Hey, Delvino. I have been meaning to come back and reply. For months now, I have had trouble doing followup posts, which is one reason I have been posting much less. I have often felt that a reply to a reply was called for, but have been unable to get myself to post one, sometimes even after writing a draft of hundreds of words with which I was not quite satisfied (and I would eventually give up).
I would rather like to reply at length since you bring points of great interest, but since I am having this trouble nowadays, I will just mention that the quintet was Sondheim's idea. Prince had to figure out a way to make them fit.
I think you are very right about Prince liking the idea of storytellers or actors or groups of different sorts presenting a story to us. It was also part of his concept for Merrily, although I'm not sure if it was his original concept or something he decided upon as they were revising during previews. He discussed it in a letter of notes written during previews, which is in the Merrily boxes at the Library for the Performing Arts.
He also liked frames, which I think he may have gotten from Abbott. |
