"Teochew language"
Musical comedies are often closely related to the current trend, which is also one of their characteristics, and early works tend to use local folklore slang extensively, a habit that is almost as popular and important as the satirical language that puns are used in their plays.
Therefore, in musical comedy, the audience is always easily touched by the humorous trendy words, and is often caused to laugh. Especially in "Kiss Me, Kate", Cole Porter, a talented songwriter, made extensive use of Broadway slang that was very popular on Broadway at the time, and also cleverly used Shakespearean puns that were almost forgotten at the time, making certain characters extremely witty.
His funny talent has been greatly appreciated by the audience, and some classic sentences in the play have also been passed down by the audience.
It can be seen that when creating musical comedy drama and poetry, it is very necessary to use a large number of current trend words, which is one of the important means to create a comedy effect.
Unfortunately, domestic musical theater creation is always not very good at using this method, but if domestic musical comedy wants to achieve great development, drama poetry creation must seriously learn this method.
When creating drama poetry, learn more about what are the current popular trend words, and which can be well integrated into the creation of drama poetry, of course, the key depends on whether the playwright can use these trend words well.
In summary, in order to gain the recognition of the audience and a funny dramatic atmosphere, the creation of drama poetry must use more current trend language.
Enhance drama
The previous article has focused on how "Kiss Me, Kate" in the 20s and 40th century enhanced the drama of the play through its own innovation in such a historical trend, so that the musical comedy survived the great wave of musical theater development, and the drama of its drama and poetry is one of the most obvious characteristics.
That is to say, in the creation of musical comedy in the mainland, it is also necessary to strengthen the drama of drama poetry. Cole Potter, the playwright of "Kiss Me, Kate", gave full play to his creative talent, spending a lot of effort to make the drama poetry depict dramatic events, and depicted the characters of different characters very delicately through the drama poem, and also used the advantages of the drama poem to render different dramatic atmospheres well. If the creation of domestic musical comedy can be closely related to the plot and the words and sentences, it must be able to achieve such an effect.
Stick to the plot
In the 40s of the 20th century, the use of drama poetry to depict dramatic events was a very common or necessary means of integrating music, which is the embodiment of its integration.
The use of this method has brought the development of musical theater to a new level, and the audience is particularly fond of such a repertoire. So even "Kiss Me, Kate", as a musical comedy, had to make corresponding changes when creating and comply with the audience's requirements.
The previous article has analyzed in detail how the drama poem "Kiss Me, Kate" is closely related to the drama story, and it is not difficult to see that the use of these methods not only makes the "Kiss Me, Kate" drama story better developed, but also makes the music part assume the function of drama, music and drama are well integrated, music has also become an indispensable part of the whole play, and the story is no longer complete without musical drama.
Therefore, in the process of musical comedy creation in the mainland, the creation of drama poetry should learn from this integration method, let the drama poetry closely follow the plot, depict certain dramatic events through the drama poem, make the existence of the drama poetry become a necessity, avoid moaning without disease or consistent pretense to sell words, so as to use the drama poem to closely connect with the plot to enhance the drama of the drama poetry.
Be careful with your words
It is not very common for drama poetry to be dramatic in musical comedy, and it is basically difficult to be valued by playwrights, because considering that it is necessary to focus on the comedy of drama poetry, so the function of drama is basically weakened.
It is not easy for drama poetry to assume the function of drama, and it takes a lot of labor for the playwright, especially in terms of phrasing, which requires the playwright to carefully weigh which word is the most suitable.
Such words often need to have both dramatic and comic characteristics, which makes musical comedy dramatic songwriting extremely difficult.
But as we analyzed earlier, in "Kiss Me, Kate", there are still many poems with very unexpected word choices.
Creative techniques like Cole Porter's require a lot of mental energy to complete, but this creative technique can make dramatic events more three-dimensional and fuller under the portrayal of drama poetry, and this effect also greatly enhances the drama of "Kiss Me, Kate".
This is why its drama and poetry will become so dramatic, so in the creation of mainland musical comedy songs, it is necessary to be careful in the words.
If the domestic musical comedy creation can make good use of Cole Porter's creative techniques, when creating drama and poetry, it can closely grasp the plot, and do the words and sentences, so that the lines of the whole drama are fuller, and a variety of changes can be achieved in the creative methods of character portrayal, so that the audience is not easy to produce aesthetic fatigue, I believe that the audience will be more likely to accept such a play, which can lay a good foundation for creating a successful musical comedy.
Music creation
The music creation of early musical comedy was always inseparable from the popularity of some stars or for a few best-selling songs, and such obvious commercial purposes actually hindered the development of musical comedy, so that in the 30s and 40s of the 20th century, the development of musical comedy faced great difficulties, and the audience could no longer tolerate its repeated nonsense, and neither the script nor the music could meet the needs of the audience.
From the perspective of the development of musical comedy, the musical status in this type of musical theater is low, so the drama of music in many musical comedies is ignored by the creators, especially in the early works, even the series of musical comedies produced by the later Princess Theater have not made substantial progress, so that the music in musical comedies is usually titled "interspersed" and "nonsensical" with humiliating words.
Fortunately, works such as "Kiss Me, Kate" began to innovate, and music no longer only pursued a few best-selling songs, but carefully calculated to create a very dramatic piece of music, some of which was even criticized by later generations as being too faithful to the script that it was difficult to be remembered after leaving the theater. How is this not an affirmation?
Through the study of "Kiss Me, Kate", it is not difficult to find that it is not easy to create dramatic music, musicians must always be highly vigilant, keep in mind the concept of "integration", on this basis fully active creative thinking, and constantly change their musical expression methods to achieve good results.
Clarify the creative concept
The success of the musical comedy "Kiss Me, Kate" is ultimately due to the change in the creative concept of the entire crew, and through the previous article, the audience can clearly find that the early creation of musical comedy was very impetuous and full of opportunistic ingredients, the existence value of music is not clear, everything is just to create a joy show.
When you first come into contact with such a play, the audience may be moved by this relaxed and pleasant atmosphere, and the artists' creations may also be full of passion.
But as time goes by, the audience will naturally be full of rejection of this kind of unnourished farce, and the creators will also lose their soul because of the blind pursuit of entertainment, so it is easy to have the dilemma faced by musical comedy in the 30s and 40s of the 20th century, lack of script and creative inspiration, and fewer and fewer works that can catch the audience's attention.
"Kiss Me, Kate" changed this previous creative method, clarified its creative concept, borrowed the creative method of integrating musicals, and gave the play a new soul. Domestic musical theater creation is still in a relatively confused state, many works do not have a clear creative concept, but blindly imitate some of Broadway's famous masterpieces, but do not know that these blind imitations only imitate the skin, but do not grasp the essence inside.
Domestic creation only saw the big production of foreign famous plays, but did not seriously explore its creative methods, creative concepts, so for a long time, domestic works are almost all big investment, big production, the music and dance created are not flattering, usually the music is too complex tune, harmony orchestration is not in line with the basic creative laws of musicals, and dance is even more lacking soul, so these works have suffered a fiasco, and none of them are spared.
So what should domestic musical comedy creation do to truly have a clear creative concept? The first thing that must be done is to grasp the creative rules of musicals, not the mode of opera and dance drama. Secondly, and most importantly, we must draw on the creative experience of Broadway musical comedy and integrate the concept of "integration" into the creation.
Grasp the rules
In the eyes of many people, musical comedy is nothing more than an active atmosphere, and the timely addition of some satirical effects is basically the same, as for the music is very simple, lively. Since the success of "Kiss Me, Kate", musical comedy has been increasingly influenced by integrated musicals, and Broadway musical comedy creators seem to have integrated it well into the creative process.
Therefore, when creating music for musical comedy, creators not only have to maintain the comedic effect of music, but more difficult is to fully demonstrate its drama.
Therefore, the music of musical comedy is basically entertaining, that is, the theme of light and cheerfulness is most, and it must be able to undertake certain dramatic functions, of course, the basic rules of musical theater creation are to be followed, such as the tune of the music should be simple and popular. Looking at domestic works?
In domestic plays, music creation basically has no way to depart from the creation mode of opera, it is difficult to be popular, and it is not in line with the basic creative laws of musicals.
If domestic musical comedies want to make breakthroughs in music creation, they must strictly grasp the rules of musical theater creation, especially musical comedies. There is no need for superb skills to show the creator's level of detachment, it only needs to truly meet the requirements of the repertoire, simple and popular, which is convenient for the audience to remember and spread.