Welcome to the Musicals Thread, the Avocado’s space for anything and everything related to musical theatre! Every month I’ll post a discussion prompt, but please feel free to comment on other topics, from new discoveries to old favorites. If you have ideas for future prompts or would like to write a feature for the thread, let me know!
So do la fa mi do re
So do la ti do re do
“But it doesn’t mean anything!”
“So we put in words!”
Putting aside the question of the expressive power (or lack thereof) of melody alone, musical theatre would certainly be a completely different beast without the use of words at its disposal. Let’s show them some appreciation!
What are (some of) your favorite lyrics from musical theatre and why? Is there a single line, a full song, or even an entire score that’s just that strong? Once again, I’ll get us started with just a few of my own choices:
“Move On” from Sunday in the Park with George I relate to a lot of what this show has to say about art and creativity. Most of all I treasure Dot’s advice to her struggling great-grandson to disregard the constant demands from the industry and some false ideal of originality as a measure of his/his work’s value, and in turn his reawakening to the beauty around him. “Anything you do/Let it come from you/Then it will be new/Give us more to see”
“Guns and Ships” from Hamilton If half the fun of a great lyric is what the character is saying, the other half is in how they’re saying it. I love when that gives the lyricist a chance to show off – alliteration, internal rhymes, double meanings, packing in as many two-dollar turns of phrase as possible, etc. In terms of words per second no show surpasses Hamilton and no song in Hamilton surpasses “Guns and Ships”. My pick for the highlight is “No one has more resilience/Or matches my practical tactical brilliance!”
“Bobby and Jackie and Jack” from Merrily We Roll Along This who’s-who of 60’s sophistication is diegetic, unrelated to the story (aside from mirroring the protagonists’ youthful optimism), and easily cuttable from the show altogether, but still an expertly assembled list song by the master. Plus the anticlimax of “We’ll have Bernstein play next on/The Bechstein piano/And Auden read poems…and stuff” makes me laugh.