Broadway and the Jazz Age PDF

EPISODE TWO Syncopated City (1919-1933)...

EPISODE TWO Syncopated City (1919-1933) 2A BROADWAY AND THE JAZZ AGE The 1920s brought a whole new musical language to Broadway. Previously, popular songs, especially love songs, could be artificial and pretentious. Writers like Irving Berlin, Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart, and Cole Porter transformed songwriting by bringing the language of everyday people – slang, jar- gon, phrases from advertisements, radio, and the newspaper – into their lyrics. Likewise, the composers of the period borrowed from the world around them. George Gershwin was famous for visiting Harlem and bringing jazz – considered “cutting edge” in the ‘20s – to a wider audience. Richard Rodgers uses the musical idiom of the Charleston, a famous dance tune of the ‘20s, for “Thou Swell,” even though the song is set in the Middle Ages. These artists made the songs of the period catchy, lively and timeless. Words make you think thoughts. Music makes you feel a feeling. Thou Swell Thou swell! But a song makes you feel a thought. (excerpt) Thou witty! Thou sweet! —E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, lyricist Babe, we are well met, Thou grand! As in a spell met— Wouldst kiss me pretty? I lift my helmet. Wouldst hold my hand? Sandy, Both thine eyes are cute, too— You’re just dandy What they do to me. RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN ORGANIZATION For this here lad. Hear me holler You’re such a fistful, I choose a My eyes are mistful Sweet lolla Are you too wistful Palooza To care? In thee. Do say you care I’d feel so rich in To say “Come here, lad.” A hut for two. You are so graceful— Two rooms and kitchen Have you wings? I’m sure would do. Rodgers (right) and Hart wrote a successful musical version You have a face full Give me just a plot of of Mark Twain’s time-travel story, A Connecticut Yankee in King Of nice things. Not a lot of land, Arthur’s Court. “We wanted to write shows that had different You have no speaking And, settings,” recalled Rodgers. “The Girl Friend was about a big voice, dear. Thou swell! thing at the time, a six-day bicycle race, and so the fellow meets With ev’ry word it sings. Thou witty! the girl there. In A Connecticut Yankee, it was a fantasy in the Thou grand! days of King Arthur and the fellow [from 1927] goes back in time –—Lorenz Hart and what do you think happened? He fell in love with a girl.” “Thou Swell” by RICHARD RODGERS and LORENZ HART. (c) 1927 (Renewed) WARNER BROS. INC and WILLIAMSON MUSIC in the U.S. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission. Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc., Miami, Florida 33014. Question Activity The lyrics for “Thou Swell” combine medieval words with con- Listen to Rodgers’ tune for “Thou Swell.” Imagine that you are temporary words. Which words are medieval-sounding? What Larry Hart and your assignment is to write a song based on happens when these words are put together with modern words? “Thou Swell” that’s set in 2004. What kind of language will you use?  EPISODE TWO Syncopated City (1919-1933) 2B BROADWAY AND THE JAZZ AGE Songs are the most important element of a musical. They may seem simple, catchy, or corny, but they are always the product of Lorenz Hart (b. 1895) was born in New York and hard work. Different collaborators work dif- educated at Columbia University where he wrote the school ferent ways. When Rodgers worked with Varsity Shows. When he was 24, he met the 17-year-old Hart, the melody came first; with Richard Rodgers (b. 1902), who wanted to be a composer. Hammerstein, Rodgers wrote the music after They had their first song on Broadway in 1919, but it wasn’t until 1925 that the words. Usually a team will look at the sit- they broke through with a hit called “Manhattan.” uation in the story and decide what kind of Over the next six years, they wrote songs for 18 productions, went to song is called for. Perhaps they will agree on a title and go their separate ways, or they Hollywood in 1931, and returned to Broadway in 1935 to write eleven may work in the same room together around groundbreaking shows, including On Your Toes and Pal Joey. a piano until the song is created. However it Songs they wrote together include such classics as “My Heart happens, a song is the product of constant Stood Still,” “My Funny Valentine,” “Where or When?” and collaboration, discussions and alterations. “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered.” Hart died in 1943, as Rodgers was beginning his partnership with Oscar Hammerstein. Ira Gershwin (b.1896) was a bookish lad, growing up, among other addresses, on New York City’s Lower East Side. A piano was provided for him by his parents, but it was his younger brother, George Gershwin (b.1898) who took to it; as time went on, Ira provided lyrics for his brother’s melodies. George was a piano prodigy who quit school to work in a music publisher’s company. By 1924, the Gershwins wrote a musical comedy, Lady, Be Good! starring Fred Astaire. That year, George wrote the famous piano concerto “Rhapsody in Blue.” Together the brothers wrote many successful shows (Of Thee I Sing, Porgy and Bess) and songs “Nice Work if You Can Get It,” “I Got Rhythm,” “Fascinating Rhythm,” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So” – phrases which have entered the English language. George died PHOTOFEST of a brain tumor in 1937; Ira lived until 1983. George Gershwin Activity Look at some other song lyrics from the 1920s or 1930s such as “Fascinating Rhythm” by Ira Gershwin or “You Took Advantage of Me” by Lorenz Hart. How did the lyricists use slang of the period? Are there any phrases you don’t understand? Use the Web or other resources to find out more about the slang of the 1920s or 1930s and list the words you particularly like. Write a poem or song lyrics, using slang to write something funny about love.  EPISODE THREE I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’ (1930-1942) 3A BROADWAY AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION While the Broadway fare of the 1920s supplied a seemingly endless stream of fun, the social Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? concerns of the 1930s created two distinct responses: there They used to tell me were still effervescent musical comedies that took the I was building a dream And so I followed the mob. audiences’ minds off their troubles for three hours at a time, When there was earth to plough but there was also a strong vein of social criticism and political Or guns to bear satire in the American musical. Escapism and engagement I was always there were the dueling stars of the Broadway stage. Right on the job. They used to tell me FEDERAL THEATRE PROJECT COLLECTION, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS & ARCHIVES, I was building a dream With peace and glory ahead. Why should I be standing in line Just waiting for bread? Once I built a railroad, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES Made it run Made it race against time. Once I built a railroad Now it’s done Brother, can you spare a dime? The Cradle Will Rock Once I built a tower “I grew up when America had a dream... To the sun In 1930, the dream collapsed. The system fell apart. Brick and rivet and lime. This was a good country, on its way to greatness. Once I built a tower Now it’s done It had given our immigrants more freedom, Brother, can you spare a dime? more education, more opportunity than it had ever known. What happened?” Once in khaki suits —E. Y. "Yip" Harburg Gee, we looked swell Full of that Yankee Doodle-de-dum Half a million boots went sloggin’ thru hell Question Activities I was the kid with the drum. The lyrics for the music in The Wizard of Oz, a favorite 1. In “Brother Can You Spare a Dime?” the song Say, don’t you remember? is sung in the first person. Who is singing the They called me “Al” childhood movie of many song? Could you construct a biography for the singer? Can you find another poem or It was “Al” all the time. Americans, were written by song that has the same point of view? Or that Say, don’t you remember the man who wrote “Brother, uses an iconic figure to narrate the piece? I’m your pal Can You Spare a Dime?” What significance might 2. Stage a breadline from the 1930s with mem- Buddy, can you spare a dime? bers of your class. What kind of conversa- songs like “Somewhere Over — E.Y. “Yip” Harburg tions would be going on among grown men the Rainbow” have for an waiting in line for hours for handouts of food? average American during the Create a poem or song that includes these “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” by E.Y. “Yip” Harburg and Jay Gorney. Published by Glocca Morra Music (ASCAP) and Gorney Music (ASCAP). Depression? conversations. Administered by Next Decade Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.  EPISODE THREE I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’ (1930-1942) 3B BROADWAY AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION Following the Stock Market Crash in October of 1929, the Depression struck New York City with a hardship that bor- dered on cruelty. By 1932, the depths of the Depression, one- third of the city’s factories were forced to close. Out of a pop- ulation of seven million, 1.6 million people were on relief – an early and inadequate form of welfare – and nearly a third of all New Yorkers were unemployed or accepted some form of job cut or partial pay. Theaters closed down or were turned into the far more finan- cially successful movie theaters. It was harder to raise money for a new production; in 1927-28, there were a record 267 productions on Broadway, by 1932, there were 181. During the Depression on Broadway, there were 5,000 Equity actors looking for employment and an additional 20,000 theater artists desperate for work. Out of this adversity came an CULVER extraordinary decade for the American musical, which, next to the daily newspaper, became the most vibrant and topical Ethel Waters was born circa 1900 and raised indicator of what was going on in America. The Depression, in a poor and violent Philadelphia neighborhood. She union solidarity, the policies of the New Deal – these were all connected emotionally with the songs “her people” sang topics central to successful Broadway musicals. and the stories they carried with them. For a decade, she After a landslide re-election victory in 1936, President Franklin sang in black nightclubs and the segregated vaudeville grind D. Roosevelt seemed to have only partial success with the New known as the “Chitlin Circuit” and was frequently courted by Deal and all over the nation, struggles between labor and white producers for Broadway. "I ain't changin' my style for management were exploding into dangerous and often fatal nobody or nothing," she once vowed. But, in 1933, she altercations. In Pittsburgh, Michigan and Chicago, strikes starred in Irving Berlin’s As Thousands Cheer, a major ended in violence as workers were beaten and fired upon in achievement for an African American woman. In it she sang the spring of 1937. Passionate arguments about the future “Supper Time” – a serious song about lynching. “In singing direction of the country were commonplace until 1941 when it, I was telling my comfortable, well-fed, well-dressed America entered the Second World War. listeners about my people,” she wrote. Questions Activities 1. During a major historical event, like the Depression, 1. In the ’30s, many musical theater pieces spoofed the government we often turn to historians to try and understand the and its problems in songs and sketches. Create a treatment for a period. What do we learn when we turn to poets, revue of your own for 2004. This can include a song list, a scene songwriters, comedians, or filmmakers? What do outline, or lyrics for some of the songs. Some topics: the presiden- they have to tell us? What do you think inspires tial election, “outsourcing” jobs in the economy, the war in Iraq, these artists? Why might their perspectives be same-sex marriage. important? 2. Look more closely at one of the political musical of the 1930s, such 2. Why do you think some producers, directors, writ- as Of Thee I Sing, The Cradle Will Rock, As Thousands Cheer, or ers, and performers used musicals in the 1930s as Pins and Needles. Investigate the people behind the shows and the vehicles for criticizing the government? Do you real political events they were portraying or parodying. Imagine you think it is as common today? Why/why not? What are the producer or director working on a revival of the show and different political climates exist today for art and come up with a concept of how you would design the sets and stage free expression? the musical today.