The viewing, Give My Regards to Broadway, was a very important viewing to me. It taught me a lot on some background information about Broadway and some actors that I did not know about. Throughout the episode, there were five important topics that were discussed. They were George M. Cohan, Bert Williams, Irvin Berlin, the 1919 Actors’ Strike, and the musical Showboat. All of these topics were important for the development of American musical but the most important three that I thought were the most important were George M. Cohan, Bert Williams, and the musical, Showboat.
George M. Cohan played a major role in the development of the American musical. The information I retrieved from the video about him was that he was born to perform on stage. All he wanted to do was to be on stage and give his best in everything. He even dreamt of being on stage and perform. His childhood was all surrounded by musicals because his parents were also part of them. George M. Cohan was so influenced by Broadway and different types of musicals that he soon started to write them as well. He started to write musicals such as Little Johnny Jones and Yankee Doodle Dandy. George’s life consisted of always performing. He loved doing it and the audience love everything about him as well. He was considered to be the typical performer on stage. With his passion on Broadway, it made him be a major part of the American Musical.
The influential person to play a major role in the development of the American musical is Bert Williams. Bert Williams was one of the first African Americans to be on Broadway and perform in musicals. The reason why he influenced musicals is because he said that when he was on stage, he did what he wanted. He also said what he wanted to say. He claimed that he did not have to hide the person he was because he was the person he was performing. The musical that he performed in was also one of the first all-African American musicals on Broadway. At the time he...