Welcome to the Musicals Thread, the Avocado’s space for anything and everything related to musical theatre! Every month I’ll post a discussion prompt, but please feel free to comment on other topics, from new discoveries to old favorites. If you have ideas for future prompts or would like to write a feature for the thread, let me know!
It’s September, which for many people means the beginning of a new school year, which for many people means assigned reading. Students are introduced to the literature that the powers-that-be have decided is important for them to know, for its artistic merit, its example of the possibilities of the medium, its representation of a past era, and/or its relevance to and influence on the culture of today. I’ve had to read prose, poetry, and plays, but what if my teachers had taken the latter one step further? Which musical(s) would you choose to be taught as part of a school curriculum and why?
Fiddler on the Roof, for one, demonstrates how the art form unites speech, song, and dance to communicate. It bridges two major eras of musical theatre, similar in structure to the “Golden Age” shows of the 40’s and 50’s and offering prime examples of traditional elements like the Act 1 opening crowd song, the “I want” song, the love song, and so on; but with a somber undertone that grows more prominent from scene to scene and will grow even more so in later shows. Its international popularity speaks to the universality of its themes, and its characters, their relationships to one another and their values, are ripe for analysis. It offers the sort of symbolism and figurative language students are already taught to look for. And besides all that, it’s just a darn good musical.