New Podcast: Voice of the Musical

Terrific new podcast from Tim Sutton: for musical writers, by musical writers. Really gets down to the nitty gritty.

Especially the Charles Hart interview in which he mentions George Orwell's rules of writing. Undoubted wisdom. But when it comes to lyrics, I think I'd modify rule number one:

"1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print."

Sometimes a familiar figure of speech works a treat and what seems banal in print comes alive in song:

"I'm Putting All My Eggs In One Basket"
"They Can't Take That Away From Me"
"I've Got You Under My Skin"
"Don't Cry For Me, Argentina" (erm...) 

More so than any other form, lyric-writing revels in ordinary, everyday language. In that sense, as a lyricist, there's nowhere to hide. It may not take more skill to be a poet or a novelist. But it takes more guts to be songwriter.

M is for Michael

And B is for Billington. The Guardian critic purviews the musical scene:

“But there's something unhealthy about a genre that persistently fails to generate exciting new work”

Unhealthy or just darn difficult?

"There seems little room any more for a musical that is not some form of cultural juggernaut or that trades on wit, lightness and charm…. But those happy days when the musical was a source of innocent pleasure seem far off." 

Musicals, even the witty, light and charming ones, are not about creating “innocent pleasure” but creating drama. Pleasure, innocent or otherwise, is a mere byproduct.

“Nowadays musicals have become so industrial in scale and expensive to produce that any form of risk has to be minimised from the start. Like the banks, musicals have become too big to fail."

The fiscal simile is misdeployed. The banks didn’t become too big to fail by minimising risk on their investments. Quite the opposite. Compared to the casino accounting some of the bankers were up to, it would have been far better if they'd sunk all their money into “Going for Gold - the new Tony Hadley musical”.

Their insurance policy turned out to be the increasingly-peeved taxpayer. As fun as it would be I doubt this will be the case if we do see more high-risk musicals. I can't imagine George Osborne announcing a special “Betty Blue Eyes” bailout.

If you’re looking for an expensive, unprofitable, taxpayer-dependent cultural juggernaut to compare to the banks, the Royal Opera House would much more on the money.

Guardian Hearts Big Steve

In an editorial, no less, and on the occasion of his lifetime achievement award from the Critic’s Circle:

“Sondheim's radicalism and lyrical ingenuity have often been appreciated more in Britain than at home” 

 That would be why they named a theatre after him.

“His work has been staged by the Royal Opera, ENO and the National Theatre; he's been the subject of a Prom; he's twice been Radio 3's Composer of the Week” 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I think this is the significance of Sondheim (at least in this country): he’s taken musicals upmarket.

“If we have embraced Sondheim's work, it is because he experiments within a popular tradition…” 

Although his experiments wound up turning a popular tradition into a far less popular one. By the time of Assassins he couldn’t get produced on Broadway.

“…and accepts that the function of art is to challenge and stimulate, not soothe and reassure” 

Art isn’t easy. Especially for Americans. 

By the way, what's with the “composer-lyricist” designation? I always thought he was a songwriter.

It's like when those new-fangled choreographer fellas started appearing on the Broadway billboards. Irving Berlin, for one, wasn't impressed:

“Chicks that did kicks aren’t doing kicks any more
They’re doing choreography” 

So it seems:

“Johns who wrote songs aren’t writing songs any more
They’re composer-lyricists”

At least it'll keep the editorialists happy.