"Ring of Keys" Question- Page 5

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 2:36pm

 dramamama's point about a purse is probably the single best explanation you'll get.  If that's not enough for you, nothing will ever be enough for you.

Apropos of nothing (and, really, it's probably inapropos) I was taking a steam at the gym at lunch and a hot, husky Latino guy came in holding...a ring of keys.  I started giggling, felt really lez and then left cause you all ruined the moment for me.  

[Kad]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 3:09pm

Brings a new meaning to "bearing."

[mariel9]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 3:09pm

I wasn't there when the song was composed, but it's possible that they had a melody and that, of all the unique things about the woman Alison sees, ring of keys fit the melody line best.

This would be my guess too. Dungarees would also fit, if they were only worried about syllables, but it's a less evocative image to sing about "her dungarees, oh her dungareeeees." Keys have other symbolic meanings (as others have described) that make the ring of keys a better choice than other three-syllable butch signifiers.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 3:16pm

I clicked the imaginary 'like' button, Kad.  

[Larcen26]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 3:17pm

 

For me...(and apparently nobody else)...the "Ring of Keys" lyric and it's importance in the song structure took me completely out of the moment.

Perhaps a slight internal monologue of what happened at that moment will illustrate the point I have been trying to make:

"Oh, lovely voice...Interesting, all of those butch characteristics are calling to her...very nice...Keys?...Are keys a lesbian thing?..Why are keys a lesbian thing?...Is it not a lesbian thing and just a masculine thing?...Is there more to it?...Are the keys part of her job, showing that she has a masculine job?...Or are the keys a callback to something earlier in the show?  If that's the case they should have mentioned it..."

It just seems to me that the keys becoming the center of the focus, and not any of the other more characteristically butch traits, leaves the song open to questions that can distract from the message.

 

I will end with this...because everyone still seems to think that I somehow don't understand that the song is about Young Alison seeing a woman who awakens something in her/fascinates her...and that the Keys, clothes, swagger and boots are all part of it.  I have just outlined what the song is about.  

Yes...I KNOW the song is not literally about a ring of keys...I am not questioning why there is a song about a ring of keys when a perfectly nice song about awakening sexuality would fit so much better.

It's just frustrating because everyone seems to be responding to the wrong part of the thought.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 3:18pm

Ha! What color hanky were you holding?

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 3:22pm

I believe it's possible to overthink this particular image.  Had they wished to write a song about codified sexuality, I doubt it wouldn't have been given to the youngest Alison. Or presented in this context, with this sweetness of spirit.  That's the overriding emotional vibe, this confluence of melody and a child's sense of wonder.  It's that wonder and discovery that are so moving. This is pre-/cusp- of adolescence, a recognition of a fully formed identity in an adult. The woman is unlike any she's ever encountered: autonomous, sure of herself, with a specific appearance that bespeaks an innate confidence. Her accessories are not traditionally feminine, and not her mother's, or, say, her grade school teachers'.  They belong to another kind of woman. One heretofore unseen that she now knows lies inside of herself.

And in terms of the storytelling, the Tony broadcast did something powerful: they cut to Bruce's face as Alison stood besotted before the unseen woman.  A stunning moment, as Bruce's masked/obfuscated identity confronted his young daughter's burgeoning one, if only for a glimmer of subconscious recognition.    

[kdogg36]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 3:23pm

I also think that, if the title were "Dungarees," it really would run the risk of misleading people into thinking that the song was somehow "sexual." It would empower the AfterEights of the world, in other words.

I know these answers have already been given, but I think the title works because (1) the ring of keys connotes power and authority, when Alison thought it was wrong for a woman to be strong, and (2) it's a more unique (yes, I said it) and less stereotypical image than the dungarees or the boots.

Minor detail that might have been mentioned elsewhere: (adult) Alison tosses a ring of keys on her table near the beginning of the show.

Updated On: 6/10/15 at 03:23 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 3:26pm

For a 5 year old Young Allison -

 

[kdogg36]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 3:31pm

Larcen26, I think you may be right that most of us don't find the title odd or distracting, and so we're going to have trouble answering you on your exact terms. I don't like tap dancing at all, but I don't expect that tap fans are going to be able to reach into my brain, figure out why I don't like it, and fix it for me. :) I think this is a similar thing on a smaller scale - it works for some of us, but not for you, and there's not much more to be said about it.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 3:43pm

Here's an article from five years ago talking about lesbian cliches. Under "accessories" you'll see "keys at your belt." So this isn't the first time a ring of keys (on a belt, not--as dramamama points out--in a purse) has been mentioned as a signifier of sexuality. And I agree with whoever said that it's probably the least familiar thing to Young Allison. I know when I was growing up, I saw any number of women with some combination of short hair, boots, flannel shirts, etc. But I can't recall seeing one with a big ring of keys on her belt. I think it would have gotten my attention.

 

http://jezebel.com/5205953/pssst-the-girls-guide-to-lesbian-cliches--stereotypes

Updated On: 6/10/15 at 03:43 PM

[Ranger Tom]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 3:52pm

"I believe it's possible to overthink this particular image."

Thank you!  Gees people.  I thought the initial question was interesting but we now should ALL go take a steam - lost in the moment.

 

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 3:54pm

Meet me at Crunch!  It's relieves so much tension!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 4:12pm

"I am not questioning why there is a song about a ring of keys when a perfectly nice song about awakening sexuality would fit so much better. It's just frustrating because everyone seems to be responding to the wrong part of the thought."

Maybe because you're the one who's wrong.

[Kad]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 4:19pm

" And in terms of the storytelling, the Tony broadcast did something powerful: they cut to Bruce's face as Alison stood besotted before the unseen woman.  A stunning moment, as Bruce's masked/obfuscated identity confronted his young daughter's burgeoning one, if only for a glimmer of subconscious recognition.    "

 I thought that was a great moment, too, and one that's more explicit in the graphic novel, in which Bruce actually asks, "Do you want to look like that?" (or something along those lines)

Updated On: 6/10/15 at 04:19 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 4:25pm

Michael Cerveris's face, at that moment, proved to me that he deserved the Tony.

(And I was rooting for Tony Yazbeck!)

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 4:42pm

What I DON'T understand, and wanted to discuss, is WHY they chose the keys to revolve the entire song around.  Why not the Dungarees? Or the Boots? Or the Swagger? Or any of the other more readily and clearly "butch" characteristics.  And why, when they chose to focus the song on the keys, did they choose to never examine why that particular item became so important when it is arguably the LEAST butch/masculine thing on the list.

And you can't use the answer that "They aren't important, they are just part of the whole thing." because the song is called "Ring of Keys", the most musical emphasis is put on those three words.  It doesn't change from verse to verse...the song is about the keys.

 

I think the problem is, you're overthinking rather than simply watching and listening.  Young Alison is detailing her thoughts in that moment.  She's adding up the things that makes this woman unique to her and it's Alison that lands upon the significance of the keys.  She explains that she doesn't completely understand what it all means, but in that moment, those things felt significant to HER.  It was all these things...and the keys.  Not just the keys, but the RING OF KEYS.  She didn't have a complete valid explanation at the time, which is why we don't get more clarification from her (nor does it matter).  But that one thing catches her attention and a light bulb turns on for her.  

I don't know why anyone would demand or require an explanation for something that triggers a revelation to someone else's personal experience.  That ring of keys was Young Alison's light switch that revealed an important part of herself.  That's what makes it important for her and what is important for her in that moment is what the song is about.

 

I had such a special moment seeing that Tony performance because it reminded me of my own light bulb moment.  When I was 12, my parents took me to see the movie Deathtrap.  I was aware that I was attracted to the males rather than females, but I figured I just hadn't yet experienced whatever life event it was that makes me full-on heterosexual and that it would just eventually happen for me one day.  I was at the age where the taunts and bullying start to become more dangerous, so I thought, for my own sanity and survival, I'd just do my best and hope that my hetero feelings are just blooming late and I'd outgrow all my fantasies (and experiences).  

***SPOILER ALERT IF YOU LIVE UNDER A ROCK AND DON'T KNOW THE FILM***

So, when the big reveal happens, and Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve kiss, I stopped breathing.  Literally.  That was the very first time I saw a realistic depiction of love and sexual affection between two men.  It was monumental to me and it completely changed my world.  Before that, it was only the most humiliating and demeaning stereotypes of homosexuality hurled as taunts and ridicule that I knew.  I was oblivious to the idea that it could ever be anything else.  And once that light bulb lit up, it only got brighter from then on.  I suddenly understood this hugely significant part of me.

 

Now, two men kissing is a more obvious trigger than a ring of keys, but it could easily have been anything else.  Whatever caused that moment of catharsis is significant.  That is why the song is called Ring of Keys and why the ring of keys is highlighted lyrically and melodically.  It was a laundry list of items...and the Keys.  The RING OF KEYS.  BAM!  LIGHTNING BOLT!  LIGHT BULB!

If you require more specificity than that, then you are overthinking the song.  You absolutely do not now or ever need to know why the words "ring of keys" was chosen from anything else.  It is irrelevant.

Oh, and to this day, that kiss in Deathtrap still excites me.

Updated On: 6/10/15 at 04:42 PM

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 4:44pm

Not to be underestimated: though it was one of the first numbers written for the show, its late placement in the piece is critical to the complex way that it lands.  It was a brilliant stroke to have "Ring of Keys" part of the gathering storm around Bruce, even though it's not chronologically anywhere near his catharsis. The build from "Ring of Keys" to "Days and Days" and then (another favorite:) "Telephone Wire" makes absolute emotional sense, as separated as the events are -- timeline wise -- from one another.  

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 4:44pm

""Transcendent" is quite a hyperbolic way to describe the performance, no?"

 

Go pound sand.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 5:08pm

Oh, Mr Matt!  Brilliant response.  Yes!!!!!!!!

[South Florida]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 5:09pm

Ring of Keys and Sydney's singing left me floored.  I didn't need to see her, this story was so beautiful and fulfilling I cried the first three times I listened.

[darquegk]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 7:53pm

I think one crucial thing is missing from this discussion: the scene immediately before. The ring of keys (far from ostentatious, yet practical, powerful and masculine) is contrasted with the barrette (showy, but impractical, demeaning and feminizing to Alison).

I doubt they would have performed the scene if there weren't that connection to infer.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/10/15 at 8:38pm

^Astute observation. The show's narrative doesn't hew to linear chronology, but in emotional terms, everything is very carefully constructed. Kron talked about the need to shape the story (from the book), no matter the (seeming) collage-like impact. It's all very carefully structured (see my post above). But I love this observation contrasting the barrette and the keys.  This piece doesn't builds randomly, but assembles evidence as Allison does in her quest, and explains to us, in her opening remarks.  It's a puzzle, and as they pieces fit, it takes us to the heartbreaking but affirmative last line.  I'm in awe of the craft in this show as much as the feelings it engenders.

Updated On: 6/10/15 at 08:38 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 6/11/15 at 12:19am

"Maybe I was just unaware that Jews think they are the only people who read.
Making negative generalizations about a group of people constitutes ugly in my book.
 
 "

Considering the terrible things that have been and are still done to Jews, my flippant remark hardly qualifies as "ugly". Let's keep a little perspective, shall we?

The subject was cultural trophs and another poster made reference to the cliche depiction of Jewish youth as overly precocious and prematurely literate. The opposite cliche is that WASPs are pretty, but vapid and functionally illiterate. (They get into Ivy League colleges because they are legacies and then hire Jewish students to write their papers.)

These notions usually come from cultural product created, at least in part, by Jewish artists, from Woody Allen films to THE WAY WE WERE. (In the latter, Robert Redford is the writer but Barbra Streisand is the reader--and don't we all suspect that her book would be the more interesting one?)

Perhaps my remark was too flippant; I wasn't actually speaking of Jews per se, but Jewish writers. Yet haven't you heard? Marginalized minorities are allowed to take shots at the group in power. Doing so is a weapon that negates the perceived strength of that power. Speaking as a blond-haired, blue-eyed WASP, I see nothing wrong with Jewish satires of my relatives and me. I laugh along with everyone else.

My point was that despite the stereotypes, there's no reason Allison of FUN HOME can't be as articulate as Jason of FALSETTOS.

 

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 6/11/15 at 12:28am

This thread amuses me. I am often accused (tacitly or directly) of over-analyzing shows, but the emphasis on the "ring of keys" struck me as so profoundly right, I never even thought to wonder whether it was a traditional symbol of lesbianism, etc.

It seemed instantly obvious on so many levels, most of which are discussed above, but especially the ring of keys as a symbol of power (and I would add: a symbol of the ability to open doors).

Updated On: 6/11/15 at 12:28 AM