On Writing a Musical Part 5

A few weeks ago I came across a blog entitled "Can Ordinary People Burst into Song." The blog discussed, among other things, the problem of moving from dialogue to song in a musical. In real life, people don't just burst into song, so when this occurs in a musical, it can disrupt the audience's belief in the reality of the play.

Though this can be problematic, when handled carefully it is not as big a problem as it seems. To begin with, when one goes to see a musical, one expects to hear the actors burst into song. The mere expectation of song makes the actual occurrence less jarring. Also, there are certain conventions and techniques for how a composer can work into a song: a soft instrumental background introduction, a recitative-like vocal introduction, an opening with sprechstimme (words spoken in rhythm and on pitch or approximate pitch).

Another technique involves the spoken setup before the music begins. There are textual clues an author can put in the script that let an audience anticipate that a song is about to begin. These clues can be enhanced with an actor's speaking style, blocking, and staging.  Again, the expectation of song eases the transition for the audience.

For me, a bigger problem than the transition into song is the question, why put a song here in the first place? What is it in the text that can justify a disruption of the plot so that a song can take place? As an actress might say, "What's my motivation?"

Songs can perform certain dramatic functions that make them more beneficial than just giving the audience a tune they can remember. Here are a few thoughts on how that can work with examples from West Side Story.

Songs can intensify an emotional moment such as in a love song. The emotions of a character compels him or her into song ("Maria," "There's a Place for Us"). Songs can act as a Greek chorus, giving voice to what an audience is feeling, what a group of characters is feeling, or commenting on the drama ("Cool"). Songs can help with pacing. A nice lively song can perk up an audience after an intense but slower paced scene ("America"). They can function like an aside to the audience, letting them know the inner thoughts or feelings of a character ("Something's Coming"). Songs can provide comic relief in a way that wouldn't be as effective as spoken text (the circus-like music in "Gee, Officer Krupke").

There are also cases where songs serve the drama in ways one would never expect. One wouldn't normally think that a song would be a good way to win an argument, yet in "A Boy Like That," Maria's convincing Anita to help her is more believable to the audience because it is sung.

I am certainly not an expert on musicals, and I am sure that others can add much more to what I've written. I would be interested in hearing other thoughts and opinions on the subject.

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 1

During the 2009 Winter Break it became increasingly clear that my school, Taft High School, had precious few dollars to spend on getting the rights to do this year's musical. It was also obvious that it would be hard to find a published musical that would allow us to cast all the many girls (and the few guys) who wanted to be in it.

The solution seemed obvious, write an original musical. No problem! I can do that. Two months to do it in, plenty of time. Ah, hubris has its price.

With a little gentle nudging from our wonderful drama teacher, Julianna Olinka, I began writing on January 2nd during the last week of winter vacation. Seven weeks later it was done - printed script, piano and vocal lead sheets, and guide audio tracks for the singers. I was lucky to have a Julianna's friend, Laura Manning, cowrite the lyrics. In addition to saving me time, she did a wonderful job.

I am now almost done with the orchestration. After that, there is the overture and some incidental music to write, but most of that will be derived from already composed material so it should not take much time. It can't take much time because we open April 29th!

The next several posts will be somewhat random thoughts on the process - what I learned, and what I should do or not do next time (if there is to be a next time).