Musical Theatre Exam Questions Ch9

Theatre, Brief, 12e (Cohen)

Chapter 9 Musical Theatre

1) Is musical theatre a form of antirealist theatre similar to expressionism and theatre of the absurd?

A) Yes, because major writers of musicals produced impassioned manifestos in their program notes.

B) No, because musical theatre, while seemingly antirealist, does not derive from a rebellion against verisimilitude but has aesthetics unique to its own performance.

C) No, because musical theatre belongs to the tradition of realism in representation, especially in terms of emotional depth and precise character development.

D) Yes, because the antirealist traditions shared common playwrights, common playing spaces, and common politics.

2) Which of the following is NOT an example of the tradition of music in the theatre?

A) classic Greek tragedy that utilized singing and dance accompanied by flutes and other instruments

B) the twenty-five of thirty-eight of Shakespeare's plays that contain at least some singing

C) the musical masques (dance-dramas) that English dramatist Ben Jonson wrote for the court of King James I

D) the medieval Portuguese drama subgenre known as "musical tragedy"

3) Which city remains the international capital of the world's musical theatre?

A) London

B) Sydney

C) New York

D) Paris

4) What percent of Broadway box office revenue comes from musicals?

A) 60

B) 35

C) 25

D) 80

5) When did musical theatre begin to evolve as a specific genre of its own?

A) at the end of the Restoration

B) over the past 150 years of western dramatic history

C) in the middle ages, when the theatre moved away from the church steps

D) theatre went from outside to inside with acoustic abilities

6) All of the following genres contributed to the growth of musical theatre EXCEPT

A) street theatre.

B) light opera.

C) ballet.

D) American minstrel shows.

7) The American Broadway musical dates back to

A) the staging of The Black Crook, a melodrama, at Niblo's Garden in New York City in 1866 when a French dance company stranded in the city was added to the show.

B) the staging of Bob Cole's 1898 A Trip to Coontown, which mixed elements of African American dance with European musical traditions.

C) the late nineteenth century, when British musicals, such as Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance, gained popularity in America.

D) 1905, when Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, adapted for the stage, was performed in New Orleans in a production that featured improvisations by the actors.

8) Which full-length black musical comedy challenged the old custom of white actors' "blacking up," was written and performed by African Americans (some in white face), and employed the emerging ragtime musical syncopations of early black revues?

A) Bob Cole's A Trip to Coontown (1898)

B) Victor Herbert's Babes in Toyland (1903)

C) George M. Cohan's Little Johnnie Jones (1904)

D) J. Leubrie Hill's Darktown Follies of 1914

9) Which of the following statements correctly characterizes the major development of the musical form in roughly the first third (1900–1920) of the twentieth century?

A) It marked the age of the great musical comedy.

B) It marked the age of the musical improvisation.

C) It marked the age of the contemporary opera.

D) It marked the decline of the musical.

10) Which works exemplify a genre characterized by a simple plot, a cast composed strictly of romantic and comedic characters, a wholly unchallenging theme, the presentation of scantily clad women, and abundant singing and dancing, all with little connection to the plot?

A) Threepenny Opera, The Ghost Sonata, and The Dream Play

B) Orpheus in the Underworld, The Merry Widow, and Naughty Marietta

C) Pal Joey, Sweeney Todd, and Bubbling Brown Sugar

D) Anything Goes, Funny Face, and A Connecticut Yankee

11) Which genre, introduced in the golden age of the musical, is characterized by increasingly serious plots and sophisticated musical treatments?

A) musical comedy

B) musical sitcoms

C) musical drama

D) cabarets

12) Which musical (book by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II), adapted from a gritty novel by Edna Ferber, uses music and dancing to carry its complex plot, touches significantly on race relations in America, and contains the famous aria "Ol' Man River"?

A) Shuffle Along

B) Show Boat

C) Darktown Follies

D) Pal Joey

13) Which of the following musicals retells the story of Romeo and Juliet with a contemporary Polish American as Romeo and a contemporary Puerto Rican American as Juliet?

A) Fiddler on the Roof

B) On the Town

C) West Side Story

D) Guys and Dolls

14) Which artist (b. 1930), credited with changing the face of the American musical, developed a new style featuring disturbing plots, an ironic tone, and sophisticated, intricately rhymed lyrics?

A) Stephen Sondheim

B) Graham Wilson

C) Peter Brook

D) Peter Shaffer

15) Who raised dance to a new level of prominence when he developed a new choreographic style—quick, brisk motion that suddenly gives way to slow, sinuous gestures—in a series of musicals that he directed and choreographed, among them Dancin' and Chicago?

A) Tommy Tune

B) Rudolf Nureyev

C) Michael Bennett

D) Bob Fosse

16) Which of the following musicals does NOT explore race and/or ethnic relations?

A) George C. Wolfe's Jelly's Last Jam

B) Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific

C) Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori's Caroline, or Change

D) Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun

17) Which of the following musicals was conceived and directed by George C. Wolfe, choreographed by Savion Glover, and offers a capsule history of racial injustice in America?

A) Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk

B) Dreamgirls

C) Babes in Toyland

D) Rent

18) Which production shocked pre-war audiences with its suggestive lyrics about sexual infidelity and shady business ethics?

A) Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk

B) Oklahoma!

C) Pal Joey

D) Rent

19) Which American orchestral conductor and composer left a considerable mark on the musical's golden age with his On the Town, about World War II sailors on leave in Manhattan?

A) Jerome Kern

B) W. S. Gilbert

C) Leonard Bernstein

D) Stephen Sondheim

20) The name of the American corporation that has infiltrated theatres and has bottomless financial resources is

A) Broadway Producers.

B) Disney.

C) Samuel French Publishers.

D) Heinz.

21) Which winner of the 1998 Tony Award for the best musical, directed by avant-garde director-designer Julie Taymor, has become the highest-grossing Broadway play of all time?

A) The Lion King

B) Cats

C) Jelly's Last Jam

D) The African Queen

22) Thematically speaking, the trend for musicals in the twenty-first century has been toward the

A) serious, cynical, and even grim, such as gang violence and exploitation of scandal and sexual anomalies.

B) comedic yet politically engaged.

C) splashy, spectacular, and purely entertaining.

D) chamber musical that requires only a few performers and minimal sets.

23) Which of the following is NOT a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber?

A) Jesus Christ Superstar

B) Cats

C) Evita

D) Avenue Q

24) The musical that Susan Stroman directed, which sensitively tells the true story of nine black southern young men between the ages of 13 and 20 who were falsely accused and convicted of raping two white women on a train, used a simple set design, and staged in the format of a minstrel show is called

A) Avenue Q.

B) Contact.

C) The Scottsboro Boys.

D) Caroline, or Change.

25) Which award-winning and hugely popular musical, from the creators of TV's South Park, mixes scandalous satire with joyous comedy?

A) Sweeney Todd

B) Les Misérables

C) The Book of Mormon

D) Rent

26) The epoch-defining dance, featured in the hit show Runnin' Wild, that started a national craze was the Jitterbug.

27) Opera bouffe is a type of satirical comic opera of French composer Jacques Offenbach.

28) Musical theatre evolved initially as a revolt against other forms of theatre, particularly realism.

29) The first Latinx musical, in 1921, to dominate a full Broadway season was Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle's Shuffle Along.

30) Disney has worldwide recognition for its wildly popular musical productions such as The Lion King, Tarzan, Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast.

31) Gower Champion was a veteran dancer who returned to the stage in 1960 to stage and choreograph Bye Bye Birdie.

32) Marc Blitztein's 1938 musical, The Cradle Will Rock was cancelled an hour before its New York opening by government officials who protested the play's "left-wing propaganda."

33) Miss Saigon became a global megahit with its climax featuring a helicopter descending onto the roof of the American Embassy to rescue fleeing diplomats.

34) The American musical theatre, in 2016, seems to be heading for a decline due to its racy content.

35) The subjects that modern musicals have tackled include gang violence, unemployment, bipolar disorder, suicide, sexual identity, infidelity, immigration, government corruption, race-ethnic relations, and environmental degradation.

36) Provide a brief outline of the history of musical theatre in America. How would you characterize the development of the genre, from its origins until now, in terms of changes to its themes and techniques? What conclusions can you make about this development? Why are these changes important?

37) You are a major decision maker at Disney. Walk us through an initial concept meeting from your favorite Disney Broadway musical that you want to produce. Make sure you cover budget, marketing, reasons Disney would want to produce a musical, and so on. You are talking to major stockholders and have to convince them this is a good idea and that your concept will be successful. Have fun!

38) You have to choose a musical for your school. Which kind of musical genre will you choose: an older book musical or a new contemporary one? Explain your decision making—think of subject matter, casting, dance and music requirements, content, your audience, and so on.

39) Pick a musical that offers a theatricalized version of a previous play, story, film, or opera. You might consider, for example, West Side Story as an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Comparing the original and its reinterpretation, address in your essay how a work of art may function as a form of criticism on another work. How does an adaptation highlight selected matters of importance and modify matters of less importance? Recognize the roles of music, dance, acting as well as the design and writing to help make your point. Answers will vary

40) What was "golden" about the golden age of the musical, from the 1920s to the late 1960s? While using historical research, try to define the term in your own way. What term might we use to describe our current age?