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

旁白：请听一段戏剧史课程的讲座。

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

教授：纽约市以其百老汇剧院而闻名——大型制作、精致的音乐剧。

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.

制作一部音乐剧需要投入大量资金——包括演员、服装、布景等等——这些演出旨在吸引大量观众，以确保制作在经济上可行。

But theater didn’t always appeal to the masses.

然而，戏剧并非一直吸引大众。

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世纪中叶，百老汇的观众主要是富裕的居民——他们会观看一部很可能是在欧洲创作和制作的歌剧，然后再传到纽约。

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.

这是一种社交场合，嗯……主要是社会上显赫的、上层阶级的人参加这些活动，或许是因为他们觉得有义务，而不是出于对戏剧的真正兴趣。

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，情况开始发生变化：中产阶级人口开始增长——他们正在寻找娱乐的来源。

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

在我谈到一位名叫威廉·惠特利的剧院老板时，请记住这一点。

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·惠特利推出了这部演出，嗯……它与当时百老汇的大多数演出不同，因为它不是一部歌剧。

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

而且，它是在美国本土创作的……用英语，而不是像通常用意大利语或法语创作的歌剧。

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

惠特利还决定融入一些高级的制作技术——舞台特效。

The show also included music to make it more entertaining.

演出还包括音乐，使其更加娱乐化。

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.

而且，由于一次幸运的巧合，当惠特利的演出即将开幕时，一支世界著名的芭蕾舞团恰好有空，因此他毫不犹豫地将这些芭蕾舞者纳入他的制作中。

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.

根据我之前提到的那些特效，惠特利为这场演出重新设计了整个舞台：舞台上的每一块地板都可以被抬升或压低——它们全都是可移动的。

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.

这使得可以在舞台的任何位置设置活板门，布景的各个部分——嗯，舞台布景——可以轻松地存放在舞台下方……这些活板门也为演员提供了另一种不太传统的进出舞台的方式。

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.

虽然今天我们可能对此不以为意——这类技术在现在已经是标准配置——但在惠特利演出的那个时代，这个概念相当新颖……这也是让演出在观众中大受欢迎的原因之一。

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

演出中另一个创新的元素是一个名为“变形场景”的片段。

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.

在这个场景中，观众惊讶地看到舞台上的布景从月光下的洞穴变成了宫殿中的王座厅。

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.

通常情况下，要实现这种大型场景的变化，帷幕会关闭，舞台工作人员会移除之前的布景并替换为新的布景，然后帷幕会再次打开。

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

然而，在这个例子中，变形是在观众面前使用简单的机械装置完成的。

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

这种效果……给所有看过惠特利制作的人留下了深刻的印象。

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，当这些人看到其他没有如此精致或令人兴奋的演出时，他们可能会感到失望。

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

所以，你看，当惠特利的演出首次亮相时，它让观众感到惊喜……它吸引了大量观众，包括不断增长的中产阶级。

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.

这部演出在纽约市连续上演了近两年，这是一个前所未有的成就，因为当时的演出通常只持续几周或几个月——而不是几年。

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

它还进行了巡演，在美国各地的不同城市演出了超过25年。

So, the show was quite a success.

所以……这部演出相当成功。

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

考虑到所有这些因素，有些人将惠特利的演出称为百老汇的第一部音乐剧。

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

如今，我们对音乐剧的定义是它通过对话和歌曲讲述一个故事。

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.

在惠特利的演出中，音乐部分并没有很好地融入故事，整体上更像是综艺节目。

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，所有内容都松散地围绕一个中心主题……[某种程度上承认这一点]所以，也许可以公平地说，这部演出为观众预示了一种新的音乐剧形式，这种形式将在接下来的几十年里出现在百老汇。