On May 9, 11:22 pm, "wiseo...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
" <wiseo...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
> On May 9, 8:43 am, New****tsRe...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Steve New****t) wrote:
>
> > From: chris.conne...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > <<<"If Ever I Would Leave You" (CAMELOT) There's that little French
> > piece first.>>>
> > -------------------------------------
> > which is more like an introductory verse. And it's often cut.
> > -------------------------------------
> > Yes, although it was included in last night's broadcast, followed by
the
> > re-slotted (which didn't work) "Before I Gaze at You Again."
>
> "God That's Good" from Sweeney Todd fits the bill.
> Wilmer
There's been a rousing curtain-ender and then a pause while everyone
winds down, and Act II MUST begin with a blazing show-stopper to rev
everyone up for the rest of the show. So you need "Gentleman Jimmy" in
Fiorello or "You Did It" in MFL or "Take Back Your Mink" in Guys &
Dolls or at least something adorable like "The Late, Late Show" from
Do-Re-Mi and "Try Me" from "She Loves Me" and "He Had Refinement" in
"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (which I just saw yesterday staged by
something called Peccadillo Theater, with Emily Skinner as Aunt
Cissy). Or a surprise like "I Feel Pretty" (which is a shock,
remembering that you just watched a couple of murders.)
You have to remind the audience who these characters are and what
they're worried about, so we can worry about it too. The momentum has
been broken; it's not so easy to rebuild it. Something clever but not
too plot-im****tant (like Too Darn Hot, Oom-Pa-Pa, Steam Heat, Please
Hello, This Plum Is Too Ripe, Clambake -- all splendid examples,
mentioned above) is ideal here: how to revive the apparently dying
engine.
Then you get serious: "Ice Cream" and the title song from "She Loves
Me," "Adelaide's Lament," "Eldorado" from the original "Candide." (The
loveliest song in the show, dropped from the original revisal.) Or you
have a serious non-musical scene, like the Henry-Eliza confrontation
in MFL which any traditional musical writers would have set to music,
and AJL let stand in Shaw's matchless text.
Jean Coeur de Lapin
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