#1
Posted: 11/29/14 at 10:32pm
There was a thread (which seems to have disappeared) facetiously titled "Favorite moment two thirds of the way through Act One." While most remarks were somewhat sarcastic, I started thinking today about the existence of the "nine o'clock number," so to speak.
I saw the tour of "Newsies" just this week, and though I enjoyed Act 1 immensely, it suffered a kind of fatigue. Every moment from the halfway point of Act 1 on felt like the finale. "The World Will Know" seemed like a huge act ender. "Seize the Day" seemed just as obvious of an ending, complete with a frozen iconic pose. Then, finally, the actual end came with "Santa Fe." This is a musical with too many nine o'clock numbers.
To me, if you try to sustain a perpetual feeling of climax, what you get is anticlimax. I've been thinking seriously now about musicals that have "nine o'clock numbers," which serve the same function to Act 1 as the eleven o'clock number does in Act 2- raise the energy, bringing us towards the act finale without BEING the Act 1 finale.
"Seize the Day" felt like a climax in a way that "Be Our Guest" did not- perhaps it was that "Be Our Guest" was so clearly a production number and not a plot mover, or that its orchestrations and final pose do not indicate "this is the final image before the curtain" the way the number in "Newsies" did. Sondheim likes to do nine o'clock numbers that are big but end relatively small, or at least not climactically. Look at "Getting Married Today," which clearly indicates a scene (and a song) to come, or "Epiphany," which ends with a sudden letting out of steam.
What are the best and most effective nine o'clock numbers? On the other hand, are there others that don't work, or work too well to be efficient?
I saw the tour of "Newsies" just this week, and though I enjoyed Act 1 immensely, it suffered a kind of fatigue. Every moment from the halfway point of Act 1 on felt like the finale. "The World Will Know" seemed like a huge act ender. "Seize the Day" seemed just as obvious of an ending, complete with a frozen iconic pose. Then, finally, the actual end came with "Santa Fe." This is a musical with too many nine o'clock numbers.
To me, if you try to sustain a perpetual feeling of climax, what you get is anticlimax. I've been thinking seriously now about musicals that have "nine o'clock numbers," which serve the same function to Act 1 as the eleven o'clock number does in Act 2- raise the energy, bringing us towards the act finale without BEING the Act 1 finale.
"Seize the Day" felt like a climax in a way that "Be Our Guest" did not- perhaps it was that "Be Our Guest" was so clearly a production number and not a plot mover, or that its orchestrations and final pose do not indicate "this is the final image before the curtain" the way the number in "Newsies" did. Sondheim likes to do nine o'clock numbers that are big but end relatively small, or at least not climactically. Look at "Getting Married Today," which clearly indicates a scene (and a song) to come, or "Epiphany," which ends with a sudden letting out of steam.
What are the best and most effective nine o'clock numbers? On the other hand, are there others that don't work, or work too well to be efficient?
