Introduction

Hi :) My blog is about the geography of musical theatre. I will be looking at alot of very famous and popular musicals and researching where they orginated and the countries that they came from. I will be looking at musicals mainly from London's west end and broadway in New York and telling you about the geography behind the shows that we all love so much such as The Sound of Music, Grease, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Lion King and Hairspray.. When I talk about the Geography of Musicals I will be talking about the country and the time in which the story of the musical is set and i will be looking at different aspects of the shows to see how this setting is put across on the stage. Enjoy!
(image-http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll43/davidm1992/Musicalpic.jpg)

The Lion King

The Lion King is a musical on Broadway and the Lyceum theatre in London's West End. It is very different to other musicals, probably because all the characters are animals and it is set in Africa. The beautiful masks and costumes along with the African-style music really sets the atmosphere for this musical. Dance and ethnic ritual are used. Life-sized puppets are also used. The video shows that even on a West End stage the African kingdom can be recreated. The actors have mechanical headpieces that make their movements more animal-like. This helps the audience to imagine real African animals on the stage. The Lion King is set in a place called Pride Rock. The main part of the kingdom in the film and the stage musical is the large rock, where many important events take place. Spiral staircases and trap doors allow the actors to get where they need to be.

The names of the charcters in the musical also show that this is an African production. Mufasa, Nala, Simba, Zazoo and Rafiki are some examples. The famous song, "Hakuna Matata", is a swahili phrase meaning "there are no worries". In the West End, Richard Hudson is the stage designer and he himselg is from Zimbabwe. To conclude, the wonderful costumes, believable set and African-style music really creates the African Kingdom on the stage.

http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/september/swahili.html

http://tourism.vic.gov.au/piecesofvictoria/april_2005/i/78168.jpg

The Sound Of Music

Sound of Music is the story of an Austrian nun who goes to work as a housekeeper in a widowed captain's house. She builds a strong relationship with his seven children and falls in love with the Captain. It shows their story of struggle during World War II when Captain Von Trapp is being made join Hitler's side and himself and his family go into hiding. The Sound Of Music is a true story based on the first section of Maria Von Trapp's book, The Story Of The Trapp Family Singers. The Von Trapp family lived in Salzburg, the capital of the Austrian province 'Salzburg', where tourism is now one of the biggest jobs. Tourists come to see the places where the famous "Sound Of Music" movie was based. The film was shot in-


The Benedictine Convent on Nonnberg, where the Nuns sing "Maria".
Mirabell gardens and Mirabell palace, where Maria and the seven children sing the famous song "Do Re Mi".
Residenz Square and fountain is one of the places where Maria sings "I have confidence" while she is on a bus.
Felsenreitschule is where the Von Trapp family sing "Do Re Mi" and Edelweiss.
Leopoldskron palace where the lake at the Von Trapp family home is located.
Frohnburg palace where the courtyard and main front were used as a backdrop.
The Sound Of Music Pavillion can be found at Hellbrunn palace, the song "I am 16 going on 17" was filmed there.

http://www2.salzburg.info/soundofmusic.html
The movie "The Sound Of Music" was filmed in all of these locations in Austria and was very famous. In 2006, after the hit tv show to find the West End's Maria, the much anticipated show hit London's Palladium Theatre. Alex Hitchcock, who has automated many West End Productions (Oliver, Mary Poppins..) programmed the automation control in "The Sound of Music". The beautiful hills and mountains are a big part of "The Sound Of Music". They are where Maria sings "The Hills Are Alive" and where the Von Trapp family are seen at the end of the story, running away. In The London Palladium, there is a 12 ton automated mountain. The set building company Scena worked on this mountain with stage technologies. It can be raised, lowered and rotated using an acrobat control console. Large, automated trucks bring the abbey and the Von Trapp mansion onto the stage in four sections. Each truck can rotate in quickly and fluidly from the interior to the exterior of the set using onboard drive systems. Big Tow winches fly backdrops onstage. These are used for the abbey and also Maria's bedroom in the Von Trapp mansion. A travelator whisks performers and furniture off stage quickly.
The Set makes this musical come alive and shows the beautiful scenery of Austria.


http://livedesignonline.com/theatre/stage_electrics_martin_sound_of_music_021507/

map (http://www.holidaycityeurope.com/salzburghotels/map.gif)

Hairspray

http://www.bestofbroadwayspokane.com/images/Hairspray_340.jpg

Hairspray is a musical set in 1960s America in a town called Baltimore, Maryland. It is about a teenage girl named Tracy Turnblad as she fights for a place on a local TV show while fighting racial segregation. The inspiration for the town of Baltimore comes from The Sound Of Music and West Side Story. The houses in Baltimore are terraced and usually loft houses, because of the construction of a shop below. The set of Hairspray is vibrant and colourful- showing the American town of Baltimore in the '60s. The picture below shows a stage set of Hairspray. From this set we can see the typical terraced housing and also a vibrant billboard of the Dynamites, a soulful girl group at the time.


http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/images/2002/07/29/image516675x.jpg

Hairspray began on Broadway in August 2002. The set was designed by David Rockwell and clearly portrayed the typical 1960s American town because the musical was nominated for outstanding set design for a drama desk award, an olivier award and a tony award.

http://static.bakersfield.com/smedia/2008/01/30/10/609-HairsprayNationalTour.standalone.prod_affiliate.25.JPG

This picture shows the vibrant costumes used in Hairspray. The show was also nominated for many costume design awards as the costumes really show the vibrant fashions and hairstyles of America at the time. The musical also focuses on the racism at the time. All these aspects link in to give a clear picture of the small, American town of Baltimore.

Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5c/Joseph_and_the_Amazing_Technicolor_Dreamcoat.jpg

Joseph is a popular musical based on the Biblical story of Joseph (Genesis 37-42). It is about a boy with 11 brothers who are all very jealous of him, so tehey sell him as a slave. There is basically no talking in this musical and all of the stories are told through song. The narrator also sings to tell the story. The song "Jacob and Sons" tells that the story takes place many centuries ago in the land of Canaan. It also takes place in Egypt, where Joseph is taken to be a slave. The songs tell us not only where the stories take place but also the lifestyle around this time, like the Bible tells us. There was a Pharaoh in Egypt who had control over everybody and took people as slaves. The costumes show us about the clothing of the time, with colourful scarves and leather sandals. And the extravagance of the wealthy people's clothing, such as the Phaoraoh, with beads and jewels and bright colours, as we can see below. In this picture, we can see the clothing of the normal people at the time who are not extremely wealthy.

http://www.chanhassentheatres.com/box-office/promo-images/details1.jpg

http://i.thisislondon.co.uk/i/pix/2007/07/joseph3PA_243x221.jpg

The set of Joseph shows Canaan and Egypt at the time with the use of pyramids and palm trees. This show is a modern twist on the biblical story, for example as we can kind of see in the picture above, there are blue neon lights on the pyramid. In the musical, Pharaoh's dancers are wearing cheerleading costumes and holding pom poms. There is a modern twist in the musical but the atmosphere of biblical times in Egypt is still there.
The costumes, the set and the songs are just some of the things that really create the atmosphere of a musical unlike any other- set many centuries ago before the bible began.

Grease

http://images-cdn01.associatedcontent.com/image/A7860/78608/300_78608.gif

Grease is a musical about a girl named Sandy who transfers High School and ends up in Rydell High with her summer love, Danny, who thinks he's too cool to be in love. Sandy joins a group of girls called the pink ladies who are friends with Danny's group, the Tbirds.

Grease is a musical set in 1950s Chicago in a high school called Rydell High.

Grease won a tony award for most promising costume design and was nominated for best costume design. The costumes in Grease are really typical '50s American clothes and i think that, when watching Grease, they really remind us where the musical is set and in what era. The girls wear the three quarter length jeans or high waisted long skirts with shirts and neckties while the boys where jeans or leather pants with tsirts and leather jackets, as you can see below.

https://secure.reservexl.net/wwwimg/img/tours/1991-4.jpg

Here are some photohraphs from Grease in the West End's Piccadilly Theatre:

This is a picture of some of the Grease cast dancing on steps. I think that this picture shows us a bit of a typical American High School because in American high schools they have steps like these beside running tracks and football pitches. The costumes also show what I was talking about before.

http://www.davidianproductions.com/shows/grease

I think that the diner on the set of Grease really sets the atmosphere and the scenes in the diner make me really feel like we're in 1950s America. Diners are very American restaurants and can be seen in old American TV shows aswell. The jukeboxes, stools and red leather couches are typical of a diner. This picture is taken in the Piccadilly Theatre of the diner set and I think it really shows the time, and even more the place, where this musical is set.

http://www.davidianproductions.com/shows/grease

Grease is set in Chicago in the 1950s and I think that the costumes and the set clearly show us 1950s America and set the atmosphere of the country and the time very well.