| the "Not A Day Goes By" conundrum | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 08:54 pm EDT 08/24/22 | |
| In reply to: re: MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG -- Can the Original 1981 Version Ever Be Shown Again? - lordofspeech 08:45 pm EDT 08/24/22 | |
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| The two issues with giving the song to Beth, as I think it was originally conceived, is that Frank is the main character and needs an emotional song for us to understand him and relate to him and sympathize, and where the song comes in the backwards timeline it is sung by a character we've only just barely met. We will get to know her more *after* the song, and the song make brilliant sense for her to sing in the actual timeline of the story... but it still comes to the audience from a character they don't know and don't need to know well for the show to work and doesn't need the audience on her side because they already are. Frank needs to win the audience by opening up about his feelings in this marriage he ruined with his choices... we already feel for his soon to be ex-wife. Of course the idea is that the audience it rewarded with emotional impact form Beth's singing it in act one when in act two they hear the "reprise" and realize she was spitting back his vows at him. But I'm not sure it ever quite held in the audience's head strong enough to have that impact, or to make the potential pay off outweigh the reasons it might be sung by Frank in Act One instead. If I'm not misremembering, Hal had this very issues with it and that's why he gave it to Frank. I think both ways are extremely valid, but I do actually agree with Hal on this. I don't think it is as useful or impactful coming where it does when it comes from Beth. The show and the audience need to have it come from Frank. Perhaps there's a happy medium where Frank sings it, then Beth does? I dunno, it's been awhile since I've done a deep dive. |
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| Previous: | re: MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG -- Can the Original 1981 Version Ever Be Shown Again? - lordofspeech 08:45 pm EDT 08/24/22 |
| Next: | re: the "Not A Day Goes By" conundrum - BrianJ 02:29 pm EDT 08/25/22 |
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