Ahrens and Flaherty--Memorable Scores?

[BillyLawlor]

Posted: 2/20/05 at 3:08pm

Hey, everyone. I'm in a production of My Favorite Year right now, which I love, but one of the cast members pointed out to me that none of the music is really memorable.

I started applying this to other Ahrens and Flaherty shows. The only other one I know really well is Ragtime, which doesn't have any standout memorable numbers. And as far as I know, Seussical and Once on This Island don't have one or two songs that are remembered.

How do we feel about their scores?

I personally love all of their music. They're incredibly versatile songwriters, and their songs do what they're supposed to do; tell a story through song.

[BWayBoy88]

Posted: 2/20/05 at 3:13pm

I think the beauty of Ahrens and Flaherty is that they don't worry about making tons of money by selling their songs to be performed out of context. They work amazingly well in the context of the shows though.

[scotty]

Posted: 2/20/05 at 3:14pm

I disagree about Ragtime not having any memorable numbers. In my opinion the whole score is very memorable.

Im a big fan of My Faviroute Year. A huge amount of fun to listen to. And Lainie Kazan is brilliant!

My most well loved score would have to be A Man of No Importance. Utterly beautiful!

[MisterRussell]

Posted: 2/20/05 at 3:17pm

I think all of there stuff is excellent...I just like some more than others!

MY FAVORITE YEAR- incredibly evocative score, very funny..awful book.

LUCKY STIFF- flat-out the funniest score I've ever heard.

RAGTIME- Again, amazingly apt for the style and period... powerful stuff that was robbed at the Tonys by LION KING

A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE- Wonderful score, great story...just didn't turn my crank.

ONCE ON THIS ISLAND- See above.

Shoot, I'll even add ANASTASIA...it had some good tunes.

NOBODY can write an opening number like L&A!

[CapnHook]

Posted: 2/20/05 at 3:41pm

ALL songs in ANASTASIA were memorable!! EACH AND EVERY SINGLE ONE!

All the songs in SEUSSICAL are great, fun, and catchy, but its too complex to remember and sing the songs when leaving the theatre.

RAGTIME has catchy tunes. The music is great. Very powerful with the story.

[BillyLawlor]

Posted: 2/20/05 at 3:44pm

They always write incredible openings.

I don't think the book to My Favorite Year is all THAT terrible. Played by the right actors, it can be quite funny.

What I mean by memorable is you don't remember any songs after the show. Shows like Wicked have "Defying Gravity" and "Popular", which are really catchy and you hear a lot on the radio.
--A&F dont have songs that really work so well out of context. And I agree, that is the beauty of a lot of their work--they don't worry about that; they focus on how it fits into the context of the show.

[lvpblues]

Posted: 2/20/05 at 5:06pm

Ragtime is a highly memorable and powerful score. One of the best, if not the best, of the 1990s.

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 2/20/05 at 6:07pm

Ragtime is perfection.
All of their scores are quite memorable, in my opinion.
And they are the MASTERS of the opening number.

[apdarcey]

Posted: 2/20/05 at 6:36pm

i think ragtime is completely memorable.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 11:51am

I dunno, my high school did Once On This Island my freshman year and I absolutely loved that score! I guess none of the songs were exactly popular...but I loved Waiting For Life, Rain, Pray, Forever Yours(I guess what comes close to being the standout song of the show?), Mama Will Provide, the Human Heart and Some Girls. Then again I might be biased b/c it was my first show and my first pit and I looved that music. But yeah as an entity to itself I just think some of the songs are gorgeous.

[baddadnpa]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 11:53am

I take exception to the statement that Ragtime does not have any memorable numbers. This is one of the most original and memorable scores in a very long time. The music is truly wonderful.

Updated On: 2/21/05 at 11:53 AM

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 11:53am

RAGTIME is one of the top 5 best scores of the 1990s.

[JoizeyActor]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 12:05pm

I'm in my high school's production of LUCKY STIFF right now, and I just have to say that I love the score to this show. It's so funny and I think all the songs are very catchy and witty. I've never heard a funnier score. It's such a crazy show.

[baddadnpa]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 12:08pm

It is a credit to a Broadway songwriter that the songs do not work well out of context. That means they did their job - creating a song that fits a given situation. Sondheim is the king of this type of songwriting. Just writing songs for the sake of writing songs and then shoving them into a "book" is pathetic. This is what Wildhorn does.

[TimesSquareRegular]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 1:49pm

"It is a credit to a Broadway songwriter that the songs do not work well out of context."


Huh? So many 'standards' were originally written for Broadway shows where they indeed enhanced the plot and character development, but were well-written enough so that they could also stand alone outside of their original context.

I wasn't aware that writing a memorable melody or that finding some universal values in a set of lyrics was necessarily a bad thing.

[Feodor Sverdlov]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 1:51pm

If RAGTIME doesn't have any memorable numbers, what show does?! It's the greatest score ever composed for a show, in my opinion. Just about every single number in it is memorable. I don't get the question posed here, at all. (Scratching head)

[RockyRoad]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 1:59pm

My Fav Year is their best score hands down.

Ragtime..ehh.

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 2:00pm

I feel like it's kind of similar to that theory.... that in art, the more specific you are, the more universal the art will be. I feel like Ahrens and Flaherty are so specific with emotions and words that the songs CAN be taken out of context.
For example, Times Like This from Lucky Stiff.... so specific and character and plot driven, and yet, it CAN be taken out of context and the emotions are all still honest.
Does anyone understand what I'm saying?

[apdarcey]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 2:01pm

i totally got you itf. BUT to anyone who has said that ragtime is anything less than a masterpiece of theatre. you are just dead to me.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 2:04pm

I've found the bulk of their material to be quite memorable. Once on This Island, Lucky Stiff, Ragtime and My Favorite Year all had songs that stuck with me after the first listen. I even walked out of Seussical humming Oh the Thinks You Can Think and Amazing Mayzie and they were stuck in my head long before the CD was released. The only score of theirs that never really grabbed me was A Man of No Importance. Other than the title song, nothing really stuck with me.

[keatonbynumbers]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 2:04pm

I agree with whoever said (if someone said this?) that Ahrens & Flaherty are less concerned with having that one commercial "memorable" song. No, I don't think "Ragtime" has one song that stands alone as definitive and memorable - the entire score is beautiful and memorable as a whole, as are most of their scores, which is what I love best about them.

[chess12]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 2:11pm

"The Streets of Dublin" from THE MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE is one of the finest theater songs I've ever heard.

[sanda]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 2:12pm

I love all songs of Ragtime. If not all, then almost all.

Especially what a game!

[marincrazy11]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 3:00pm

I don't know how someone can say their scores aren't memorable. Along with Stephen Sondheim they have composed some of the most beautiful and memorable music in the musical theatre today. Ragtime, Once On This Island, Seussical, A Man of No Importance,Lucky Stiff, My Favorite Year, and I must say that I am a huge fan of the Anastasia movie score. They are masters of the opening number and giving each score it's own distinct sound-none of their stuff sounds the same. There are songs from both composers (A&F AND Sondheim) that can be taken out of context, but you have to be one darn good actor to make them as believeable as they are in the show. You may not be able to take as many of their numbers of context as you could from Kander & Ebb or Jerry Herman or some other composers, but to say their music isn't memorable is a joke.

[LightMyCandle125]

Posted: 2/22/05 at 7:43pm

" "The Streets of Dublin" from THE MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE is one of the finest theater songs I've ever heard."

i agree. there is something about this song that stirs something inside of me.

also, who can honestly say that they don't like the score for anastasia? i mean, it's not a classic, but it's hard not to smile when you hear "journey to the past."