Storytelling in the Musical Theater Canon
This course surveys the building blocks of traditional Golden Age book musicals and contemporary book musicals. Students will analyze the unique components of these masterworks and understand how they serve as a template for the construction of their culminating experience musical, using Lincoln Center’s Theater on Film and Tape as a regular resource. Students will learn to identify potential musical ideas for the stage from direct-source adaptation, adaptation from historical events and figures, recent history, and adapting personal experience. Finally, students will understand multiple concepts and potential creative partners for their Culminating Experience musical based on the categories of adaptive sources considered in this course.