Help - Trends in theatre

[Jrumfola]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 12:25pm

Help...

I need ideas on current trends in American theater. I have to write a college paper on one trend going on in theater today, but I’m not sure where to start. If you could help with some ideas with what’s “hot” in theater right now, I would really appreciate it. Thanks

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 12:34pm

You probably need to pick one, and then scale the idea down, because all of the major ones branch off into sectors. Normally I'm not really one to advocate doing someone's work for them, but having just finished my thesis, I suppose I'm feeling generous.

1. Revivals. There are a lot of ways you could go with that.
2. Off-Broadway transfers (as opposed to shows that go out-of-town with their sights already set for Broadway)
3. There are several books on the relationship between art and commerce on Broadway. That's the big one. And again, there are a lot of ways you could go with that, too.

Updated On: 4/24/08 at 12:34 PM

[BkCollector]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 12:53pm

A great wealth of material can be found in the composer's and arrangers desire to use smaller, more chamber like orchestras in a lot of shows. Yes, there's a commercial aspect to it, but there's also an aesthetic aspects, there's a lot to explore there.

[acrocksyo]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 12:55pm

Targeting the Tween demographic. There have been lots of articles about this, and you can pull from current shows like Wicked, Hairspray, Legally Blonde.

And then you can also go with the current trend of Hollywood Studios backing musicals as spinoffs of their movie brands. And how it's so expensive to produce musicals now that sometimes the only ones who can produce them are movie studios.

Just some ideas.

[jrb]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 1:00pm

I second the orchestral idea.
Not only could you discuss the paring down of pit orchestras, the strike, and the current skew in scoring toward a more pop/modern mentality, you could rap it up by discussing the influx of revivals and the generally possitive response to the recent use of large orchestras.
Modern Scores vs. Post-Modern backlash...musical vernacular and the use of ethnic scores and ensembles. It's a rich topic. You could slice it down to something more compact.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 1:18pm

If you decide to go with something about "chamber" orchestral styles, there was a good, short-but-sweet piece in the Sondheim Review about a year ago. I think it was the Summer 2006 issue. The one with Company on the cover. Obviously if you're going to deal with like, pop/rock bands and then the handling of the classics and revivals, you'd need address both sides, not just the positive response to the full orchestras, but also the response to scale-downs, for any of the reasons they get done.

[Not Barker, Todd.]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 1:24pm

-Shorter Musicals
The trend of more one act musicals on Broadway.
-Musicals That Play With Form

[BkCollector]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 2:15pm

Great idea, Not Barker, a great idea is to examine the rise of the "metamusical" which is a growing trend, but probably on it's way out.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 2:57pm

Revivals as opposed to new works

Turning movies into musicals

Stunt/Star casting (as opposed to people who can actually play the role)

The loss of an overture/front curtain/11:00 number

The number of times Donna Murphy/Laura Benanti can miss without being blacklisted.

[KrissySim]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 3:24pm

Broadway and Hollywood have a lot in common. Productions are now so expensive to mount that producers like to fall back on the tried and proven. In Hollywood it's the sequel and the remake. On Broadway its the revival and the adaptation from Hollywood's successes.

One interest of mine is: what has happened to summer stock theatre in America? I've read that in its hayday, in New England alone there were some 50-60 summer theatres with resident companies. Now, according to Mountain Playhouse, there are only 12 in the whole US of A. (Not sure if this is accurate.)

PS This could be related to the summer stock question. There is a growing trend in regional theatre to go to tax-exempt status rather than commercial. Tax exempt status allows funding from donors, endowment grants, etc.

Updated On: 4/24/08 at 03:24 PM

[TonyVincent]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 4:03pm

Turning movies into musicals

Contrasted with turning musicals into movies (a new wave again over the past few years.

Then there's also the movie-turned-musical-turned-movie.