Knowra American musical theatre American musical theatre American musical theatre is staged entertainment that integrates songs, spoken dialogue, dance, and dramatic performance, usually within a unified production.
Book musical : A musical whose songs and dialogue form a connected dramatic story. Its integrated plot shows how American musicals can make songs advance dramatic action.
Broadway theatre : Professional theatre associated with New York City’s Broadway district and its surrounding venues. Broadway became the most prominent American home for commercial musical theatre.
George M. Cohan : An American songwriter, performer, playwright, and producer associated with early twentieth-century musical theatre. His fast-paced shows and patriotic songs helped define an early Broadway style.
Show Boat : A 1927 musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II that portrays life along the Mississippi River. Its sustained story and serious treatment of race marked a shift toward integrated musical drama.
Grand opera : A large-scale operatic form characterized by elaborate staging, serious subjects, and extensive musical performance. Unlike most musicals, grand opera generally sets the entire text to music.
Musical theatre song : A song written to function within a staged musical, often revealing character or advancing the plot. Its lyrics and dramatic placement help distinguish musicals from collections of unrelated songs.
Minstrelsy : A nineteenth-century American entertainment form built around racist blackface performance. Minstrel shows influenced early popular theatre while embedding racist caricature in its traditions.
Jerome Kern : An American composer whose work helped establish the modern musical comedy. His collaboration with librettist Oscar Hammerstein II advanced song-driven dramatic storytelling.
Oklahoma! : A 1943 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical set in Indian Territory at the turn of the twentieth century. Its songs, dances, and plot are closely joined in a landmark integrated production.
Operetta : A form of light opera combining spoken dialogue with musical numbers. Its lighter plots and operatic conventions overlap with, but do not fully define, the American musical.
Show all 28