| my problem with Sondheim's problem with "I Feel Pretty" | |
| Last Edit: Chazwaza 08:13 pm EST 12/24/21 | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 07:58 pm EST 12/24/21 | |
| In reply to: re: question re: WSS - have the authors ever addressed why there's SO much more Jets than Sharks in the score/play ?did Sheldon Harnick "lyric-shame" Sondheim? - bmc 07:25 pm EST 12/24/21 | |
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| Thank you for the generous words! Glad you found it a worthwhile read. And yeah, I don't doubt that Harnick said something like that. I'd say he was wrong too. It seems to me that "I Feel Pretty" exists in one of these options of dramatic reality: A) All characters speak in 95-100% English because it's a play written to communicate to an English speaking audience. So even when Spanish speaking characters (who, in the reality of their current lives, likely all speak some English, and most of whom are actively learning it) speak, it is translated *by the play to the audience* to English so that it can be understood, because presumably everything a character says or sings in a play is there for a reason and must be understood by the audience. In this reality, Maria is, in theory, speaking in Spanish for "I Feel Pretty", because she's speaking to Puerto Ricans only, but it's magically translated for the audience into English so we can understand it, as well as into rhyming lyrics that fit onto music because it is a song. B) Unless we hear them use Spanish (which we do occasionally), the Puerto Rican characters ARE speaking English. This is true of many immigrants who are trying to assimilate into a place with a different language (in America or otherwise). I think it was largely understood that to take advantage of the supposed opportunity available in America, you would have to speak the language that is the primary language of the country and the exclusive language spoken by the people in charge. (I'm not saying this is fair or right, I'm just discussing what the reality was). Insisting on speaking English to each other (as Anita often does) in order to practice, or just doing it without calling attention to it, is not far fetched at all. A smart young woman like Maria, at her age especially, would surely be actively learning and using English. How pompous of Sondheim and insulting to Maria for him to think his use of words like "alarming / charming" and "stunning, entrancing, committee, dizzy/fizzy" etc are beyond what Maria would have been able to know at that point in her time in America. If anything, his lyrical "showing off" actually sounds like a young person learning these medium-level vocab words and using them to show off herself. Apparently this wasn't intention of Sondheim, but to me it is much more believable that Maria IS using words she just recently learned. A more sophisticated English thinker/speaker would probably not express themselves the way the lyrics of this song are written. So if we're to believe she's expressing herself in Spanish because she's speaking to only Puerto Rican immigrants and they're all using only Spanish when not in the company of English-speakers, then why wouldn't she be using words at this medium-vocab level? And if we're to believe she is expressing herself in English, a language she is currently learning and using to assimilate, with a sharp and sponge-like mind of a teenager, and is choosing words she may have recently learned that express her giddy joy ... then why wouldn't see be using the words in the lyrics? Unless his issue is that she's doing such "clever" or "sophisticated" ***rhymes***... to which I have to laugh. We do not think Maria is actually rhyming, whether the lyric is: "it's alarming how charming i feel" OR "I feel dizzy, I feel sunny, I feel fizzy and funny and fine, And so pretty, Miss America can just resign." ... because this is a musical. And fun internal rhymes like this: "I feel pretty, Oh, so pretty That the city should give me its key. A committee Should be organized to honor me." ... are not Maria showing off. In the reality of a musical (at least most musicals, including this one), Maria does not know her words rhyme. Because of this, it is Sondheim showing off, but showing off to underline and/or achieve a higher level of expression of Maria's feeling here... and it works. The song has more zip and buzz and communication of what Maria is experiencing in her head and heart in this moment *because* of a little internal rhyme there. What he thinks is weaker writing or a betrayal of the character or the reality of her given circumstances is actually unfair and working to have the opposite effect for the *musical*. In a musical everyone sings and when they do they rhyme. Something perhaps Sondheim conveniently forgot in order to have a baby to throw to the wolves of humility. And in fact sometimes people express themselves in a song in more heightened ways than they would if it were spoken dialogue. This is part of the format of a musical... Every character who sings rhymes. In a musical, other than diegetic songs, the audience understands that NONE OF THE SONGS are the characters *actually* singing in the actual reality of the story. The story is being told and the character's thoughts and feelings and often dialogue are being expressed with song, and dance. We do not watch the Prologue and think these gang members are meant to be actually dancing through the streets of NYC... we understand it is an artistic expression to represent them roaming the streets... just as we do not think when someone sings AND their lyrics (through which they express their thoughts or dialogue during a song) RHYME, as almost all lyrics do, that the character is actually rhyming their thoughts, or would be rhyming their words if it were spoken dialogue rather than lyrics. So for him to have an issue with her having the apparently astounding wit it might take to do internal rhymes or rhymes of words she may not even be that familiar with, is pretty ridiculous, not to mention insulting to the audience. So on several levels I find Sondheim's issues to be silly and unfounded, and either an insult to Maria or to the audience or both. Either way I think he looks worse for his criticisms than better. And I'm glad that he never won the battle to change these lyrics. :) (ps it's hard to tell here, but I am quite an intense Sondheim worshiper, though I do find fault with his logic at times) |
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| Previous: | re: question re: WSS - have the authors ever addressed why there's SO much more Jets than Sharks in the score/play ?did Sheldon Harnick "lyric-shame" Sondheim? - bmc 07:25 pm EST 12/24/21 |
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