Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in a theater history class.

旁白：听一段关于戏剧史的课程。

Male professor: One of the things New York City is known for is its Broadway theaters--big productions, elaborate musicals.

教授：众多让纽约闻名于世事物中，百老汇音乐剧便是其中之一，大制作，精致的音乐剧作品。

A lot of money goes into producing a musical--with the actors, costumes, scenery and so on--the shows are designed to appeal to large audiences, to make the production financially viable.

大笔钱财被投入到制作音乐剧上，包括演员，服装，布景等等。这些表演意在吸引大批的观众，使得作品在财政上成为一种可能。

But theater didn’t always appeal to the masses.

但这些戏剧并不是总能吸引大众。

In the middle of the nineteenth century, it was mostly wealthy residents who were going to Broadway--they would see an opera that was probably written and produced in Europe before making its way over to New York.

在19世纪中期，来到百老汇的人大多是有钱人。他们会在歌剧没有传到纽约之前，欣赏那些可能在欧洲编写和制作的歌剧。

It was a scene for, uh, well, the socially prominent, the upper class--who attended these functions perhaps because they felt obligated rather than because of a genuine interest in theater.

这是为社会上杰出的上层阶级所打造的剧目，这些上层阶级参加这种社交集会，大概更多是因为他们觉得这是自己的义务，而不是因为真正地喜欢戏剧。

But, in the 1860s, something else started to occur: the middle-class population began to grow--and they were looking for a source of entertainment.

但是，在19世纪60年代，其他的情况开始出现。中产阶级人口开始增长，并且他们也在寻找一种娱乐方式。

Keep that in mind while I talk about a theater owner named William Wheatley.

当我说到剧院主人威廉·瑞格理的时候，记住我刚才所提到的内容。

In 1866, William Wheatley had this show, uh, and it was different from most shows on Broadway at the time because it wasn’t an opera.

1866年，威廉·惠特利举办了这场演出，它与当时百老汇的大多数演出不同，因为它不是歌剧。

And, it was developed right here in the United States, in English, unlike the operas, which were typically in Italian or French.

并且，它恰恰是在纽约发展起来的，用英语，不像那些典型的歌剧，用的是意大利语或法语。

Wheatley also decided to incorporate some fancy production techniques--stage effects.

瑞格理也决定将作品与一些有趣新颖的技术和舞台效果结合起来。

The show also included music to make it more entertaining.

表演也融合了音乐来使它更有娱乐性。

And, through a stroke of luck, a world-renowned ballet troupe became available just as Wheatley’s show was about to open, so he didn’t hesitate to include the ballet dancers in his production.

并且，有幸的是，正好在他的秀要上演前，一个举世闻名的芭蕾舞团档期空了出来。于是，他毫不犹豫地将这些芭蕾舞演员加入了他的作品。

Along the lines of those special effects I mentioned, Wheatley redesigned the entire stage for this show: every floorboard on the stage could be lifted up or pushed down-they were all moveable.

同时，除了我提到的上述这些特别效果之外，瑞格理为了这个表演重新设计了整个舞台。每块舞台上的地板都能上升或下降——它们都是可移动的。

This allowed for trap doors to be placed anywhere on the stage, so pieces of the set--uh, of the scenery--could easily be stored beneath the stage, and these trap doors also gave performers another, less traditional way to enter and exit the stage.

这使得机关门能够被安放在舞台的任意位置。于是，道具、布景的各个部分，都能被轻易地储藏在舞台之下。并且这些机关门也可以让表演者以另一个更不同寻常的方式进出舞台。

While today we might not think much of it--things like this are standard nowadays--the concept was quite novel at the time of Wheatley’s show, and was one of the things that made the show a hit with audiences.

嗯，在今天，我们可能不觉得这有什么，如今这些东西是标配，这个概念在瑞格理表演的时代可是十分新颖的。这也是这部戏剧在观众中获得巨大成功的因素之一。

Another innovative element in the show was a scene called the “transformation scene”.

表演中的另一个创新元素是一幕被叫做“变形舞台”的场景。

During this scene, the audience watched in amazement as the setting on stage changed from a moonlit cave to a throne room in a palace.

在这一幕里，观众震惊地看到，舞台上的布景从一个满室月光的洞穴变成一个皇宫中的金銮殿。

Normally to have this type of major scene change, the curtains would close, the stage crew would remove the previous set and replace it with the new one, and then the curtains would open again.

一般来说要让这种主要场景变化，需要拉上帷幕，舞台工作人员将先前的布景移除，并替换上新的布景，然后，再重新拉开帷幕。

In this instance, though, the transformation took place in front of the audience using simple machinery.

虽然在这个例子中，在观众面前的场景切换用的是简单的机器。

And this effect, it left a lasting impression on everyone who saw Wheatley’s production.

这个效果，给所有看了瑞格理作品的人留下了持久的印象。

In fact, those people were probably disappointed when they saw another show that didn’t contain something as, well, as elaborate or exciting.

事实上，当那些人看到没有这些内容，而且不如它一般精致或令人兴奋的另一部剧时，或许会感到失望。

So look, when it premiered, Wheatley’s show took audiences by surprise, it appealed to large crowds, including the growing middle class.

所以，看，起初瑞格理的戏剧让观众感到惊喜，它吸引了大量观众，包括当时正在增长的中产阶级。

The show ran for almost two years straight in New York City, an achievement unheard of at a time when productions typically lasted weeks or months — not years.

这部剧在纽约连续上演了近两年，这是一项前所未有的成就，因为当时戏剧通常维持几周或几个月，而不是几年。

It also went on tour, visiting different cities across the United States for over 25 years.

它也在美国许多城市巡演了超过25年。

So, the show was quite a success.

所以，表演非常成功。

And with all that in mind, some people call Wheatley’s show the first musical on Broadway.

根据这一切，有些人将瑞格理的戏剧称为是百老汇第一部音乐剧。

Now, our current definition of a musical is that it tells a story through dialogue and song.

现在，我们目前对于音乐剧的定义是它通过对话或歌曲的形式讲述了一个故事。

In Wheatley’s show, the musical sections, well, they didn’t necessarily integrate well with the story, giving an overall impression of something more like a variety show.

在瑞格理的戏剧中，音乐的部分，呃，它们并没有必要与故事很好地衔接，给人总体的印象更像是一个多种形式的表演。

Yes, everything was loosely focused around a central theme, so maybe it’s fair to say, then, that this show gave audiences a hint of a new form of musical theater that would ultimately appear on Broadway in the decades to follow.

是的，一切都零散地围绕中心展开，所以或许应该说，这种表演给了观众一个新形式音乐剧的暗示，这将最终于之后的几十年出现在百老汇的舞台上。