Dramatic Forms of Musical Theater

This course studies the various narrative structures that have developed over the past 150 years to tell dramatic stories through music. Topics of discussion include the techniques of transforming songs into extended dramatic scenes (with an emphasis on the works of Kurt Weill, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Laurents & Sondheim); the relationship of the drama to revues, minstrel and burlesque shows, and melodrama; the development of the genre through integration, concept musicals, and popular opera; the process of adaptation required for other works to be musicalized; the relationship of musicals to comedy and plots of marriage; and the limits of musical storytelling.