| No Loose Canon: Hunting for common tropes across Sondheim’s work (today's MARQUEE) | |
| Posted by: TheBroadwayMaven (DavidBenkof@gmail.com) 11:48 am EDT 04/03/24 | |
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| In today’s FREE Premium edition of MARQUEE: The Broadway Maven’s Weekly Blast: • four Broadway Blasts finding linkages across various Sondheim shows; • a Broadway Maven video with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 50 best melodies; • a review of the recent Rodgers & Hammerstein anniversary concert; • a Piano Talk about Andrew Lloyd Webber’s School of Rock; • a homework video examining the song “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables; and • a Last Blast about My Fair Lady. Example of a Broadway Blast: BROADWAY BLAST: In Act Two of Into the Woods, Cinderella’s Prince tells the Baker’s Wife, “I was raised to be charming, not sincere.” The two words are quite apt, because they perfectly encapsulate the themes of the two acts of the show. The enchanting Act One (which is often performed as a stand-alone by and for children) is charming, whereas Act Two (which tackles major themes of legacy, responsibility, complexity, and interdependence) is sincere. The charming/sincere dichotomy is a useful lens to consider in Sondheim’s oeuvre), since other shows have a similar structure. The first act of Gypsy is filled with cutesy children’s numbers (“May We Entertain You”) and charm songs like “All I Need is the Girl” and “If Momma Was Married.” By contrast, the second act examines serious themes like Louise’s quest for independence and Madame Rose’s descent into madness. Or take Company, in which most of the light humor (“You Could Drive a Person Crazy”; “Getting Married Today”) is in the first act, whereas songs that explore deeper themes like “The Ladies Who Lunch” and “Being Alive” are kept for the end of the show. And the reverse-chronology Merrily We Roll Along is the exception that proves the rule, moving from sincere to charming, exploring deeper conflicts and complications in the first act than we see in the lighter second act. |
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| Link | No Loose Canon:Hunting for common tropes across Sondheim’s work (today's MARQUEE |
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