April 2004 - Thread on Overtures February 2004 - Thread on Overtures December 2003 - Thread on Musicals WITHOUT Overtures October 2003 - Thread on Overtures June 2003 - Thread on Overtures, the daddy thread of them all.
The challenge for those who have never posted on this topic, if you choose to accept it, is to name an overture that hasn't already been listed. For those who have posted before the challenge is to name other overture(s) from those you listed previously.
Well, I will salute an Overture that doesn't get mentioned a lot in the ranks of greatness. TAKE ME ALONG has a stunner of an Overture by Phil Lang. It is incredibly rich, dense and multilayered, like a wedding cake, and the build-up that leads to the title song's emergence near the end of the Overture is like a joyous explosion. Some of the shows that have been mentioned here as having great Overtures have great scores to go along with them, ie: Gypsy, Candide etc. TAKE ME ALONG is not a top-tier score (though I think it's pretty good), but Phil Lang makes it sound like pure gold.
Well, I do enjoy the Urinetown Overture, but it owes its very existence to The Threepenny Opera's Overture, to which it is almost a note-for-note homage.
Some people feel that the Funny Girl Overture provides pretty good competition for the Gypsy Overture. And Peter Filichia in a recent column on TheaterMania, argued that the Funny Girl Overture may just surpass the Gypsy Overture in some respects. Though both are great and models of the art, I think Filichia argued that the Gypsy Overture peaks with the "Rose's Turn" strip music and then takes a misstep by breaking in to the comparatively minor "Mr. Goldstone," while Funny Girl builds and builds til it ends properly (in his opinion) with "Don't Rain on My Parade". Just an interesting take on it...
I'll be redundant and of course agree with Gypsy! It is fabulous and definitely my favorite. Also although the rest of the music isn't very good I really enjoy The Full Monty overture and Nine as well.
I did a production of The Music Man once where, while we had an orchestra, in lieu of using them for the overture, one of the men from ensemble played the whole thing on a harmonica. It was brilliant. Absolutely wonderful.
Oh, and the Overture/Night Waltz from A Little Night Music.
Updated On: 7/24/04 at 04:00 PM
Why does everyone love Gypsy the Overture so much (including me)? I love the beginning, skip the middle slow parts, but listen to the end...and yes, it is because of that big trumpet wail...I love the sound there!
"We like to snark around here. Sometimes we actually talk about theater...but we try not to let that get in our way." - dramamama611
I like GYPSY, WILL ROGERS FOLLIES is cool, DAS BARBECU is cool as well.
"Why does everyone love Gypsy so much (including me)? I love the beginning, skip the middle slow parts, but listen to the end...and yes, it is because of that big trumpet wail...I love the sound there!"
Are you talking about the overture or the show overall? I can't imagine you skip the middle "SLOW" part of the show... "If Mamma Was Married", "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and, bias because I've done Tulsa, "All I Need is the Girl". No slow parts there madame...
And if she'll say, "My darling, I'm yours!" I'll throw away my striped tie and my best pressed tweed, all I really need is the girl...