The difficulty of arguing that a score is 'good' - what makes it good?

First of all, I hope the score to Kinky Boots is British sounding - and not overly 80s synthy with pop ballad after pop ballad. I hope she's written it in a dramatic voice, and not Cyndi's voice.

Anyway...

The myth that a good score is "catchy" is rubbish in my opinion. A score is only catchy when it has 1 tune repeated over and over again.

The lyrics have to match the quality of the music, and be in the same vernacular.

The orchestrations have to blend well with the voices chosen and not get in the way.

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In discussing the science-fiction and fantasy world, you'll often hear the phrase "world-building" used: "The author hasn't spent enough time world-building--it's all just plot." "The characters are well drawn, but there isn't enough world-building." "It needed more world-building, because it all felt forced and unbelievable."

World-building isn't just exposition, and it isn't just scientific or supernatural detail. It's a way of weaving all the elements together so that a world is created in which the fantastic seems natural and magical things can happen that surprise but don't seem counter-intuitive.

World-building is creating an atmosphere in which we willingly suspend our disbelief and believe the unbelievable, effortlessly.

A musical is like fantasy and science fiction, because people sing and dance, which is magical and fantastic in most of our lives.

Of course, the experience of world-building is entirely subjective, and that is why certain fantasy series have passionate adherents who disagree with the passionate adherents of other fantasy series.

That also happens with musicals. Right here on BroadwayWorld, every year, as a matter of fact, at Tony time.

What makes a score and a book great, in part, is that element of world-building. Separately and together, each of those components, as well as the direction and choreography and design, has to create a world in which the characters don't just break into song, but a world in which they HAVE to sing. (And dance, too: Yip Harburg famously said that characters in his musicals sang when they reached the point where mere words were no longer enough to express their emotions, and they danced when mere songs were no longer enough.)

So a "great" score is not just a collection of good songs--that would be a "good" score--but a collection of good songs that define the characters, tell the story and create the world in which they exist.

When that happens, when music and lyrics create a world and tell a story, it leaves an exhilaration that feels whole and complete.

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Updated On: 5/19/13 at 08:21 AM

And that's why PalJoey is one of my favorite posters on BWW.

Yes, but...

Although I understand the concept of world building, I don't agree that Kinky Boots' score does that.

Songs like, "Sex Is In The Heel", "Everybody Say Yeah", "The Land of Lola" and "What A Woman Wants" aren't essential to the story-telling. Although they provide "atmosphere", any or all of them could be removed and replaced with similarly-themed club music.

In that sense, Kinky Boots is more like a play with original music. It's really fun, enjoyable original music, but not all of it is essentially tied to the book, or couldn't be replaced by completely different music that would move the story along just as well.

For that reason, I think Kinky Boots is a good score, but not great.

[JA 'ducks and covers'...]

Updated On: 5/19/13 at 12:25 PM

"A musical is like fantasy and science fiction, because people sing and dance, which is magical and fantastic in most of our lives."

I completely disagree. People are not REALLY singing or dancing in musicals. Fantastically OR science-fictionally. The song and dance is completely a metaphor. It is how, we, the audience, are perceiving emotions, the telling of time, the layers of the story.

Now most storytelling is actually done in metaphor, but none as deep as a great musical. And that's why its so hard to pull off. Something that seems so abstract actually can cut clean and create a direct link between the play and the audience. It goes beyond the dribble: "When emotions are so high that mere words....yada yada yada" Again, the characters are not really singing. But the term "mere words" does apply, because the music can take us to a place, an emotion, that words never could. So we link with the character singing in a way a character persuasively declaiming in mere text can't (unless said prose writer/playwright is such a brilliant wordsmith he doesn't need music, and/or his prose actually creates music). For an easy example, say, a dance piece where a young boy picks his lover up and twirls him/her. THAT'S the feeling of young love conveyed more precisely than any declaration of said love. In "reality" he is just telling his beloved his feelings. We see it as a dance. Its more than a shorthand, it becomes complete truth.

Updated On: 5/19/13 at 12:35 PM

I think "Sex Is in the Heel" is absolutely tied to the plot. It's directly taken from the movie. It is the moment Lola is inspired by Charlie to design and the song convinces Charlie to hire Lola as the designer. I'd actually say all the songs in the score serve some kind of purpose within the plot, even "Everybody Say Yeah," however limited the lyrics are.

I think good and great scores not only have to have good music and insightful lyrics, but it has to serve the show in the storytelling. Everything has a purpose and taking one song out would mean there's something missing in the show. I'll give an example that many may not agree with: The score of Billy Elliot may seem thin and insignificant when taken out of context of the show. However, I think within the show, every song is wonderful and is absolutely necessary in the storytelling. Every song is joyful or clever or telling, and they do exactly what the score should and needs to do. It's a great score.

Take a look at South Pacific. Gorgeous music, incredible lyrics. Not one clunker and every song is perfect in how it's used in the storytelling. Take one song out and it's sorely missed. One of the greatest scores in my opinion.

Of course, scores can be used for atmosphere and "world building," if you will. Many songs in good/great scores don't necessarily forward the plot. In Spring Awakening, songs replace extensive internal monologues from the Wedekind text. They are meant to be ruminations of the characters' situations, a look into their heads. Or in Once, the songs don't necessarily relate or talk about the characters singing them, but they provide an atmosphere of the emotion of the scene playing out and how the music is connecting the characters onstage.

It's all subjective. But the score does have a purpose. I think a good or great score can be determined by how it serves the show in addition to its technical merit.