Musical dramaturgy of the Broadway musical on the example of “Aida” by Elton John and “Next to normal” by Tom Kitt
Authors: Liu Jian 
Published: January 2021

Introduction. The Broadway musical is one of the distinctive phenomena of American musical theater and show business. The performances gather numerous audiences and gives producers a crazy profit, displacing all other musical and theatrical genres. Turning to the musical, composers and librettists demonstrate two main approaches: creating an original plot and music (“Next to normal” by T. Kitt) or working with “ready-made” plots, the source of which are the cinema (“Pretty Woman” by B. Adams, 2019; “The Lion King” by E. John, 2019) and less often – the academic opera (“Aida” by E.John, 2000). Of course, the second approach is primarily commercial – the desire for originality is inferior to the desire to take advantage of the popularity of another product, which avoids the risk of losing audience and profits, however, both directions strive to use a certain compositional and dramaturgical patterns, which allow to avoid “breaking up” with the public. Theoretical background. In the musicological research of recent years devoted to the musical, the tendency to move away from its “classical” stage and expand the range of musical material becomes indicative, although the priority is still to cover the works of A. Lloyd Webber (A. Sakharovа, 2008; O. Andryushchenko, 2020), O. Rybnikov (Bobrova, 2011). Broadway musical of the XXI century as an independent topic of scientific research appears in the article by O. Prazdnova (2016), however, the author mainly evaluates it in terms of subject matter and popularity. Both selected works remain almost unexplained in musicological works – “Next to normal” by T. Kitt is mentioned by O. Andrushchenko (2020: 28) as a noteworthy interesting work by the composer of the “new generation”; “Aida” by E. John is mentioned by O. Prazdnova (2016: 246) as an example that the musical “still does not lose its connection with other genres”. Coverage of the musical and dramatic features of the two samples of Broadway musical represented by “Next to normal” and “Aida”, contrasting in genre subtypes, allows us to reveal the features of its genre specificity at the present stage, to compare the composer findings in the field of musical drama and evolve a certain genre invariant. The relevance of such a study in academic musicology is undoubted, given the relatively low degree of knowledge about the samples of this genre. The objectives of the article are to identify the musical-dramatic and compositional features of the musicals “Next to normal” by T. Kitt and “Aida” by E. John, their comparison and definition of key principles that are common and divergent for selected works. In accordance with the set goal, the structural method of researching was used, to identify the components of the composer’s text and their role in the dramaturgy of the whole, and comparative, which allows to match selected works in the parameters, selected for analysis. Results of reseaching. A comparison of two musicals that were staged on Broadway – “Aida” by E. John (2000) and “Next to normal” by T. Kitt (2008) proves the presence of some invariant features in composition and musical dramaturgy. First, it is a two-act structure with a different workload. In the first part of the play, as a rule, all the key events take place, conflicts arise, and in the second, the tension weakens. Secondly, it is the principle of alternation of conversational inserts and vocal-instrumental scenes. In an effort to avoid the stamp, T. Kitt often introduces the principle of unfolding parallel plans, and such dialogues serve as a counterpoint to other musical events. The third important principle is thematic arches or so-called reprises, which are mainly concentrated in the second act of the play. By using them, the composer has the opportunity to show how the character’s mood has changed (E. John), his perception of the situation, or completion of unfinished earlier action, conflict in the form of an emotional outburst (T. Kitt, № 28) or finding understanding (№ 35). There are almost no detailed orchestral and dance scenes in both musicals – there are laconic overtures (in which the material can change from production to production) and short instrumental ”links” between scenes, which serve to the continuation of the material of the previous scene. In addition, in “Aida”, such scenes turn into an area to seek for archaic Egyptian atmosphere. Solo and ensemble scenes are composed differently by the authors. E. John’s musical demonstrates domination of statics (the action stops) and a typical couplet form, which is fully compensated by the expressiveness of the melodic material. T. Kitt strives to dynamism of the composition and, depending on the situation, he can use different formative principles (rondality, three-part form, contrastcomposite form). Solo scenes are inlaid with dialogic or duet inserts, ensembles are transformed into detailed multi-figure scenes, which are saturated with development. Composers interpret the reprise principle (arches) differently – in E. John’s play a way of performance changes, sometimes the text and almost never the musical component, while T. Kitt subtly rethinks each thematic repetition, depending on the changes of the character, that contributes to the psychologization of the drama action and enhances the sense of development. E. John’s certain indifference to the diversity of form is compensated by the brightness of the melodic material of musical scenes, each of which is actually a pop hit. Combined with conversational dialogues, not devoid of everyday humor, which makes the characters of the ancient world “closer to the people”, he is guaranteed to have undoubted success with audience. The zone of the greatest differences between the two musicals is the instrumentation of the score – coloristic and exotic in “Aida” (an author of the instrumental arrangement is S. Margoshes) – and “plot-like”, relating to dramatic situation – in T. Kitt’s musical, where, using the principle of leit-timbre (througttimbre) and leit-thema (through-thema), he reveals the interaction between the phantom world (the Gabe’s ghost) and reality. Conclusions. All of the above gives us the right to say with confidence that the Broadway musical of the XXI century opens for composers both: opportunities to rely on a typical structure and demonstrate skill within a fairly narrow range of musical expressive means, and ways to diversify it through new dramaturgical discoveries and techniques that emerge at the crossroads of academic and nonacademic music, which makes it an interesting subject for further study.