Pick a Pocket Or TwoPub Date : 2021-09-23DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0006
Ethan Mordden
{"title":"Dancing With a Ghost","authors":"Ethan Mordden","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter evaluates British musicals in the 1930s and 1940s. This period, the chapter argues, was characterized by a lack of ambition. One problem was the paucity of Jewish writers in the UK. This ethnic group is notable for imaginative expertise in musical theatre and this is one of many reasons why the American brand is so protean. The most disappointing element could be argued to be passéiste choreography. In the meantime, the American musical was letting dance evolve most originally than in the UK. It is worth noting that Charles B. Cochran hired American choreographers for his most aspiring shows of the early 1930s, Ever Green (1930) and Nymph Errant (1933). Ever Green is a spectacular book musical that introduced Britain to the recent German invention of the revolving stage. The comedy musical then became less popular. However, Me and My Girl (1937) was an outstanding comedy musical. Me and My Girl was the work of composer Noel Gay, with L. Arthur Rose and Douglas Furber involved. Though as producer-director Lupino Lane could be called the show's auteur.","PeriodicalId":118439,"journal":{"name":"Pick a Pocket Or Two","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132480043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pick a Pocket Or TwoPub Date : 2021-09-23DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0005
Ethan Mordden
{"title":"And Then a Violin Began To Play","authors":"Ethan Mordden","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter looks at Welsh composer Ivor Novello, whose seven Big Sing musicals, from 1935 to 1949, present an imposing body of work. His seven operettas are Glamorous Night (1935), Careless Rapture (1936), Crest Of the Wave (1937), The Dancing Years (1939), Arc De Triomphe (1943), Perchance To Dream (1945), and King's Rhapsody (1949). They could be described as both terrible and wonderful, vexed by boisterous storytelling yet protected by Novello's extraordinary gifts in melody and harmony. Glamorous Night initiated the rise of the type of musical genre by which Novello is known today. He wrote the scripts, composed the songs (mostly to Christopher Hassall's lyrics), played the leads, and generally supervised the entire production without actually directing. Yet Novello himself, though he played heroes in six of these titles, did not generally sing.","PeriodicalId":118439,"journal":{"name":"Pick a Pocket Or Two","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116174748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pick a Pocket Or TwoPub Date : 2021-09-23DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0009
Ethan Mordden
{"title":"Behind the Times","authors":"Ethan Mordden","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter focuses on Sandy Wilson and Julian Slade, who had a number of things in common. They both first appeared in the early 1950s, wrote shows originating outside the West End, seemed unaffected by the American influence, and had one outstanding hit (respectively, The Boy Friend and Salad Days). However, the two are unalike each other in important ways. Wilson was the sole author of his shows, while Slade had collaborators, especially actress Dorothy Reynolds, who co-wrote most of Slade’s best-known titles. Wilson enjoyed basing songs on earlier models, while Slade rarely used pastiche. Slade's musicals are innocent and sweet-hearted while Wilson's are worldly, satiric, and cynical. Thus, Slade's Salad Days (1954) is the perfection of lovable twaddle while Wilson's The Boy Friend (1953) is an analysis of lovable twaddle, a resuscitation of the twenties musical to ask what it was made of.","PeriodicalId":118439,"journal":{"name":"Pick a Pocket Or Two","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122864158","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pick a Pocket Or TwoPub Date : 2021-09-23DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0002
Ethan Mordden
{"title":"Gilbert and Sullivan","authors":"Ethan Mordden","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses Richard D'Oyly Carte's “Gilbert and Sullivan” (G & S) program, which was named after W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Carte's G & S program combined the appeal of superb craftsmanship with that of fresh material, replacing the previous derivative nature of extravaganza and burlesque. First of all, Carte commissioned Trial By Jury, G & S's only one-act production. It was a miniature comic opera. This led to the famous series of shows, now all with spoken dialogue, that changed the course of the Anglophone musical. However, by his involvement with Gilbert and Sullivan Carte had tasked himself weightily, as he now faced years of delicate diplomacy, keeping the act together when Gilbert got too prickly or Sullivan felt unappreciated. Next, Carte recruited G & S performers into the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. The aim was to tour internationally in the G & S canon and this tradition lasted for over one hundred years. The business became a family business. After Carte retired the business was managed by his son Rupert, and then by Rupert's daughter Bridget, before disbanding in 1982, albeit with sporadic initiatives thereafter. The chapter finally looks into more detail at the G & S canon, including titles such as The Pirates Of Penzance (1879) and Patience (1881).","PeriodicalId":118439,"journal":{"name":"Pick a Pocket Or Two","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129327750","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pick a Pocket Or TwoPub Date : 2021-09-23DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0007
Ethan Mordden
{"title":"Imagine the Duchess’ Feelings","authors":"Ethan Mordden","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter looks at the work of Noël Coward, and presents a list of his musicals. Perusing the list, we can note that Bitter Sweet (1929) is the only classic. This is so more for its superb score than its functional book, which was full of snobby folk fussing over etiquette. The elements that are most memorable about Coward's musicals, are the songs, especially the witty lyrics. This chapter argues that no one in the world of the West End theatre besides W. S. Gilbert rivals Coward for his lyrics. Ironically, there is little wit in the scripts of Coward's musicals, the wit is to be found only in the lyrics and some of the revue sketches. Coward's revue songs emphasize his musical-comedy side, while his story shows tilt toward operetta in whole or part. This irony could be a result of Coward's musical illiteracy: he composed but could not write anything down. For most of his career, he used hired secretaries to help organize the music.","PeriodicalId":118439,"journal":{"name":"Pick a Pocket Or Two","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133625999","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pick a Pocket Or TwoPub Date : 2021-09-23DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0014
Ethan Mordden
{"title":"A Little Bit Naughty","authors":"Ethan Mordden","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0014","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter considers the British musical over the last thirty years. As pop operas continued to appear, Chess (1986), Tim Rice's collaboration with Benny Anderson and Björn Ulvaes (from the Swedish pop group ABBA), was considered a classy example, centered on a rivalry of chess champions. ABBA's catalogue in the jukebox show Mamma Mia! (1999) creates a line-up of point numbers fitted into an innocuous story. In comparison, Chess tells of globally dangerous affairs of state and is very precisely musicalized with just one incongruous number, “One Night In Bangkok,” which would seem to have been created solely to guarantee a big hit song. Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, understanding that the proper launching site for an international success was London or New York, gave the West End Miss Saigon (1989) and Martin Guerre (1996). With such serious musicals as Girl From the North Country (2017) and the pop-opera cycle commanding the scene, musical comedy as such started to become scarce, though Spamalot (Broadway 2005; West End 2006) showed the comedy musical is still capable of claiming smash hit status.","PeriodicalId":118439,"journal":{"name":"Pick a Pocket Or Two","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123533799","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pick a Pocket Or TwoPub Date : 2021-09-23DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0013
Ethan Mordden
{"title":"With One Look I’ll Be May","authors":"Ethan Mordden","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0013","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter looks in greater detail at the career of Andrew Lloyd Webber, who commands many styles, freely moving from one to another within a single score. The Phantom Of the Opera (1986) dabbles in pastiche of vintage opera forms, yet its title song is disco. Evita (1978) opens with a choral requiem, which is dissonantly modern, but then Che Guevarra turns around and addresses the audience in rock. The through-sung scores set soothing melody right next to jagged recitative. Ultimately, Lloyd Webber's music is a paradox, and this is one reason why he has detractors. After Jesus Christ Superstar (1971) and Evita, Lloyd Webber’s subsequent projects attracted intense interest. Many people regarded Cats (1982) as a folly. But Cats proved irresistible then and after, in part because it turned pop opera joyful after the hieratic ceremonies of its two founding titles. Superstar is not a comedy and Evita's “comedy” is actually bitter irony; but Cats is all for fun, tempered only by the occasional solemnity.","PeriodicalId":118439,"journal":{"name":"Pick a Pocket Or Two","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123340188","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pick a Pocket Or TwoPub Date : 2021-09-23DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0011
Ethan Mordden
{"title":"The Little Things We Used To Do","authors":"Ethan Mordden","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0011","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter addresses the British musical in the 1970s and 1980s. The review (of old music) replaced the revue, as can be seen in the mermaid's Cowardy Custard (1972) and Cole (1974), which were both stylish recapitulations of Noël Coward and Cole Porter. They had flavorsome casts, though the singing was variable. The chapter then focuses on two adaptations: The Good Companions (1974) and Peg (1984). It also considers the staging of movie musicals. This is not a ground-breaking genre, but one title that now stands out as a secret classic is Alan Parker's staging of the movie Bugsy Malone, in 1983. The staging of this retained all ten of the movie's numbers without emendation, and while the entire cast was dubbed onscreen, Parker had his stage cast doing their own vocals.","PeriodicalId":118439,"journal":{"name":"Pick a Pocket Or Two","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128079870","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pick a Pocket Or TwoPub Date : 2021-09-23DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0008
Ethan Mordden
{"title":"It’s Sort Of Romantic","authors":"Ethan Mordden","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter turns to the British musical in the 1950s. As in the 1920s, the spirit of “America” was again prominent in the 1950s. The American influence on British shows is clear, for example when producer Emile Littler commissioned the score to Love From Judy (1952) from Hugh Martin and Jack (later Timothy) Gray. Indeed, we can see many “American” touches in the musicals of the 1950s. The most completely “American” musical was Grab Me a Gondola (1956). The only un-American about Gondola was its modest staging: the sets looked cheap, the orchestra contained only thirteen players, and the twenty-three-person cast wasn’t enough to constitute a chorus. Nevertheless, the overall effect was that of a guilty pleasure, and the show's popularity as seen through its 673 performances convinced many a producer to try to find a way to slip American elements into British forms, even pantomime. Looking at those musicals which were free of foreign influence, we can see that many had period settings, charm, and a decorous attitude. These musicals include Dear Miss Phoebe (1950) and Peter Tranchell and James Ferman's Zuleika (1957).","PeriodicalId":118439,"journal":{"name":"Pick a Pocket Or Two","volume":"217 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132475764","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pick a Pocket Or TwoPub Date : 2021-09-23DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0004
Ethan Mordden
{"title":"Charleston Mad","authors":"Ethan Mordden","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190877958.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter investigates how the revue became all the rage in the 1910s. At this time, the London Hippodrome specialized in showing big variety shows. Joy-Land! (1915) was typical of this type of show, each number calling up gala visuals and gigantic ensembles. In the 1920s, Charles B. Cochran reinvented revue as a small but arty performance. It became sophisticated in not only its material but its fizzy performing talent. In the 1910s, however, size mattered as well as the emerging American style. The furor for the American sound, stimulated by local dance bands adopting the American style, led producers to hire American songwriters. The chapter looks at titles such as The Cabaret Girl (1922), The Maid Of the Mountains (1917), Chu Chin Chow (1916), and The Bing Boys Are Here (1916). The chapter also studies Mister Cinders (1929), which became the most vital British musical of this era.","PeriodicalId":118439,"journal":{"name":"Pick a Pocket Or Two","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130134693","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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