Tag: Musical

La Dansa  |  El musical  |  posts musical per categoria

Jerome Robbins

1944 On the Town – Jerome Robbins and the originator of the idea for the show
1945 Billion Dollar Baby – Jerome Robbins
1947 High Button Shoes – Jerome Robbins – Tony Award for Best Choreography
1948 Look, Ma, I’m Dancin’! – Jerome Robbins
1949 Miss Liberty – Jerome Robbins
1950 Call Me Madam – Jerome Robbins
1951 The King and I – Jerome Robbins
1954 Peter Pan – and Jerome Robbins
1957 West Side Story – Jerome Robbins – Tony Award for Best Choreography
1959 Gypsy – Jerome Robbins – Tony Award Nomination for Best Direction of a Musical
1964 Fiddler on the Roof – Jerome Robbins – Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, and Best Choreography

dansa

At first, the 1960s were more of the same, with Broadway turning out record setting hits (Hello, Dolly!, Fiddler on the Roof). But as popular musical tastes shifted, the musical was left behind. The rock musical “happening” Hair (1968) was hailed as a landmark, but it ushered in a period of confusion in the musical theatre.

• 1960The Fantasticks. told the story of two well-meaning fathers who manipulate their idealistic children into a storybook romance, only to learn that living “happily ever after” has its darker side. The score by composer Harvey Schmidt and lyricist Tom Jones includes “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” and “They Were You.” “Try to Remember” was introduced by Jerry Orbach, who narrated the show as the dashing El Gallo — the first of many leading roles that he would originate over the next two decades.
• 1960 Oliver! With a heartfelt libretto and glorious score (“Consider Yourself,” “Where is Love,” “Oom-Pah-Pah,” “As Long As He Needs Me”) by newcomer Lionel Bart, and an ingenious double turntable set by designer Sean Kenny,stressed the lighter elements in Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist.
• 1960 The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Meredith Willson, was very loosely based on the true story of a scrappy country girl who rose from poverty and eventually became a semi-legendary figure when she survived the sinking of The Titanic. A disarming performance by newcomer Tammy Grimes and the catchy march “I Ain’t Down Yet” were well received.
• 1960 Camelot, Loewe i Lerner The Once and Future King. Richard Burton played the legendary King Arthur, with Julie Andrews as Guenevere and newcomer Robert Goulet as Sir Lancelot. The luscious score featured “If Ever I Would Leave You,” “How to Handle A Woman” and a catchy title song, but the pressure to write another major hit proved too much for the creative team. During the pre-Broadway tour, both Loewe and director Moss Hart suffered near-fatal heart attacks. In desperation, the ailing Lerner was forced to take over direction, and an unfinished Camelot opened on Broadway. Many came expecting another lighthearted My Fair Lady — instead, they found a romantic tragedy. Although brilliant, it was unlike any previous Broadway musical. Most critics were not impressed, but some post-opening revisions by Hart made a profitable run possible. Camelot is a perennial favorite with audiences, thanks to the timeless appeal of the Arthurian legend and the show’s identification with President John F. Kennedy, who had frequently listened to the original cast recording. Whatever its shortcomings, Camelot has more melody and heart than most shows could ever hope for, and its original cast recording remains an all-time best seller. It has been revived once in London and four times on Broadway.
• 1960 Bye Bye Birdie, dirigida per Gower Champion.This youthful farce depicted the hype generated when an Elvis-like rock star kisses a contest-winning teenage fan before being drafted into the army.Champion’s all-encompassing sense of stage movement involved every cast member, set piece and prop. A memorable comic ballet had Chita Rivera — as sexy secretary Rose Grant — seducing a stage full of astounded (but ultimately enthusiastic) Shriners. Composer Charles Strouse and lyricist Lee Adams gave Broadway its first taste of genuine rock and roll in “One Last Kiss” and “Telephone Hour,” but traditional showtunes like “Put On A Happy Face” and “Kids” made up the bulk of the score.
• 1961 Carnival. Love makes the world go round, Based on the MGM movie Lili (1953 – MGM), it told the story of a naive French orphan who learns about love and life when she becomes human co-star of a circus puppet show. Champion sent roustabouts and circus acts through the audience, using the entire auditorium as a performance space, but he recognized that the true power of the show lay in the title character’s enchanting scenes with the hand puppets. Audiences of all ages melted when Anna Maria Alberghetti performed “Love Makes the World Go Round” with the little charmers — and Alberghetti won a Tony for this, her only appearance in a Broadway show. Bob Merrill’s score included the ballad “Her Face,” sung by Jerry Orbach as the tormented puppeteer.
• 1961 How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Frank Loesser. It told of a ruthless window cleaner manipulating his way into the chairmanship of a major corporation. This wicked satire of big business boasted dances by Bob Fosse, hilarious performances by Robert Morse & old-time crooner Rudy Valee, and the hit song “I Believe in You.” Fosse’s dances included “Coffee Break” and “Brotherhood of Man,” giving a quirky look to this sharp satire of America’s corporate culture.
• 1962 Little Me was based on a best-selling comic novel by Patrick Dennis, offering the fictional tell-all autobiography of “Belle Poitrine,” a poor young woman who uses sex appeal to find fame and fortune as a trashy film star. Fosse’s dances included a memorable “Rich Kids Rag,” and his direction made the most of a hilarious book by Neil Simon. The Cy Coleman-Carolyn Leigh score included the hits “Real Live Girl” and “I’ve Got Your Number.”
• 1964 Hello Dolly, (2,844 performances) a musical version of Thornton Wilder’s comedy The Matchmaker. With a giddy score by composer-lyricist Jerry Herman and a superb libretto by Michael Stewart, it told the story of a shrewd widow who brings young lovers together and finds a husband for herself (irascible Yonkers store owner, Horace Vanderguilder) in 1890s New York. Champion’s staging gave Hello Dolly! a stunning visual fluidity, evoking the gaslight era in a thrilling whirl of dancers and sets, capped by Channing’s luminous Dolly. Herman’s score caught the period to perfection, with “It Only Takes a Moment” as the standout ballad. The catchy title number became one of Broadway’s all-time great showstoppers, with Channing descending a staircase to lead a line of waiters through a rollicking cakewalk. The number was considered a problem on the road, but Broadway’s opening night audience demanded (and got) an encore. Choruses of apron-clad waiters have been escorting women of a certain age around runways ever since.
• 1964 Fiddler on the Roof, was Robbins’ ultimate Broadway triumph, weaving story, song and dance together to tell the story of a Jewish milkman facing change in his family and his shtetl community. He staged unforgettable images – the Jews of Anatevka forming a circle of community, the wedding dancers with wine bottles perched precariously on their hats, and the circle finally breaking apart as the Jews flee Russian oppression. As the philosophical milkman Tevya, Zero Mostel overcame personal differences with Robbins and gave the most memorable performance of his career.
• 1964 Funny Girl – After torturous previews, multiple directors and extensive rewrites, this fictionalized biography of comedienne Fanny Brice was given some much needed polish by Jerome Robbins. The results made a star of Barbra Streisand, who wisely avoided imitating Brice, building her own fresh characterization and relying on her own distinctive vocal stylings. Composer Jule Styne and lyricist Bob Merrill’s brassy score included the hit songs “People” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade.” The gifted Streisand went off to Hollywood for the screen version, winning an Academy Award for Best Actress. She never appeared in another stage musical.
• 1964 Man of La Mancha
• 1966 Mame,  Jerry Herman followed up his smash Hello Dolly by teaming with playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee for an adaptation of their long-running comedy Auntie Mame. Angela Lansbury wowed audiences in the title role, winning her first Tony for Best Actress playing the eccentric heiress who liberates her orphaned nephew from a stodgy upbringing. Beatrice Arthur’s hilarious performance as the bitchy actress Vera Charles brought her a Tony for Best Featured Actress. Herman’s score included the show-stopping title tune, the moving “If He Walked Into My Life,” and the hilarious Lansbury-Arthur duet “Bosom Buddies.” Mame proved a worldwide favorite, enjoying successful productions into the next century.
• 1966 Cabaret,- Composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb worked with librettist Joe Masteroff on this searing adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s play I Am a Camera. As a young American writer falls in love with a cabaret singer, we meet seedy chorus girls, Nazi storm troopers, and other denizens of the demi-monde in early 1930s Berlin. Joel Grey gave an electrifying performance as the leering Master of Ceremonies, a role he repeated in the acclaimed 1972 film version – becoming one of the very few actors to win the Tony and Academy Awards for the same role. The score included “Wilkommen” and the hit title song. Three decades later, an innovative Broadway revival would rack up an even longer run (1998 – 2,398 performances). (direcció i coreografia Bob Fosse)
• 1966 Sweet Charity, the touching story of a taxi-dancer who refuses to stop believing in love. Her limber, jubilant renditions of “If They Could See Me Now” and “I’m a Brass Band” became the stuff of theatrical legend. (Bob Fosse)

[ a partir d’aquí el musical clàssic va perdre el favor d’un púbic més inclinat cap a la TV i el rock n roll]

• 1968 Hair had only a shadow of a plot, involving a young rock man who revels in rock and rebellion until he is drafted into the army. He falls in with a tribe-like group of hippies who sing about such pointed social issues as poverty, race relations, the Vietnam war and more. This explosion of revolutionary proclamations, profanity and hard rock shook the musical theatre to its roots. After brief runs off-Broadway (first at Joseph Papp’s Public Theatre and then a dance club) composer Galt MacDermot and librettists Gerome Ragni and James Rado revised their “happening” before moving to Broadway. “Aquarius” and “Let the Sunshine In” became chart-topping hits, and Hair’s counter culture sensibility (including a draft card burning, simulated sex, and a very brief ensemble nude scene) packed the Biltmore Theatre for almost five years.

1969 Oh Calcutta [ dolent]

FILM 1960

• 1961 West Side Story (United Artists) allowed Jerome Robbins to adapt his unforgettable stage choreography for the camera — until his costly demands for retakes forced the producers to let him go. Producer and co-director Robert Wise did the rest. Rita Moreno received an Academy Award for her knockout performance as Anita, and the film received Best Picture.
• 1964 Mary Poppins, a magical nanny who brings joy to a family in Edwardian London. With a delightful score by Richard and Robert Sherman and a supporting cast that included Broadway veterans Dick Van Dyke, Ed Wynn and Glynis Johns, Mary Poppins was the best live-action musical Disney ever made. Its inventive musical sequences include Andrews magically cleaning house during “Spoonful of Sugar,” being serenaded by every animal in an animated barnyard, and cavorting about with Van Dyke on a “Jolly Holiday” with several animated penguins. Mary Poppins won five Academy Awards, the most ever for a Disney production. “Chim, Chim Chiree” won for best song. Andrews won for Best Actress, and had much to celebrate as her next project made her the hottest star in Hollywood.
• 1964 – My Fair Lady, retained Broadway star Rex Harrison and costume designer Cecil Beaton, and added stylish direction George Cukor. It also added Audrey Hepburn, who is so luminous that few have ever minded that her singing voice was dubbed by soprano Marni Nixon. The result is a delightful (if slightly overlong) film that garnered eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The film does reasonable justice Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s masterpiece. At $17 million, it was the costliest film made in the US up to that time, but it grossed over $60 million in its initial release.
• 1964 – The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964 – MGM) turned out well thanks to solid direction by MGM veteran Charles Walters (his final musical) and a career-best performance by Debbie Reynolds. The only follow-up vehicle Hollywood could come up with for this talented star was the entertaining but saccharine semi-musical The Singing Nun (1966).
• 1965 The Sound of Music. 20th Century Fox had driven itself into bankruptcy spending $40 million on the historical epic Cleopatra. Fox moguls Darryl and Richard Zanuck slashed expenditures and searched for a hit to restore their fortunes. They had done well filming Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s stage hits in the 1950s, and already owned the screen rights to the final R&H show. Fox filmed The Sound of Music as their last hope, with a tight $8.2 million budget. It proved to be one of the most popular films of all time, grossing hundreds of millions and garnering five Academy Awards – including Best Picture. The Sound of Music remained in general release for an unprecedented four years. Decades later, it remains a classic, with a wonderful score, critic-proof performances and breathtaking cinematography. Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer kept the sentiment in check, and many underrate the crucial, edgy performances of Eleanor Parker as the acerbic Baroness and Richard Haydn as Uncle Max.
• 1967 Doctor Dolittle gave Hollywood a painful indication of how costly a mismanaged production could be. Budgeted at a then-generous $6 million, casting changes and behind the scenes ego clashes gradually sent costs skyrocketing to over $17 million. Reasonably well received, the film garnered Academy Awards for its special effects and the catchy song “Talk to the Animals.” But the overlong film sold few tickets, and its $9 million gross spelled the end of several musical screen careers — including that of temperamental leading man Rex Harrison.
• 1969 – Sweet Charity (1969 – Universal) marked Bob Fosse’s first directorial assignment on the big screen, adapting his hit stage musical about a dance hall girl looking for love in Manhattan. The result is a gem of a film that is often inexplicably overlooked by scholars and film buffs. Shirley MacLaine dazzled in the title role, with delicious supporting performances by musical stage veterans Chita Rivera and Stubby Kaye.
• 1968 Acclaimed director William Wyler used Barbra Streisand’s screen debut as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl (1968 – Columbia) to reshape this stage hit in vibrant cinematic terms. The popular star gave a luminous performance, earning an Academy Award for Best Actress. The “Don’t Rain On My Parade” sequence, beginning in a Baltimore train station and ending with Streisand belting her way across New York Harbor on a tugboat, was particularly magical.
• 1969 The British film version of Oliver! (1969 – Columbia) was superb in every department, but Ron Moody (Fagin) and Jack Wild (The Artful Dodger) were standouts.. Choreographer Onna White staged some of the most believable ensemble dances ever filmed. What was enjoyable on stage became dazzling on screen, and Oliver! richly deserved its Academy Award for Best Picture.
• 1969 Hello Dolly (Fox) received such a massive production that much of the show’s charm was compromised. Director Gene Kelly and choreographer Michael Kidd managed some good moments, but Barbara Streisand was far too young to play the title role, and occasionally reverted to an uneasy Mae West impersonation. While there is much to enjoy — most notably Streisand’s brief but iconic duet with Louis Armstrong — this film all too often wastes material that deserved far better treatment. Tens of millions were lost on each of these projects. They were expensive – and scary – harbingers of what lay ahead in the 1970’s.
• Elvis Presley, the hip-gyrating King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, starred in thirty musical movies between 1956 and 1970 — more musicals than any other screen star during the same period. The most memorable titles on the list include Jailhouse Rock (1956), Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962) and Viva Las Vegas (1964). By grafting Presley pop songs onto routine plots (his films made no attempt to integrate song & story), these relatively low budget projects made truckloads of money. Presley’s original film songs include the charming ballads “Love Me Tender” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” While these films may not be artistic landmarks, they attracted millions of movie goers – no small accomplishment at a time when musicals were fading from the scene.

La Dansa  |    El musical

The 1940s started out with business-as-usual musical comedy, but Rodgers & Hart’s Pal Joey and Weill and Gershwin’s Lady in the Dark opened the way for more realistic musicals. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma (1943) was the first fully integrated musical play, using every song and dance to develop the characters or the plot. After Oklahoma, the musical would never be the same – but composers Irving Berlin (Annie Get Your Gun – 1946) and Cole Porter (Kiss Me Kate – 1947) soon proved themselves ready to adapt to the integrated musical.

With the world at war and America still suffering echoes of the Great Depression, most Broadway professionals felt that audiences of the early 1940s wanted an escape from reality, the more lighthearted the better.

• 1940 Cabin In The Sky, Vernon Duke i John Latouche, the parable of an angel and a demon in a tug of war for a black man’s soul. The fine score (including “Taking a Chance On Love”) was integrated with the book, but the show had a limited appeal. The superb 1943 MGM film version had a similar fate — rave reviews, weak box office response.
• 1940 Pal Joey, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, took some creative risks, first musical to center on an anti-hero. The title character is a sleazy nightclub hoofer who hustles his way to success by manipulating a wealthy mistress, only to lose everything when she comes to her senses and dumps him. The score ranged from the innocent romance of “I Could Write A Book” to the sexual bite of “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.” Newcomer Gene Kelly played the title character, with Vivienne Segal as his mistress and June Havoc (vaudeville’s former “Baby June”) as one of the nightclub showgirls. Of course, it helped that veteran director George Abbott was on hand to pull all these elements together.
• 1942 This is the Army, Irving Berlin, a revue with an all-Army cast poking lighthearted fun at the trials of military life. Musical highlights included “I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen.”, “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning”
• 1940 Panama Hattie, Cole Porter, starred Ethel Merman as a brassy Canal Zone bar owner who tries to polish up her act when she falls in love with a Philadelphia socialite.
• 1941 Let’s Face It, Cole Porter featured Eve Arden and Danny Kaye in a tale of three wealthy wives who get revenge on their cheating husbands by taking on three soldiers as gigolos. The score included “Let’s Not Talk About Love” and “You Irritate Me So.”
• 1941 Lady in the dark, Kurt Weil i Ira Gershwin, the story of a magazine editor who uses psychoanalysis to explore her romantic insecurities. The music was restricted to several dream sequences in which the main character saw herself at events representing her inner turmoil — a party, a trial, and a circus. Newcomer Danny Kaye’s winning performance as an effeminate fashion photographer (and his lightning fast delivery of the patter song “Tschaikowsky”) made him an immediate star, but even he could not steal the show from Gertrude Lawrence. With the ballad “My Ship” and the show-stopping “Jenny,” this masterful stage star kept audiences cheering for the longest run of her career.
• 1942 By Jupiter, Rodgers and Hart,which told of a conflict between ancient Greeks and female Amazon warriors. Hilarious role reversals between men and women (“You swear like a longshorewoman!”) stretched the creative boundaries. A stellar performance by Ray Bolger and a score that included “Wait Till You See Her” made this Rodgers & Hart’s longest running show. It was also the last new score they would collaborate on. ( Torn by personal demons, including shame over his homosexuality, Hart had become a hopeless alcoholic.) A partir d’aquí treballaria amb Oscar Hammerstein II.
• 1943 Something For the Boys, Cole Porter is the perfect example of what most musical comedies tried to be in the early 1940s, relying on a major star, an unlikely plot situation, and a few wacky comic twists. Ethel Merman played a wartime factory worker who inherits property adjacent to a military base in Texas. While there, she falls in love with a bandleader/soldier and finds that her dental fillings pick up radio signals. “Hey Good Lookin'” “Something for the boys”.
• 1943 Oklahoma!, is the first musical written by the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs’ 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in farm country outside the town of Claremore, Indian Territory, in 1906, it tells the story of farm girl Laurey Williams and her courtship by two rival suitors, cowboy Curly McLain and the sinister and frightening farmhand Jud Fry. A secondary romance concerns cowboy Will Parker and his flirtatious fiancée, Ado Annie. This musical, building on the innovations of the earlier Show Boat, epitomized the development of the “book musical”, a musical play where the songs and dances are fully integrated into a well-made story with serious dramatic goals that are able to evoke genuine emotions other than laughter. In addition, Oklahoma! features musical themes, or motifs, that recur throughout the work to connect the music and story. A fifteen-minute “dream ballet” reflects Laurey’s struggle with her feelings about two men, Curly and Jud. // The new collaborators began with a painstaking assessment of what made the characters tick, where songs would fit and what the style and content of each number should be. They also visualized possibilities for casting, set design, lighting and staging. Once they had agreed on these points, each headed home — Rodgers to his farm in upstate New York, Hammerstein to his farm in Pennsylvania. Oscar fashioned the book and lyrics with great care, laboring for weeks over certain phrases and rhymes. He then either telegraphed or phoned in the results to Rodgers, who had been mulling over melodic options and would sometimes have a completed tune on paper in a matter of minutes. Because the Theatre Guild was bankrupt, its mangers gave Rodgers and Hammerstein extraordinary creative control over the project. With little to lose, R&H took several artistic risks.//Despite strong comic material (“I Cain t Say No”) and a healthy dose of romance (“People Will Say We re In Love,” “Out of My Dreams”) this show was neither a typical musical comedy nor an operetta. This was something new, a fully rounded musical play, with every element dedicated to organically moving the story forward. // The Theatre Guild suggested modern dance choreographer Agnes DeMille. R&H were uneasy about DeMille’s insistence on selecting trained modern dancers in place of the standard chorus kids, but the resulting personality-rich ensemble was a key factor in the show’s eventual fate. All these high-minded choices made Away We Go (as the musical was initially named) a tough sell to investors. Despite their distinguished resumes, Rodgers and Hammerstein had to spend months auditioning the material for potential backers, and the Theatre Guild had to sell off its beloved theater to satisfy anxious debtors. By the time the original run ended, backers saw an astounding 2,500% return on their investment. Before Oklahoma, Broadway composers and lyricists were songwriters – after Oklahoma, they had to be dramatists, using everything in the score to develop character and advance the action. As Mark Steyn explains in Broadway Babies Say Goodnight (Routledge, NY, 1999, p.67), with earlier songs by Lorenz Hart or Cole Porter, you hear the lyricist – with Hammerstein, you hear the characters.
• 1944 On The Town, Leonard Bernstein & Comden Green, coreo Jerome Robbins used modern dance and song to depict the romantic adventures of three sailors on shore leave in New York. Coming from the world of classical ballet, Jerome Robbins used dance as a story-telling device, making it as intrinsic to the musical as the script and the score. What Agnes DeMille had in initiated in Oklahoma came to fruition in the best Robbins stagings. He worked closely with authors and composers, defining the core stories and taking an active role in shaping much of the material he would bring to life on stage. As a result, his directorial concepts are often woven into the librettos and songs, a permanent element in the fabric of these shows. He directed and/or choreographed a roster of hits, including some of the most memorable musicals of the post-Oklahoma era.
• 1945 Carousel, Rodgers and Hammerstein, the story of Billy Bigelow and Julie Jordan, young New Englanders who fall into a passionate but abusive marriage. When Julie becomes pregnant, Billy tries to provide for his unborn child by taking part in a robbery – and dies by falling on his own knife. Years later, Billy’s ghost returns from heaven for one day to help his wife and daughter get on with their lives. This often dark story was matched to a glorious score (“If I Loved You,” “You’ll Never Walk Alone”), luminous choreography by Agnes DeMille, and a remarkable cast of newcomers led by John Raitt and Jan Clayton. Although Carousel never matched the amazing popularity of Oklahoma, it has always enjoyed a devoted following.
• Billion Dollar Baby (1945 – 219 performances) was built around a series of story-telling dances, once again with Abbott directing and Robbins handling the musical numbers.
• 1946 Annie Get Your Gun, Berlin & Dorothy Fields. When Jerome Kern died suddenly in 1945, librettists Herb and Dorothy Fields needed a new composer for a musical about famed sharpshooter Annie Oakley. Rodgers and Hammerstein were already producing the project and swamped with other commitments, so they turned to friend and colleague Irving Berlin. was uncertain that he could adapt to the new style of fully integrated musical play. Handed the libretto on a Friday, he showed up the following Monday with “Doin’ What Comes Naturally,” “You Can’t Get A Man With A Gun” and “There’s No Business Like Show Business” — great songs that were firmly rooted in character & the plot.
• 1947 Brigadoon, Loewe, Loerner
• 1947 High Button Shoes, had a score by Jule Styne and a stellar comic performance by Phil Silvers as a slick 1913 con man, but it is primarily remembered for Robbins’ choreography, most notably a madcap “Mack Sennett Ballet.” Keystone-style cops and bathing beauties were unleashed in a wild chase to nowhere, stopping the show. The director was (who else?) George Abbott.
• 1948 Kiss Me Kate’s, Cole Porter, The libretto and lyrics kept the original spirit of Shakespeare intact, but added a healthy dose of sophisticated contemporary hilarity. Porter’s score included “Wunderbar,” “So In Love With You Am I,” and the bawdy “Brush Up Your Shakespeare”.
• 1949 South Pacific, Rodgers i Hammerstein, was unusual in many ways. There was almost no dance, two equally important love stories, and the dramatic tension was not provided by any single antagonist (a.k.a. – a “bad guy”) or “silly misunderstanding.” Both love stories were u against “carefully taught” racial prejudices. These reflex hatreds drive key characters to push away from the people they love. In the case of a young Lieutenant and his native girl, the results are tragic, but Nellie and Emile are finally reunited.

CINEMA

• 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)).
• 1942 You Were Never Lovelier (1942), Fred Astaire Rita Hayworth was equally successful.
• 1942 Yankee Doodle Dandy, Warner, the most entertaining musical film bio of all time, which soared thanks to James Cagney’s Oscar-winning performance as Broadway legend George M. Cohan. Top-rank director Michael Curtiz gave the film exceptional overall polish.
• 1942 For Me And My Gal, Garland and newcomer Gene Kelly star as vaudevillians hoping to play The Palace. The title tune became a major hit.
• 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.
• 1943 Stormy Weather, amb Bill Robinson, Fats Waller, Lena Horne i els Nicholas Brothers en una de les escenes més extraordinàries de la història.
• 1943 A Cabin in the Sky, dirigit per Vicente Minneli, amb Ethel Waters, Duke Ellington, John Bubbles.
• 1944 Meet Me In St. Louis, directed by Vincente Minnelli (Garland’s future husband) is the most fondly remembered of her wartime films. Garland was the picture of wholesome talent in what she often said was her favorite role. This nostalgic story of a 1903 family facing harmless domestic problems was embraced by a war-torn world. The score blended period tunes with new Hugh Martin-Ralph Blane hits – “The Boy Next Door,” “The Trolley Song” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
• 1944 Cover Girl, the story of a Brooklyn nightclub dancer who becomes a top magazine model. Designed as a vehicle for screen beauty Rita Hayworth (whose singing was always dubbed), it marked Gene Kelly’s transition to stardom. On loan from MGM, his “alter ego” dance with a reflection of himself in a glass window proved to be the first of many classic screen moments. The number was conceived and staged by Stanley Donen, who would play a major role in Kelly’s career and direct several great MGM musicals over the next ten years. Cover Girl was such a hit that MGM refused to ever again loan Kelly out for a musical role.
  https://youtu.be/jr7-qi7JRtc
• 1945 The fantasy Yolanda and the Thief, Vicente Minnelli, Fred Astaire, Lucille Bremer featured an avant-garde surrealistic ballet.
• 1945 Ziegfeld Follies (1945), Astaire danced with Gene Kelly to the Gershwin song “The Babbit and the Bromide,” a song Astaire had introduced with his sister Adele back in 1927. While Follies was a hit, Yolanda bombed at the box office. Always insecure and believing his career was beginning to falter, Astaire surprised his audiences by announcing his retirement during the production of his next film Blue Skies (1946). He nominated “Puttin’ on the Ritz” as his farewell dance. After announcing his retirement in 1946, Astaire concentrated on his horse-racing interests and in 1947 founded the Fred Astaire Dance Studios, which he subsequently sold in 1966.
• 1945 Anchors Aweigh, Kelly helped pop crooner Frank Sinatra look like a capable hoofer. Ball amb Jerry: https://youtu.be/2msq6H2HI-Y  https://youtu.be/9UhHu0YEj-A
• 1946 Ziegfield Follies, Gene Kelly Fred Astaire
• 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.”
  Garland later insisted that MGM got the most out of her by encouraging studio doctors to prescribe a dangerous array of pills to crank her up by day and force her to sleep at night. But no other performer ever blamed MGM for encouraging chemical dependency. It was Garland’s controlling mother who got her started on pills, and while the studio may have abetted the abuse, it also encouraged and supported Garland through several attempts at rehabilitation that inevitably fell apart due to her crushing workload. Between the pressures and the pills, this gifted young lady was often a physical and nervous wreck. https://youtu.be/J3aUAiLU0TI
• 1949 On The Town (1949), Gene Kelly codirigit amb Donen, a former Broadway chorus dancer with a remarkable instinct for musical film. Donen, Kelly and producer Arthur Freed would create some superb screen musicals in the art form’s remaining years.
  Although the Hollywood musical was doomed, its last gasps would be among its most glorious.

RKO

• 1933 Flying Down To Rio, RKO, Astaire i Rogers en un paper secundari que va encantar el públic. Stanley Donen explica: “I was nine, and I’d never seen anything like it in my life. I’m not sure I have since. It was as if something had exploded inside me. . . I was mesmerized. I could not stop watching Fred Astaire dance. I went back to the theatre every day while the picture was playing. I must’ve seen it at least twenty times. Fred Astaire was so graceful. It was as if he were connected to the music. He led it and he interpreted it, and he made it look so effortless. He performed as though he were absolutely without gravity.”

Primer solo, show aeri,  the Carioca, Dolores del Rio

• 1934 The Gay Divorcee (1934), RKO, Astaire i Rogers protagonistes, they danced and romanced, inventing what became their standard formula – in a high society setting, a charming playboy and a sweet girl with spunk get into a tangle of mistaken identities, fall in love on the dance floor (to something like Cole Porter’s “Night and Day”), resolve their misunderstandings in the nick of time, and foxtrot their way to a black and white “happily ever after” ending. [ la majoria de les coreografies serien d’Astaire i Hermes Pan]

The Continental, Night and Day

• 1935 Top Hat (1935), RKO, Astaire i Rogers, which embodies the series at its best. There is a a variation of the “mistaken identities” plot with stylish comic support from Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore and Helen Broderick, and a solid-gold score by Irving Berlin. “Isn’t This a Lovely Day To Be Caught In The Rain,” “No Strings,” the title tune and the unforgettable “Cheek to Cheek” are deftly integrated into a story of mistaken identities set in an eye-popping black and white art deco vision of Venice. The dialogue is breezy and clever, and the atmosphere one of sophisticated delight.

Top Hat White tie Tails, Heaven, Cheek to cheek, No strings, Isn’t this a lovely day to be caught in the rain

• 1935 Roberta, RKO, Astaire i Rogers included Jerome Kern’s “I’ll Be Hard To Handle”

I’ll be hard to handle, Lovely to Look at, I won’t dance

• 1936 Follow The Fleet, RKO, Astaire i Rogers had Irving Berlin’s “Let’s Face the Music and Dance”

Let’s face the music and dance, I’m putting all my eggs in one basket, I’d rather lead the band, Let yourself go

• 1936 Swing Time, RKO, Astaire i Rogers boasted Jerome Kern’s Fields “The Way You Look Tonight”, “Pick yourself up”

Pick yourself up, A fine romance, The way you look tonight, Bojangles of Harlem, Waltz in swingtime, The last dance

• 1937 Shall We Dance, RKO, Astaire i Rogers offered George and Ira Gershwin’s “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me”

Shall we dance, Let’s call the whole thing off (you say potato), They can’t take that away from me, Slap that bass

• 1938 Carefree, RKO, Astaire i Rogers included Berlin’s “Change Partners”

I used to be color blind Romantic dream, Change partners, The Yam

• 1939 The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, RKO, Astaire i Rogers

vals

Bob Fosse (  1927 – 1987 ), ballarí i coreògraf.

Fosse said that from a director’s point of view there were only three types of show songs:

• I Am songs – Any song that explains a character, a group of characters, or a situation.
• I Want songs – These tell us what characters desire, what motivates them. Most love songs fit into this category.
• New songs – This includes any number that does not fit the other two categories, usually because they serve special dramatic needs.

The Pajama game 1957

Damm Yankees 1958

1961 How to succed

Sweet Charity (1969) music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and book by Neil Simon. Un èxit a Broadway i un fracàs de taquilla al cine. If they could see me now.

Cabaret (1972), music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb

Willkommen

Cabarett

Mein Herr

The Little Prince ,  musical de 1974, Stanley Donen