What is the difference between Musical Staging and Choreogrpahy?
What is the difference between Musical Staging and Choreogrpahy?
DrTheatre
Broadway Star Joined: 9/23/05
#1What is the difference between Musical Staging and Choreogrpahy?
Posted: 5/4/08 at 11:01pmI noticed in most shows Choreography is what the dance moves are! But, in WICKED the listed credit is Musical Staging...what's the difference?
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You can have your say,
You can set you goals
And seize the day,
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#2re: What is the difference between Musical Staging and Choreogrpahy?
Posted: 5/4/08 at 11:03pm
From Wicked's IBDB page:
Choreographed by Wayne Cilento
#2re: What is the difference between Musical Staging and Choreogrpahy?
Posted: 5/4/08 at 11:13pmI would say choreography is usually more straight forward "step, kick, kick, leap, kick, touch" and musical staging is choreographic elements that make a song look more "stagy" but doesn't necessarily include intense dancing. Maybe a good example would be the beginning of "At the End of the Day" in Les Miserables. It's staged "musically" as the beggars move forward and stretch out their hands and make specific movements and poses, but it's not technically "choreography" in the traditional sense.
TooDarnHot
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/7/08
#3re: What is the difference between Musical Staging and Choreogrpahy?
Posted: 5/4/08 at 11:27pm
musical staging is something a Director does... usually.
sometimes they list it seperately or hire a specific person for it.
if there's not really any dancing, they just do musical staging. it's like blocking, except you're blocking people in a song (as opposed to a scene)
DrTheatre
Broadway Star Joined: 9/23/05
#4re: What is the difference between Musical Staging and Choreogrpahy?
Posted: 5/5/08 at 12:34am
yeah...figured..thanks guys...
LuvEtheEmcee, thanks for that...but my playbill from Broadway and on tour says "Musical Staging by Wayne Cilento"
"In the U.S.A.
You can have your say,
You can set you goals
And seize the day,
You've been given the freedom
To work your way
To the head of the line-
To the head of the line!"
---Stephen Sondheim
#5re: What is the difference between Musical Staging and Choreogrpahy?
Posted: 5/5/08 at 12:39amHuh, that's weird.
DrTheatre
Broadway Star Joined: 9/23/05
#6re: What is the difference between Musical Staging and Choreogrpahy?
Posted: 5/5/08 at 12:44amYeah, I know...that is why I asked the question...
"In the U.S.A.
You can have your say,
You can set you goals
And seize the day,
You've been given the freedom
To work your way
To the head of the line-
To the head of the line!"
---Stephen Sondheim
winston89
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/18/06
#7re: What is the difference between Musical Staging and Choreogrpahy?
Posted: 5/5/08 at 1:55am
I second what has been said about what musical staging is.
If you want a good example I would say something like Phantom or Les Miserables. Les Miserables is a better example because Phantom does have actual dances.
Les Miserables is all sung through so a few examples in that show would be the beggars lining up and moving around the way that they do. And the formation marching at the end of One Day More would be another example.
Phantom although it does have some all out dances (Masquerade for example) it also does have some musical staging. Like the actors moving around in Notes/Prima Donna when the Phantom is reading his notes that he sends to Firman and Andre.
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#8re: What is the difference between Musical Staging and Choreogrpahy?
Posted: 5/5/08 at 5:31am
A better example of musical staging in Phantom would be all of "Music of the Night". The Phantom and Christine have all kinds of business during that song, but it's not really choreography. If there was no musical staging they'd just be standing there doing nothing. An equivalent to that in Wicked would be "No Good Deed". Elphaba moves all about the stage flailing her arms and twirling her cape to keep it from looking static, but again, it's not really choreography.
Updated On: 5/5/08 at 05:31 AM
