What is Musical theatre?
Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.
Musical theatre is different to dramatic theatre in that it combines songs, spoken dialogue, and dance to tell a story. A musical is also different to a play with music, in that it gives as much importance to the songs and music as other elements of the production.
Musical theatre is a A category or type of something. Fiction and non-fiction are two examples of different genres. which means that it鈥檚 one set type or category of the many different types of theatre in existence. It鈥檚 often quite stylistic and can use a variety of theatrical techniques such as elements of physical theatre, A tableau, a single freeze frame. All perfomers on stage hold a dramatic pose in absolute stillness and silence to mark a moment as significant. and Performers work together in rehearsal/performance to create a moment of action on stage, eg Greek Chorus; slapstick sequence or Physical theatre. acting.
Opera and Musical theatre
Opera and Musical theatre 鈥榗ross over鈥 so they might be very alike. The famous musical, Miss Saigon, for example is based on Giacomo Puccini's opera, Madame Butterfly. But in the musical, Madame Butterfly's story of a doomed marriage between an American lieutenant and Japanese girl is replaced by a romance between an American GI and a Vietnamese bar girl during the Vietnam War in the 1970s.
Opera usually differs to Musical theatre in that opera has a story that is nearly all sung. This sung dialogue is called a libretto. In Musical theatre the story itself is not always delivered in song; often the songs are comments upon what is happening, providing additional insight into how a character is feeling or exploring a theme of the piece. Spoken dialogue is used alongside song and dance. Occasionally the songs themselves can be 鈥榮poken鈥. A famous example of this would be the character of Henry Higgins who 鈥榮peaks鈥 his songs in the musical, My Fair Lady, which is based on George Bernard Shaw鈥檚 play, Pygmalion. Although this was mainly due to the fact that Rex Harrison, the actor who portrayed Higgins on stage and in the 1964 film wasn鈥檛 a singer!
The well-known musical, Phantom of the Opera, is also based on another older work. The story was inspired by the French novel, Le Fant么me de l'Op茅ra by Gaston Leroux.