Douglas Anderson to Teach A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MUSICAL at Town Hall

The Broadway musical is America's greatest contribution to the arts. It's a glorious, jazzy, star-studded and surprisingly turbulent history, one that remains largely unknown even to people who love musicals.

Town Hall Theater's artistic director Doug Anderson will trace this glorious history in a four-session course beginning at the theater on Monday, March 4.

Anderson first taught the course at the University of Illinois in the early 1980s, and has since taught it at Amherst and Middlebury Colleges. "When I first taught the course I had no technology at all, except for cassette tapes. So we'd listen to some Ethel Merman and then I'd try to use words to explain what she was like. It wasn't a very good system." At Town Hall Theater he'll have access to BluRay players, DVDs, the internet and the THT big screen. "It changes everything. Now we'll be able to see actual footage of Ethel Merman performing, or the opening to The Lion King, or specific acts from the age of vaudeville." The result will be classes that are informative yet very entertaining as well.0

Anderson stresses that amid all of the song and dance there is much to learn about the development of American culture. "It shouldn't be surprising that the American Musical has chronicled much of what is wonderful and not so wonderful about life in this country." Anderson notes that the birthplace of the musical is generally considered to be the minstrel show, in which white performers wore blackface, a practice that continued the American stage for well over a century. During times of war and depression, however, the musical has been a bastion of patriotism and hope.

Anderson also teaches some of the course at the piano, with guest performers singing key songs from important musicals.

The course will be offered on four Monday evenings in March and April, with a starting time of 7 pm. The cost is $25 per session, and a four-session pass is $85. Each session will last approximately 90 minutes. A bar and refreshments will be available.

March 4: From Minstrelsy to Showboat

March 11: 1920 to 1950: from Rodgers & Hart to Rodgers & Hammerstein

March 25: 1960-1990: Hair, Sondheim, Webber and the English Invasion

April 1: 2000 to What's on Now, with a special look at the (very strange) economics of Broadway

To register, go to www.townhalltheater.org, or call 802 382-9222, or visit the THT Box Office (Mon-Sat, noon-5pm).

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