On Writing a Musical Part 3

As I mentioned in my last post, the plot to my musical was simple, but despite that (or perhaps because of that) characters and themes began to suggest themselves to me.


The main characters are as follows:

• Crabbottom - thirty something; misquotes Shakespeare; a somewhat lovable rum runner with gangster ties; his father, who also was a gangster, founded the home for wayward girls.
• Sister Salvation - thirty something; runs the home; has a belief that there is good in everyone.
• Willie - late teens; newspaper boy; a dreamer, likes Molly.
• Molly - late teens; one of the wayward girls; pragmatic; a 1930s style feminist.

The characters each had a slightly different look on life which fascinated me. Would the dreamer learn to deal with reality? Would a pragmatic girl dare to take a leap of faith? Would the the gangster learn to do good? Does God have a plan for all of us, or is the world an undetermined arena where we must find meaning and good?


The challenge, and the fun of it all, was to unobtrusively layer these ideas on to the scaffold of the simple plot. Cliches, throw away lines, misquoted Shakespeare, these might all be embedded with a deeper level of meaning without getting in the way of the entertainment.


Then, when I was nearly done with the book, I came across a quote from Anatole France, "To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream, not only plan but also believe." This fit the play perfectly and the quote would be a motto for the home for wayward girls.


I thanked my luck (or was it preordained fate?), but was also glad that I didn't come across the quote too early in the writing. I would have been tempted to make each of the characters "fit" - the dreamer, the planner, the doer, the believer. If I had done so, I think the characters would have been iconic and one dimensional. So, the characters don't match up perfectly (real people never do), but suggest and at times are in conflict with these themes.


I don't know how well I succeeded in any of this. For me, however, it was the fun and creative part of writing that kept me going.

On Writing a Musical Part 2

The first thing I had to consider, even before I began the actual writing, was what my requirements and restrictions were going to be. I knew we would have many girls trying out, and just a hand full of guys, so I needed to have lots of girl parts and just a few guy roles. The plot would have to be engaging enough for high school students, not too risque for parents, not too controversial for administrators, and hopefully have some educational value. Above all, it had to be entertaining.

I started with the gender issue: a girls camp - no, too much like a tacky teen flick (and like my last musical!), a women's prison - no, sounded like a bad X rated film, a nunnery - no, church and state problems not to mention that the students would never buy it.

The setting I came up with doesn't sound any better - a home for wayward girls set in New York at the time of the great depression. But, given the current state of the economy, I thought people could relate to the depression. With my wife recently laid off and looming salary cuts, I certainly could relate to it! The "wayward girls" aspect was mildly suggestive, but could be sufficiently sanitized as to not offend.

In addition, I've always liked the music of the early jazz age, doing a period piece would allow for some educational tie-ins, and the acting style from that time allows for a certain playfulness.

As to the plot, I learned from my other musical that it needed to be simple, at least in its initial conception. Musicals are not novels and need to be direct. Once the writing begins, twists, developments, and motivational considerations can easily lead the clearest plot into a convoluted and complex quagmire. The point is to start simple and try not to be led too far astray. I also wanted something in keeping with the spirit of the plots of the era - again, fairly simple.

So, the story has a couple of love interests that must overcome problems before their ultimate success. The home for wayward girls has to overcome a couple of obstacles in order to survive. Throw in a politician who must be outsmarted and you get the picture. OK, originality takes a back seat to pragmatic considerations, but it seems to work.

It also got me thinking about how much I could layer on to this simple scaffold. A theme began to develop. Characters began to take on flesh. Possibilities began to suggest themselves.