Themes for musicals

"I want a door that belongs to me, I want a bed that belongs to me, I want to know when I climb into bed I'll wake up in my own morning, a morning that really belongs to me"
"You're always sorry, you're always grateful"
"Tradition! Tradition!"
"Tragedy tomorrow, Comedy tonight!"
"All Through the night I delight in your love"
"Why can't a woman be more like a man?"/"I hate men"
"You see the same world through brown eyes, that I see through blue, and we're worlds apart, worlds apart"
"You've got to be carefully taught"
"I hear the human race is falling on its face and hasn't very far to go"
"There is a brotherhood of man"/"You decide alone but no one is alone"
"I don't understand the Parisians, making love every time they get the chance"
"Marry the man today and change his ways tomorrow"
"On the other side of the tracks that is where I'm longing to be"
"I rise again, full size again, and give those doubting Thomases a walloping surprise again"
"How can people be so heartless?"
"And the world will be better for this, that one man, scorned and covered with scars..."
"Loving you is not a choice, it's who I am"
"I am what I am"
"And I am telling you I'm not going"
"Who am I? Can I condemn this man to slavery? Pretend I do not see his agony? And must my name until I die be no more than an alibi, who am I?"
"All my good wishes are with you tonight, I've had a love of my own"
"I've been the other woman since my puberty began, I crashed the junior prom and met the only married man"
"I hear a bazouki, you can't imagine how often I've heard a bazouki, but each time is the first time!"


and

"Open a new window, open a new door' 'before the parade passes by' and you'll 'feel like you're 90 again!'"

Updated On: 7/9/14 at 10:51 AM

Religion - will only be successful if controversial

Love - In every musical anyway

Being Different - This works well generally (relatable)

Rags to riches (pretty good one. Think Cinderella/Aladdin)

Animals (Generally successful even if people think its bad like CATS. There's The Lion King)

Companionship (thinking in terms of brother/sister friendships. Mother/daughter) - these are always good for people to relate. I think this is why Newsies/Wicked are so popular recently.

War/death - Can be good/bad. Either you do it all out seriously like Les Mis or you do it comedically like in the Producers with Springtime for Hitler. It would be bad if it wasn't serious enough or if the humor was badly received. Choose an extreme and stick to it.

Updated On: 6/30/14 at 04:42 PM

Boy meets Girl, Boy loses Girl, Boy finds Girl again.

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Most musicals typically have an "I want" moment, song or something that one (or more) character(s) gets fulfilled by the end. Most musicals (traditional book musicals) have this.

"Most musicals..."

I would hope every musical has "I Want" moments and songs, not most. That is what ultimately drives the plot forward and keeps it cohesive.

Not every musical has a concrete "I Want" moment or song. Most composers or composing teams that came out of the BMI workshop stick to that particular plot device very closely, but it's not absolutely necessary for a musical to work.

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Vampires--Unsuccessful on Broadway.
Vampires--Pretty much successful everywhere else theatre happens in the world.

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A fish out of water. "My Fair Lady" makes the most deliberate use of the theme, in my opinion, because HH deliberately sets out to make the fish into something else. "La Cage aux Folles," "Evita," and, in some ways, "Les Miz," are fish out of water stories.

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this is all great thank you

"A fish out of water. "My Fair Lady" makes the most deliberate use of the theme."

Actually I would say that MY FAIR LADY is an example of the Cinderella Goes to the Ball theme. Take a poor girl with special gifts and transform her into the belle of the ball. Act I gets Eliza to the ball (literally the Embassy Ball), and Act II shows the next day's aftermath.

Other Cinderella themed shows might include EVITA, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, THE WIZ, WICKED, HAIRSPRAY, ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, GYPSY and even BILLY ELIOTT! (No, Cinderella doesn't always have to be a girl.) None of these shows focuses chiefly on a boy-girl love-story as the main subject.

Here are some more:

The Wiz/Wizard of Oz is about self-contradiction. Dorothy and her friends all have the same problem. (and so do we)

The Little Mermaid is literally the Adam and Eve story = Paradise lost.

West Side Story - Love and Hate

Book of Mormon - self-contradiction ( I believe?)

Gyspy isn't a Cinderella story at all. The theme of the show is how wanting/wishing for acceptance is destructive. Isn't it fascinating how that theme is woven into throughout that show?

Annie Get Your Gun - I think it's PRIDE but I'm not all that familiar with the show.

The Lion King - Is a prodigal son story, but the thematic element in the show is Circle/Balance.

Fine by design, I think you're using the term THEME in a completely different way than I am.

For you, a theme seems to be its message, the moral a show imparts.
For me, the theme is the show's archetype -- the iconic template the show follows that connects it to all other similar stories in literature.

"Gyspy isn't a Cinderella story at all. The theme of the show is how wanting/wishing for acceptance is destructive. Isn't it fascinating how that theme is woven into throughout that show?"

That's strikes me as a very very limited reading of the material. Now granted, great shows can and should have more than one theme. But for me, Gypsy carries us from beginning to end by showing us the flowering of the ugly duckling Louise into the belle of the ball Gypsy. Perhaps the most emotional beat for me is the moment in Act II when Louise looks in the mirror and says, "I'm a pretty girl, Momma." How can you say that's not a Cinderella story?