I attended the musical revue Better Than This, which was a combination of an educational and musical experience. The show chronicled the evolution of women’s roles in musicals from the early 20th century, around the 1930s, to the present day. Considering how we are studying the development of western Art music I found it quite appropriate that this musical revue offered a perspective on the historical development of musical theatre, both from a musical perspective and social historical perspective. As we have discovered in class, the evolution of musical styles is often deeply influenced by what is happening socially and culturally, and learning this provides insight into the intentions of composers and their works. This musical revue definitely highlighted this, using musical numbers to demonstrate the sense of time and place that they were written in.
Starting in the 1930s, the songs written were largely interchangeable songs, or standards, that were used for multiple stage productions, not always being originally written for specific musicals. The songs written for women in these musicals painted them into very specific, stock roles, that were easily recognizable to audiences. The musical demonstrated that these roles such as the ingenue, or femme fatale, were often one dimensional and that the subject matter of these songs were often written about men, not offering much insight into the complex interior of a female character. Moving forward in time, the musical tracked how women’s roles in musicals became increasingly complex and diverse, with a greater variety of female roles being portrayed, with stories written about women of varying ages and backgrounds.
Seeing this musical made me think back on the operas that we have studied in class, and how the female characters often fit into certain roles, such as the furies or witches in Orpheus, Dido and Aeneas, and The Magic Flute, and the role of Queen Dido who resigns herself to death after Aeneas leaves her. Seeing this musical in the context of this class, I realized that this was not just a musical theatre phenomenon, but one that goes much further back. Female roles are especially categorized in Opera as there are different types of singers, such as the coloratura soprano that we listened to in the Queen of the Night, or the more mezzo-soprano role of Queen Dido, audiences recognize these women in their roles and have expectations about who they are.
As this was a very low budget production, it was performed with minimal sets and costumes in a very small intimate venue. This reminded me of our discussions of Dido and Aeneas and Handel’s oratorios, where the set dressing was done with the music because they were unable to put on elaborate productions. These productions used recognizable musical genres, such as the French overture to signal the regality of the French court in Dido and Aeneas, and the sacred style imitative polyphony in “With drooping wings” that was used after Queen Dido’s death. The use of these musical genres helped to paint the visual picture by counting on the audience being able to recognize these musical genres and were they would have been used, signalling time and place. In a similar way, the musical revue relied on our recognition of musical theater tropes and different styles of musical theatre tunes, such as the jazz influenced style of the 1930s musical numbers, to paint the picture for the audience and create the characters without the use of elaborate costumes or sets.
Watching this musical revue in the context of this class shed new light for me on musicals, and allowed for even further understanding of the historical narrative that I was watching. I will definitely be paying more attention to the musicals I see in the future and how they work into this history and play with my expectations.