Stephen Sondheim Musical Analysis

After watching the recording version of Shrek the Musical, I consider that it is a successful production if the purpose of this musical is to amuse audiences and bring them an enduring audio-visual feast. As a musical that is created based on a blockbuster, the basic story framework is without novelty – an ugly but kind-hearted ogre experiences lots of dangers with a friend, saves the princess like a hero and wins her heart in the end. However, I have to admit that Shrek the Musical does a fantastic job to convert a movie into a Broadway show, considering the high level of complexity and difficulty for a team to humanize animated characters and imitate scenes. There are a lot of details, including Pinocchio’s growing nose, in the musical that show off the elaboration. Undoubtedly, the scenery is one of the brightest spot in this musical.

After watching the recording version of Shrek the Musical, I consider that it is a successful production if the purpose of this musical is to amuse audiences and bring them an enduring audio-visual feast. As a musical that is created based on a blockbuster, the basic story framework is without novelty – an ugly but kind-hearted ogre experiences lots of dangers with a friend, saves the princess like a hero and wins her heart in the end. However, I have to admit that Shrek the Musical does a fantastic job to convert a movie into a Broadway show, considering the high level of complexity and difficulty for a team to humanize animated characters and imitate scenes. There are a lot of details, including Pinocchio’s growing nose, in the musical that show off the elaboration. Undoubtedly, the scenery is one of the brightest spots in this musical.

William Shakespeare included metaphors in his play Romeo And Juliet to explain the relationship between Romeo and Juliet while enhancing the reader's experience. When Romeo comes to the Capulet ball he immediately notices Juliet and her beauty. When Romeo first sees Juliet he already lets her know his love for her, “If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle sin is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with my tender kiss” (1.5.104-107). Romeo compares himself to Pilgrims and the way Pilgrims worship a holy shrine, saying how much he worships Juliet. This lets the audience know how to should appreciate any lover but not go to the extent of worshipping them.

Dela Cueva, Anthony A. HUM103 MET-2101 Oct. 18, 2016 Philosophy Paper (Film showing of “Les Miserables”) A. Introduction – The movie production of musicals often have numerous opportunities to go wrong and risk losing the emotional a stage performance bring. Les miserables is not the one of those movie. Stage musical are more than just a showcase of talented singers/actors. A musical is an intense emotional journey that is strengthened by the addition of music.

Alban Berg began to write lieder in 1901 but first in 1904 he started taking lessons with Schönberg, first in counterpoint and harmony, and since 1907 in composition. In 1910, Schönberg wrote in a letter to his publisher about Berg’s talent: “One (Alban Berg) is an extraordinarily gifted composer. But the state he was in when he came to me was such that his imagination apparently could not work on anything but Lieder. Even the piano accompaniments to them were song-like in style.” As the correspondence between them shows, Berg was committed to Schönberg’s ideas: “Advocacy for Schoenberg’s doctrines and beliefs is the single most important leitmotif in the correspondence. Almost everyone mentioned, however prominent in his or her own right, is seen as a believer or a detractor.

By watching Fordham’s adaptational production of Magnolia, a play by Regina Taylor, before reading it, helped me understand the play in a comprehensive way. The elements provided by the designing, lighting, set, props, cues and emotional intensity the actors portrayed shed an all-embracing experience to the script. The outcome of the production did the play justice. Yet, the plotline was somehow arduous to follow in terms of the plot details and in identifying each the characters though the actors portrayed their characters quite individualistically. At the beginning,, the characters were singing all together, blacks and whites, to the tunes of “The Times They Are A-Changin” by Bob Dylan, setting the tone that times were changing, particularly

This marked the advent of the Victorian Burlesque era when prominent classical ballads and operas were parodied into musical comedy pieces that were often dubbed as racy, ridiculous and risqué. Prominent among these were Shakespearean plays such as Hamlet. Sometimes the original music would be used while other times, the lyrics would be altered to bring about the comic effect. It became famous in London theatres around the 1830s and lasted till the 1890s. However, unlike the existing notion of Burlesque, the Victorian Burlesque era was very similar to the English pantomime, although it focused more on the high-end literate class unlike the pantomime which was open to all classes and ages.

Recreating a classic story such as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet from stage to film is a difficult task, but both Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann were able to execute the challenge. This classic play is based on the story of “a pair of star-crossed lovers” (Rom. 1.0.6) who fall in love despite the feud happening between their families. Sadly, even with the undying love they have for each other, their love story ends in a tragedy. The story of Romeo and Juliet is a typical love at first sight plot but includes various other aspects that make the story interesting and different to other movies or stories with the same basic plot line.

His methods in this procedure were highly controversial, and included half-truths In this way, he “greatly influenced the romantic view of Beethoven”, to the delight of the incoming Romantic composers who probably accepted Schindler’s writings and did not question its validity It will come as little surprise then that Beethoven might not have particularly appreciated Napoleon Bonaparte and his conquests (Perhaps a case could be made for the Emperor concerto as a protest against Bonaparte’s conquest or even for the concerto as demonstrating the valor of Austrian resistance — also an empire at the time — due to its heroic theme.) In a letter to his editors, Beethoven recounts how these events affected him: "During this time we lived in a really oppressive embarrassment [...] The course of events on the whole has had at home its repercussions physically and morally I still can not even enjoy this life in the country so indispensable to me [...] What an exhausting and devastating life around me; Nothing but drums, cannon, human miseries of all kinds." 3 At this moment in time, it is clear to even a casual observer that whatever respect the composer once held for Napoleon, if it had not already dissipated, was blasted away by the cannons invading the

For instance, he uses “dandy” characters in many of his works, and the real life, he lives like a “dandy”. Even their dressing style is almost the same. So, there are a lot of similarities between Oscar Wilde’s works ,especially in The Importance of Being Earnest and his life. At the same time , people can laugh, be entertained and think and it is the necessity of comedy. If there is no message for the society, the play may not face this affection, but entertaining people by the writer’s wit is more important than saying thing directly without any aesthetic way.

Causey has a lot more negative things to say about the play, rather than positive things to say. I do agree “the score, the dancing, the rhythms, and the energy of West Side Story continue to transcend the decades and trendy fads of theatre to reign as one of the best musicals ever written,” but she did shed light