Specific Traits of the Musical Theatre - Essay Example

Name: Tutor: Course: Date: The Musical Theatre Musical theatre refers to the lively form of art. It is a film production, television or stage that utilizes popular dialogue options, style songs, or showcasing the writers or performers talents. Therefore musical theatre is a theatre form that combines songs, music, dance and spoken dialogue. The emotional contents of the musical theatre include humor, pathos, anger, love and the story itself which is communicated through music, words, movement and the technical aspects of the entertainment. There are three essential qualities that must be brought out by the best musicals. These are the intelligence and style that employs the brain, the heart that poses emotions and courage that involves creativity and excitement. Some of the examples of musical include the king and 1, the less miserable’s, west side story, the Miss Saigon, the pajama game, cabaret, rent, the sound of music among others. This context looks at the west side story. The story basically talks about two rivalry groups; the jets who are American gang and the sharks that had moved to the jets territory from Puerto Rico (Laurent, p11). The leader of the jets was Riff while the leader of the sharks was Bernado. The sharks began the fight by jumping to baby John. The jets became furious and decided to fight back but the police arrived in time lead by Officer Krumpke and Lieutenant Schrank and dispersed the two groups. Note that this fight was a racial rivalry between the two groups from different races and countries. During the discussion, the jets tried to figure out what they will do to the sharks to mark the biggest challenge ever and they decided they will have a last all out fight which they termed as ‘rumble’. The fight was to be at the dance that was being held that very night at the local gym which was considered a neutral ground for the two groups. The lieu tent of the jets group was to be Tony who was Riff’s best friend though he had drifted away from the group. Tony was as well one of the co-founders of the jets. This shows the social life that the jets group had, they lived as a family and when tony seemed to be drifting away, they told him that once you are a jet you remain to be a jet. At first, tony tried to refuse to be the jets lieutenant but then he tried to figure out what might come out of the war and decided to do it. This lead to a song called “something’s coming”. Bernado the shark’s leader had a sister who was called Maria. She had recently arrived from Puerto Rico. Bernado took her to the dance that night where she mate friends like Rosalia and Consuela (Kenneth, p23). When the night came, the two rivalries were both on the dance floor plotting how to start the fight there was a person called Glad hand who tried to mix the two groups to prevent them from fighting. Tony on the hand was just seated and he spotted Maria and friends who were as well seated. Tony became attracted to Maria and he approached her. They fall in love and went to dance but Bernado was disappointed by the sister and took her home the same moment. Tony also left the gym and walked home very sad. Riff, the jets leader invited Bernado to the war council and they agreed to meet at the Doc’s Candy store. Bernado later told Tony to stay away from her sister Maria. The next day at the shark’s residential place, Anita who was Bernado’s girlfriend defended Maria by saying that she had a right to dance with anybody she wished just like the other girls did. A very bitter argument emerged and the conclusion was that the girls loved their life in America while the boys hated it. This brings out a clear picture of gender issues as well as racial segregation. Later on, Tony visited Maria at her tenement block where they confirmed their love and agreed to meet the next day at Madame Lucia’s bridal shop. The jets and the sharks met and planned where their rumble will take place. Now before the sharks arrived at the rumble, the jets accompanied by Anybodys, a tomboy who was desperate to join the group are visited by officer krupke. He then told them that he did not want them to cause trouble on his beat. When he left, they made fun of him along with social workers, judges and psychiatrist. Tony then came at the conference where the two rival groups had mate and he demanded that they have a fair first fight instead of a rumble since this was their first meeting in battle. The jets leader, Riff agrees to the idea but Bernado accepts reluctantly (Laurent, p21). This greatly showed the civil unrest between the two groups since it is quite unusual to see two rivalry groups sitting together just to plan on how they were going to fight. The following day, Maria and her friends were at the bridal shop but Maria seemed to be unhappy. When they asked her what was wrong, she said that she felt attracted. At that same moment Tony arrived. All the girls left except Anita and Maria since Anita supported the couple but was afraid that if Bernado could realize that the two were meeting, worst could happen. She then went home to make up herself since she had planned to have a fabulous time with Bernado after the rumble. Back at the shop, Maria demands that Tony stop the rumble that had been planned and tony agrees but before he left, the two pretend that the bridal clothes at the shop belong to them and they imagined how their wedding was to be. This was termed in a song as ‘one hand, one heart”. Later at the musical montage, the two groups meet and are all ready for a rumble incase it turns out. Bernado and Ice who was the assistant of Riff begin to fight but Tony comes in time and tries to stop them but Bernado again attacks him. Tony just relaxed and did not fight back but he was mocked by the sharks. Riffs was unable to withstand his best friend’s humiliation and he ended up punching Bernado. This marked the beginning of the rumble. Eventually, Bernado killed Riff and in turn was killed by Tony before the police arrived. All people took to their feet leaving behind the bodies of Bernado and Riff. Maria later learned of the incident through Chino who also loved her and she had lashed out Tony but forgave him later and affirmed their love. Ice plotted for revenge to the sharks but before it happened, they heard that Chino was after Tony with a gun. They all went to look for Tony to protect him. Tony and Maria were together ready to reaffirm their love when Chino arrives and shoots Tony (Kenneth, p84). Maria becomes furious and takes the gun from Chino but before she could do anything, the Jets arrived lead by Ice and the police as well as the Sharks. Maria accused everybody in sight of the deaths of Bernado, Riff and Tony. However, the two rivalry groups joined hands to mark the end of fighting while the police took Chino away. The tragedy had brought the feuding between the two gangs to an end as it was in Romeo and Juliet. My musical composition is all about ending of unstable cultural beliefs. It basically talks about a young man who falls in love with a girl that he comes to learn later that she was his relative. Kenneth was a young man in his early 30s when he met with Angela at a friend’s wedding. The two felt attracted to each other by the looks and they confirmed it later when they met to chat after the wedding where they knew each other and organized to meet the next weekend at a certain hotel. When the time came, the two met at one precious hotel in town and it is at this point that they confirmed their love to each other. During that time, Kenneth was working at the migration office while Angela was working at a saloon (Laurent, p72). They used to meet during the weekends and sometimes in the evening on weekdays when Kenneth picked Angela at her work place and drove her to a club where they could enjoy themselves for about an hour before they move home. It only took a period of about six months of dating when Kenneth proposed to marry Angela and since she was much in love with him, she agreed to be his wife. They then began the marriage plans. The marriage was to be a local one since Kenneth was not interested in doing a wedding. Kenneth visited the girl’s parents who lived in up country and told them of his plans. The girl’s parents agreed and told him the amount of dowry that he was to bring before he could take Angela for good. After a long argument on the same issue, they eventually came to an agreement. Kenneth told them that he will be coming officially after three months with his parents to know each other and to pay the dowry. They both went back to their places of work and continued dating as usual as they waited for that D day when they will be announced as husband and wife at their traditional marriage that was to take place after the dowry process. Eventually the day for presenting the dowry and the parents’ meeting and knowing each other came. The event was at Angela’s home in upcountry area. Kenneth came with his father, mother, grandfather, his grandfather’s brother, two of his close friends, two cousins and a brother. They were a total of ten people. on the other hand, Angela’s people that were to be on that meeting were her father, mother, brother, two close friends, a neighbor, her grandfather, her step mother and two of her father’s friends as well as two other old men from the village. Kenneth and his people arrived at around eleven in the morning and they were given a warm welcome. The party was very big where people ate and enjoyed themselves. Eventually the time came when the people from the two different communities were to know each other. In the process, they came to realize that there was some kind of a relationship between the two big families and that Kenneth was like a cousin to Angela. Angela’s step mother was a cousin to Kenneth’s mother. There was a very long argument on this issue where the old people suggested that the marriage was not to take place because the two were relatives but the young people from both sides said that the relationship was very far and it could not prevent the two from getting married. The old people said that the young people violated their cultural values while the young people said that it was high time to let go the old and useless cultural values. The whole story revolves around the cultural values and traditional practices. I am still working on this story and I hope you will be interested to know what exactly happened at the end. The story clearly brings out social life and cultural issues of the people. Here are some of the pictures that display the images of the people and things that happen in the story. the top picture shows Angelas home where the function was, the second and third pictures shows some of the foodstuffs that were used. The picture below shows Angela the girlfriend of Kenneth. Conclusion Musical theatre refers to the form of theatre that combines songs, music, dance and spoken dialogue whose emotional contents include humor, pathos, anger, love and the story itself which is communicated through music, words and movement. One of the examples of musical theatre is the west side story which talks about the two rivalry gangs; the jets from America and the sharks from Puerto Rico (Kenneth, p43). The story is all about the violation of social values and practicing of civil unrest where the two groups end up in a rumble that lead to death of a couple of people. Racial segregation was very prominent in this story where the Puerto Rico guys hated the white Americans and vice versa. In my own musical composition, the story tells of a young man who was ready to marry a girl that he learned was related to him and this issue brought up a very long argument between the old people who supported their cultural values and taboos while the young people argued that the cultural values are meaningless to them and that they can no longer follow them. I am still working on this musical in order to come up with a very strong conclusion that respects the social and cultural values. Work cited Jones Kenneth. West side Story, This time with Bilingual Approach, playball.com, 2008. Arthur Laurent. West Side Story, Broadway revival and US International productions, 2009. Read More

Bernado took her to the dance that night where she mate friends like Rosalia and Consuela (Kenneth, p23). When the night came, the two rivalries were both on the dance floor plotting how to start the fight there was a person called Glad hand who tried to mix the two groups to prevent them from fighting. Tony on the hand was just seated and he spotted Maria and friends who were as well seated. Tony became attracted to Maria and he approached her. They fall in love and went to dance but Bernado was disappointed by the sister and took her home the same moment.

Tony also left the gym and walked home very sad. Riff, the jets leader invited Bernado to the war council and they agreed to meet at the Doc’s Candy store. Bernado later told Tony to stay away from her sister Maria. The next day at the shark’s residential place, Anita who was Bernado’s girlfriend defended Maria by saying that she had a right to dance with anybody she wished just like the other girls did. A very bitter argument emerged and the conclusion was that the girls loved their life in America while the boys hated it.

This brings out a clear picture of gender issues as well as racial segregation. Later on, Tony visited Maria at her tenement block where they confirmed their love and agreed to meet the next day at Madame Lucia’s bridal shop. The jets and the sharks met and planned where their rumble will take place. Now before the sharks arrived at the rumble, the jets accompanied by Anybodys, a tomboy who was desperate to join the group are visited by officer krupke. He then told them that he did not want them to cause trouble on his beat.

When he left, they made fun of him along with social workers, judges and psychiatrist. Tony then came at the conference where the two rival groups had mate and he demanded that they have a fair first fight instead of a rumble since this was their first meeting in battle. The jets leader, Riff agrees to the idea but Bernado accepts reluctantly (Laurent, p21). This greatly showed the civil unrest between the two groups since it is quite unusual to see two rivalry groups sitting together just to plan on how they were going to fight.

The following day, Maria and her friends were at the bridal shop but Maria seemed to be unhappy. When they asked her what was wrong, she said that she felt attracted. At that same moment Tony arrived. All the girls left except Anita and Maria since Anita supported the couple but was afraid that if Bernado could realize that the two were meeting, worst could happen. She then went home to make up herself since she had planned to have a fabulous time with Bernado after the rumble. Back at the shop, Maria demands that Tony stop the rumble that had been planned and tony agrees but before he left, the two pretend that the bridal clothes at the shop belong to them and they imagined how their wedding was to be.

This was termed in a song as ‘one hand, one heart”. Later at the musical montage, the two groups meet and are all ready for a rumble incase it turns out. Bernado and Ice who was the assistant of Riff begin to fight but Tony comes in time and tries to stop them but Bernado again attacks him. Tony just relaxed and did not fight back but he was mocked by the sharks. Riffs was unable to withstand his best friend’s humiliation and he ended up punching Bernado. This marked the beginning of the rumble.

Eventually, Bernado killed Riff and in turn was killed by Tony before the police arrived. All people took to their feet leaving behind the bodies of Bernado and Riff. Maria later learned of the incident through Chino who also loved her and she had lashed out Tony but forgave him later and affirmed their love. Ice plotted for revenge to the sharks but before it happened, they heard that Chino was after Tony with a gun. They all went to look for Tony to protect him. Tony and Maria were together ready to reaffirm their love when Chino arrives and shoots Tony (Kenneth, p84).

Maria becomes furious and takes the gun from Chino but before she could do anything, the Jets arrived lead by Ice and the police as well as the Sharks.

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