Anglo-American Music Theater I

Summary: Jewish America

MUSI 730 Anglo-American Operetta and Musical Theater I
Assignment 3 by Beth Atkins - Summary             In this dissertation, Jill Yvonne Gold Write provides a background of the Jewish lifestyle in the 19th century, focusing on the lives of Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, and Oscar Hammerstein II.  She details the impact that these Jewish composers had on American musical theater and how their experiences as Jews influenced their writing.  Among others, one commonality she addresses in detail is the question-song, which she defines as either as a series of questions with no answer, such as “Maria” from The Sound of Music or a list of questions that are then answered with a small but definitive word, phrase, or sentence sung, such as the song “Who” by Jerome Kern. Question song serves as a musical parallel to Shakespearean soliloquy, where an actor shares inner thoughts, future plans, and inner fears and failures. Americans recognized this pattern as a Jewish trait.
Irving Berlin and Annie Get Your Gun (1946)
Annie Oakley is a Jewish character – illiterate and uneducated, placed in an entirely new society with nothing, but lucky enough to have a special skill which allows her to succeed in show business.  She becomes successful because she is talented and motivated enough to move ahead.  The story idealizes the American West and appeals to the immigrant who sees her story reflected in Annie’s success.  It is significant because it starts a new trend with a feisty female as the show’s protagonist who sings about romance with sarcasm and colloquialism instead of singing ballads.
Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II and Show Boat (1927)
Kern and Hammerstein recognized and responded to the enormous need for more serious musical theater and changed the genre by creating Show Boat.  As American Jews, Kern and Hammerstein could relate to stoic Joe who can see the changing world around him, but only from his place on the outer limits of society.   Show Boat is pivotal because it was the first time that realism was shown in musical theater.  Additionally, a strong female heroine was unheard of before 1927:  Magnolia becomes first character in entire literature of American musical theater to change and mature.
George and Ira Gershwin and Porgy and Bess (1935)
This is another story about a minority group which is discriminated against for being who they are and is thus both an African-American and a Jewish story.  Wright claims that the song “There’s a Boat” sings of the dreams of immigrants who came to America.  She also addresses the treatment of Christianity, specifically in the song “It Ain’t Necessarily So” which she claims argues if the Bible were not taken literally, many reasons for discrimination against Jews would be eliminated.  Additionally, parallels are drawn between Porgy and Annie from Annie Get Your Gun.
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II and Oklahoma!(1943)
Oklahoma!—like many of their other works--addresses prejudice, illustrating a fundamental tenet of Judaism “what is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow man.”  These men understood anti-Semitism and wrote a musical that gave new life and hope to the people of the Dust Bowl who were discriminated against both for their economic situation and religious differences.
 

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