GavestonPS said: "thattreegurl said: "Song reprises(usually the opening number)as scene transitions. It's so so lazy"
Richard Rodgers didn't invent but developed that tradition, not out of laziness, but because he knew that the more times an audience hears a tune, the more likely they are to be humming it when they leave the theater. He was really the first composer to have not just hit songs, but hit scores.
Nowadays, of course, it's rare for a theater song to become a pop hit, no matter how many times it is reprised in the show. But repeating tunes during curtain calls still gives the listener's ear a break. Musical theater is still a popular genre, even if it has diverged from other forms of pop music.
Opera, on the other hand, has intervals that are more famous than some arias. (See the violin solo in THAIS.) But that's a classical form with a different group of listeners.
Bottom line: repeating tunes during scene changes isn't laziness; you can call it "pandering", if you like, but it gives the average theatergoer a respite from the demands of grasping more new music."
Thank you so much for the information, I'll be honest that I have less and less time to look into such things, and having it easily and respectfully laid out for me is always appreciated.
Clarifying, I was;t so much bemoaning reprises all together, or even using them for transitions if it makes sense narratively or thematically, I was more thinking of shows like Legally Blonde making me sit through Omigod You Guys over and over, lol. Thanks for the critique, again!
