%0 Journal Article
%T Evita, the Society of the Spectacle and the Advent of the Megamusical
%A Vagelis Siropoulos
%J Image and Narrative : Online Magazine of the Visual Narrative
%D 2010
%I Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
%X Using Evita (1978) as a case study, the article defines in aesthetic terms what has been derogatorily and summarily dismissed by many critics as spectacle in Andrew Lloyd Webber¡¯s megamusicals and investigates the reasons for their vast popularity. Cultural theory, from Walter Benjamin to Guy Debord and Fredric Jameson, shows that megamusicals, with their almost obsessive concentration on the visual aspects of the performance and the transformation of spectatorship into an overwhelming immersive experience, become emblematic of the socio-economic and phenomenological function of spectacle in postmodern culture ¨C a fact that explains their immense commercial success. Moreover, the article argues that the current colonization of Broadway by spectacle has a long history, tracing anticipatory tendencies, which reflect how a spectacular society¡¯s new modes of technologically mediated perception have gradually modified and shaped Broadway¡¯s aesthetic production in the twentieth century.   ¨¤ partir de l¡¯exemple d¡¯Evita (1978), cet article propose une d¨¦finition esth¨¦tique des supercom¨¦dies musicales d¡¯Andrew Lloyd Webber, que la critique a souvent et sans trop y r¨¦fl¨¦chir ¨¦cart¨¦es comme priv¨¦es de toute valeur, et s¡¯interroge sur les raisons de leur popularit¨¦. La th¨¦orie de la culture (Benjamin, Debord, Jameson) offre des outils pour mieux comprendre comment ces sup¨¦rcom¨¦dies musicales, doublement obs¨¦d¨¦es par les aspects visuels du spectacle et par le d¨¦sir de transformer la participation au spectacle en une v¨¦ritable exp¨¦rience immersive, devient comme un symbole des fonctions socio-¨¦conomiques et ph¨¦nom¨¦nologiques du spectacle dans une culture postmoderne ¨Cd¡¯o¨´ sans doute le succ¨¨s immense de ces productions. L¡¯article d¨¦montre aussi que la colonisation de Broadway par ce type de spectacles a une longue histoire. Il relit certains ph¨¦nom¨¨nes qui ont anticip¨¦ la mani¨¨re dont les modes de perception technologiquement m¨¦di¨¦s de la soci¨¦t¨¦ du spectacle ont influenc¨¦ et modifi¨¦ les pratiques du spectacle ¨¤ Broadway.
%K Megamusical
%K Society of the Spectacle
%K Concept Musical
%K Hyperspace
%U http://www.imageandnarrative.be/index.php/imagenarrative/article/view/84