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Comedy Tomorrow, Tragedy Tonight: Defining the Aesthetics of Tragedy on Broadway

Badue, Alexandre

Abstract Details

2012, M.M., University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music: Music History.

This study defines the aesthetics of tragedy in five Broadway musicals: Street Scene, West Side Story, Sweeny Todd, Miss Saigon, and Passion. By examining Aristotle’s observations on Greek tragedy in the Poetics, this study suggests a new approach in interpreting these five musicals’ plots and musical scores. The main discussion considers the protagonist from each musical, their reactions to “outside-the-drama” situations, and their understanding of the consequences of their own actions. Similar to many Greek tragedies and some of Shakespeare’s plays, these five musicals follow Aristotle’s premises for a “complex plot” with hamartia, recognition, and reversal. Aristotle called hamartia the crucial action or deed that marks the protagonist’s journey to an unfortunate end. Reversal occurs later in the story when the protagonist realizes that the opposite of what she or he was intending took place. Recognition marks the protagonist’s understanding that his or her own actions and misjudgments has led to suffering and ruin at the end of the play. A close analysis of these musicals’ protagonists and plots reveals how Aristotle’s definitions of the genre of tragedy appear in the musicals’ songs and underscoring. In addition, this study takes into consideration elements that Aristotle did not discuss in his Poetics, but which contribute to the protagonists’ tragic endings. The subplots, characters who act as Greek chorus, moments of comic relief, heartfelt songs that imply the final tragedy, and the assertion of the characters’ human values at the end of the plot all enhance the three Aristotelian concepts and the protagonist’s tragic saga. The composers of these five musicals employed non-Aristotelian elements in their dramatic songs, whose music and lyrics also receive close analysis.

This thesis contributes to musical theater scholarship by providing new insights into these musicals’ characters, plots, and music, linking them to Aristotle’s Poetics, a fundamental treatise in Western dramatic criticism. In addition, this study draws parallels between Broadway musical theater and other forms of theater, such as Greek and Shakespearean drama. Since tragedy does not comprise the only element present in these musicals (they all feature comedy as well), directors, performers, and choreographers staging these works might decide to emphasize these musicals’ tragic aspects by taking this study’s conclusions into consideration.

bruce mcclung, PhD (Committee Chair)
Roger Grodsky, BM (Committee Member)
Jonathan Kregor, PhD (Committee Member)
157 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Badue, A. (2012). Comedy Tomorrow, Tragedy Tonight: Defining the Aesthetics of Tragedy on Broadway [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1342103090

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Badue, Alexandre. Comedy Tomorrow, Tragedy Tonight: Defining the Aesthetics of Tragedy on Broadway. 2012. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1342103090.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Badue, Alexandre. "Comedy Tomorrow, Tragedy Tonight: Defining the Aesthetics of Tragedy on Broadway." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1342103090

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)