Got into a discussion the other day about musical theater – talking about the current state of musicals … whether or not I like them and why. Suffice to say I am quite a fan of Stephen Sondheim’s shows and am not a big fan of much that’s been popular in recent years.
The other person mentioned that among the reasons why he likes the recently produced shows (such as ‘Spring Awakening’ and ‘Next to Normal’) is that they are “edgy” and have great songs.
I couldn’t disagree more.
Then the person commented that Sondheim’s music doesn’t have any “hummable” tunes.
And I disagreed even more vehemently. Two reasons …
First of all, there are PLENTY of hummable tunes in any Sondheim show. Take the project I’m currently working on – Into the Woods … “No More,” “No One Is Alone,” “Giants in the Sky,” “Agony” – all of these are hummable. And I could list song after song in just about every Sondheim show that is ‘hummable,’ so I disagree with this statement on its face.
My second response was a sort of, “So what?” Even if there were no hummable tunes (which is false), so what? Not every song in a Rogers & Hammerstein show is hummable. Take “Soliloquy” in Carousel, for instance. No one would dare say that is a hummable tune … but it is the right song for that moment in that show.
Even shows from the “golden age of Broadway” have rather non-melodic, or un-hummable songs. I don’t think folks would come out humming “Steam Heat” from The Pajama Game. I could go on – but you get the point.
YET - Since when was “hummability” (okay, I made that word up) a measure of excellence for a song in musical theater? And if being able to hum along with a song is its mark of excellence, then go ahead – hum “Super Boy and the Invisible Girl” … can’t really do it. Even if you could, that is one BORING AS HELL SONG!
It’s not whether or not you can hum a song. It’s whether or not that song accomplishes what it needs to accomplish in the moment of the show. Does it advance the story? Does it reveal the character more deeply? Does it allow the character to examine what’s happening? Does it shed light on how the character thinks?
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