The Musical as Drama

McMillin, Scott

doi:10.1515/9781400865406

Cited by 17 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…123 Indeed, it is an open question whether it is music or camp that provides the "crackle of difference" that Scott Mc-Millin identifies as the musical's characteristic dramatic device. 124 Probably both, since, as I have claimed elsewhere, "the musical becomes camp the moment it actually becomes musical." 125 Like Wagner's Musikdramen, musical camp awakens the psychological realm in order to imagine and proj ect, within a broadly subjunctive version of real ity, what cannot otherwise be experienced.…”

Section: Pirate Campmentioning

confidence: 94%

Making Light<subtitle>Haydn, Musical Camp, and the Long Shadow of German Idealism</subtitle>

Knapp¹

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

I have been extremely lucky in my intellectual and musical associations, a great many of which have embedded themselves into the arguments of this book. These really began with Robert Rubinstein, whose enthusiasm and insights first led me to discover how unusual and dependably rewarding a composer Haydn was. George Parish, Howard K. Smither, and R. Larry Todd guided my early work on Haydn while still a gradu ate student, and much of their influence has filtered its way into this book. My ucla colleagues Robert Martin, Elisabeth Le Guin, Tom Beghin, and Peter Reill, in association with the Clark Library at ucla, were my collaborators on two exceptionally motivating symposia, in 1994 and 2001, that productively combined per for mance with scholarship, and which led to core discussions in chapters 2 and 3. Mitchell Morris, through his exciting work on musical camp and German Idealism, his unabashed focus on the pleasures that popu lar music affords, and his continued presence as an interlocutor par excellence, has been both an instigator and a sustaining spirit throughout. Steven Baur's work on the fold between popu lar and concert music in the United States during the nineteenth century was inspirational, and his continuing generosity in providing feedback for my own work in that area invaluable. Robert Fink's pioneering work on Gilbert and Sullivan, and continuing shared enthusiasm for their work, has been both energizing and helpful. The spirit of Elijah Wald's bracing reconsideration of the histories we habitually tell about popu lar music, and the many conversations we shared while he undertook that work at ucla, Acknowl edgmentsxviii § acknow l edgmen t s hovers over much of the later stages of this proj ect. Peter Broadwell's pioneering dissertation on musical pirates was a terrific spur to my related work in chapter 4, and he has been unfailingly generous as a con sultant; indeed, even his re sis tance to my exhortations to include Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance in his dissertation proved a useful goad. And I would be remiss if I did not point out the obvious, that Susan Mc-Clary, in helping transform the field of musicology and, more particularly, ucla's Department of Musicology, was essential to this proj ect's inception and much of its early execution.My more specific thanks go to Mitchell Morris, especially for his feedback regarding chapters 1, 4, 5, and 6, as well as extended discussions about nearly every thing else in the book; to Elisabeth Le Guin for her responses to chapters 2 and 3; to Susan McClary and Mark Martin regarding chapter 1; and to Sarah Ellis, Sam Baltimore, Steven Baur, Stephen Pysnik, and Arreanna Rostosky for their crucial feedback on chapter 4. Members of the Musical Theatre Forum have also helped me shape some parts of chapter 4; among this stimulating group, I thank especially Stacy Wolf, Carol Oja, David Savran, and Elizabeth Wollman, for their encouragement and astute criticism. Over the years, I have subjected several of my seminars to parts of chapters 1 and 4, a...

show abstract

Section: Pirate Campmentioning

confidence: 94%

Making Light<subtitle>Haydn, Musical Camp, and the Long Shadow of German Idealism</subtitle>

Knapp¹

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This was a research aesthetic that aimed to avoid the logic of "representation" -that is, it eschewed illusions and fictional plots in favour of theatrical actions comprehended as "more real." This aesthetic agenda, however, did not match the concerns of the professionals involved in a large portion of the musicals (McMillin, 2006).…”

Section: Disputes Over the Lawmentioning

confidence: 95%

Social Experience and Us Musical Theatre on São Paulo’s Stages

Machado

2020

Sociol. Antropol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

At the turn of the twenty-first century, Broadway musicals began to be produced in many countries outside the United States. In Brazil, particularly the city of São Paulo, new laws, business interests, and the fascination of some artists with US productions converged to enable the creation of a new system of musicals. In this article I examine the social elements I consider fundamental to understanding the proliferation of musicals in recent years. My description focuses especially on how some actors orchestrated multiple procedures and interests to organize a unique and fertile setting that changed the city’s theatrical production. In the process, I explore theatre as an expressive form that acts as a thermometer of social desires and practices.

show abstract

“…42 Bound up with the romance at its center, which should ensure the safety of an ideal, intact future, the temporality of the conventional musical's plot marks itself clearly as reproductive futurism, a temporality directly at odds with the source play's cripqueer time. 43 The temporal heteronormativity of the musical genre should not, perhaps, come as a surprise, considering the market that both supports and delimits it. As Wolf points out, "the Broadway musical is a commercial, profit-seeking, artistic commodity, entertainment form, and cultural product," intended for a middle-class audience, and as such it must take into account that audience's tastes.…”

Section: The Temporality Of Musicalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“I'll wait”: Crip-Queer Temporality and Reproductive Futurism in Musical Adaptations of Dürrenmatt'sDer Besuch der alten Dame(The Visit of the Old Lady)

Weist

2020

Theat Surv

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

On 29 January 1956, a new play by up-and-coming Swiss dramatist Friedrich Dürrenmatt had its world premiere at the Zurich Schauspielhaus. From the stage of the venerable playhouse, the young playwright's “tragic comedy,” Der Besuch der alten Dame (lit.: The Visit of the Old Lady—a title I shall employ to distinguish it from a well-known but much-changed English adaptation), presented the story of billionairess Claire Zachanassian's return to her impoverished hometown after forty years. During those intervening decades, she used a string of strategic marriages to amass considerable financial assets, but lost a hand and a leg in various transportation accidents. The people of Güllen, a rundown town whose claim to fame is that Goethe once spent the night there, start off the play finalizing their plans for a strategic grand reception at the train station: they have high hopes of convincing their prodigal daughter to save them from poverty and return them to their former glory. That daughter, however, has justice—not salvation—on her mind for the cruel town that exiled her as an unwed, pregnant teenager. After secretly using her fortune to buy and close each of the town's factories, Claire has returned. At a banquet held in her honor, she offers the bankrupt town “one billion” in exchange for the communal murder of Alfred Ill, beloved citizen and father and heir apparent to the mayorship. He also happens to be the high-school sweetheart who perjured himself to betray Claire and the child they conceived all those years ago.

show abstract

The Musical as Drama

Cited by 17 publications

References 3 publications

Making Light<subtitle>Haydn, Musical Camp, and the Long Shadow of German Idealism</subtitle>

Making Light<subtitle>Haydn, Musical Camp, and the Long Shadow of German Idealism</subtitle>

Social Experience and Us Musical Theatre on São Paulo’s Stages

“I'll wait”: Crip-Queer Temporality and Reproductive Futurism in Musical Adaptations of Dürrenmatt'sDer Besuch der alten Dame(The Visit of the Old Lady)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About