Getting ready to teach a musical theater course this fall, and the theme is people and ideas that have made a difference or changed the world. Ideas such as: Famous composers - Beethoven ("Beethoven Day" from You're A Good Man Charlie Brown), or Engineers - Henry Ford ("Henry Ford" from Ragtime). So I need to find songs about change, people wanting change, making a difference, fighting for something they believe in, etc.
Any ideas? All suggestions would be most helpful! Thanks.
Where are you guys coming from with these questions???????? Please!
A young actress with Noel coward after a dreadful opening night performance said to him 'Well, i knew my lines backwards this morning!''
Noels fast reply was ''Yes dear, and thats exactly how you said them tonight'!'
"I Am Changing" from Dreamgirls. "There's Gotta be Something Better Than This" from Sweet Charity. "Corner in the Sky" from Pippin. Will think of more later.
If you can find it: "Making Good" originally in Wicked before being replaced by "The Wizard and I"- which itself is a good "change" or "making a difference song."
"I Know Where I've Been" from Hairspray "I Don't Want To" from All Shook Up
"Anybody that goes to the theater, I think we’re all misfits, so we ended up on stage or in the audience.” --- Patti LuPone.
Would "A Change in Me" from BATB work? It's not exactly making a difference, but its about change... "Purpose" from Avenue Q? Something from Les Mis? Or Miss Saigon. I haven't listened to it much, but there should be something from there, right?
Also, "Once We Were Kings" from Billy Elliot?
Updated On: 8/14/07 at 11:16 PM
You should definitely look into CAROLINE OR CHANGE. A few songs I suggest are "I Hate the Bus," and the "Lot's Wife" sequence which includes "Sunday Morning" and "Lot's Wife."
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
Hold on from The Secret Garden always makes me think about making a difference.
"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."
Make Them Hear You (from Ragtime) - says to go out and make a difference Also: For Good (Wicked)
Being Alive (Company) Day After That (Kiss of the Spider Woman) Seasons of Love (Rent) Move On (Sunday in the Park with George) Do You Hear the People Sing (Les Miserables) Into the Fire (Scarlet Pimpernel) No More (Into The Woods) Electricity (Billy Elliot - the Musical)
A New Life from Jekyll and Hyde is a good one about personal growth and change. Just avoid the fact that she gets brutally murdered afterwords. 0.o
I want to apologize for some offensive messages posted on this board under my name. The night 0f 12-15-08 I did not have internet access, and someone had used my name to post something offensive. My avatar was also changed. I dont' know what else was posted, or if anyone recieved bad PMs, but I want to apologize for that. I've changed my password, and even though I was not the one posting these messages it still needed to be corrected.