The Conception of Song and Dance

Hi. I thought I'd post an essay I wrote for English last semester (and the semester before ;) ). It's interesting, I hope. If you want to hear ANY of the songs quoted, feel free to IM me on AIM.



On March 31, 1943, the musical “Oklahoma!” opened at the St. James theatre in New York, New York. In their first collaboration, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II had created a seamless piece of theatre that flowed from the spoken scenes of plays to soaring operatic music in which the characters of the play sang alone and together. It was the first work of its kind and the beginning of a new era for the American theatre.
It is often asked by the musical theatre-abhorring cynic: “Why would we be randomly bursting into song and dance in real life?” Thus is the bane of the life of every person that works in or appreciates musical theatre. It is not that what you watch in front of you on a stage is a direct representation of reality. It is not and never will be meant to represent a completely realistic reality. That is the beauty of what musicals are.
In a musical there is no shame in singing to express ones’ self. A musical theatre piece sets its world (no matter how realistic the world itself is) in a variant of reality in which singing is the way to express ones’ self. The basic principle behind bursting into song is that a character’s emotions have come to such a peak that they have to sing to express themselves; words simply are not enough to do the job. In short, musical theatre is a suspended portrayal of reality in which the only way a character can express heightened emotions or feelings is by using music and lyrics, which transcend the spoken word and communicate in an even more human way with the audience. A classic example that spells out this situation is “Unexpected Song” from Song and Dance (lyrics by Don Black, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber):

“I have never felt like this
For once I'm lost for words
Your smile has really thrown me
This is not like me at all
I never thought I'd know
The kind of love you've shown me.” (Lloyd Webber)

There are, of course, different ways to employ the concept of musical theatre. In the musical “Into The Woods” by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, the writers weave in the collective stories of different fairy tale characters (Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood) with an original fairy tale about a baker and his wife. When the characters enter the woods, though, they leave behind the fairy tale stigma we have of them and become real people. Murder, thievery, and adultery are all things that the characters do in the woods. The Baker’s Wife commits adultery with Cinderella’s Prince (who in the end is the only truly innocent character, admitting, “I was raised to be charming, not good.”) and after sings about the choices she makes and whether it is worth it to leave the security of her husband for the excitement of a prince. She then entertains the possibility of having both, but realizes that one cannot have an “and” (Baker and Prince), it must always be “or,” and that while she has had a moment with the Prince, moments are not meant to last:

“Oh, if life were only moments,
Even now and then a bad one-!
But if life were only moments,
Then you’d never know you’d had one.
…
Let the moment go...
Don't forget it for a moment, though.
Just remembering you've had and "and",
When you're back to "or",
Makes the "or" mean more
Than it did before.
Now I understand-

And it's time to leave the woods” (Stephen Sondheim 112-113).

As she processes what she has done and what the consequences would be, the writer here allows us to completely follow the thought process of the character. It is this complexity in the writing and way a musical theatre song is written that seems unappreciated by those who insist that breaking into song is unrealistic. The only way to answer that statement honestly is “well, duh.”
Songs are also written for other purposes. What is referred to as a “book” song (the “book” of a musical is not only the spoken scenes but also the outline and structure of the piece, including the order of scenes and songs and the arcs of characters) is a song in which the plot progresses through song, whereas the previously mentioned “Moments in the Wood” is a song in which the plot is halted to delve into the inner thoughts of a character. A “book” song is, in essence, what could be done as a spoken scene but is made more interesting through the addition of characters’ expression with prose and music. Take for instance another Stephen Sondheim classic, the Act One finale “A Little Priest” in his operetta-musical “Sweeney Todd.” The revenge-seeking barber Sweeney Todd and his cohort Mrs. Lovett are at wits end what to do with an Italian that Sweeney has had to murder to avoid his identity being revealed to those he seeks revenge upon. And Mrs. Lovett’s meat pie shop has been going down hill for a while due to rising cost of meat. The characters cackle as they imagine charmingly sadistic idea of using people for pies:

“Mrs. Lovett
Here we are, now! Hot out of the oven!
Sweeney Todd
What is that?

Mrs. Lovett
It's priest. Have a little priest.
Sweeney Todd
Is it really good?
Mrs. Lovett
Sir, it's too good, at least!
Then again, they don't commit sins of the flesh,
So it's pretty fresh.
Sweeney Todd
Awful lot of fat.
Mrs. Lovett
Only where it sat.
Sweeney Todd
Haven't you got poet, or something like that?
Mrs. Lovett
No, y'see, the trouble with poet is
'Ow do you know it's deceased?
Try the priest!” (Stephen Sondheim 106)

It is clear that this scene of demented characters fantasizing about cannibalism could be settled in a spoken scene; in fact, it was. The musical adaptation of “Sweeney Todd” is based on a play by Christopher Bond, which also gives motivation and darker reasons behind the mad killings of “the demon barber of fleet street.” “In the play,” says composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, “the first act ends with them falling into each others’ arms in laughter. And I thought what are they laughing about? And it occurred to me that they were laughing at the thought of making people into meat pies. And there was the song.” (Broadway: The American Musical)
Another classic song that a character will sing is the “I Want” song. It typically is placed near the beginning of the show, in which the protagonist sings about what their goals are and how they will achieve them. One of the most ingenious “I Want” songs comes from one of the most ingenious premises; that of the musical Wicked. The musical itself is the “prequel” to The Wizard of Oz, in which we are told the story of Elphaba (who becomes The Wicked Witch of the West) and Galinda (who becomes Glinda the Good Witch) and how they are roommates at school and become close friends. Elphaba’s “I Want” song is about how she has always known she was different (despite being green, she also discovers that she can produce magic), and how she will meet The Wizard of Oz and show him her powers and he will make people love her by association. The lyrics of the final chorus are cunningly ironic, her inevitable fate kept in mind:

“And I'll stand there with the Wizard,
Feeling things I've never felt.
And though I'd never show it,
I'll be so happy, I could melt!
And so it will be
For the rest of my life,
And I'll want nothing else
‘Till I die.
Held in such high esteem.
When people see me, they will scream
For half of Oz's favorite team;
The Wizard and I!” (Schwartz 25-27)

The next-and my favorite-type of song in a musical is the “Eleven O’clock number.” This part is employed in almost every musical since the 1970s. It is commonly thought of as a large, or particularly moving song placed near the end of the second act of a musical just before the final denouement of the plot. Its name was coined as such because, with the later times that a performance started earlier in the century, the number was meant to signify the time.
The most prime example of a pure “Eleven O’clock number” is the song “The American Dream” from Miss Saigon. The musical (though almost completely sung-through, it is also considered an Operetta or a “Pop opera”) was the first work of theatre to be set in or comment on the Vietnam war. It tells the story inspired by the Puccini opera Madame Butterfly of an American soldier who falls in love with a Vietnamese prostitute. He is torn from her when the Americans retreat from the nation, and unknowingly leaves her with his son. Years later they are reunited, she has been waiting the entire time to see him again; he, however, has moved on and married a new woman. The character known only as The Engineer, who owned the bar that the Vietnamese girl worked at, imagines the grandeur of America as he is finally about to go to the United States for the first time after years of pining for a Visa. Employing also the previously mentioned device of interior monologue, we enter his mind and see the warped vision of America that foreigners were promised:

“What's that I smell in the air?
The American dream.
Sweet as a new millionaire:
The American dream.
Pre-packed, ready-to-wear,
The American dream.
Fat, like a chocolate éclair
As you suck out the cream.

Luck by the tail.
How can you fail?
And best of all, it's for sale:
The American dream.” (ST Lyrics, The American Dream)

The excessive number, which includes bringing a Cadillac onstage, is an homage to the promise of prosperity in America that so many immigrants envision. The idyllic lyrics, at other points stating “girls can buy tits by the pair / bald people think they’ll grow hair,” are brought to the resounding truth of capitalism in America at the end of the stanza: “And best of all, it’s for sale: / The American dream.” (ST Lyrics, The American Dream)
Through the seamless blend of spoken word and song, some of the greatest stories have been told. From green witches, to mad barbers and meat pie makers, to a baker and his wife, we suspend reality and let our imagination guide us into a world where emotions and situations are expressed in the only way possible: through unexpected song.




That's all :)