The 2026-2027 Spring course will focus on three major figures of the American musical – Oscar Hammerstein II (book writer and lyricist), Stephen Sondheim (composer and lyricist), and Lin-Manuel Miranda (composer, book writer and lyricist). We will study their role in the formal evolution of the genre, their artistic filiation and wide-ranging influence. Through close analyses of some of their works – Show Boat (1927), Oklahoma! (1943), Company (1970), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), Hamilton: An American Musical (2015) – key issues underpinning the genre will be broached, such as creation and authorship (what is the artist’s auctoriality in a collaborative creative process? What were the roles of other co-creators in the making or remaking of the shows?), poetics and politics (what were the discursive implications of formal innovations, from the dramatic integration of song and dance to post-dramatic disruptions and metatheatrical commentary?), and the paradox of influence.
An outing to Théâtre du Châtelet on Thursday, April 1, 2027, to attend a performance of Company is planned with this course (seats have been booked for the whole group).
- Enseignant.e: Anne Martina