courtship rituals in the musical

[sisboombah]

im doing an essay on romance in musicals. i cant find any good websites on this does anyone know of any good ones that will explain in detail about courtship rituals and anything else to do with romance in the musical that might come in handy?

[LordSlaytan]

Sorry, Sis. I can't even begin to think how to go about that. Maybe the local library would help.

[sisboombah]

been to the library. my uni library isnt even much help. i have a few books that mention it but nothing goes into great detail on it.

[LordSlaytan]

I searched for awhile, but couldn't come up with a single thing about it. It can't be a topic never covered before.

[susan]

maybe seven brides for seven brothers covers some of that..

[Garrett]

I searched for a while. You might want to check here (http://www.musicals101.com/index.html).

[SamsoniteDelilah]

There's a great spoof of romance in Into The Woods -Cinderella's Prince and Sleeping Beauty's Prince sing a song where they top each other with how tough it was to get to the princess, then there's also a song where Cinderella and The Baker's Wife talk about Cinderella's romantic night at the ball and what it was like to meet the prince. It's all brilliant.

There's the classical romance - Grease, for instance, in which the couple meet, fall in love, meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky... no... overcome the obstacle and live happily ever after.

The tragic romance - West Side Story, which mirrors Romeo and Juliet. Another tragic one: Little Shop of Horrors, in which the girl is killed by the mutant plant of her boyfriend.

The Pygmalian romance - Me and My Girl and My Fair Lady and sort of Kiss Me Kate.

Warped Romance - Sweeney Todd, in which a daft old bat is in love with a serial killer. That one has the bonus of a second, younger couple who must overcome the obstacle of Todd's lunacy to be together. (if you use this one, check and make sure they end up together, I can't remember at the moment.)

Modern Romance - Rent features two couples with a deep and abiding love for each other, but they all have AIDS.

Hope some of that helps...

[SamsoniteDelilah]

I just realised your title is specific about "courtship rituals".
So I'd point out the dancing in West Side Story, Cinderella and others, when the couple first meets. Also, Freddie hanging out waiting for Eliza in My Fair Lady and Bill doing the same in Me And My Girl.

[r3port3r66]

Evita had a pretty bold romantic statement, especially in the song "I'd Be Surprisingly Good For You."

Or how about The Sound of Music?

Fiddler on the Roof?

I hope I'm understanding the nature of your question...

[nebbit]

Let us know how you did, the link Garrett posted looks interesting. :yup:

[susan]

carousel too...shows different classes of people

[sisboombah]

ooo lots of replies. thanks guys. im going to go with talking about thoroughly modern millie and moulin rouge. plus i just realised that cabaret is brilliant because it goes against everything a musical formular sets out to do. so yay for me.

[r3port3r66]

I had another thought; the traditional musicals consisted of characters breaking out into song, in the 80's movies used pop music backgrounds incorporated into their soundtracks to convey love and romance. For instance, Dirty Dancing, Pretty Woman, Footloose et. al. The 90's brought back the traditonal theme, and it continues into the 00's.

[SamsoniteDelilah]

I had another thought; the traditional musicals consisted of characters breaking out into song, in the 80's movies used pop music backgrounds incorporated into their soundtracks to convey love and romance. For instance, Dirty Dancing, Pretty Woman, Footloose et. al. The 90's brought back the traditonal theme, and it continues into the 00's.
Hey, that's a really cool observation!