Re-incarnating Musicals - Act II

This is a follow-up to intriguing Jackie’s post. I’m a fan of musicals, although I recognize they aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. A friend in college once said, “Doesn’t all that singing drive you nuts? I just want them to get on with the story.” In the best musicals, the songs are getting on with the story and I’m a sucker for all that intense character development, or the building plot scene with a chorus of thousands, combined with the emotional tug of music. There’s probably a correlation here with tearing up at country music songs when I’m alone in the car. (Or is that TMI?)

Thinking about that fixed pole of music that Jackie referred to led me to Wikipedia for:

Original songlist for On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
Overture, Hurry! It's Lovely Up Here!, Ring Out the Bells, Tosy and Cosh, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, On the S.S. Bernard Cohn, At the Hellrakers, Don't Tamper with My Sister, She Wasn't You, Melinda, When I'm Being Born Again, What Did I Have That I Don't Have, Wait Till We're Sixty-Five, Come Back to Me, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (Reprise)

2011 Reincarnation List
Overture, Hurry! It's Lovely Up Here!, She Isn't You, Open Your Eyes, Wait 'Til We're 65, You're All the World To Me, Who Is There Among Us Who Knows, On the S.S. Bernard Cohn, Love With All The Trimmings, Melinda, Entre Acte, Ev'ry Night at Seven, Too Late Now, When I'm Being Born Again, He Wasn't You, What Did I Have That I Don't Have, Come Back to Me, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever

Looks like some songs were used as is, others deleted, switched around in order, and a few were brought in from the musical film Royal Wedding. Interesting to contemplate how one song could provide intense character development for two different characters in different stories. It reinforces the duality of details in making characters simultaneously unique and universal.

I’d love to see the new show!

Revising and "re-incarnating"

I was stacking up some old New York Times recently, planning to send them to the recycle bin and one reached out and grabbed me. I noticed a story from November 27, "Switched at Rebirth."

It's an account of the re-imagining of the Sixties musical "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever." The director and playwright who are working on it call it more than a revival. And the article states that: "...the original script, characterizations, sets and choreography have been scrapped as reference points." So it seems like what is left is the music and lyrics...maybe... I'm not sure.

But what struck me was the notion of keeping a set of songs and inventing a whole new kind of story to go with them. And I wondered if that might be the beginning of a fun exercise for writers--take characters we're familiar with, our own or from history or folktales and give them a different setting, different motivation, but keep one part. Keep the magic goose that lays the golden eggs but make the giant a nice guy, beset by this kid who keeps dropping by.

I'm putting it on my list for some day when I have time just to mess around.