Ever After Musical, scene/song breakdown?

[Elphie3]

Posted: 3/27/09 at 10:13am

Has anyone seen the scene/song breakdown to this show? If so, could you post it?

Besides the fact that it's not happening, anyone know anything about it?

[degrassifan]

Posted: 3/27/09 at 11:20am

I've been asking this question for four years! Haha. Anyway, from good and very reliable sources and things I have found on the internet, here is what I've found out:

*1. The opening song- from what I've heard, this is a very good song, and it's like "Belle" from "Beauty and the Beast." Everyone in the household asking where their little Danielle is, and how wonderful she is, and how she is the apple of her father's eye, and how she had better get back soon because her father is coming home soon with her new mother and her two new sisters. She enters, and then her father comes home and introduces her to her new family. It's a little awkward and quiet between Danielle and her new stepfamily.

2. Ever After, Love Goes On- That night, Danielle's father puts her to bed, and sings her a beautiful lullaby. He of course is leaving the next day to attend to some business, and he sings her a song of how, even though she can't always see him, he will always be with her, that his love is always with her. An emotional setup seeing that he'll be dead in the next scene.

3. There is a bit of a musical interlude for the next day, and they do the whole, "Wait! He always waves at the gate!" But of course, he then falls off his horse, Danielle runs to him along with everyone else, and he once again sings that line "ever after, love goes on" as he dies.

4. Time passes, and the next thing we hear is like a reprise of the beginning song, the house is busy and wondering where Danielle is, except now it's the stepmother and the two stepsisters wondering where that rotten girl is and when she will get in and do her chores.

5. "Who Needs Love"- Danielle sings a very charming and funny tune about not needing love because she has too many chores...and because it's just something else to lose (like her father). Basically her "I Want/I Need" song.

6. "Right Before Your Eyes"- About Prince Henry's struggle to be the king everyone expects him to be. I guess his "I Wish" song...?

7. "After All"- It is the wicked Stepmother's (Baroness Rodmilla de Ghent) song. One of the sources told me: "REALLY REMARKABLE. It was about what a mother will do for her child, and it was rich and moving. I was really surprised that the songwriters had chosen to give this villainess such a beautiful song, but the lyrics and passion of the song showed where she was coming from and why she was doing what she doing to advance her daughter's future and consequently why she was seeking to ruin Danielle's future. Absolutely brilliant."

8. A song where Danielle evades giving Henry her name by singing that she's visiting "her cousin."

9. There's a song about all the amazing things that Leonardo Da Vinci has invented.

10. When Henry takes Danielle to the library in the monastery, she sings a song about how and why it means so much to her (i.e. because it reminds her of being with her father.)

11. There are classic romantic songs between Prince Henry and Danielle

12. Apparently, Piere le Pieu has his own song, and he seems to be a suitor to Danielle, but not in a good way.

13. Help You- This song occurs in the scene where the gypsies come upon Leonardo DaVinci in the woods.

14. All Hail the Gypsy Queen- It is sung by the gypsies. In the song, they think Danielle is their queen, sent from Heaven when she caries the Prince off on her shoulders.

*The Opening Song may have changed now. Apparently, there have been many changes to the show since the first draft. The first draft was closer to the movie than the current draft (as of 2008 ). In the first reading, Young Danielle (Danielle as a child) was part of the story, and the beginning played similarly to the film. In the latest version, the moments with Auguste (Danielle's father) come as a flashback later in the story.

Many of things I have listed may have changed by now. This is all information I have gathered for the past four years.

All in all, we should not expect to see the movie on stage. Emotional highlights have been expanded musically. Everyone I have asked about this musical say the score is great, and the show is funny and charming.


Updated On: 3/27/09 at 11:20 AM

[Elphie3]

Posted: 3/27/09 at 11:22am

Thanks!

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 3/27/09 at 4:57pm

9. There's a song about all the amazing things that Leonardo Da Vinci has invented.

That's the song at the ball. I think it's the Act 2 opener, but I'm not sure. Definitely the song at the ball, though.

[degrassifan]

Posted: 3/27/09 at 6:51pm

Really? Hmm...that's interesting. If that's the Act Two opener, and it occurs at the Ball, then Act One must be kinda long, while Act Two must be kinda short, considereing that plenty of things happen before the Ball scenes (in the movie, of course), and the falling action/resolution happens after the Ball.

If I was adapting this movie for the stage, maybe I would end Act One with Marguerite burning Danielle's book, "Utopia" (which was her father's last gift), in the fireplace, and Act Two would begin with the aftermath of the burning of the book, and the Ball occuring somewhere in the middle of the second Act. That's just my opinion though.