#1
Posted: 7/30/08 at 9:44pm
Thought this was an interesting, well argued, response to Stew's comments about Broadway.
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Besides, Stew admitted that he wasn’t 100% happy doing eight a week, and that he was "no Broadway baby." So he should take his awards, his great reviews, his memories of rabid applause, his Spike Lee film, and happily return to what he truly loves to do. But there’s no reason why he must put down the traditional Broadway musical, especially if he’s going be inaccurate about it.
In his blog, Stew said that his musical "gave certain people a kind of hope that maybe there could be more to Broadway than shiny buttons, an uplifting first act closer, and a happy ending." That’s simplistic and off-the-mark. True, many Broadway show songs have so-called buttons, but songs in rock concerts have them, too — and they should, for there’s n-o-t-h-i-n-g wrong with an audience getting the chance to applaud something they love. Plenty of people loved applauding plenty of Passing Strange songs that had buttons, and they were in their right to do so. Besides, off the top of my head, I can think of at least three genuine Broadway musical show-stoppers that could have brought down the house with applause buttons but didn’t go for them: "Broadway Baby," "Who Couldn’t Dance with You?" and "Is Anybody There?"
I then went looking through all the Tony-winning book musicals that have intermissions, and found only 14 that have "an uplifting first act closer." Otherwise, I see first-act closers offering conflicts as slight as a spanking all the way to police raids, sabotage, reputations lost, murder, threats of murder, destruction of property, a substantial loss of much-needed money, an attempted suicide, and an ocean liner hitting an iceberg, among others. Besides, most dramatists know they’re better of ending their first acts with chaos and conflict and not with something "uplifting."
As for the happy endings, true, the vast majority of Tony-winning musicals do have them, but Fiddler, Sweeney, Evita, Les Miz, Phantom, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Passion, Sunset Boulevard, Titanic, and Spring Awakening range from bittersweet to tragic. One size does not fit all, as Stew seems to think.
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Filichia Article
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Besides, Stew admitted that he wasn’t 100% happy doing eight a week, and that he was "no Broadway baby." So he should take his awards, his great reviews, his memories of rabid applause, his Spike Lee film, and happily return to what he truly loves to do. But there’s no reason why he must put down the traditional Broadway musical, especially if he’s going be inaccurate about it.
In his blog, Stew said that his musical "gave certain people a kind of hope that maybe there could be more to Broadway than shiny buttons, an uplifting first act closer, and a happy ending." That’s simplistic and off-the-mark. True, many Broadway show songs have so-called buttons, but songs in rock concerts have them, too — and they should, for there’s n-o-t-h-i-n-g wrong with an audience getting the chance to applaud something they love. Plenty of people loved applauding plenty of Passing Strange songs that had buttons, and they were in their right to do so. Besides, off the top of my head, I can think of at least three genuine Broadway musical show-stoppers that could have brought down the house with applause buttons but didn’t go for them: "Broadway Baby," "Who Couldn’t Dance with You?" and "Is Anybody There?"
I then went looking through all the Tony-winning book musicals that have intermissions, and found only 14 that have "an uplifting first act closer." Otherwise, I see first-act closers offering conflicts as slight as a spanking all the way to police raids, sabotage, reputations lost, murder, threats of murder, destruction of property, a substantial loss of much-needed money, an attempted suicide, and an ocean liner hitting an iceberg, among others. Besides, most dramatists know they’re better of ending their first acts with chaos and conflict and not with something "uplifting."
As for the happy endings, true, the vast majority of Tony-winning musicals do have them, but Fiddler, Sweeney, Evita, Les Miz, Phantom, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Passion, Sunset Boulevard, Titanic, and Spring Awakening range from bittersweet to tragic. One size does not fit all, as Stew seems to think.
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Filichia Article
"Broadway...I'll lick you yet!"
