'Gilding the Guild': Art Theatre, the Broadway revue and cultural parody in The Garrick Gaieties (1925-1930)
Date
2013-03
Authors
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Publisher
Intellect Journals
Abstract
The legendary Garrick Gaieties revues of the mid-1920s are credited with launching
the Broadway careers of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, with developing the
style of the ‘sophisticated revue’ and with establishing Rodgers’ collaboration with
the Theatre Guild, which later produced Oklahoma! (1943) and Carousel (1945).
Beyond these more familiar innovations, The Garrick Gaieties invites closer
scrutiny for the series’ complex relationship with the Little Theatre and art theatre
movements of the 1920s, as represented by the Theatre Guild. Through cultural
parody satirizing both the Theatre Guild and Broadway commercialism, the creators
of The Garrick Gaieties of 1925, 1926 and 1930 not only used the revue form to
destabilize cultural hierarchies and address tensions concerning art and commerce,
but to bridge the distinct traditions of the Broadway musical and art theatre during
the culturally dynamic years of the 1920s.
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Article
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Keywords
Broadway revue, Rodgers and Hart, Theatre Guild, art theatre, parody, intertextuality
Citation
Studies in Musical Theatre Volume 7 Number 1 doi: 10.1386/smt.7.1.45_1