Q5: Compare and contrast Kabuki to the history and development of American musical theatre.

In Artistic Direction in Takechi Kabuki, Tetsjui describes his attempt to revitalized what has been lost of Kabuki performance art. He offered his own critique of Kabuki history and performance while discussing the correlation to Japanese performance to more western ideals. Tetsjui "... became active as a director and embarked on a series of theatrical productions that included not only his own brand of kabuki but also a number of other experiments which drew on other Japanese theatrical traditions such as no and kyogen as well as the modern Western theatre and even opera,” (13).


Tetsjui highlights the differences and similarities to Kabuki and musical theatre. Kabuki is usually considered a japanese dramatic genre that has been used over the past 300 years (15). Kabuki also derived from joruri (puppet theatre), which gained more popularity in 1600-1700's, this type of performance declined as kabuki altered into a more musical theatre genre. Some would argue that Kabuki closely resembles a more musical drama "... because the contradiction between the musical and the dramatic- which is also a problem in opera for which arguably no adequate solution has been fond- has achieved a relatively simple dialectical resolution in theatrical arts of kabuki" (18).


The connection between Kabuki and opera is more closely related, according to James R. Brandon. Although the kabuki "musicality" appeals to more to some of an American audience, the "classical, high arts" should be shaped after a more traditional view of Kabuki. 


Miranda Chesson