Purpose of alternate lyrics

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Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 2/28/06 at 10:13pm

What is the real purpose of having alternate lyrics to a song?
It has intrigued me for a while.

I understand CHANGING the lyrics when for example, it transfers from a different country.

But why change lyrics in shows as Beauty and the Beast and Phantom just for tours, etc.?
Are there many shows with different lyrics to songs that are chosen randomly?

Listen, I don't take my clothes off for anyone, even if it is "artistic". - JANICE

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 2/28/06 at 10:16pm

I've always wondered that, too.

There's an alternate "Tower of Babel" that you can choose to perform if you're doing GODSPELL.

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 2/28/06 at 10:19pm

Well, if the show was written to be on Broadway - then it was written for "New York" audiences - as they say.

If it goes to Bumblebump, Nowhere - lyrics may need to change for clarity, language, etc.

The smallest stream is a valent river. It will drown me if it can.

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 2/28/06 at 10:26pm

Ohhh, that's interesting, never thought that lyrics were written with Broadway audiences in mind.

Listen, I don't take my clothes off for anyone, even if it is "artistic". - JANICE

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 2/28/06 at 10:34pm

I would also say that there are probably times when a director might want to take a show a different route than the established one, so sometimes alternate songs/lyrics could facilitate that. For example, I know that there are times when I look at Jekyll & Hyde and ponder the merits of Good 'n' Evil over Bring on the Men, tone-wise.

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 2/28/06 at 10:37pm

There's also some alternate lyrics for High School shows--like Once On This Island has all these alternate lyrics to take out references to anyone being "black" or "white".

"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 2/28/06 at 10:44pm

Some changes are to clarify, BSo mentioned. For example, in Rent, the line "You can take the girl out of Hicksville, but you can't take the Hicksville out of the girl" is changed to Jersey for the tour. Another Rent change: for the London production, the reference to Ted Koppel is changed to CNN.

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 2/28/06 at 11:12pm

What lyrics were changed in Beauty and The Beast?

"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 2/28/06 at 11:26pm

I know the "If I Can't Love Her" reprise has different lyrics on the London and Australian cast recordings, but that change seems to have been a revision that was also incorporated for the Broadway production. the original lyrics are only on the OBC now...

#10

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 2/28/06 at 11:36pm

Well I know in Beauty and The Beast's "Home"

This:

What I'd give to return to the life...
but I know that I can't solve my problems going back

To:

What I'd give...
and to think I complained of that dull provincial town

Listen, I don't take my clothes off for anyone, even if it is "artistic". - JANICE

#11

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 2/28/06 at 11:43pm

I think in the lyric booklet they print the "provincial town," yet on the CD Susan Egan sings it as "problems going back."

"We like to snark around here. Sometimes we actually talk about theater...but we try not to let that get in our way." - dramamama611

#12

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 2/28/06 at 11:48pm

When I've seen the tour they sing dull provincial town, but problems going back on Broadway.

Listen, I don't take my clothes off for anyone, even if it is "artistic". - JANICE

#13

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 3/1/06 at 5:47am

Yhe new "Tower of Babel" lyric in GODSPELL uses quotes from more modern "philosophers" - to make the show more relevant to the 21st Century.

In RENT, I imagine that "Hicksville" was changed to "Jersey" because many folks outside the New York area don't know there is an actual town called Hicksville - they might think it's just an expression - like "Bumblebump, Nowhere".

#14

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 3/1/06 at 7:37am

The lyrics you see, well hear rather, on the cast album are the result of the recording being made rather early in the run of the show. Small things have been tweaked both for Broadway and the tour, but Beauty and the Beast is rather universal. None of the changes have been because of New York versus national audience issues. Look at "Maison des Lunes" It is practically a whole new song lyrically when compared with what is on the cast album.

#15

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 3/1/06 at 10:05am

There also has to be alternate lyrics if they are going to be on a tv show, for censorship.

#16

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 3/1/06 at 10:05am

Another RENT change on tour is during Angel's funeral when Mark is speaking. On Broadway he says that Angel helped the tourists find the "Circle Line" and on tour he says Angel helped them find the "Statue of Liberty."

The Circle Line is an obvious New York reference that most outside of NYC probably wouldn't get. Although, I think they left it in for the movie. I can't remember.

Updated On: 3/1/06 at 10:05 AM

#17

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 3/1/06 at 10:48am

Also, don't forget, when they mount the tours, the entire creative team is "re-visiting" the show, and often times they find better ways of saying things (or doing things). This is on top of everything that has already been said above. Look how many different endings Miss Saigon had! The original when the show opened in London, then there was a different one when it opened in New York, and they changed it again when it went on tour.

#18

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 3/1/06 at 10:57am

Sondheim continously updates his shows, because he is always trying to make it a little bit better. that is why many of the lyrics in the revival of merrily, as well as the concert of anyone can whistle with Bernie are different, not so much that they change the meaning of the show, but they are tweaked to make them more precise to the characters or the action happening.

"I'm an American, Damnit!!! And if it's three things I don't believe in, it's quitting and math."

#19

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 3/1/06 at 11:23am

A lyricist never finishes a show, he abandons it.

#20

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 3/1/06 at 11:35am

Once when I saw Sweeney Todd, the actress that played Johanna was a black girl. So during Johanna sung by Anthony, instead of saying "burried sweetly in your yellow hair", he sang "burried sweetly in your raven hair."

Prettycool.

#21

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 3/1/06 at 11:43am

What the hell did they do with the scene where Sweeney is sending Anthony the asylum disguised as a wigmaker in order to rescue Johannah, and he lists all the various different shades of yellow hair?

#22

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 3/1/06 at 11:51am

"There's chestnut and there's charcoal ember there's midnight and there's brown."

#23

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 3/1/06 at 11:58am

Please, please, please tell me those alternate Sweeney lyrics are legit changes permitted in the contract. If they changed the lyrics without permission... bad. Very bad.

I saw a production years ago in which the Johanna, a dark-haired actress, wore a gawd-awful blonde wig that was terribly distracting. If those alternate lyrics had been permitted by Samuel French or MTI or whoever handles the rights, I wonder why they didn't use them...

"I hate musicals... People don't sing in real life."
"Well, maybe they should."
--Kiss of the Spider Woman (cut line)

#24

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 3/1/06 at 11:59am

As far as RENT goes, the original line in the NYTW production did refer to Jersey. However, that was deemed too offensive since many Jersey audiences would be attending the show. On tour, they can keep the original line, which is far funnier, since they are usually far from jersey. As far as the movie goes, I wish they had kept the Jersey line. I like it better. I'm pretty sure hicksville was meant as a generic reference. At least that's what I have read in the Rent Book.

#25

re: Purpose of alternate lyrics

Posted: 3/1/06 at 12:01pm

I wish there was a website that published alternate lyrics. Most theatres have crummy sound systems for the touring shows that visit them and it's impossible to understand what the actors are saying if you don't know the libretto already. I had this exact problem with Miss Saigon and Les Miz--understood the show fine when it was the original lyrics. Changes that have been made since the latest recordings? Completely lost.

Especially during "The Heat is On In Saigon." I had no clue what they were saying.

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