Best Book of a Musical

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 2:00am

I have a question regarding this award. I was looking at past shows that have one the award and seen that Les Miz and Rent both won this award. As I recall their wasn't very much of a book in either of those shows, most of the show was sung. So how did they win that award? I am not saying they didn' deserve it, but I am just wondering what makes them eligible to win that award.

[FoscasBohemianDream]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 2:19am

Ragtime is another one, by the way.
But to answer your question, the book of a musical also has a lot to do with the arch of the story, the way certain characters are developed throughout the musical, and the main plot. I'm sure someone else could give you a more detailed explanation but basically the book of a musical is not only the dialogue. Sometimes (as it was in the case of Ragtime) the book defines what the songwriters will turn into music.

[AngusN]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 4:12am

Although he made a hash of a few other musicals. I gotta go with Laurents' Gypsy.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 4:23am

What?

[COOOOLkid]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 4:45am

AngusN's basically saying what he thinks has the best book out of all the musicals.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 1:47pm

Bump

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 7:23pm

Anyone?

[dry2olives]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 7:47pm

Traditionally, the term "book of a musical" has meant the spoken dialogue. The definition started getting sketchy when Tim Rice won the best book Tony for the sung-through Evita (saying in his acceptance speech that Evita doesn't have a book) and the deceased TS Elliot won the award for Cats, despite the fact that he had nothing to do with the production. Neither were billed as having written a book. Today, the term is more or less accepted as including the story, characters, dialogue and dramatic structure of the piece. It's less tangible.

[ljay889]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 7:48pm

Though Laurents is a loser. The GYPSY book is pretty amazing, one of the best of all time.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 8:11pm

Okay, so now "Book of a Musical" does not only refer to spoken dialogue but more of the structure of the story, the plot, and characters?

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 8:15pm

Book refers to everything except the technicals. Book refers to characters, plot, dialogue, scenes, etc. Everything in the show is dictated by the book. Hence, it's very odd to win a Tony Award for Best Book & Music/Lyrics and not win Best Musical. A great dispute is Piazza/Spamalot. Piazza won best book & music but Spamalot won best Musical.

[TomMonster]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 8:25pm

Yes, neddyfrank2, "book" refers to the entire structure of the piece. Usually.

Peter Stone was one of the best "book" writers, with 1776 and Titanic. Both stories we all know the ending to, but Stone still makes it exciting. The music is dictated by the book.

However, GYPSY, IMO, is one of the best books ever written for a musical.

Sweeney comes close, but most people don't realize how brilliant that book really is. Believe it or not, the book and songs are about 50/50. It's just that so much of the book is underscored that we tend to think of the show as mostly sung.

Updated On: 8/22/06 at 08:25 PM

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 8:31pm

Yankeefan- Thank You. But actually Spelling Bee won best book that year.

TLITP should have won it though in my opinon. Actually I think that TLITP had more spoken dialogue then the average musical.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 8:31pm

My mistake....but you get the point.

[jasonf]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 8:42pm

I always just figured book was the overall structure of the piece. Something like Les Mis or Ragtime still needs someone making sure the songs flow and connect with each other. They also need to make sure the character arcs and storyline are "followable" by the audience.

The thing that confuses me is in something like Evita, didn't Hal Prince as director have as much to do with that as Tim Rice would have?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 8:54pm

There's also the fact that many bookwriters are not only responsible for the structure, characters, dialogue, etc..... their is often responsible for suggesting and are the source for the music and lyrics of a show.

Terrence McNally (Ragtime, Full Monty) has said that when he is brought on board to write a book, the first thing he does is to write the entire show as a play without music. He then turns the "book" over to the composer and lyricist who then use it to figure out which moments "sing" and need to be transformed into songs. Sometimes the lyricist will come up with his own lyric for a particular scene to be musicalized based on that version and sometimes the lyricist simply cannibalizes what McNally has written, taking key words and phrases of his and making them into song lyrics, more or less as is. He's said that whole speeches he's written have been more or less been turned into songs with only a few words here and there changed from what he wrote.

Apparently, lots of musicals are written in a similar fashion. So, in many cases, book writers are not only responsible for structure and dialogue, but for the actual songs themselves.

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 8:56pm

Gypsy. It's so well written. Mamma Mia is another good one.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 9:02pm

Mamma Mia as well written?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 9:23pm

Wait...

Mamma Fricking Mia?????

In a thread about BEST books of a musical????????

That is one of most amateurish and poorly written excuses for a book I've ever encountered in 35+ years of theatregoing.

It's based on a 4th rate Gina Lollabrigida movie from 60s ("Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell") for chrissakes!

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 9:42pm

I think, no I HOPE that wickedgeek was being sarcastic.