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.