I really enjoy Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager's score to ''They're Playing Our Song,'' and it's better than it's given credit for. The title tune is especially fun and catchy, and I adore ''Fallin','' which has one of Sager's best lyrics, and ''Fill in the Words,'' cleverly done with toy pianos.
Obviously, nothing could've (or should've) beat Stephen Sondheim's spectacular ''Sweeney Todd'' for Best Score. But I would've nominated ''They're Playing Our Song'' over the disappointing scores from the flop shows ''Carmelina'' (by Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner) and ''The Grand Tour'' (by Jerry Herman). And I don't know how ''Eubie!,'' a revue of songs by Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, largely from the 1910s and 1920s, qualified for Score. (I also believe Carol Hall deserved a Tony nomination for her wonderful pop-country songs to ''The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.'')
Musical taste is subjective, but it's as if the Tonys chose to recognize more traditional musical-theater scores over more pop-sounding ones. |
