Synthesis : cabaret for the singing actor

Abstract

While there are minor differences between straight plays, plays with music, and musicals, the art of cabaret is in a category of its own. By definition, cabaret is “…an intimate, small-scale, but intellectually ambitious revue” (Appignanesi 1). For a performing artist, cabaret is a medium in which the performer gets to break the rules of conventional theatre, all rules except those of music theory. Music analysis is vital in order for any genre of vocal performance to be fully realized. Based on two courses I was required to take as a BFA Musical Theatre major in my time at Ball State University, this thesis takes an approach to music analysis and is applied to a repertoire of cabaret music in effort to connect more to the storytelling aspect of cabaret performance, through the roots of the music itself.