Mr. Lloyd Webber... should that dialogue REALLY be sung?

[iWannaBEaSedaris]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 12:50am

What is your favorite ALW musical phrase that leaves you wondering, "Did a character actually really truly just sing that instead of merely saying it?"

Mine is : "Screw middle classes, I will never accept them, my father's other family was middle class, and we were kept out of sight, hidden from view"
From Evita - Montage

Updated On: 9/5/09 at 12:50 AM

[jasonf]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 1:07am

Half of Sunset Boulevard and half of Aspects of Love. I'm convinced that both of these could have been great shows had Webber not been so enamored of his own recitative, allowed the characters to TALK, and not just repeated the same damn phrases over and over and over throughout the whole shows. Both have GREAT stand alone songs, but listening to the full cast albums is like torture!

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 1:17am

"That's a lie! They still want meeeeeeeee! Whataboutmyfanmail?"

And thousands of other instances in Sunset Boulevard. So much crap that didn't need to be sung. I agree, jasonf, it had potential to be a great show.

[blaxx]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 1:30am

When the Woman in White started I almost wanted to kill myself listening to the leading man singing forced musical phrases that were obviously dialogue.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 1:30am

I'm not quite understanding why "Screw the middle classes..." shouldn't be sung during the montage when it was sung the first time we heard it. I think it would be odd if it wasn't sung during a flashback. Unless you meant that it should be spoken both times.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 1:36am

I love Evita, Sunset, and Jesus Christ Superstar. Beautiful.

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 1:38am

when Sunset Boulevard toured, didn't they actually cut out a majority of the sung dialogue and just made them spoken lines?

[tourboi]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 2:38am

I like the recitative in SUNSET, and indeed the whole score is one of my favorites.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 2:50am

I love shows like Sunset, Evita or Rent, no words are spoken at all. It makes it more magical...

[Taryn]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 2:51am

I saw the recent London revival of Sunset last January. It was my first time seeing the show, and I spent so much time just thinking, "STOP SINGING EVERYTHING." It has a few noteworthy numbers and then a lot of toneless recitative.

[[tos]fan999]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 2:59am

"We have ways of making you vote for us, or at least of making you abstain."-A New Argentina, EVITA

I know it couldn't be dialogue, because it's just one line in the middle of the song. But I seriously frickin' hate this line. It's so awkward and stops the song dead in it's tracks.

[Weez]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 4:42am

Sir Lloyd Webber. :P

I rented the movie of Sunset a while back and was greatly amused to see that all the really brilliant lines in the show had been lifted directly from the movie. Perhaps that's why it works for me. :)

[tos]fan, I know! It doesn't really work as a lyric, it just bumps along awkwardly.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 4:45am

"Did you hear that? They called me a whore...they actually called me a whore!"

Updated On: 9/5/09 at 04:45 AM

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 4:49am

Betty:
"Come on, get off your high horse, writers with pride don't live in LA"

"Every movie's a circus, can't we discuss this, Schwab's Thursday night?"

Betty:
"Schaeffer, Betty Schaeffer, right now I'd like to crawl into a whole and pull it in after me"

Joe: "Could I be of any help?"

Judy Kuhn is exquisite in SUNSET BLVD.

[Princeton2]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 4:57am

I have no issue with Sunset Blvd, I think its pretty perfect. But when I saw Aspects for the first time there were actually moments I could have laughed, the singing was too melodramatic and OTT, much of it needed to be spoken.

[madbrian]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 6:53am

Question: putting the 'sir' aside', is 'Mr. Lloyd Webber' correct? Since his last name isn't hyphenated, isn't it just 'Mr. Webber'?

[Weez]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 7:10am

No, I think it's fine. It may not be hyphenated, but both names are parts of his surname. Calling him Mr Webber would be a little bit like calling me Miss Ards, if we ignore the fact that my surname is one word and not two. You'd shelve him under W for Webber, but you'd keep the Lloyd in conversation.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 9:42am

I thought he was a Lord?

scarywarhol, reading your interpretation of the fan mail line made me giggle.

[James885]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 10:21am

I agree, most of the recitative in Sunset Boulevard shouldn't have been sung. Since he and his collaborators lifted most of it from the movie, he should have just left it as spoken dialogue.

Joe's "I guess it was 5 a.m...." monologue should not have been set to music.

Updated On: 9/5/09 at 10:21 AM

[Scripps2]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 11:05am

I don't have a problem with any of the quoted Evita lines being sung, but I do remember one of the London critics pointing out that some of the sung dialogue in Aspects of Love was the equivalent of Rodgers & Hammerstein setting "Would you like a biscuit?" to the tune of "Some Enchanted Evening".

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 11:42am

Some of the most famous operas contain dialog that does not make exactly stirring songs when you think about it

Than again, some traditional Broadway songs contain cringeworthy lyrics.

[jasonf]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 11:52am

Roxy, there are ways to do recitative correctly (look at Porgy and Bess or Sweeney Todd) and there are ways of repeating the same phrases over and over...

[Hest882]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 1:39pm

Just to clarify usage:

When we was knighted he was Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber--Sir Andrew. One never uses "Sir" with a surname, thus he would never have been "Sir Lloyd Webber."

Then he was made a Baron, so he can now probably be called Lord Lloyd-Webber (his title is hyphenated), and similarly tacking on the first name is improper usage so it would never be "Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber."

[RJBrown]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 3:29pm

How about a majority of things that Sarah Brightman sings on the OCR of Phantom that aren't full fledged songs? Example: in Notes II, when Christine blows up and "says": "Raoul, I'm frightened don't make me do this....etc", She sings every single goddamn line!!! Prime example for singers, that singing every single goddamn phrase whether in a scene with music or an actual song, is immensely repetitive, boring, and just doesn't make for truthful acting. Just makes it seem like all you are caring about is singing pretty (something that Sarah Brightman does not do by ANY means). Its not exactly Andrew's fault that this occured, but more-so Sarah Brightmans horrible judgement that every line she has the oppertunity to sing, MUST be sung. Think again Brightman.


Updated On: 9/5/09 at 03:29 PM

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 9/5/09 at 4:13pm

It isn't Sarah Brightman's fault. ALW doesn't like writing dialogue in musicals because he thinks that song breaks are awkward.

Boubil and Schonberg are the same way, but I think they pull off recit better.