So, is MEMPHIS going to win BEST SCORE by default? — Page 4

Funny - the two you don't like (Drowsy & Urinetown) were my favorites in your list, with Avenue Q. Best lyrics, most adept composing. The others are fine, but nothing adroit.

And frankly, when one sees that things like "Aida," "Parade," "The Light in the Piazza," and "Spring Awakening" won for best score, then "Memphis" is more than deserving of the award.

With Marie Christine and The Wild Party being the same season as Aida, I would agree with you on that one. The show was something of a conceptual mess and the light score was hummable, but nothing near the mature artistry of both La Chiusa's scores that season. And I'm not a fan of Spring Awakening, but I can understand why its score is admired.

Not sure what you mean about Parade or Piazza, though. Or what you thought should have won those seasons. Parade was up against Footloose, Civil War and Twelfth Night. And honestly, I would rank Parade amongst the top 5 musical theatre scores of the last 25 years. Piazza was a tighter race against Spelling Bee, Spamalot and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, but considering the mature complexity of the score and the enthusiasm for the score by musical theatre fans and critics alike, it's sort of difficult to understand why it isn't considered worthy of the award.

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Meantime, 'The Addams Family' is recording its cast album today (April 19), and Andrew Lippa (whose 'Wild Party' score I love) promises that bonus tracks will be available digitally. I wonder if the extra cuts will be the songs that were in Chicago. Can anyone compare and contrast the music that was in the Windy City with what's on Broadway? I never heard 'Second Banana,' but I like Bebe Neuwirth's catchy 'Just Around the Corner.'
Playbill.com: 'Addams Family' ' records cast album

Exactly. It wasn't a concept album, like EVITA. It was an album, that Mayer thought should be on stage.

American Idiot was a concept album- like Tommy or Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or Dark Side of the Moon. "Concept album" is not an exclusively musical theatre term invented by 1980s British composers.

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^ Here, Here!

If American Idiot wins best Score it will not only be the death of the Original American Musical, it will be the obliteration of anything sacred in art.

Really? All art will immediately cease to exist? This should be interesting. That's giving American Idiot far more credit and power than any Tony award could.

Back in the real world, Broadway is still a commercial venture, so it's not like it holds some sort of invisible responsibility to maintain an impossible level of artistic integrity by those who place unnecessary expectations on it based on a misconception of its history.

American idiot has Neither, since the music came from an album, and the book is based on characters and messages in that album.

Just as over 90% of all Broadway musicals have books adapted from one source or another. Legally Blonde and Mamma Mia both had adapted books. One from a novel and a film (Legally Blonde), the other inspired by a film (Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell). Generally, original books are those not adapted from previously existing material, but written directly for the musical itself. And they have always been extremely rare.

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I agree with Matt about Original books, but I agree with Priest that considering American Idiot to be an original Score is just stupid. And sets a bad standard for future considerations of original scores.

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The best Score of the season - original or otherwise - is American Idiot.

Hi Steven. Always good to hear from you.

"After Eight, your list of "if these scores won" is entirely ridiculous."

Thanks for letting me know. But I guess if one is going to be ridiculous, one might as well go all the way and be "entirely" ridiculous, as opposed to partially so.


"All of those scores are either good, wonderful, or brilliant in their own way."

Case closed.

"Surely you could have found other winning scores that are more universally disliked to make your point (and to make you sound less catty)."

Are there any scores that are universally disliked?


"But those four have their many fans, and deservedly so."

Yes, deservedly so. Their many fans deserve them entirely.


Mister Matt:

"Piazza was a tighter race against Spelling Bee, Spamalot and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, but considering the mature complexity of the score and the enthusiasm for the score by musical theatre fans and critics alike, it's sort of difficult to understand why it isn't considered worthy of the award."


I didn't feel it was worthy of the award for the simple reason that I thought it was lousy.

American idiot has Neither, since the music came from an album, and the book is based on characters and messages in that album. (concept[album] is just a term people are raping in order to try to give this "show" some illusion of artistic credibility)

You just contradicted yourself. The book is based on the characters and messages in the album. A concept album is an album has a theme and a message, and tells a story. A concept album is not Andrew Lloyd Webber releasing a recording of Phantom of the Opera in advance to hype the upcoming musical.

Read the reviews of the American Idiot CD- music critics referred to it as a concept album. It's not something a bunch of teenybopper Broadway fans made up 2 months ago, or something Michael Mayer convinced Green Day to call it lat year. The CD has been out for almost 6 years- whether elitist musical theatre fans like it or not, it has always been the definition of a concept album.

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And because its a concept album, that means its ok to call AI an original score? The point is, its not an original score BECAUSE it was an album before the musical came out. And people like you are saying, "But its a CONCEPT album..." which means its an ORIGINAL score in the musical? How? What? Good thing they changed the rule after Tommy to ban "concept albums" from being considered for Original scores.

Updated On: 4/20/10 at 09:48 AM

And because its a concept album, that means its ok to call AI an original score? The point is, its not an original score BECAUSE it was an album before the musical came out. And people like you are saying, "But its a CONCEPT album..." which means its an ORIGINAL score in the musical? How? What?

If you would actually read my posts, you would see that I never argued that it was an original score. I haven't said anything about the Tonys in this thread. I was responding to people like you, who said that fans calling American Idiot a concept album was "raping" the term. Instead of admitting you were wrong, you're now twisting my words around to claim I'm arguing something that I'm not. I haven't seen American Idiot. I might, eventually. I don't care whether or not the Tony Awards consider it an original score. But to try to claim it's NOT a concept album to defend your own biased agenda is patently false.

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