Songs From New British Musicals #2 Juliet Kind of Love

by Charles Miller and Victoria Saxton (2020)

This is from a show called Marriage a la Mode. I happened to catch this at Chichester University earlier this year (which, I think, was its premiere). Inspired by a series of Hogarth paintings and set in the 18th Century, the story revolves around two families. One family is aristocratic but cash poor; the other is Essex nouveau riche. So they arrange for their kids to marry. Cecilia is the daughter of the Essex family and a hopeless romantic and Percy is the dimwit aristocrat's son (think Thick Prince George from Blackadder). Needless to say, things don't go well. 

"Juliet Kind of Love" is Cecilia's "I want" number from Act I. It sets up her desire to marry for love. Something that, apparently, stems from a youthful trip to Romeo and Juliet:

"When I was eight Dad took me to the theatre

He said we should be seen to be seen, seeing something cultural

He fell asleep half way through the first act..."

What I like about this song is that it's all character comedy. If this were a Cole Porter-esque number, then the jokes would be about how clever a rhyme you can find for Cleopatra ("flatter 'er", since you ask). Instead there are relatively few rhymes and all the jokes come from the character. Like Cecilia's childishness:

"I felt tingles in my tummy and my nose and in my feet..."

And her subsequent obsession with the play:

"So I went back to see the play each Friday

In fact I went every day it was on, even when it wasn't..."

Not to mention her naive, but uncompromising, notions of romance:

"They said big, impressive words I didn't always understand

And yes, they do all end up dead but that's the price you pay for love..."

In these verses, the music has a regular meter. Not quite patter but more of a tum-ti-tum storytelling feel. It starts in E major with some interesting modulations. In contrast, the chorus sticks more solidly to G major. Now an E major verse to a G major chorus is itself unusual. It means that when we reach the chorus, there's a distinct shift in gear. The meandering verse suddenly blossoms into something very different, more assured:

"A Juliet kind of love

A Juliet kind of love

A love that you fight for

You live for, you die for

That fills your whole world and more"

That's a beautifully romantic tune. And those repeated phrases - "fight for...live for...die for" - add a bit of urgency. It's sincere, as is Cecilia. Even more impassioned is the end of the bridge section, where she's dreamily outlining her intentions for her intended:

"And we'll live a simple life in a cottage by the sea

Just him, just him and meeee..."

That big, long note on "me" is held over as the main tune of the chorus returns underneath. Now it feels like the romance of the song is taking over and she's being swept away. Falling in love with love, you might say.

So who needs Romeo?

Anyway, funny and romantic are two things that musicals do well and this song follows firmly in that tradition. 

A very musical theatre kind of a song and all the better for it.

TATAR #11 There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly

 

by Rose Bonne and Alan Mills (1952)

This is pretty much the first song I remember hearing as a child. I'd always assumed that it was one of those nursery rhymes that have been passed down from the mists of history. Not so. It was written back in the '50s by actual songwriters. And I should have guessed. It has all the elements of a great comedy song.

Some people think that comedy songs are all about the rhymes. I'm not so convinced. At least, the rhymes aren't always the thing that gets the laughs. I read a book recently by a stand-up comedian who noted that, for all his efforts in writing his material, audiences laughed most at his silly voices. It may not be the height of wit and sophistication but silly voices are undeniably funny and this song has a lot of 'em. And I appreciate that.

Another important element is surprise. So this song sets up the pattern of the rhyme:

There was an old woman who swallowed a fly

I don't know why she swallowed a fly

We get the same for all the animals ("How absurd to swallow a bird", "What a hog to swallow a dog" and so on). All except for the disruptive little spider who mucks up the pattern every time we run through the list:

There was an old woman who swallowed a spider

That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her

Now that "wiggled and jiggled and tickled" is a fun rhyme. But it's the surprise that make it even more fun and memorable.

And here's another secret to a great comedy song. It feels like it's getting funnier. The animals keep getting bigger in size and the extended joke and visual imagery gets more and more ridiculous. The music does the same as it modulates up a couple of semitones and the singers' voices get higher and higher. Right up until the final payoff:

There was an old woman who swallowed a horse

She's dead, of course

Amen!

Best. Song. Ending. Ever.

And that "Amen" makes me laugh every time.

RIP little fly.

Songs From New British Musicals #1 Don't Lose UR Head

by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss (2018)

So the musical Six is one of the big British musical successes of recent years. It started life as a student production at the Edinburgh Fringe and, at some point, has morphed into a high-end production that has tapped into the Wicked fan girls demographic. Although it hasn't quite shed its student skin which, I guess, is how you end up mouthing the word "threesome" on a family show on the BBC.

But, prudery aside, this is a fantastic comedy song and funny on a number of levels. (Note: the video is an abbreviated version of the full song.)

First level, we've got the basic idea of retelling a familiar-ish bit of history in modern jargon. So instead of ye olde speech of "my lady doth this" and "my lady doth that", it's all texting talk ("xo baby", "lol") and foreign slang ("pret a manger").

Second level, we've got the banter. Anne of Cleeves is at odds with the other queens so we get a bit of back-and-forth ("you didn't?", "you sent him kisses?"), as well as Anne's withering assessment of British virility ("epic fail"). All these little interjections liven up the song and, again, make it funnier.

Finally - and this is the best level - we've got the character comedy. Anne is scheming, derisive, arrogant, playful, capricious, naive. How do you convey that in a song? Well, the writers manage it in the first two lines of the chorus:

Sorry no sorry 'bout what I said

I'm just tryin' to have some fun

Listen to that little staccato melody. It's a playground taunt. It's "I'm the queen of the castle". It's "nah-nah-nah-nah-nah" with knobs on. That's a great bit of tune to go with the most succinct of put-downs: "Sorry not sorry". 

And here's what's really great. The same bit of song can be played in different ways to express different aspects of character. So the first time around, she's pretending to be coy, all wide eyes and innocent face, and the music is light and dainty. The choreography is cutesy shoe shuffles and tidy leg flicks. 

The second time around, it's different. Now she's all aggression and derision. The cutesy shoe shuffles have been replaced with head bangs and fist pumps. It's the same tune and the same lyrics but the arrangement and performance has brought out a different aspect of the song and, in doing so, a different aspect of the character. In only a couple of repeated lines of song, we know all we need to know about Anne.

The show Six has been praised for its feminist revisionist history as well as its parodying of modern pop styles. Now my knowledge of modern pop styles is about as extensive as my knowledge of feminist revisionist history, so I may be missing something. For me, this is just really smart musical comedy writing and properly funny. 

Epic fail, it ain't.

Songs From New British Musicals

I feel that a new series is required.

I'd like to look at new some songs from new British musicals. 

First, let's lay some ground rules and get the definitions in order:

New? Oh, I dunno. Say, last 10-20 years. Not the old Lloyd Webber/Mackintosh shows. Been there, done that.

British? That is, written by Brits or possibly with a British story or setting or British perspective. It's not like there will be citizenship tests or anything but I probably won't be looking at Broadway shows.

Musicals? Shows with original songs. No jukebox.

My blog, my rules.

So basically I'll just write about songs that I want to write about.

Theatre Songs and Pop Songs and Electrical Appliances

In this Dischord podcast (Soapbox #2 Danger, High Voltage), musical theatre man Adam Lenson compares theatre songs and pop songs and asks, what's the diff?

His answer is that musical theatre songs tend to contain more 'information' and, for modern pop listeners, getting such 'high voltage' information in their songs tends to blow their electrical appliances. Musically speaking, that is. And maybe that's why some audiences get put off musical theatre songs.

To demonstrate the point, he runs through a selection of pop and theatre songs and considers the amount of information they are conveying in terms of tone, character and narrative. He gives a score for each category out of 100 and tots up the results. So every song gets a Lensonian 'voltage' rating out of a possible 300. 

Now I cannot tell you how much I love, love, love this idea. I mean, why wouldn't you? Isn't this how everyone thinks about songs? My only disappointment is that a spreadsheet was not made available.

So take a song like "Ya Got Trouble" from The Music Man. This is packed with information - details of character, story references and so on - and scores high on the voltage scale (voltage rating = 225). Whereas a song like "Falling Slowly" from Once is more generic and scores low (voltage = 75). Although they're both from musicals, the former is more of a traditional theatre song, the latter is more of a pop song. 

And this proves to be the general rule. Pop tends towards the 0-100 range, whilst musical theatre songs tend towards 200-300 territory. There are exceptions. A song like Ben Fold's "Fred Jones"  is pretty high (250) and a lot of pre-Golden Age theatre songs, like Cole Porter's "Easy to Love", are low (although, arguably they were more like the pop songs of the day rather than integrated theatre songs). But, generally speaking, pop songs are low information and theatre songs are high information.

So how can theatre reach out and appeal to pop audiences? So what can musicals do about this information gap between theatre and pop? Well you could (i) lower the voltage of theatre songs or (ii) use pop styles (country or hip-hop, say) that tend to be more high voltage or (iii) you could aim for a balance, something in the 100-200 mid range.

This makes a whole lot of sense. And it's a fascinating way to analyse songs.

Here are some thoughts to add.

INFORMATION AND MUSIC

I wonder if using 'information' as a metric puts too much emphasis on the words. It's easier to discern the 'information' conveyed by a lyric, whereas music is trickier. Musical 'information' is more emotional, more abstract, more open to interpretation. Perhaps the metric should be something more like or 'aural thought-feel data points' or 'sonic emoji-ness'? On second thoughts, let's stick with 'information'. But remember that the music is conveying information too.

BRIDGING THE GAP

On bridging the gap between theatre songs and pop songs, it's also worth considering the advice of the old-time musical theatre lyricist (can't remember which one, think it was Alan Jay Lerner) who suggested that, if you're going to reference specific details of the story, save those for the song's intro. Keep the main part of the song more general and multi-purpose, which then makes it easier to have a life outside of the show. Could also be a way to achieve that 100-200 mid-range sweet spot.

NEEDING TO HEAR THE WORDS

There could be a simpler explanation for the difference between theatre songs and pop songs going back to the days of early rock 'n' roll when the theatre/pop divide really began. Early rock music was basically something for young people to dance to. It's meant to get you moving, whereas theatre songs are meant to be listened to. So in rock music, and pop music more generally, there's usually a heavier beat. The problem for theatre is that, if the beat's too heavy, then you start to lose the lyric. And theatre lyrics need to be heard and understood in a way that pop lyrics don't. Maybe that's why, when theatre songs use pop styles, they sometimes feel like 'gentrified' versions of the real thing.

ACCENTS

I'll admit, this is a well-beaten drum of mine. I still think it's a big issue. For modern pop audiences, the norm is still to hear songs sung in American English. That's a problem for theatre writers. 

I once sat on a bus listening to a group of young girls behind me happily singing along to the latest pop songs on their i-phones. Then, as a joke, one of them said, "Wait a minute, what about this one?". And she started singing the old scouts' favourite "Kumbaya" ("Kumbaya, my Lord, Kumbaya..."). At least, she tried. She started, then stopped. She tried again. She was struggling because she was trying to sing in the same American English as her pop songs and she couldn't get the accent to fit the song.

Now, as it happens, "Kumbaya", despite being African-American in origin, sings very easily in an English accent. But the girl on the bus was so used to hearing songs in American English that she was struggling to sing in any other accent, even her own. She couldn't naturally move from her speaking voice to a singing voice without changing accents. 

To me, it's an amazing thing. We're so used to hearing songs in an American accent that it actually feels unusual and awkward when we try to sing in our own non-American accents. That's not such a problem for pop writers but it is for theatre writers who need to move from speech to song.

Anyways, enough drumming.

Listen to the podcast. Brilliant, brilliant thoughts on a really important topic for musicals.

And we definitely need that spreadsheet.