Anais Mitchell blames the patriarchy for people wanting perfect rhymes in theatre songs. Seriously. — Page 3

reminds me of the notion that architectural symmetry is homosexual

Almira said: "I guess that means Betty Comden, Lynn Athens, Jeanine Tesori, Amanda Green, Dorothy Fields, Carolyn Leigh are all dupes to the patriarchy.

Mitchell is a lazy lyricist who pretty much insulted the hard work, dedication to craft, and achievements of these superior theatre writers."

I'm not sure that's fair, Almira. Those raised on pop music often find perfect rhyme schemes "artificial" sounding and prefer the relaxed quality of near rhymes. I'm not among them, but I listened to show tunes from the time my family bought our first Hi-Fi.

@Almira, do you also think prose is what folks to lazy to write poetry put on paper?

Silly and ridiculous.Why can't we stop imposing our personal tastes on others? It's an awful pathology, and it is rampant here.

A Director said: Anais Mitchell won the 2019 Tony Award for Best Score for HADESTOWN. The show won Best Musical."

HADESTOWN is, as they say, a nice piece of work. Nothing earthshaking in the grand scheme of things, and I say that as one who enjoyed watching it. But once it closes, it will probably disappear without a trace.

The fact that it won Best Musical? So did TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. Anyone planning a revival of that?

HogansHero said: "Well, I cannot predict the future but Two Gents was revived in '05, and is the first place that Renee Elise Goldsberry and Oscar Isaac made an impression.But in any event, the fact is most best musicals are not revived, including quite a few that some here seem to think are major. Moreover, I certainly imagine someone is planning on reviving it someday, just as Hadestown will be done after its time on the main stem. But spew what nonsense you want."

I will, thank you.

Moving on.

Someone in a Tree2 said: "Disagreeing vehemently with Sean Martin2.
I find HADESTOWN one of the truly great and sublime works of musical theater in the last decade, and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face watching it, despite Mitchell’s insistence on choosing false rhymes throughout where perfect rhymes would have made me smile even more."

And this is precisely why Baskin Robbins sells 31 different flavours. I'm glad you enjoyed it, really. I did as well, but I didnt find it all the memorable. Different strokes, as they say.

Updated On: 12/16/19 at 11:39 AM

joevitus said: "Hair (which, full disclosure, I quite like but has not ever really entered the canon)."

Could you define this canon of which you speak? Sounds like even more nonsense talking.

joevitus said: "HogansHero said: "joevitus said: "Hair(which, full disclosure, I quite like but has not ever really entered the canon)."

Could you define this canon of which you speak? Sounds like even more nonsense talking.

"

Well you're in a friendly mood today. I mean there are shows that are performed all over all the time--or at least for a good many decades. They get revived. They get performed by regional theaters. When the rights become available, they are done in schools over and over. A list would include:Oklahoma! Hello,Dolly!My Fair Lady,Guys and Dolls, among others. They form a kind of canon of Broadway shows that if you grow up in America, you are likely to encounter. Then there are other shows that are huge hits when they premiere but more or less disappear from memory except for a few ardent theatergoers (basically the case with Two Gentlemen, one could also point to Bubbling Brown Sugar). There are some shows in between these two extremes (The Wiz might fit in here--never a successful Broadway revival, and you don't see many professional productions mounted, but lots of churches do it, and the movie and NBC Live versions have kept the score sorta familiar outside cast album aficionado circles)."

Indeed. It all comes down to a question of familiarity with the material. OKLAHOMA has been a regular standby for high schools for decades, as has (unfortunately ) ANNIE. People know these titles, so theatre companies are willing to take the financial risk on mounting them.

Will HADESTOWN get that kind of nod? Seriously, I doubt it. Anything's possible, of course, but again I doubt it. And let me repeat, lest Hogan dump on this comment as well, I enjoyed it when I saw it. The cast does a great job. It has some great staging moments. But beyond that? Not much, folks.

joevitus said: "I mean there are shows that are performed all over all the time--or at least for a good many decades. They get revived. They get performed by regional theaters. When the rights become available, they are done in schools over and over. A list would include:Oklahoma! Hello,Dolly!My Fair Lady,Guys and Dolls, among others. They form a kind of canon of Broadway shows that if you grow up in America, you are likely to encounter. Then there are other shows that are huge hits when they premiere but more or less disappear from memory except for a few ardent theatergoers (basically the case with Two Gentlemen, one could also point to Bubbling Brown Sugar). There are some shows in between these two extremes (The Wiz might fit in here--never a successful Broadway revival, and you don't see many professional productions mounted, but lots of churches do it, and the movie and NBC Live versions have kept the score sorta familiar outside cast album aficionado circles)."

Well yes, but you said Hair, and that's what I was responding to. It fits right in the bullseye of your definition, which is why I asked.

HogansHero said: "joevitus said: "I mean there are shows that are performed all over all the time--or at least for a good many decades. They get revived. They get performed by regional theaters. When the rights become available, they are done in schools over and over. A list would include:Oklahoma! Hello,Dolly!My Fair Lady,Guys and Dolls, among others. They form a kind of canon of Broadway shows that if you grow up in America, you are likely to encounter. Then there are other shows that are huge hits when they premiere but more or less disappear from memory except for a few ardent theatergoers (basically the case with Two Gentlemen, one could also point to Bubbling Brown Sugar). There are some shows in between these two extremes (The Wiz might fit in here--never a successful Broadway revival, and you don't see many professional productions mounted, but lots of churches do it, and the movie and NBC Live versions have kept the score sorta familiar outside cast album aficionado circles)."

Well yes, but you said Hair, and that's what I was responding to. It fits right in the bullseye of your definition, which is why I asked.

"

No it doesn't. Hair isn't frequently revived. The first Broadway revival flopped, and you didn't see it played anywhere until the late 80's when a few productions came along. There was a successful Broadway revival, but that hasn't made it a staple of regional theaters, let alone high schools or community theaters (for some rather obvious reasons). It's less part of the canon than in that hazy middle ground between totally forgotten and regularly encountered.

LOL

And as I said, I like Hair.

I didn't feel like I was getting caught up in false/slant rhymes in Hadestown, either, though it is frustrating in "Wait For Me" when Hermes's first stanza has a perfect AABBCDDE scheme, and then his second stanza is AA[slant]BB[slant]CCDE, before going back to the first scheme in the third stanza. But yeah, the loose rhyming of Hadestown feels organic, as does the obstinately unrhymed Natasha and Pierre - interestingly, though both draw from folk influences, the way they play with rhymes has a different effect. Hadestown is kind of elastic and jazzy, while N&P is an unforgiving assault. Both are rewarding and feel "right" with their overall aesthetic.

On the other hand, while The Book of Mormon has bigger problems, its slant rhymes are so frustrating because its form is overall in the style of the perfectly-rhymed Broadway song, which means the slant rhymes feel like aberrations. A perfect rhyme sets you up for what's coming next, but also confirms what you've just heard, so when the perfect rhyme you're expecting goes awry, you have to revisit the previous line, even as the performer is charging ahead into the next idea.

I'd be curious to know how the female orgasm and male orgasm might differ in how they could be expressed via rhyme form. A perfect rhyme following a standard meter as being a simplistic male orgasm (up down up down cum), vs an imperfect or internal rhyme with a more wending meter. It might be a fun experiment for a song cycle.