Themes for musicals

[I<3Musicals2]

Posted: 6/30/14 at 8:51am

NOT STORIES THEMES
What themes have in the past been successful as a musical and what has not been?
What could be a a successful theme as a musical?

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 6/30/14 at 10:51am

"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

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/30/14 at 4:24pm

would say that no one theme as been entirely successful or unsuccessful.

[StephanCasey]

Posted: 6/30/14 at 4:42pm

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

[I<3Musicals2]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 11:03am

Thank you guys this is really helpful for me :)

[SNAFU]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 11:12am

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

[tazber]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 12:03pm

Wanting to be something/someone else and then finding that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

[dreaming]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 12:23pm

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.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 2:50pm

East meets West - THE KING & I, PACIFIC OVERTURES, FLOWER DRUM SONG, to some extent MISS SAIGON.

Young generation vs. older generation - BYE BYE BIRDIE, FLOWER DRUM SONG again.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 2:54pm

"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.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 2:54pm

Believe in your dream, it will happen, despite the naysayers.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 3:04pm

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.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 3:30pm

Are there any critically successful or at least viable musicals without an "I Want" moment, song, or plot?! Not speaking of commercially successful; there are plenty of lucrative Jukebox musicals that defy this. I mean critically respected and successful.

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 3:47pm

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

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 4:08pm

Most musical comedies, musical plays and operettas employ a theme of "love conquers all"--at least until the past 40 years. Nowadays a musical can be built, as least in theory, on any theme.

[AHLiebross]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 11:20pm

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.

[I<3Musicals2]

Posted: 7/12/14 at 6:24pm

What are most musical comedies about?

[I<3Musicals2]

Posted: 7/16/14 at 7:19pm

this is all great thank you

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/16/14 at 7:24pm

^^^ There are exceptions such as FORUM and CITY OF ANGELS, but traditionally all musical comedies employ the "love conquers all" theme (and even the musicals I mention above employ it as a secondary theme). They may employ more than one couple to make the point.

"Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl" is more a plot summary than a theme, at least as I understand the terms, but the poster who mentions the formula is right that most musical comedies employ it.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 7/16/14 at 8:11pm

"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.

[finebydesign]

Posted: 7/17/14 at 12:15am

I'm a bit perplexed by this thread. Theme is generally something extremely simple in musical theatre. Big theme I mean, some shows have several themes but one theme like in Fiddler (Tradition) is paramount. It is the heart of the show, and you should leave with that firmly planted in your subconscious.

My Fair Lady is not "A fish out of Water," it is about judging a book by its cover, beauty being in the eye of the beholder. Now that story does have themes of class and transformation, but the paramount message is misjudging the situation. A fish out of water is more of a story that you tell with themes.

Hairspray may be cloaked in a cinderella story, but it is a show about acceptance. Hairspray uses this theme throughout even for its racists characters.

Evita is not a cinderella story either, its themes are sex and power. Evita was famous because she slept to power.

Wicked's overall theme is ignorance. Elphaba is immediately outcast by her own family because of it and later schoolmates. The Wizard uses Oz's ignorance to fool them. Galinda overcomes ignorance. The show itself is showing the audience it's own ignorance by telling the whole story.

Let's see what else do we have here.

Disney's version of Aladdin has a theme of imprisonment. Aladdin, Jasmine and Genie are all trapped. In the end Jafar is. Aladdin works because theme isn't used once, it's reused, Aladdin is trapped several times by different circumstances.












Updated On: 7/17/14 at 12:15 AM

[finebydesign]

Posted: 7/17/14 at 12:59am

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.

[Eurotrash]

Posted: 7/17/14 at 4:43am

For me, there has to be a decent number of deaths. And if Esmeralda doesn't die in NYC, I'll be boycotting...

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 7/17/14 at 11:06am

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?

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 7/17/14 at 11:49am

Re Gypsy as Cinderella, it depends on how much personal baggage one applies to the career of burlesque stripper. The show remains refreshingly judgement free on the profession but if you see it as a mother turning her daughter into a whore to support her ambition it's a very ugly twist on the "Cinderella" theme. Rags to pasties rather than rags to riches.

EDIT: Or to put it another way, it's closer to the stepmother chopping off the stepsisters toes and heels to win the prince.

Updated On: 7/17/14 at 11:49 AM