The 1950s was a productive decade for many famous Broadway composers. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein produced five of their classic musicals between 1951 and 1959, including classics like "The King and I" and "The Sound of Music." Alan Jay Lerner and Freidrich Loewe composed enduring hits like "Paint Your Wagon," "Brigadoon" and "My Fair Lady" throughout the 1950s, and legendary composer Leonard Bernstein debuted works as diverse as "On the Town," "Candide" and "West Side Story" during this decade as well. Research the works of a particular composer or team, focusing on the similarities among their works as well as the diversity in each musical's style. Show clips from the musicals or play selections from the soundtracks for your classmates.
Many musicals of the 1950s were adapted into films, including "My Fair Lady" and "The Sound of Music." These screen musicals often differed drastically from their stage counterparts, resulting in two very different stories. Choose a stage musical from the 1950s and examine the differences between the theatrical script and the film version. Research which scenes were cut, what songs were added, who from the theatrical cast played the same role on stage and on screen and who was replaced (Julie Andrews was famously passed over in favor of Audrey Hepburn for the film version of "My Fair Lady") and why these changes were made. Ask friends to help you perform a scene from the stage version, then play a film clip of the scene to highlight these differences.
The plots and roles available to women in stage and film musicals of the 1950s are far different than the raw, uninhibited performances that populate modern musical adaptations; it's difficult to imagine 1950s musical star Doris Day playing a role like Roxie Hart in "Chicago" or Mimi in "Rent." Explore how gender is constructed and enforced in musicals of the 1950s, from Day's historically inaccurate and thoroughly feminized role in the 1956 film "Calamity Jane" to the physical abuse endured by Julie in "Carousel" to the outright abduction of the townswomen by a band of brothers in "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." Examine how gender is treated and framed in these musicals, and examine male gender roles as well, like the "Boys-will-be-boys" behavior of the Pontipee brothers who kidnap the titular "Seven Brides."
Both stage and screen musicals of the 1950s dealt with questions of racism and ethnicity, resulting in powerful artistic explorations of a social and political issue that is still relevant. Focus on different representations of race in musicals, from the choice to cast Caucasian actress Natalie Wood as Maria, the Puerto Rican love interest of "West Side Story," to the questions of cultural assimilation posed by the stage debut of "Flower Drum Song," which concerns a Chinese community in San Francisco. Examine how the composers, directors and actors used music to forward their arguments and philosophies, as Rodgers and Hammerstein did in their iconic song about learning racism "You've Got to Be Taught," which reached a wider audience with the premiere of the 1956 film adaptation of "South Pacific."