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Publication Type honors thesis
School or College College of Humanities
Department English
Thesis Supervisor Mark H. Matheson
Honors Advisor/Mentor Brooke Hopkins
Creator Barton, Susan Marie
Title Sondheim's hybrid theater: Into The Woods and Sweeney Todd
Date 2000-08
Year graduated 2000
Description In musical theater, music and language form a hybrid art within musical theater to create new ethical, social, and political possibilities. Both Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods and Sweeney Todd utilize varied techniques and genres of music and text, and create heightened social awareness through these tools. To study how this consciousness forms I use the two works' scores, live performances, sound recordings, librettos, and published commentaries. The study analyzes the specific musical and textual materials that Sondheim used to create each work. By sequentially analyzing the two plays, the study reveals how Sondheim questions old regimes and conceives new principles through the integration of musical and literary vocabulary. Antithetical situations challenge social truths. Sweeney Todd questions modem morality through a Victorian setting. Into the Woods challenges the individualistic fairy tale against a more realistic social world. Sondheim juxtaposes earlier musical and literary genres with contemporary issues to both contrast and highlight audience expectation. Through Sondheim's form, he achieves heightened social awareness.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Sondheim, Stephen - Criticism and interpretation
Language eng
Rights Management (c) Susan Marie Barton
Format Medium application/pdf
ARK ark:/87278/s6672b7t
Setname ir_htca
ID 1288946
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6672b7t

Page Metadata

Title Page 24
Setname ir_htca
ID 1288970
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6672b7t/1288970