作者简介：Sean Drohan,毕业于美国普林斯顿大学，主修英语文学，专攻戏剧文学，同时Sean还学习了表演，填词，导演，挪威语等。Sean在校期间曾成功辅导学生录取：哥伦比亚大学（综合4名）莱斯大学（综合18名）、埃默里大学（综合20名）、威廉玛丽学院（综合32名）等美国名校。第一次来中国的他期待着与中国学生能碰撞出新的火花，帮助他们向着自己的梦想大学迈进。
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翻译：敏杰
The idea of musical theater, in some ways, is nothing new. Stories have been told through music as long as humans have been telling stories. From the classical operas of Europe, to Beijing operas in China, to the folk dances of Native America and Africa, we can see similar themes in these seemingly distant performance styles.
音乐剧院的概念，在某些方面来讲，没有任何新鲜感。通过音乐来讲故事和人类开始讲故事的时间一样长。从欧洲经典歌剧，中国京剧，到印第安人和非洲人民间舞蹈，我们可以在这些看起来不同表演风格中看到相似的主题。
The American Musical is yet another one of those styles. It is both uniquely American and also comparable to all of the above mentioned traditions. Its Americanness is rooted mainly in its historical development in and around the New York "Broadway" scene and also in its espousal of American values.
但是美洲音乐剧是这些中一个不同的风格。它既具有独特的美洲风格又和以上提到的所有传统相类似。它的美洲化主要植根于它在纽约“百老汇”主题附近的成长历史和它拥护的美洲价值观。
At the turn of the 20th century, American entertainment centered around "vaudeville," which combined singing, dancing, and the newly emerging jazz style of music. Vaudeville was all about spectacle. Elaborate costumes, big dance numbers, and large sets were common and made for an impressive display. However, in 1927, Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein did something different. They incorporated a story, writing Show Boat, the first American musical. It told the story of performers on a Mississippi River show boat, which entertained passengers as they sailed along. The songs looked much like those of the vaudeville acts and were characterized by their big presentation, but they were given to characters and woven into a play.
20世纪初，美洲娱乐以“轻歌舞剧”为中心，包括唱歌，跳舞，和新出现的爵士音乐风格。轻歌舞剧是关于壮观场面的。精细的习俗，大量舞者数量，和大场面是常见的，为了制造一个令人印象深刻的展出。但是，在1927年，Jerome Kern和Oscar Hammerstein做了一些与众不同的事情。他们吸收了一个故事，写《演出船》，第一个美洲音乐剧。它讲述了在密西西比河演出船上表演者的故事，使旅客在航行中娱乐。歌曲看起来和轻歌舞剧很像，并以大型的展出为特征，但是它们在剧中被给予角色和织物。
Showboat was a success, and more composers began writing songs for musicals. These songs became a part of popular music, and they could be heard on the radio even before they were heard in the theater. Many of these songs comprise what is referred to as "The Great American Songbook," songs written in the early 20th Century by a handful of America's most iconic composers, such as Cole Porter and Irving Berlin.
《演出船》是成功的，它使更多的作曲家给音乐剧写歌。这些歌曲成为流行乐的一部分，它们可以在广播中被收听，甚至在它们在剧院被表演前。很多这样的歌曲包含了所谓的“伟大美国歌集”，歌集中的歌曲由几个美国最著名的作曲家于20世纪初所写，例如Cole Porter和Irving Berlin。
The next big development came with the musicals of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, who wrote musicals that were not only incredible in quality, but they also achieved something new. The songs in these musicals were fully integrated into the musical. Whereas previously, songs felt more like ornaments, sometimes not entirely essential to the development of the plot, these songs were completely necessary to tell the story, which is to say that if you were to take the songs out, the play would no longer make sense. The most important moments became songs. Instead of a character saying, "I love you," they sang it.
下一个巨大的发展与Richard Rodgers和Oscar Hammerstein的音乐剧一起到来，他们写的音乐剧不仅仅在质量上令人难以置信，他们也创造了一些新的东西。这些音乐剧中的歌曲被完整地融合成一个整体。然而之前，歌曲感觉更像装饰品，有时对于剧情发展并不是至关重要的，但是这些歌曲完全有必要去讲述故事，也就是说如果你把歌曲拿出来，这个剧不再有意义，最重要的时刻成为了歌曲，而不是角色说“我爱你”然后唱出来。
Musicals have had many developments since then. They are now written in every different musical style and about every type of story, from Biblical narratives to children's spelling bees. One thing that has stayed the same is that the center of musical theater continues to be New York City. "Broadway," the street on which many of the New York's theaters reside, has come to be synonymous with musical theater. Musicals tend to first open in New York before traveling the country or being put on by smaller theater companies across the US and across the world. Musicals have become a big business in America, with the 40 Broadway theaters grossing 1.2 billion dollars last year.
音乐剧从那时起有了更多的发展，现在的音乐剧风格各异，主题多样，从讲述圣经到儿童拼写表演。一直一成不变的是音乐剧院的中心仍然在纽约。“百老汇”诸多纽约剧院落户的地方，成为音乐剧院的同名词。音乐剧巡演整个国家或者在美国和世界的小剧院公司表演之前第一次基本会在纽约上演。音乐剧在美国成为一个巨大的产业，40个百老汇剧院去年总产值1.2亿美元。
Musicals continue to be an important place to discuss America's most important issues and American identity.Race, domestic violence, the role of women, and injustice are common themes in the American musical, and the idea of the hero and heroine, champion of the little man, continue to be a recurrent idea. Musicals teach us to try to do the impossible, be an individual, and stick to our values. Just recently, Next to Normal won the Pulitizer Prize (America's greatest award for writing) for its depiction of mental illness and for inciting discussion about this important issue.
音乐剧还是讨论美国最重要问题和美国身份的重要地点。种族，国内暴力，女性角色和不公正是美国音乐剧中常见主题，英雄和女英雄，小男人的胜利仍然是不断出现的话题。音乐剧教导我们去尝试不可能的事情，变得独立，坚持我们的价值观。最近，《近乎正常》因它对精神病描述和推动这方面重大问题讨论而荣获普利策奖（美国写作行业上最重大奖项）。
I've been performing in musicals since I was little. My father trained as a singer and as an actor, and I've done similarly. My favorite musical experience was playing the Master of Ceremonies in Kander and Ebb's Cabaret, which premiered on Broadway in 1966, greatly popularized by the film version with Liza Minnelli in 1972. My character was the main entertainer at a German nightclub during the beginning of the Nazi regime, in which role I sang and danced in eight numbers, more than I had ever done in a previous role. Cabaret depicts many of the evils of that time, which would come to be such a horrible mark in history, and how individuals can try to fight it.
我从小就在音乐剧中表演。我父亲被训练为一位歌手和演员，而我也相同。我喜爱的音乐剧经历是出演Kander and Ebb歌舞表演中的节目主持人，于1966年百老汇首次公演，因Liza Minnelli于1972年参演的电影版本大肆走红。我的角色是在纳粹政权开始时期德国夜总会里的主要艺人，我唱歌跳舞八次，比我之前任何角色都要多。歌舞表演描绘了那时很多后来成为历史上可怕污点的罪恶，和个人如何反抗的画面。
In the future, I would like to continue performing in musicals, and there are some projects with which I am involved that I really hope work out in the coming years.
在未来，我乐意继续从事音乐剧表演事业，有一些项目我已经参与并且真心希望在未来的几年能实现。
Musicals are highly entertaining and a great way to get a better sense of American culture. Next time you have the chance, go see one!
音乐剧是高度娱乐性的，也是一个更好了解美国文化的方法。下一次你有机会，去看看！
文中生词：
Espousal：the act of accepting with approval; favorable reception拥护，信奉
Vaudeville：a variety show with songs and comic acts etc. 杂耍；轻歌舞剧
Spectacle：something or someone seen (especially a notable or unusual sight)壮观景象
Elaborate：marked by complexity and richness of detail精细的
Incorporate：formed or united into a whole整合
Woven：made or constructed by interlacing threads or strips of material or other elements into a whole机织织物
Ornaments：something used to beautify装饰品
Recurrent：recurring again and again经常发生的
Cabaret：a spot that is open late at night and that provides entertainment (as singers or dancers) as well as dancing and food and drink歌舞表演
【智梦简介】
智梦是一家专注美国本科留学的教育咨询机构。
我们的使命：
“智梦教育团队深知留学申请关系到学生及其家长的前途和未来，我们将竭尽所能帮助每一位智梦学员发掘其潜在的特质，以开放透明的申请方式，让他们能不留遗憾的争取到自己的理想学校。与此同时，培养他们成为诚实守信、独立思考、德才兼备的国际化人才。”
我们的愿景：
“智梦教育将成为一所发掘学术兴趣，培养学术能力，塑造具有公民意识的新时代留学生的学校。”
