On Writing a Musical Part 7

The performance of the musical, The Girls of Crabbottom, went well. The students enjoyed doing the show, audience response was positive, and in general, the show "worked." There were a few things that worked less well than others, however.

Timing is everything, and for me it is one of the more difficult things to gauge when I am in the act of writing. What I thought was important, insightful dialogue can occasionally just drag. What should have been a funny line can get lost. A song with what seemed to be clever lyrics can go on too long. 

To be fair to myself, it is hard to say how much the acoustics of Taft Hall played in the apparent slow pacing of one or two scenes. When the audience is probably only hearing 50% of the lines, it is only natural that a few spots can seem to drag. Still, there were only one or two places that I think can be tightened a little. Overall things moved fairly well.

The importance of context in presenting humor is another concept that was reinforced for me. There were a few lines that I did not think were very funny, but always got laughs, mostly because their placement served to release tension for the audience. Conversely, there were a couple of lines that I thought would get laughs and didn't, perhaps due to where they occurred.

Musically, the songs worked well. Crabbottom ain't Don Giovanni, but frankly, it shouldn't be. The songs were easy to follow, and a few even memorable. I didn't try to do too much with them and they didn't get overly complex. There's no retrograde inversion of the melody buried in the 2nd alto sax countermelody, but there are some very hummable tunes.

All in all, the plot held together well and kept the audience following the show. The characters were engaging and kept people interested in what happened to them. The songs were catchy when they needed to be, and expressive when that was the focus. The orchestration, if not totally authentic, was "close enough for jazz." If I write another musical, the lessons I learned from Crabbottom should be very helpful.