I. Musicals

Well here’s my first post! I’m hoping to cover a wide range of subjects close to my heart; music, predominantly, but I hope that’ll lead on to more diverse musings. As for the subject of my first one… Musicals? I do love a good musical. What makes a good musical? That’s a difficult thing to define.

One important aspect, according to some purveyors of low-end commercial musicals (obviously this isn’t an opinion to which I personally subscribe…), is the catchy-ness of the songs. Whether you’re humming ‘Defying Gravity’ or ‘Any Dream Will Do’, you’re caught in the net; it’ll make you download the Broadway Cast Recording, buy the DVD, or, worse yet, actually purchase extortionate tickets for the London theatre! Even my personal favourite musical, Les Misérables, uses catchy tunes to sell its wares, cf. ‘Do You Hear the People Sing?’ and others.

Many people use musicals as an escape; a place where the normal rules of keeping things to yourself just don’t apply. Every five minutes there’s a self-indulgent soliloquy. You know the score, the strings rush up, you look off into the distance, fling your arms out on the last chorus… But I’m getting carried away with myself. See? It’s addictive! Shallow though, I would argue, there’s not much ‘substance’, whatever that may mean.

Perhaps as a reaction to this, people add a dash of politics to their shows. ‘Rent’ with its liberal agenda, ‘Chicago’ against press influence in the courts (at a push…), and my personal favourite, ‘Cabaret’ with its look in to all sorts of things; Nazism, abortion, homosexuality, I could go on. ‘The Future Belongs to Me’ is a great example of a clever, simple-yet-effective song, and in fact, all the songs have this beguiling mix of simplicity and incisive wit.

Well, having said all that, there is one defining factor, one that trumps all that has come above: it HAS to be LOUD. Seriously. Les Mis (btw I’d like to point out that I refuse to use a ‘z’!) probably wouldn’t be the pillar-of-the-genre that it is if it wasn’t frequently louder than you can probably stand. Obviously it has really quiet bits, which are important too, but ‘One Day More’… Wow, it gets me every time.

It’s about singing as loud as you can; screaming (aesthetically….) about how you feel. It’s cathartic not just for the singer(s), but also for the audience. Perhaps this is the real social importance of musical theatre, a collective release of emotions: it’s good for the soul! You don’t really need poignant social commentary, à la ‘Cabaret’, although that helps, you don’t really need a happy ending, à la every cheesy musical by Rogers and Hammerstein, et al. but you do need an intense outpouring of emotion, à la, perhaps, ‘Epiphany’ in Sweeney Todd. Obviously I’m being a musical-theatre fascist, you’re welcome to your own opinion. There’s a lot to be said for over-the-rainbow escapism, but I’d rather stay in Kansas, thank you very much, screaming at the clouds.