i absolutely adore art that uses the genre as part of the performance
when the protagonist of the rise and fall of the city of mahagonny cries out, “sing! because they’ve forbidden it”, it’s not just a line. it’s a rally against nazi censorship which caused the opera to be protested and then banned. the choice of the opera, a bloated elitist form, to criticize capitalism was deliberate. after all, how much more explicit can you make your message than to yell it at an audience of the wealthiest, most powerful people directly?
or when britten wrote a variation of the theme for the turn of the screw as each scene becomes more and more tense. the title of the show and theme refer to the tightening of dramatic tension, and so the audience just watches in increasing horror as each scene opens with a more disjunct, atonal variation. the dramatic irony of knowing tragedy will strike but unable to tear your eyes away.
or in ghost quartet, where the song cycle is personified through characters reincarnating, moving towards the conclusion but still endlessly looping back, never escaping the plot until the lights turn on and the song cycle is done. the characters are only stuck in these stories for as long as we assume they are.
or in natasha, pierre, and the great comet of 1812, wherein even the opening number tells you to “look it up in your program” and breaks the fourth wall. it’s not just the musical that is engaging, it is the fact that the veil between actor and audience is broken. you can see them both as the character in a Russian novel and as a human, life sized and sweating and just like you.
or in indecent, where the line between actor and character blurs to the point where it’s indistinguishable, and the act of theatre itself becomes radical. is the rain scene even rifkele and manke, or is it the actresses, or is it the hope of a love that screams its name onstage and off?
after all, what would rite of spring be if not a ballet so anachronistic to its genre that it caused a riot? sure, your production might not have jeers from the crowd, but isn’t that history of genre as part of the performance what makes it memorable?
