Chaplin (musical)
Encyclopedia
Chaplin is a musical
announced for Broadway
in 1981 about the early life of the silent film star Charlie Chaplin
. Financial troubles forced postponements and the eventual demise of the project. In 1993, the script and score were re-discovered and a smaller version was produced in Miami winning a Carbonell Award as Best New Work. Lyricist Lee Goldmsith and Roger Anderson, who scored the musical, went on to collaborate on 1982's Shine!
.
tradition and the evolution of the The Little Fella. Book, lyrics and music are written using theatrical styles of each era in his life, from his conception and birth to his apparent triumph in his early twenties. The ever-changing various forms include street performers, operetta, musical hall, Punch and Judy, vaudeville, ballet and burlesque.
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
announced for Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in 1981 about the early life of the silent film star Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
. Financial troubles forced postponements and the eventual demise of the project. In 1993, the script and score were re-discovered and a smaller version was produced in Miami winning a Carbonell Award as Best New Work. Lyricist Lee Goldmsith and Roger Anderson, who scored the musical, went on to collaborate on 1982's Shine!
Shine! (musical)
Shine! is a musical based on characters and situations found in the works of Horatio Alger, particularly Ragged Dick and Silas Snobden's Office Boy, respectively Alger's first best-seller and the one first printed in book form eighty years after it was first serialized in Argosy...
.
Concept
The play explores Chaplin's connection to the CommediaCommedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte is a form of theatre characterized by masked "types" which began in Italy in the 16th century, and was responsible for the advent of the actress and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. The closest translation of the name is "comedy of craft"; it is shortened...
tradition and the evolution of the The Little Fella. Book, lyrics and music are written using theatrical styles of each era in his life, from his conception and birth to his apparent triumph in his early twenties. The ever-changing various forms include street performers, operetta, musical hall, Punch and Judy, vaudeville, ballet and burlesque.