Blog Archives

A first reading for The Dancing Princess!

4/29/2013

Well, we let The Dancing Princess out of captivity last night with the first reading of a revamped children’s musical. Here’s something I cannot believe: My first draft is dated June 11, 2011. Almost two years ago (and it probably was two years ago that I first discussed it with composer Bert Draesel and lyricist Nancy Leeds).

You never do a reading without a reason and we had a reason. We needed to hear it performed by someone other than us in Bert’s living room. And boy did we. The photo on this page shows our cast, and they were fantastic! We were fortunate to get Jenavene Hester as our princess; Tyrone Davis as our prince; Jackie Nguyen as Maria, the gypsy dancing girl; John Haggerty was our king, with Laura Cook as the evil duchess out for his throne; Lyle Mackston played the duchess’ sidekick; with Justin Randolph as the head of the gypsy troupe and Renee Bergeron as his co-leader; and Tony Ponella was their henchman. Can't tell you how wonderful they were.

This talented team gave us a real idea of what the show sounds and feels like at this juncture. One full rehearsal and 12 songs, and you only bring that off by having a director like Misti Wills and a musical director like Laura Bergquist.

I think we all hoped to learn two things. First, do we have something worth continuing to work on? Second, if yes, what do we need to work on? I think everyone in the room felt the answer to the first question was yes. The show just has a good feel about it. Humorous where it should be. Touching where it should be. Music that resonates. And we learned much that needs improving or changing or expanding upon. (Thanks to all for the beneficial talkback.)

You know what they say, “Musicals aren’t written; they’re rewritten.” And now that job starts. A big "Thank You" to everyone involved with the very first reading ever of our version of The Dancing Princess.

OK. That's it and that's enough.

0 Comments

Last night and The Last Five Years

4/29/2013

0 Comments

Guess where we were Friday night? Went to Second Stage's main stage on 43rd and Eighth to see the Jason Robert Brown-directed The Last Five Years. It starred Betsy Wolfe, whom we are lucky enough to know, and she was unbelievable.

I've wanted to see this show for years. In fact, after sitting through it, I realized I almost had seen it. About 80 percent of the songs have been performed at various nights out listening to musical theater singers sing. And having heard so many samples of musicals from so many young writers and composers, Jason Robert Brown's influence is so clear.

Is that a good thing? That's about like asking if you like Coke or Dr Pepper. The answer is, "It depends." One thing you can't argue: He's got skills. Composing and writing. Makes me look forward to Honeymoon in Vegas to see what he does with a big, new, old-style musical comedy.

OK. That's it and that's enough.

0 Comments

I want (and I don’t want) songs

4/20/2013

0 Comments

In the past month or so I’ve been part of two workshops (recounted below) critiquing new musicals—one as an attendee, one as a panel member. And the most consistent comment I heard was, “I don’t know what your musical is about.”

Enter the “I Want” song.

Noel Katz, my fellow panel member at Carol de Giere’s MusicalWriter.com Swapfest, has a great post on the history, current state and good examples of I Want songs. (Click here. Learn more.) The I Want song not only helps the writer focus on “what your musical is about,” it sharpens main characters, clarifies motivation for the audience and establishes conflict.

All good? Yes. Completely good? No. Because you don’t want to become formulaic or too simplistic. As a writer, your goal isn’t to spit out a “Musical by the Lehman Engel Numbers.” It’s to write your show. Of course, you need to know the rules to bend them. Thinking about character motivation helps. Developing a motivation so strong your characters break into song about it helps. Writing a song that stirs something in your listeners helps.

But it doesn’t have to be a character standing up and singing, “I want you to know what is motivating me!”

Question: What is the “I Want” of Oklahoma? And the answer, of course, is Surrey With The Fringe On Top where Curly wants to date Laurey, which sets the entire show in motion. But that’s Curly. What is Laurey’s I want song? I would say it is People Will Say We’re In Love, in which she says what she wants by saying what she doesn’t want. In fact we get a long list of what she doesn’t want, which inspires Curly to offer a similar list of what he doesn’t want.

Only everything on both lists is exactly what they want.

And that’s fun.

Fiddler on the Roof breaks the rules in a different way. What is Fiddler’s I Want song. I think we have to say it’s Matchmaker, Matchmaker. The “want” of Tevye’s daughters sets everything in motion. All major developments, the change in Tevye, the motivation, the conflict, flow from that song . . . and the main character doesn’t sing it.

And that’s brilliant.

I wrote an I Want song for a musical version of It’s A Wonderful Life. (Note to Self: Always pay attention to Stephen Schwartz’ Rule No. 1 for Adapting a Work: “Never write a single note or lyric for a work for which you don’t not have the rights.”)

The song checks all the boxes save one.

By the main character? Check. George Bailey sings it.

Second song within the first 15 minutes? Check. Check.

Emotion so great singing must ensue? Check.

Says what the character wants? Well . . . sort of. After an intro, George, poised on the bridge where he’s contemplating suicide sings:

I guess I missed my train
Heard the whistle blow
Showed up at the station
Just in time to watch it go
But I still hear a bell
Ringing in the distance
How did I resist that siren song
A lifetime long
And miss my train?

There’s no train you want on
Like the one just gone
Speeding down a track
You know you should be on
Going where you’ve never been
Somewhere beyond your fear
Going the best place of all
Anywhere but here
I missed my train

It’s an “I Didn’t Get What I Want” song. Through three verses and a bridge we know why George is poised to jump off his bridge, learning what he wanted by what he feels he’s missed. It frontloads the emotion of story told in flashback.

I’ll close with another example from one of my favorite musicals The Drowsy Chaperone. (By the way, Drowsy won the Tony for Best Book, Best Score and Best Actor . . . and did not win Best Musical. Go figure.)

The second and third songs are the I Want songs. Cold Feets is Robert’s “I’m afraid to get married” song. Show Off is Janet’s “I don’t want to parade myself in front of the public anymore” song. Except Robert does want to get married and everything Janet sings in Show Off shows that’s exactly what she wants to do. Two characters. Two songs (Nos. 2 and 3 in the show). Two examples of “I Don’t Want” songs . . . except that they do.

Here’s the bottom line: The I Want song is important. Try your show without it, then add it in and you’ll see what I mean. So, understand the rule, and understand why the rule is necessary . . . and then bend it.

OK. That’s it, and that’s enough.

0 Comments

<<Previous

The Talk

A first reading for The Dancing Princess!

Last night and The Last Five Years

I want (and I don’t want) songs

Archives

Categories

The Musicals

Babes At Sea

Panther City

Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl

The Dancing Princess

Contact

Contact Me