University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Broadway noir: Film noir and musical comedy in City of Angels (1989)

Witt, Jason Charles

Content Files
WITT-THESIS-2019.pdf

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/104933

Description

Title
Broadway noir: Film noir and musical comedy in City of Angels (1989)
Author(s)
Witt, Jason Charles
Issue Date
2019-04-25
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Magee, Jeffrey S.
Committee Member(s)
Magee, Gayle S.
Department of Study
Music
Discipline
Music
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.Mus.
Degree Level
Thesis
Date of Ingest
2019-08-23T20:02:10Z
Keyword(s)
  • Cy Coleman
  • Film Noir
  • David Zippel
  • Larry Gelbart
  • Music
  • Musical Theatre
  • Musical Comedy
Abstract
City of Angels (1989) uniquely transforms the structural, thematic, and visual elements of film noir through the conventions of musical comedy and thereby subjects both genres to affectionate satire. This essay explores the connections between these idiosyncratic forms of entertainment, particularly in the ways that noir devices and tropes emerge from songs penned by Cy Coleman and David Zippel, to reach a greater understanding of the ways in which City of Angels depicts and comments on the cultural history of film noir. My methodology looks to literary criticism and philosophy written on both film noir and hardboiled fiction for theorization on the core elements of those genres. Those traits are measured against City of Angels as a work, primarily musically but also in its lyrics and dialogue, using frameworks presented within the work of Raymond Knapp, Stacy Wolf, Scott McMillin, and other scholars of musical theatre. Where relevant, I engage with histories, music theory, and non-scholarly publications for social context and reception. The essay is organized along archetypal lines, namely the private investigator and femme fatale, to show how those models inform the show’s gendered characterization. It exposits indices for the 1940s and the classic Hollywood era, all pointing toward a framework where the musical comedy can function as a cultural history.
Graduation Semester
2019-05
Type of Resource
text
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/104933
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2019 Jason Witt

Owning Collections

Graduate Dissertations and Theses at Illinois PRIMARY
Graduate Theses and Dissertations at Illinois
Dissertations and Theses [Graduate College] - Music