Broadway musicals, 22 of which were moneymakers. He also wrote all or part of the librettos for many of those shows. Abbott’s swift pacing and instinct for dramatic construction did much to shape the American musical comedy as we know it. He urged composers to tailor songs to specific characters and situations long before anyone else was interested. Many a show facing trouble on the road to Broadway benefited from Abbot’s unaccredited doctoring – which came to be known as “the Abbott touch.”
• 1950 Guys and Dolls, Frank Loesser (1950 – 1,200 performances), considered by many to be the finest American musical comedy ever written. Abe Burrows adapted the script from journalist Damon Runyon’s fictional stories about the denizens of Times Square, and Loesser wrote an extraordinary score that included “I’ve Never Been In Love Before,” “Fugue For Tinhorns,” and “Luck Be A Lady Tonight.” Vivian Blaine won a Tony as the love-hungry showgirl Miss Adelaide, and Stubby Kaye stopped the show with the raucous gambler’s anthem “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat.” The show won the Tony for Best Musical.
• 1951 The King and I, Rodgers & Hammerstein was based on Anna Leonowens real life experiences tutoring the royal family of Siam in the 1860s. The clash of Eastern and Western cultures sets Anna and the King on a collision course, further complicated by their unspoken feelings for each other. Gertrude Lawrence, who had suggested the project, played the Welsh schoolteacher. At Mary Martin’s urging, the little-known Yul Brynner was cast as the King. The score included “Whistle a Happy Tune,” “Hello Young Lovers,” “I Have Dreamed,” and “Something Wonderful.” In the show’s most memorable moment, “Shall We Dance,” depicted an impromptu dance lesson between Anna and the King that exploded with romantic tension. The musical theater lost one of its most luminous stars when Lawrence succumbed to cancer during the run. Brynner made a career of playing the King, appearing in the acclaimed 1956 film version and numerous revivals until his death in 1985. Robbins combined arrative dance and oriental technique “Small House of Uncle Thomas Ballet.” He also staged the “March of the Siamese Children” and the showstopping “Shall We Dance.
• 1951 Paint Your Wagon, Loewe Lerner, a rustic love story set during the California Gold Rush. Featuring “I Talk To The Trees” and “They Call The Wind Mariah,” [d’on van fer la peli que recordo]
• 1953 Wonderful Town, starred Rosalind Russell as a reporter seeking love and success in Greenwich Village. The score featured music by Leonard Bernstein, with lyrics by his On the Town collaborators Betty Comden and Adolph Green – including “Ohio” and “A Little Bit in Love.” Dir. George Abbot.
• 1953 Can-Can, Cole Porter, a comic story of do-gooders and high-kicking cabaret dancers battling over the scandalous 1890s dance craze. French cabaret star Lilo got star billing and the chance to introduce the hit songs “I Love Paris” and “C’est Magnifique,” but newcomer Gwen Verdon stole the evening playing an uninhibited chorine.
• 1954 The Pajama Game (1954 – 1,063 performances) focused on a pajama factory superintendent and a union rep falling in love as a strike looms. Bob Fosse’s dances gave the show electrifying drive, and the score by newcomers Richard Adler and Jerry Ross included three pop hits — “Hey There” (introduced by leading man John Raitt), “Steam Heat” and “Hernando’s Hideaway.” Dir George Abbot. Fosse built on what choreographers Robbins and Agnes DeMille had begun, adding a touch of show biz razzle-dazzle and a generous dose of unapologetic sex appeal. He found the perfect vehicle for his style in Gwen Verdon, a gifted dancer and actress who combined vulnerability with sleek sensuality.
• 1954 Peter Pan, Los Angeles-based producer Edwin Lester secured the American rights to James Barrie’s Peter Pan and reconceived it as a musical for Martin. (Because of the flying apparatus used at the time, it was physically necessary to cast women as Peter.) Despite having Cyril Ritchard as a comically effete Captain Hook, staging by Jerome Robbins, and a Carolyn Leigh-Moose Charlap score that included “I’m Flying” and “I Won’t Grow Up,” more was needed. Lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green joined composer Jule Styne to add “Neverland,” “Hook’s Waltz” and several other numbers that showcased the two stars. Martin and Ritchard gave their all, and Peter Pan (1954 – 152 performances) became a critically acclaimed hit.
• 1955 Silk Stockings, Cole Porter, a Cold War love story based on Greta Garbo’s MGM comedy Ninotchka.
• 1955 Damn Yankees, had a Washington baseball fan sell his soul to the devil for a chance to lead his favorite team to a championship over the New York Yankees. Fosse’s dances and a knockout performance by Gwen Verdon made it the hottest ticket on Broadway. The brilliant score by Adler and Ross (“Heart,” “Whatever Lola Wants”) has kept the show a perennial favorite. Ross died early in the run due to leukemia, ending one of the most promising collaborations of the decade. Dir George Abbot. Verdon played a demonic temptress, stopping the show with the raunchy “Whatever Lola Wants.” The show, choreographer and actress all collected Tonys, and Fosse made the connection permanent by marrying Verdon during the run.
• 1956 The Most Happy Fella, Frank Loesser, an operatic version of Sidney Howard’s drama They Knew What They Wanted. An aging Napa Valley vintner (played by Metropolitan Opera bass Robert Weede) falls in love with a lonely young waitress, and both must learn to forgive each other for selfish mistakes. The waitress was played by the gifted soprano Jo Sullivan, who became Mrs. Loesser soon after this production. Loesser blended arias (“My Heart Is So Full of You”) with pop songs (“Standing On The Corner”), and this unlikely mix proved remarkably effective. Overshadowed by the acclaim lavished on My Fair Lady, this masterpiece never got the credit it deserved. Revivals have proven that Fella is like caviar – fans adore it, but much of the general theatre going public somehow does not get the point.
• 1956 My Fair Lady, Loewe, Lerner. Some were surprised when this team announced that their next project would be a musical version of George Bernard Shaw’s comedy Pygmalion. No less an authority than Oscar Hammerstein II warned Lerner this project could not possibly work. It seems that even the greatest genius can be wrong. To many (this author included), this is the finest work the musical theatre has ever produced, with a remarkable blend of eloquence, melody, intelligence and heart that has never been surpassed. Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews and Stanley Holloway headed the cast, Cecil Beaton designed the distinctive Edwardian costumes, and playwright Moss Hart directed. The book mixed some of Shaw’s original dialogue with wonderful new scenes by Lerner, all deftly interwoven with an exquisite score, which included “With A Little Bit of Luck,” “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “On The Street Where You Live,” and “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.”
  My Fair Lady is filled with examples of flawless story-song integration. In one scene, Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering try for weeks to train cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle to speak like a lady. Late one night, the caustic Higgins speaks gently to an exhausted Eliza about the beauty and majesty of the English language, reassuring her that she will conquer it. After a breathless moment, Eliza makes the phonetic connection and correctly pronounces, “The rain . . . in Spain . . . stays mainly in the . . . plain.” Disbelief turns to jubilation as the three characters break into a celebratory tango, collapsing onto a sofa at the final note. It is one of the most exhilarating moments the theatre has ever produced. Another standout is the wordless moment when Eliza first appears in a dazzling Edwardian ball gown. As she descends a staircase to the melody of “I Could Have Danced All Night,” Higgins and the audience sees the “squashed cabbage leaf” complete her transformation into an elegant lady. This wordless moment has moved theatergoers in countless productions. It is worth noting that both of these exquisite scenes discussed above do not exist in Shaw’s Pygmalion – Lerner created them for My Fair Lady. From its first performance on the road, it was clear that the show was a phenomenon. It opened to unanimous raves, won every major award, became Broadway’s longest running musical up to that time (a record that stood for a decade), and played to acclaim in numerous languages all around the world. It has been revived several times in both New York and London, remaining a worldwide favorite after almost half a century.
• 1957 The Music Man, Meredith Willson. Robert Preston played a phony traveling salesman who’s plans to flim-flam an Iowa town in 1912 are thwarted by his love for the local librarian, a role that made Barbara Cook Broadway’s premiere ingénue. The score was a disarming potpourri of period styles including the Sousa-style march “Seventy-Six Trombones,” the revival tent exhortation “Trouble,” several barbershop quartets and the soaring ballad “Till There Was You.” The book captured a time of innocence with both humor and charm, and director Morton DaCosta’s staging was so deft that no one complained about the show’s shameless sentimentality. The Music Man remains one of the world’s most popular musicals, an all-American explosion of hokum and heart. Many forget that this show beat out West Side Story for the Best Musical Tony in 1957. It became the longest-running Broadway musical up to that time with book, music and lyrics written by one person (well, there have been rumors that Willson’s pal Frank Loesser helped with “My White Knight”).
• 1957 West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein i Stephen Sondheim, director/choreographer Jerome Robbins and librettist Arthur Laurents. Inspired by Shakespeare, it set a Polish-American Romeo and a Puerto Rican Juliet in the middle of a New York City street gang war. This show combined glorious music, a finely wrought libretto and unforgettable dancing. Bernstein’s melodies had a steamy vitality that gave the score tremendous appeal. “Maria” and “Somewhere” soared with operatic grandeur, “Dance at the Gym” was a jazz explosion, “America” had an irresistible Latin sound, and “Gee Officer Krupke” was a variation on classic vaudeville. The original cast included Chita Rivera, the first in a string of show-stealing performances that she would offer right into the next century. Carol Lawrence and Larry Kert played the doomed lovers and introduced the hit ballad “Tonight.”
• 1957 New Girl In Town, was songwriter Bob Merrill’s musicalization of Eugene O’Neill’s drama Anna Christie. Abbott shaped the story of a prostitute finding love on the waterfront of 1912 New York into a workable musical vehicle for Gwen Verdon, but ongoing battles with choreographer Fosse made this his last collaboration with Abbott.
• 1958 Flower Drum Song, Rodgers & Hammerstein, taking a genial look at generations clashing in a Chinese family in San Francisco. With direction by Gene Kelly, its score included “I Enjoy Being a Girl” and “Love Look Away.”
• 1959 Redhead,  the tale of a 1907 London girl who helps her boyfriend catch a Jack the Ripper-type serial killer, was a so-so show that relied heavily on Verdon’s charms and Fosse’s sensational choreography. The dances included “The Uncle Sam Rag” and “The Pickpocket Tango.” Redhead picked up Tony Awards for best musical, actress and choreography, among others. With Verdon’s first four Broadway roles, she had become the first performer ever to win four Tonys — an accomplishment very few have matched since that time. Fosse and Verdon took their relationship a step further, secretly marrying soon after Redhead opened.
• 1959 The Sound of Music, Rodgers & Hammerstein was inspired by the story of Austria’s Trapp Family Singers and their escape from the Nazis in the 1930s. The score included “Do Re Mi,” “Edelweiss,” “My Favorite Things,” and the title tune. Oscar Hammerstein II died due to stomach cancer a few months after The Sound of Music opened, ending a career that spanned the golden age of musical theatre and film. ( la meravella del jazz, versió de Coltrane: https://youtu.be/qWG2dsXV5HI)
• 1959 Gypsy, was not a dance show, but Robbins added much to it by re-creating the dance styles of vaudeville and burlesque. When three strippers assured young Louise (about to blossom as Gypsy Rose Lee) that “You Gotta Get a Gimmick” to succeed in burlesque, Robbins turned their bumps and grinds into one of the funniest showstoppers in theatrical history.

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CINEMA

• 1950 Tea for Two amb Doris Day, Warner (estrenat a Broadway el 1925)

• 1950 Cinderella, Disney
• 1951 Alice in Wonderland, Disney
• 1951 Royal Wedding had Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling, partnering a hat rack (and making it look good), and joining Jane Powell for the knock-about duet “How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I’ve Been A Liar All My Life?” Stanley Donen directed, composer Burton Lane and lyricist Alan Jay Lerner wrote the score, and Lerner penned the story of what happens to a brother/sister dance team when sis wants to marry a British nobleman and big bro falls for a West End dancer (played by Winston Churchill’s real life daughter). This serviceable plot was inspired by Astaire’s real life story – his sister Adele had ended their long partnership in order to marry a British nobleman in 1932. (MGM)
• 1951 An American in Paris, MGM, An ex-GI turned painter played by Gene Kelly avoids seduction by a wealthy heiress and falls in love with Parisian shop girl Leslie Caron, all while pianist Oscar Levant provides sardonic commentary. Director Vincente Minnelli used Alan Jay Lerner’s screenplay to showcase classic George and Ira Gershwin songs. “By Strauss” and “I Got Rhythm” became giddy sidewalk production numbers, and a 17-minute fantasy ballet (which took more than two months to rehearse and shoot) turned the tone poem “American in Paris” into the most ambitious use of dance ever attempted in a feature film. This amazing film has pretentious moments, but they usually go unnoticed thanks to the sheer style, energy and genius the Freed unit brought to every frame. An American in Paris received six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Screenplay (for newcomer Alan Jay Lerner) and a special award for Gene Kelly’s contribution to dance on screen.
• 1952 Singin in The Rain MGM, Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen co-directed this hilarious screenplay written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, inspired by the insanity that reigned in Hollywood when sound was introduced. The plot involves a swashbuckling silent movie star (Kelly) turning a silent flick into a song & dance spectacular with the assistance of his best friend (Donald O’Connor) and soon-to-be girlfriend (Debbie Reynolds), and all despite the machinations of a vicious silent screen diva (Jean Hagen). The cast performed a parade of producer Arthur Freed’s vintage MGM songs with one new comedy number by Comden and Green (“Moses Supposses”), and a derivative new song by Freed (“Make ‘Em Laugh,” painfully similar to Cole Porter’s “Be a Clown”). Few cinematic images are as well known as a rapturous, rain soaked Gene Kelly swinging from a lamppost as he performs the title tune. A modest success in its initial release, the film’s reputation as a classic grew over time. Singin’ in the Rain is now hailed as one of the best films ever made, and is justifiably called the greatest musical comedy created for the big screen.
• 1953 Peter Pan, Disney
• 1953, The Bandwagon, MGM, Comden and Green wrote this brilliant backstage story of a stage musical struggling on its way to Broadway. Vincente Minnelli directed and Michael Kidd provided the witty choreography. Using songs from several Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz stage scores (plus the newly composed “That’s Entertainment”), it featured Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Nanette Fabray, Oscar Levant and British stage star Jack Buchannan. Astaire and Charisse shared a stunning pas de deux in “Dancing In The Dark,” Fabray, Astaire and Buchannan were riotous as “Triplets,” and the suave Astaire-Buchannan duet “I Guess I’ll Have To Change My Plan” is a rarely hailed moment of pure cinematic gold.
• 1954 A Star is Born, Warner Brothers most masterful 1950s musical was built by another stellar team of MGM alumni: director George Cukor, screenwriter Moss Hart, composer Harold Arlen, lyricist Ira Gershwin and performer Judy Garland. The magnificent A Star is Born (1954) was based on a classic 1937 tearjerker about an unknown actress surviving Hollywood stardom and personal heartbreak. After months of long and tortured filming, Garland gave the most unbridled and powerful screen performance of her career, while Cukor and company made “The Man That Got Away” and other songs emotional highpoints that fit seamlessly into the story.
• 1954 White Christmas, Bing Crosby i Danny Kaye
• 1955 Oklahoma, 1956 Carousel, 1956 The King 1958 South Pacific, revivals de la 20th Century Fox revivals de Rodgers i Hamerstein.
• 1955 The Lady and the Tramp, disney
• 1957 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, MGM, This is the only film in this MGM quartet that was not created by the Freed unit. Produced by Jack Cummings and directed by Stanley Donen, this gem featured singing stars Jane Powell and Howard Keel, but it s fame rests in several hearty ensemble dance sequences choreographed by Michael Kidd. The plot involves a mountain woodsman (Keel) whose marriage to a wholesome town girl (Powell) inspires his six spirited brothers to kidnap six town girls of their own – and all of them are so gosh-darn honorable that the film winds up with seven happily married couples. Even a fine Johnny Mercer-Gene dePaul score (“Wonderful Day,” “Sobbin’ Women”) has trouble outshining Kidd’s rousing barn-raising challenge dance and the ax-wielding machismo fest “Lonesome Polecat.” Overlooked by studio executives, Seven Brides received a well-deserved Academy Award for Best Score. Although the film cost a hefty $2.5 million, it grossed several times that to bring MGM a handsome profit of $3.2 million.

• 1957 Funny Face was conceived at MGM, but when Paramount refused to loan out Audrey Hepburn, several key members of the Freed unit (who knew they were in the process of being disbanded) made the film at Paramount. Arthur Freed’s longtime associate Roger Edens produced, Stanley Donen directed, and singer-composer Kay Thompson (Edens’ longtime MGM colleague) gave a film-stealing performance as a ruthless fashion magnate. Fred Astaire made everything from a raincoat to an umbrella come alive as dance partners in “Let’s Kiss and Make Up.” The score consisted of four classic George and Ira Gershwin songs, with several new numbers by Edens and Leonard Gershe. Hepburn gave a disarming performance as an intellectual beauty wooed by photographer Astaire while doing photo spreads for Thompson’s magazine. Impressive as the cast and score are, Donen’s unique sense of cinematic flow makes this film a standout. Every song flows out of the action surrounding it, and unforgettable images abound. Film buffs have long treasured Hepburn’s exuberant descent down a staircase in the Louvre, trailing a red tulle wrap in imitation of the sculpture “Winged Victory” (seen in the photo just above). Although visually stunning and thoroughly entertaining, Funny Face was such a box office disappointment that Paramount stopped making musicals altogether, and MGM allowed the Freed unit to fade away. However, the film developed a dedicated following over time.
• 1957 Silk Stockings, MGM, musical film adaptation, filmed in CinemaScope, of the 1955 stage musical of the same name,[2] which itself was an adaptation of the film Ninotchka (1939).[3] Silk Stockings was directed by Rouben Mamoulian, produced by Arthur Freed, and starred Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. The supporting cast includes Janis Paige, Peter Lorre, Jules Munshin, and George Tobias repeating his Broadway role.[4][5] It was choreographed by Eugene Loring and Hermes Pan.
• 1957 The Pajama Game, dirigida per George Abbot i Stanley Donen, Doris Day i Carol Heaney.”I’ll Never Be Jealous Again” (20′) i Steam Heat (56′).
• 1959 Gigi MGM was dismissing it’s contract employees, but a defiant Arthur Freed pulled together one last triumph. At the urging of director Vincente Minnelli, Freed called in My Fair Lady’s Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe to musicalize French novelist Colette’s story of a young girl who is raised to be a courtesan but manages instead to fall in love with (and marry!) a millionaire. The result was Gigi (1959). The cast included Leslie Caron as the title character, Hermoine Gingold as her protective grandmother and Louis Jourdan as the millionaire. Maurice Chevalier, his roguish charm as irresistible as ever, made a triumphant return to the musical screen as Jourdan’s aging but irrepressible playboy uncle. Gigi had minimal choreography, but the score (“Thank Heaven For Little Girls,” “The Night They Invented Champagne,” “Gigi”) and ingenious screenplay made the potentially unsavory subject matter into a sophisticated yet family-friendly hit. Where other film makers settled for a standard postcard vision of Paris, Minnelli shows the city from the everyday perspective of Parisians. Instead of gazing at the Eiffel Tower from a distance, we travel beneath it; instead of a glittering hotel or romanticized garret, we see such wildly contrasted residences as a dazzling palace interior and a frowsy bourgeois apartment. Minnelli also makes amazing use of light and shadow. In one sequence, a pensive Jourdan is silhouetted against illuminated fountains, communicating a key moment of revelation with a few mute movements – the sort of pure cinematic effect that could never be accomplished on a Broadway stage.
  Despite Gigi’s tremendous critical and commercial success, MGM’s Freed unit passed into history. Producer Arthur Freed and his associates would not receive their full due until the release of That’s Entertainment (1974) reminded the world what a rich legacy they had left behind.

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Barn Dance

Gene Kelly i ratolí

I want to be in america

Astaire ballant al sostre

 

Laurel i Hardy

dansa, antecedents del musical, antecedents

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Després dels inicis als minstrel shows i Vaudeville, els ballarins negres van actuar en alguns espectacles a Broadway durant la dècada dels ’20, com Shuffle Along.

La dansa d’espectacle d’inspiració en jazz tal com diu Marshall Stearns (This book deals with American Dancing that is performed to and with the rhythms of jazz – that is, dancing that swings … The characteristic that distinguishes American vernacular dance -as it does jazz music – is swing, which can be heard, felt, and seen, but defined only with great difficulty), serà sobretot tap dancing combinat amb moviments d’acrobàcia i de balls de saló.

[ les complexitats rítmiques i acrobàtiques dels ballarins negres foren insuperables. Acostumats a Fred Astaire però, sovint es troba a faltar una coreografia que expressi un estat d’ànim o les emocions d’una parella, més enllà de l’exhibició tècnica de passos rapidíssims o splits vrtiginosos]

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[ El tap dancing va anar evolucionant a partir de l’Irish Jig, que bàsicament té el cos rígid mentre el treball és amb els peus, i poc a poc va anar incorporant moviments vernaculars (Jazz Dance, 189)][ Es distingeix entre “jazz steps”, on els taps no són essencials, i “flash steps”. Originalment eren passos populars senzills, com el shimmy i el charleston, que es van anar barrejant amb el clog en el minstrel i vaudeville . Passos de tap que es van fer populars són el “falling off the log” i “off to buffalo”.  Els flash steps són més acrobàtics, per exemple “Over the top” i “through the trenches”. (JD 190)] [ Una combinació típica és el BS chorus de 32 bars: 8 time step, 8 cross step, 8 buck and wing, 8 Over the top and through the trenches][ El shim sham té double shuffle, cross over, tackie Annie i Falling off the log. (tap i lindy, ]

Llista early tap dance

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HOOFERS CLUB (Jazz Dance, 22)

Al costat del teatre Lafayette, durant els ’20, ’30 i una mica dels ’40 , hi havia un magatzem a la 131st amb la 7th on s’hi podia jugar el poker i on l’amo, Lonnie Hicks, durant dues dècades va deixar que qualsevol pogués practicar tap dance. Cada 6-8 mesos en canviaria el terra. Els joves aprenien dels que ja estaven consagrats.

La dansa tenia uns blocs bàsics, els Time Step. Sovint es basava en la simple melodia Buck dancer’s lament que tenia 6 compassos i en deixava dos per a improvisar: two bar break. Un dels millors a l’inici fou King Rastus Brown. [ Una cerca de Buck dancing a youtube dóna com un clake country descendent de la dansa irlandesa ]

diccionari tap dance  |   Tap dancing ressources

Aquí Coles & Atkins mostren els time steps bàsics amb les frases per recordar els accents “Thanks for the BugGy Ride”, AND Thanks for the BugGy ride”, “And thank YOU for the BugGY ride”, “AND when WILL WE Take a buGY ride”.

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Bill Robinson (1878 – 1949) va començar al Vaudeville i es va fer molt popular. Va arribar a guanyar 6.500$ la setmana. Va tenir èxit al musical Blackbirds (1928) i Brown Buddies  (1930).  Es va fer cèlebre pel número amb uns graons:

No va ser un innovador però tenia un gran ritme i una claredat cristalina. El 1932 va per películes a Hollywood amb Shirley Temple. El 1932 Harlem is Heaven amb Bill Robinson, 1937 A mile from heaven, 1943 Stormy Weather (Sand dance). 1934, 1934 King for a day,  1935, 1935 Living a great big way amb Jeni LeGon.

Tenia un caràcter complicat. Anava sempre amb una pistola, pretenia haver ensenyat passos als joves encara que no fos veritat.

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ALTRES

Frank Condos, cèlebres pels five-tap wings, James Barton, Harlan Dixon (amb James Cagney).

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JOHN BUBBLES (1902 – 1986) i el Rhythm tap.

De molt jove va provar al Hoofer’s club sense sortir-se’n gaire i li deien “you’re hurting the floor”. Quan va tornar dominava tots els passos i en va complicar el ritme, semblant a com el swing posa els tresets en lloc de dues corxeres. En lloc de fer un tema ràpid amb dos accents, es fa més lent amb quatre. VA fer equip amb el pianista Buck formant el tandem Buck and Bubbles. Va aparèixer al Ziegfield Follies de 1931, al Porgy & Bess el 1935 en el paper de Sportin’ Life

1937 Varsity Show

A Cabin in the Sky 1943

 

1955 I can’t give you anything but love, 1965 amb Dean Martin,

 

BILL BAILEY

1943 A Cabin in the Sky

1955 Rhythm and blues Revue

Moonwalk

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FRED ASTAIRE (1899 – 1987) (pàgina a part)

(JD fill d’un cerveser d’Omaha va quedar en segon terme rera la seva germana Adéle amb qui havien començat al Vaudeville com a nens 7 i 9 anys. Va rebre classes de ballet i algunes de claqué.  També van fer molt ballroom i una mica d’acrobàcia. Van rebre classes d’Eduardo Coccia.  Tenia un aire com de “realment no m’interessa el que estic fent”. El 1916 van deixar el vodevil i van passar a Broadway.  Van rebre la influència de parelles de ball, Vernon i Rener Castle, i els Cansino, els pares de Rita Hayworth. Des de 1922 Fred va començar a coreografiar passos, i triar els que més s’adaptaven al seu estil.  El 1932 Adéle es va casar amb un Lord anglès i es va retirar.

A Hollywood treballaria amb el coreògraf Hermes Pan (1944,   ), fill d’un inmigrant grec:

[ Astaire no feia passos de claqué o acrobàtics tan difícils com els altres. El que el fa especial és la barreja de claqué, ballet i ballroom que vol “entertain by dancing some sort of “story”. (JD 227).  Ha de girar al voltant d’una idea, un tema, un estat d’ànim, semblar que s’inspira en una escombra, o un penjador. Després de 25 anys ballant amb Adéle tenia molt material acumulat i cada cop que li venia una idea anotava els passos. Honi Coles deia que ven “body motion, not tap.. he’s a descriptive dancer who works painstakingly with his musical accompaniment; he was the first to dance to programme music, describing every note in the dance” ” Astaire has class, poise, charm, nonchalance, sophistication, elegance”  [ no és un hoofer que fa sons complicats sinó algú que expressa emocions ballant, per això ens agrada tant]

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ALTRES ESPECIALITATS

Contorsionistes com Jigsaw Jackson, Dotson, Rubberlegs Williams, Earl “Snake Hips Tucker” (1935 fent lindy,

1930

1935 Ken Snakehips Johnson

1933 Cotton Club amb Duke Ellington, Filmed May 23, 1933, Bessie Dudley and Florence Hill show how to move to Duke Ellington’s Bugle Call Rag. Both Dudley and Hill were Cotton Club dancers, though this was not filmed at the Cotton Club. Bessie Dudley died January 16, 1999 at the age of 88. I’ve not yet been able to find information about Florence Hill.

Comedy dancing, Russian dancing [suposo que són passos així: Ball al Cotton Club )

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ACROBATICS

A més dels passos de jazz i clauqé van introduir alguns de Russian i els splits

TIP, TAP & TOE

1935, 1937, 1942, 1944

1936 Four Flash Devils a Soft Lights Sweet Music

 

THE FOUR STEP BROTHERS

Van posar en escena la “challenge dance” en que s’anaven com desafiant fent solos mentre els altres aplaudien. Van introduir cant i van estar en actiu fins 1966.

1933

1943

1944

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FLASH ACTS

El 1938 els Nicholas Brothers i els Berry Brothers van competir al Cotton Club.

BERRY BROTHERS

Ananias el gran i amb més talent, Jimmy i Warren ( JD 277) nascuts a New Orleans i després es van traslladar a Denver. Van començar a actuar a Hollywood.

1941 You’ll never Know

1944 Panama Hattie

NICHOLAS BROTHERS (pàgina a part)

Nascuts a Fidadèlfia, Fayard (1914–2006) i Harold (1921–2000). El gran aviat va començar a fer splits saltant tanques. Aviat van començar a actuar i amb 8 i 14 anys ballaven al Cotton Club. La mare era pianista i el pare bateria.

“Nick Castle ranks Fayard as having “the most beautiful hands in show business’, with Fred Astaire second and Buddy Ebsen third. [ Cert! ja m’hi havia fixat  l’elegància de quedar-se immobil en una postura i les mans expressives.  De gran en una entrevista els gestos de les mans són preciosos ]

“Although Fayard was the better dancer, Harold, who did imitations of Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong, received more attention” [ A mi sempre m’ha agradat més Fayard]

Els Nicholas Brothers feien els splits com en ballet, un al davant i l’altre darrera, mentre que els Berry Brothers feien jive splits, amb una cama doblegada al costat, que pot generar més lesions.

Van treballar amb el coreògraf Nick Castle

CLARK BROTHERS

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CLASS ACT

(JD 285: The Class Acts, among other things, were an expression of the Negroes’ drive toward equality and respectability. Imitating and embellishing the formal elegance of the more sophisticated white acts, they ran headlong into an old stereotype: a Negro performer had always been an overdressed dandy or a shiftless plantation hand. Bit by bit they refuted the stereotype, first as individuals and then as teams).

Willie Covan a un Class Act 1938 (Sterns l’esmenta com a acrobatic)

The Four Covans

Eddie Rector feia un soft shoe amb un delicat Time Step. Greenlee and Drayton. Pete Nugent.  [ no he trobat clips ]

 

COLES AND ATKINS

Coles ballava amb precisió ritmes complexos ràpids, “Honi was the creator of high-speed rhythm tap”. Coles excels at transitional steps.

Atkins era més innovador i tenia més afinitat amb dansa moderna i ballet. (Una vegada a les Vegas va desafiar un grup de balalrins professionals de ballet que faria els mateixos passos o millor, i que ells no podrien fer el seu claqué)

Swing is really the thing

Aquí demostrant diferents Time Step, i l’extraordinària soft shoe amb ‘Taking a chance on love’ “It had to be slower than anybody’s else’s, at the same time, it has to be really interesting; and finally, it had t be so lyrical that it could stand by itself, that is to sound just as good with or without accompaniment, so we could to it without music”.

Atkins va ser coreògraf de grups de Motown (Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas,  Cadillacs, Cleftones, moonglows, HEartbeats, Solitaires, Bow ties, Temptations )

1979 The New Low Down

1983 My One and Only,

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1940

Baby Laurence. Bunny Briggs. GroundHog

El claqué va deixar de ser popular als ’50. La música es va complicar “for the first time in the parallel histories of jazz music and dance, the drumming often became more complicated than the tapping”.

1946 Ray Sneed Ornithology

196? Will Gaines

1967 Jimmy Slide, Buster Brown, Chuck Green, baby Laurence

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GREGORY HINES

Eubie 1979 (musical sencer)

1982 I Got Rhythm

1984 Cotton Club

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CONTRIBUCIONS MÉS MODERNES

SAVION GLOVER

Sesame Street

MICHELLE DORRANCE

2019 Taptastic