The HBS hosts chat with actor, dancer, and choreographer Blake Zolfo about what makes musical theater so unique.

What could possibly make musical theater important or relevant to three philosophers? We all love musicals! The affective appeal of musical theater is clear, even though there are those (philistines?) who do not find it enjoyable. Although Hegel, in his Lectures on the Philosophy of Fine Art claims that opera put text in the service of music, he also recognizes that the libretto of opera is the sole contributor of ideas, and therefore of properly human freedom. In musical theater, it might be that the situation is reversed: music is put in the service of the text. The HBS hosts are joined by Blake Zolfo (@blakezolfo on the socials), actor and choreographer, to talk about musical theater.

In this episode, we discuss the following items

• DePaul University Humanities Center
• Our previous episodes on Style and Music
• Richard Wagner’s concept of Gesamtkunstwerk as discussed in “Art and Revolution” and “The Art-Work of the Future“
• Moulin Rouge!
• Fred Astaire dancing up the walls and on the ceiling from the film Royal Wedding
• The Pirates of Penzance by Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert and the song “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General“
• *Singing in the Rain and the song “Make ’em Laugh“
• The film version of The Wiz and *Les Misérables
• Camera Man by Dana Stevens
• The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act by Isaac Butler
• Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda and the song “Dear Theodosia“
• “Feel the Motion” from A Chorus Line by Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban
• “Shipoopi” from The Music Man by Meredith Wilson
• “Ease on Down the Road” from The Wiz
• Mama Mia! by Catherine Johnson with music by ABBA.
• Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on T.S. Eliot’s collection Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats
• Cabaret by John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Joe Masteroff
• Jersey Boys by Bob Gaudio, Bob Crewe, Marshall Brickman, and Rick Elice
• Beautiful by Douglas McGrath with songs by Carole King
• Motown: The Musical by Berry Gordy with music by Motown musicians
• The jazz vocalist Kurt Elling
• Speech Act Theory
• West Side Story by Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents
• Robin Williams as “choreographer” in The Birdcage
• The Producers
• Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark by Bono, The Edge, Julie Taymor, Glen Berger, and Roberto Aquirre-Sacasa and its disastrous run
• The opera Emmett Till, A New American Opera by Mary D. Watkins and Clare Coss
• MJ the Musical by Lynn Nottage with the music of Michael Jackson
• Sour, Olivia Rodrigo
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler
• Kantian Deontology
• The King and I by Rodgers and Hammerstein, based on the novel, Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon
• South Pacific by Rodgers and Hammerstein with book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan
• Company* by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth and the songs “Sorry-Grateful” and “The Ladies Who Lunch”
• Come From Away
• The Prom with Jordan De Leon
• Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim service
• Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine