MUSC101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 63-64: Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jerome Kern
Document Summary
Show boat was a popular jerome kern musical from the 1920s. The fast-paced afro-cuban dance with a syncopated beat heard in the. Dance at the gym in bernstein"s west side story is called mambo. Plots for early musicals were often sentimental and contrived, but as the genre grew older, composers began looking to more sophisticated literary sources for their plots. With its roots in variety shows and operetta, the musical theater genre was more light-hearted in its early phase. Leonard bernstein achieved fame with the new york philharmonic when he filled in for a guest conductor who was taken ill; he was 15 at the time. Stephen sondheim wrote the lyrics for the musical west side story. The idea of a tragedy being set as a musical was unheard of until leonard. Prior to west side, musicals were based on stories that were more light- hearted than serious.
