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!
In my neck of the woods, wedding season is in full swing, which led me to consider how natural a fit such an event is for portrayal in a musical. They gather large groups of people from various areas of the couple’s lives: distant family, devoted friends, casual coworkers – endless possibilities for compelling character interactions! They give costume and set designers the opportunity to pull out all the stops in either dazzlingly elegant or hilariously kitschy directions (the ensemble cast of the The Wedding Singer production I saw looked like living Barbie dolls). And of course, they’re times of heightened emotion – a classic criterion for driving characters to song (and not always “good” emotion, either – see Jekyll & Hyde). Even if we don’t spend extended time at the wedding or reception itself, it can be a handy shorthand for a happily-ever-after, a moment of catharsis after following the couple’s trials and tribulations for the past three hours.
Real-life weddings often integrate music, and theatre lovers will sometimes choose to use material from their favorite shows to commemorate the milestone. Lin-Manuel Miranda famously included a number from Fiddler on the Roof in his own wedding day – not “Sunrise, Sunset” as many others have done, but instead the boisterous “To Life”.
What are your favorite/some notable weddings from musicals? Have you ever heard musical theatre songs played or performed at a wedding? Would you want that for your own?