Musical Theater, Many Art Forms Melted Into One

Above, Shirley Jones as Marian Paroo and Robert Preston as Professor Harold Hill in the 1962, The Music Man.

I'm a fan of the musical comedy. A musical comedy can always make me smile, relax and de-stress. I know songs from musicals and their lyrics to an embarrassing degree. I once saw a T-shirt on zazzle.com that said, "Yes, I know all the lyrics to every musical, so sue me, sue me, shoot bullets through me," which was funny to me, because I recognized the "sue me, sue me" part as lyrics from Guys and Dolls.

Frank Sinatra as Nathan Detroit singing Sue Me, Sue Me to Vivian Blaine as Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, 1955.

I think I like the musical, because it combines so many art forms I like into one: singing, dancing and storytelling/acting. At various times, I have sung in choirs and concerts, acted in dramas and danced for my own benefit and exercise, but I have never performed in a musical. You can, however, see how it might suit me.

Visual art is also an important element of the musical that can't be underestimated, the art that goes into costume design and set design. Musical comedies are often an explosion of color, with colors that pop and vibrate against one another...

Scene from West Side Story, 1961.

Or unrealistically monochromatic as if a whole town decided to dress alike for no particular reason.

The Shipoopi song from the 1962 movie, The Music Man

Think Pink from the 1957 Funny Face

In the above scene, the explosion of pink does have some pertinence to the plot in that it deals with employees of a fashion magazine and a new fashion trend.

It is the careful arrangement of color and beauty that adds so much to the musical experience. This past March, I went to visit a good friend in Florida. She and I visited Walt Disney World with her mother who said at one point that a visit to Disney World could give you sensory overload. The musical experience can be like that too, with so much for your eyes and ears to take in.

I realize not everyone is a fan of the genre. I remember, back in college days, overhearing a guy in the cafeteria making fun of musicals and, specifically, West Side Story. With a cheesy, pasted-on smile, he snapped his fingers and made up his own lyrics for the fictional gang members, "We've got your drugs, and we're going to kill you." Looking back on it, I laugh. I can understand why he would see the ridiculousness of a bunch of tough guy gang members slinking down dark alleys and breaking out into spontaneous dance, especially as some of the dance moves in the movie are ballet-related. (Those moves are, however, masculine.) A more modern retelling of the story might have the Sharks and Jets dancing hiphop style. Not all musicals are comedies. Some, such as West Side Story and Les Miserables, can communicate drama, tragedy and serious ideas.

Dancing Jets in West Side Story

I think it is this spontaneous song and dance in the midst of the story that those who are not fans find hard to understand. A friend of mine once, speaking to me about it, complained that musicals were unrealistic. I then told him, "Well, comic books are similarly unrealistic," since he is a fan of comic books. He then acted as if I had stepped on his toes. It wasn't my intention to insult something he liked but only to point out that people enjoy many art forms that are not strictly realistic. The 2007 Disney movie Enchanted has a song and dance scene that mocks the very idea of a spontaneous song and dance breaking out of nowhere. And you know what? I actually love it.

That's How You Know from Disney's Enchanted



I think of these spontaneous songs as like unto a Shakespearean aside or monologue. It is not realistic for a person to make little speeches to himself either. It is merely a technique to make us privy to that character's feelings at the moment. Songs in musicals serve the same purpose. Instead of expressing feelings in a monologue or dialogue or some other action, the character expresses it through song and dance. So, if you don't get hung up on the lack of strict realism, you can enjoy the format.

Maria Von Trapp, in The Sound of Music, can work out her anxiety in I Have Confidence in Me, and Anna Leonowens, in The King and I, can do the same thing in Whenever I Am Afraid.

Deborah Kerr as Anna Leonowen and Yul Brynner as the King of Siam in the 1955 The King and I

I don't think I will get tired of the musical, of discovering new ones or discovering old classics.