Grade 8 Musical Theatre

Research, Questi ons and Answers

Basic Information
Sir Rupert Murgatroyd – Ruddigore
Date Written: January 22nd Composer: Arthur Sullivan Another Musical By Them:
1887 Lyricist: W.S. Gilbert Pirates of Penzance
Dramatic Context: Dame Hannah informs a group of bridesmaids that she was engaged but it
was broken off because he was Sir Roderic Murgatroyd. She sings about Sir Rupert Murgatroyd
and his successors who were cursed by a witch, when she was burned on the stake, that his
successors and him would have to commit crimes everyday or die.

Losing My Mind – Follies

Composer & Lyricist: Stephen Another Musical By Them:
Date Written: April 4th 1971
Sondheim Into The Woods
Dramatic Context: Sally Durant Plummer expresses her preoccupation with Ben, her idealised
lover, and how her existence is defined by her longing for him to the point where she has lost
herself in her make-believe world of undying desire.

Razzle Dazzle – Chicago

Composer: John Kander Another Musical By Them:
Date Written: 1975
Lyricist: Fred Ebb Cabaret
Dramatic Context: Billy Flynn, a laywer, is teaching Roxie Hart, his accused client, how to lie in
court by telling her that it is similar to a circus act so that she can secure her innocence and boost
her confidence.

Helpless – Hamilton
Date Written: January 20th Composer & Lyricist: Lin Another Musical By Them:
2015 Manuel Miranda In The Heights
Dramatic Context: Eliza Schuyler sings about her hopes and romantic feelings for Alexander
Hamilton and the impact he has had in the short period of time he has been in her life. After a few
weeks of writing letters to each other, Hamilton asks Eliza’s father for her hand in marriage and
they marry.

World Burn – Mean Girls

Composer: Jeff Richmond Another Musical By Them:
Date Written: April 8th 2018
Lyricist: Nell Benjamin Legally Blonde
Dramatic Context: When Regina George discovers that she was not invited to Cady Heron’s party
and that Kalteen bars she was given caused her weight gain, she decides to get revenge by
releasing the Burn Book, a book containing insults, after adding “Regina is a fugly cow” to take the
blame off of herself. She throws copies of the book’s pages over the school and reveals insults
about everyone except Karen Smith, Gretchen Wieners and Cady. This causes the junior class girls
to fight over the insults.
Discussion Questions
How was the  I chose Losing My Mind first because I related to Sally but in a
programme sense of grief and not a sense of love.
chosen?  I chose the other pieces because of how they contrasted in style
and also because of their portrayal of women.
- Sir Rupert Murgatroyd (Hannah):
o Hannah is portrayed as independent, strong and has a
good morale.
o Unlike Eliza, Hannah doesn’t need to be in a
relationship to keep her happy and is clearly stronger
without one.
o In Gilbert and Sullivan plays, women are presented in
a similar way to Eliza and Roxie but Hannah breaks
this stereotype by proving that she is independent
and can survive without a relationship.
- Razzle Dazzle (Billy/Roxie):
o Women are presented as helpless due to how they
need men to cover up their truths (similar to Eliza due
to being helpless but for different reasons – RD is
about innocence and H is about love)
o Roxie seeks help from Billy Flynn who conjures up lies
and tricks to prove that Roxie is innocent.
o It is clear that femininity is used to prove the
innocence of Roxie.
- Helpless (Eliza):
o Eliza is initially portrayed as helpless, shy and hidden
behind the spotlight.
o She is seen as romantic but depends on others to
initiate important conversations.
o She is the antithesis of Hannah as she depends on
happy relationships but Hannah is more independent
when she isn’t romantically involved in relationships.
- World Burn (Regina):
o Regina is portrayed as a manipulative and intelligent
character due to being able to deceive people around
her and using her popularity and power to get what
she wants.
o This is like how Billy Flynn uses Roxie’s fame to prove
that she is innocent.
o Power allows for victory.
 I also thought Hannah, the character from Sir Rupert Murgatroyd,
was an interesting character to portray because of her heartbreak.
It also made me think about how her life would be different if her
fiancé wasn’t a lord of Ruddigore.

Describe the style Razzle Dazzle:

and mood between  Razzle Dazzle is a jazz style song from Chicago, written by Fred Ebb
two songs of your and composed by John Kander who also were the composer and
choice lyricist of Cabaret, which heavily uses choreography from Bob
Fosse (fossy), a dancer and choreographer, who used curved
 shoulders, finger snaps, sideways shuffling and jazz hands in his
choreography.
 This helps to create a clean, confident and confusing mood which
allows Billy Flynn, my character, to assist his client and the
protagonist of the musical, Roxie Hart, in deceiving a jury and
secure the innocence of a guilty defendant.
Helpless:
 Helpless is a 21st century American musical theatre piece from the
musical Hamilton, written and composed by Lin Manuel Miranda
who is the composer and lyricist of In The Heights, which is sung
through a hip hop style.
 The mood throughout the song is romantic, innocent and helpless
as it explores the themes of a patriarchal society as Eliza, the
character, is portrayed as a damsel in distress.

Discuss the genre Sir Rupert Murgatroyd:

of one of the songs  Sir Rupert Murgatroyd is from Ruddigore which is a light opera
performed composed by Arthur Sullivan and lyricised by W.S. Gilbert.
 This means that Ruddigore is a dramatic work of a light or
humorous nature that has spoken dialogue and usually has a
happy ending.
 However, this is ironic as my character, Hannah, does not seem to
have a happy ending as the man that she loved turned out to be
cursed.

What dramatic Dramatic Skill:

skills and vocal  I used Stanislavski’s (stan-is-laff-ski) acting method which is a set
approaches were of techniques used by actors to help them portray emotions on
considered in the stage by putting themselves in the place of the character. They ask
performance of themselves questions about who the character is, what the
two songs of your character is doing, when they are doing things and why they are
choice? doing it. I used this technique for the character of Eliza as it
allowed me to develop how she is feeling – I did this by
considering what she would be wearing and how she would feel
being married as it could benefit her socially, romantically and
economically.
 I also used this technique in Razzle Dazzle by thinking about the
male view point of Billy Flynn. This allowed me to think about how
men would stand, act, talk and behave.
Vocal Approaches:
 For Helpless, I used hip hop and R&B music to help me create an
upbeat tone by using a singing and rapping style of performance
to show that Eliza is excited, lovestruck but also anxious about
being married. I mainly used songs by Beyonce and Alicia Keys to
help me create this style of singing because the composer of
Hamilton, Lin Manuel Miranda, was inspired by these artists to
create Helpless.
 In Razzle Dazzle, I used a talkative style of singing by using my
chest voice and speaking to create a confident performance. This
helped me portray the character of Billy Flynn quite easily as he is
an overconfident character.
 Give a critical I think my favourite pieces to perform were Razzle Dazzle because of the
analysis of the choreography and World Burn from Mean Girls because of the melismas
performance of one in the song.
song of your choice  World Burn, which is composed by Jeff Richmond and has lyrics
(candidate should written by Nell Benjamin, went well because I was able to use a
include aspects variety of vocal techniques such as the use of dynamics and
which went well, as belting.
well as moments  However, I think some aspects could be improved. I found it
that could have difficult to maintain the mean aspect of Regina George, the
been improved) character I portray – to improve this, I would use Stanislavski’s
acting method to help me understand the character of Regina in
this song.
 As well as this, there are some parts of the song that I would try to
improve. For example, the lines “woah” and “I wanna watch the
world burn” were a little difficult to do because of the fact that
you have to use loud dynamics in the “woah” and have to strongly
belt “I wanna watch the world burn”. This made it a little difficult
to have the correct pitch as I had to swap in and out of my head
and chest voice frequently.

Monologues
Sir Rupert Murgatroyd  Many years ago I was betrothed to a god-like youth who
wooed me under an assumed name.
 But on the very day upon which our wedding was to have
been celebrated, I discovered he was none other than Sir
Roderic Murgatroyd, one of the bad baronets of
Ruddigore and the uncle of the man who now bears that
title.
 As a son of that accursed race he was no husband for an
honest girl, so madly as I loved him I left him there and
then.
 He died but ten years ago since but I never saw him again.
 All baronets are bad but he was worse than other
baronets.
 The curse is on all his line and has been ever since the
time of Sir Rupert.
 Listen and you shall hear the legend.
Helpless  Alexander, there’s a letter for you from South Carolina.
 On Tuesday, the twenty-seventh, Lieutenant Colonel John
Laurens was killed in a gunfight against British troops in
South Carolina.
 These troops had not yet received word from Yorktown
that the war was over.
 He’s buried here until his family can send for his remains.
 As you may know, Lieutenant Colonel Laurens was
engaged in recruiting three thousand men for the first all-
black military regiment.
 The surviving members of this regiment have been
 returned to their masters.
 Alexander, are you alright?