To
jnb9872 and
qolbinau regarding your thoughts about the score feeling disconnected in various ways:
I agree with you both, and to finally have a recording (where the music is isolated from the show) solidifies my feeling that this isn't really a well-written score. The music is enjoyable, but it seems clearer to me now, that
Kinky Boots is less of a "traditional" musical, and more along the lines of a "jukebox" musical with a slightly different twist. The twist is that the Lauper songs aren't from her back catalog. There are a few pieces that actually serve the purpose of telling the story, but too many are just pop songs that superficially share a topic related to the book.
The best example of what I'm talking about is, "
Sex Is In The Heel". That song is essentially Madonna's "
Vogue", but instead of glamorizing "the dance floor", "
Sex..." glamorizes stiletto heels. ANY stiletto heels - not Lola's, not Charlie's, but any heel. Like Madonna's "
Vogue", the lyrics include "lists" and glittery, esoteric phrases (city names, "stilettos are an '-ism'", "the heel is the transmission", etc.). Like other songs in Lauper's score, it's not the music that conveys the story, but rather the dialog that's inserted between verses.
Comparable songs from other musicals are "
One Night in Bangkok" from
Chess and "
Buenos Aires" from
Evita. The difference is that in both those numbers, the lyrics offer the audience additional information that's specific to those shows' characters and setting. They have specific context. "
Sex..." is about any shoe, any heel, anywhere in the world. Without the dialog, the song is a generic dance tune.
One of my favorite numbers in the show is "
The History of Wrong Guys". It's a really fun character number, but even that song's lyrics (like a lot of pop songs) are very universal. They speak about a stereotypical scenario, using generically identifiable descriptions (i.e., "
Why are they only nice when they're unavailable?") that many women can identify with. They don't tell me about her specific relationship with Charlie as much as I get that her issues are as generic as the next woman's. I don't find that a
bad thing, just another example of "collection of pop songs" vs. "score".
Songs like "
The Most Beautiful Thing in the World", "
In This Corner", and "
Hold Me In Your Heart" make me look forward to what Lauper might create in the future. IMO, those are the best examples that demonstrate her potential for creating a real score, and not just a collection of songs.
Updated On: 5/21/13 at 10:49 AM
