American Musical/StageScreen

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course focuses on the lively, sprawling genre of the American musical, a theatrical and cinematic form that has been considered particularly American while becoming a global phenomenon. The course repertoire was chosen to strike a balance between musicals that are historically significant and ones that highlight particularly important issues about transformation between stage and screen, large and small. Students will: - engage in the debate about what constitutes “a musical.” - develop a historical sense of the major stylistic trends in music, narrative, and performance style in the genre. - be able to articulate the ways in which film, theatre, and television differ and the effect of each on a musical text. - be able to place this knowledge within larger trends of American culture.