TOMORROW and Noon and 8 pm ET, The Broadway Maven will host a class on Bye Bye Birdie, the 1960 musical that parodied early rock ‘n’ roll and its fans. Conrad Birdie is an Elvis-type character who is drafted into the army and his legions of fans are distraught to tell him, well, “bye bye.” When one lucky teen wins the chance to kiss Birdie on television before he leaves, hilarity ensues (or does it? We’ll discuss).
An important aspect of the class will be asking if this is a rock musical, and if not, why not. We’ll also talk about who the true main character of the story is and how you can tell.
In classic Broadway Maven fashion, we’ll learn about the show’s creators and watch some clips, discussing themes and where to place the show in the history of musical theater.
Register: bitly.com/MavenBirdie
For homework, watch the video below with numbers from 10 high-school musicals, including Birdie. How many lyrics can you fill in? Put your score in the comments below.
Finally, it would really help me out if you would tell your Facebook friends about the class and give them this link so they can watch the video introduction to the class: bitly.com/MavenVideo