Best "Meta" Songs About Broadway/Acting

[AMPMusicals]

Posted: 1/27/19 at 2:53pm

Question for the Hive Mind...

What are the best "Meta" songs about Broadway/Hollywood (acting, auditions, etc)

I'm looking for group songs, trios, duets, solos... funny is best!

 Here's a starter list:

GROUP

A Musical            Something Rotten!

The Greatest Show            The Greatest Showman

Broadway Here I Come            Smash

It's Not Just For Gays Anymore            Tony Awards – Neil Patrick Harris et.al.

Untitled Opening Number            Title Of Show

I Hope I Get It            A Chorus Line

Show People            Curtains

You Gotta Get a Gimmick            Gypsy

Comedy Tonight             A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Brush Up Your Shakespeare            Kiss Me Kate

An Original Musical            title of show

 

VINTAGE

There’s No Business Like Show Business            Annie Get Your Gun

Give My Regards to Broadway            Yankee Doodle Dandy

Lullaby of Broadway            42nd Street

That's Entertainment            The Band Wagon

Broadway Baby            Follies

42nd Street            42nd Street

Another Op'nin', Another Show            Kiss Me, Kate

 

SOLOS

Rose's Turn            Gypsy

And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going            Dreamgirls

I'm Still Here            Follies

As If We Never Said Goodbye            Sunset Boulevard

Let Me Be Your Star            Smash

Dance: Ten; Looks: Three (Tits and Ass)            A Chorus Line

Cabaret            Cabaret

I Wanna Be a Producer            The Producers

I Want To Go To Hollywood            Grand Hotel

Mr Tanner            Laura Benanti

The Late Late Show            Do Re Mi

Copacabana            Boy From Oz

Quiet Please There's A Lady Onstage            Boy From Oz

When I Get My Name In Lights            Boy From Oz

Climbing Uphill            The Last Five Years

Why            Tick, Tick... Boom!

Applause            Applause

The Glamorous Life            A Little Night Music

It's a Business            Curtains

Welcome to the Theater            Applause

 

HUMOR

Divas Lament: Whatever Happened             Spamalot           

I Like Musicals            Laura Benanti

Alto's Lament            Marcy Heisler & Zina Goldrich

I'm Gonna Like This Play            Eli Bolin (done by Abraham Lincoln)

Musical Theatre Boys            Cinco Paul [DUET]

The Understudy            Bobby Cronin

 

Updated On: 1/27/19 at 02:53 PM

[raddersons]

Posted: 1/27/19 at 3:08pm

Playing Nancy from Groundhog Day. I hate it in the context of the show but it's cute as a cabaret song.

[BeNice]

Posted: 1/27/19 at 3:12pm

From Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me is A Big Black Lady Stops the Show by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 1/27/19 at 3:35pm

Climbing Uphill from The Last Five Years

[AMPMusicals]

Posted: 1/27/19 at 5:54pm

Thanks, knew I had forgotten about "Fame Becomes Me"... some great stuff there

[zainmax]

Posted: 1/27/19 at 6:36pm

Everything from A Chorus Line!

[Harriet Craig]

Posted: 1/28/19 at 11:54am

The Ingenue (music by Wally Harper, lyrics by David Zippel), sung by Barbara Cook on her "It's Better with a Band" recording.

[greensgreens]

Posted: 1/28/19 at 12:40pm

Although it's a bit of an "ensemble" number and other characters interject, I really think a smart revision/rearrangement of Martin Short's "I'm Dying" (the Richard III number) from The Goodbye Girl could be great fun. "A Beat Behind" can also capture something similar for someone who's more of a dancer.

Martin also had a lovely 11 o'clock number, "I Think I Can Play This Part," that is a quite charming use of acting/theatre language to convey a lovely not-necessarily-romantic message of solidarity that's fun to ham it up to (but you can still be sincere). I have used that a few times at auditions for some "self-aware" characters with a heart of gold.

Great question, I'm sure there will be a ton more interesting answers!

[AMPMusicals]

Posted: 1/30/19 at 4:12pm

Thanks to those who have responded so far.  I expected a lot of interesting responses as greensgreens suggested, but think this thread got lost in all the Rent hoopla!  ;P

[getupngo]

Posted: 1/30/19 at 4:40pm

TotallyEffed said: "Climbing Uphill from The Last Five Years"

LOVE this one so much. and so funny! "I hate these ****!ng shoes" lol

[theNYCpro]

Posted: 1/30/19 at 6:09pm

Do What I Do from In Transit

[Skip23]

Posted: 1/30/19 at 9:10pm

Magic To Do

[HugoP]

Posted: 1/30/19 at 11:27pm

The MOST meta of all meta songs has to be THE SONG THAT GOES LIKE THIS from SPAMALOT.

I would also include WITH ONE LOOK from SUNSET BLVD

There are entire shows that are built on a Meta foundation: SPAMALOT, BOOK OF MORMON and SOMETHING ROTTEN all constantly comment on themselves and the conventions of Broadway and actors.   I happen to love MORMON, get a kick out of SPAMALOT...and, well, there's SOMETHING ROTTEN.

 

Updated On: 1/30/19 at 11:27 PM

[JudyDenmark]

Posted: 1/31/19 at 3:08pm

There are several from Ruthless.... "I Hate Musicals," "Born to Entertain," "To Play This Part," "Where Tina Gets It From," etc. You could make an argument that pretty much every song in that show fits your category. 

ETA that "A Way Back to Then" from [title of show] is a great solo in this category. (Though of course all of [title of show] fits.)

Updated On: 1/31/19 at 03:08 PM

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 1/31/19 at 11:21pm

There's a Cabaret song called "A Contemporary Musical Theatre Song" that pokes fun at the music of Jason Robert Brown, Kitt & Yorkey, and Joe Iconis that's pretty fun.

[tjjster]

Posted: 2/1/19 at 8:14pm

First one that comes to mind is Broadway Boogie Woogie from A Class Act.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 2/2/19 at 2:28pm

Everybody Wants to do a Musical - Nick & Nora
Twenty Million People and Larger Than Life - My Favorite Year
Backstage Babble and She's No Longer a Gypsy - Applause
Intermission Talk - Me and Juliet
Babette - On the Twentieth Century
We Open in Venice - Kiss Me, Kate
I Know What's Gonna Happen, What She's Doing, Unstoppable and The Most Important Night - Tootsie
The Alto's Lament by Marcy Heisler (popular cabaret solo)

[AMPMusicals]

Posted: 2/3/19 at 1:04pm

Some more great songs - can't believe I forgot Ruthless!