Why does Ilse begin singing Purple Summer?

[aces25]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 1:33am

Just curious to the choice of having Ilse lead the beginning of this song...

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 2:12am

Duncan Sheik liked her voice. Legit. That is the reason.

I'm still waiting on someone to tell me what the hell most of those purple prose lyrics even mean. lol

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 3:27am

Or most of the lyrics in the show!

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 9:58am

I questioned everything about that finale.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 10:48am

I loved it but I guess I just have more of a poet's heart than you losers.

[AGermano]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 10:49am

...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1557838240
Updated On: 3/15/12 at 10:49 AM

[newintown]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 10:58am

Let's all examine, them, shall we?

And all shall fade
The flowers of spring
The world and all the sorrow
At the heart of everything

But still it stays
The butterflies sings
And opens purple summer
With the flutter of it's[sic] wings

The Earth will wave with corn
The gray-fly choir will mourn
And mares will neigh with
Stallions that they mate, foals they've borne

And all shall know the wonder of purple summer

And yet I wait
The swallow brings
A song too hard to follow
That no one else can sing
The fences sway
The porches swing
The clouds begin to thunder
Crickets wander, murmuring

The Earth will wave with corn
The gray-fly choir will mourn
And mares will neigh with
Stallions that they mate, foals they've borne

And all shall know the wonder
I will sing the song of purple summer
All shall know the wonder
I will sing the song of purple summer

All shall know the wonder of purple summer.

Now, Namo may indeed have "more of a poet's heart," but this strikes me (like "When There's No One" from Carrie) as meaningless, self-absorbed, adolescent stuff that says nothing in particular, but merely serves to conjure with sentimental buzzwords a vague and artificial mood.

But that's me - maybe I have more of an inquiring mind than a "poet's heart."

Updated On: 3/15/12 at 10:58 AM

[Owen22]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 11:21am

You know, even I have mourned the "bad MySpace poetry" of the "Spring Awakening" lyrics, but honestly, they were evocative and yes, poetic, in a way that wasn't usually specific in a traditional musical theatre lyric way, but conjured a mood I will forever remember.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 11:23am

Conjuring an artificial mood? In a musical? That's unpossible.

Self-absorbed adolescent stuff in a musical about smart adolescents? Cray-cray!!!

Such a show would NEVER work. What a stupid idea to convey that the world goes round and life goes on even after tragedy that seems unsurvivable!!! Just nuts. Bring back Godspell.

Updated On: 3/15/12 at 11:23 AM

[newintown]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 11:57am

"Self-absorbed adolescent stuff in a musical about smart adolescents?"

Oh, I think that, just as one can write a good musical about murderers without actually murdering anyone (Sweeney Todd, Assassins), one could write a good musical about adolescents without actually descending to bad adolescent writing.

Of course, that might require talent.

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 12:05pm

I very much enjoyed the show. I saw it three times in previews (I was on vacation)so clearly the mood and sentiment it conjured up worked for me.

I tend to agree with Sondheim's views that poetry is different from lyrics and confusing the two is harmful and generally accomplishes nothing. Noth to say the songs in the show don't "work" because they do. Everything was highly stylized and they worked more as emo-mood pieces instead of musical theatre songs. Does that make them wrong? Of course not. It's just easy to joke about/rag on the overtly flowery lyrics about colors. He clearly looked to the crayon box for inspiration and truly wrote with all the colors of the wind.

[Kad]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 12:06pm

Song of Purple Prose.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 12:26pm

I liked the set, lighting, choreography, and a couple of songs, but as a whole, the show just didn't work for me. It was a little too after-school-special in the heavy-handed message department and the stylized use of the score constantly disengaged me from the story rather than enhancing it. I'm glad people loved it and it did well, but it was just one of those shows I never connected with and probably never will.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 12:28pm

I LOVED it. I thought it accomplished exactly what it set out to do within the parameters they established. Loved it.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 12:36pm

Well, I would welcome the chance to see the show again with you, Namo, because if anyone could turn me around, it would be you.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 12:44pm

I could maybe spin you right round baby, but I dunno. People like what they like. Many people I love didn't like Spring Awakening, but I thought there were good, justifiable reasons for the aspects of the show that rankled them. Mainstream theater needs more Spring Awakenings.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 12:58pm

I do believe opinions can change under the right circumstances. Especially if you attend a show with someone who is already enthusiastic about it and gets you excited about the experience.

American Idiot, on the other hand, was a wonderful surprise. Going to see it again in San Francisco.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 2:56pm

^Come on, Finding Namo, fess up you love all musicals about horny Germans!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 2:59pm

True fact.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 3:06pm

A lot of the poetic images (stallions and mares, the corn, etc) have already been evoked earlier in the evening. I view it as a big call back to what's happened and a "Life goes on" cap to the evening fun.

Works better than a "She's dead, he's dead, everyone's traumatized" number.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 3:08pm

At least the revised lyrics made a little bit more sense. Sort of. Maybe...

Listen to what's in the heart of a child
A song so big in one so small
Then you will hear where beauty lies
You'll find and you'll recall
The sadness the doubt all the loss the grief
Belongs to some play from the past
As the child leads the way to a dream, a belief
A time of hope through the land.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 3:12pm

I...wait...what? No.

[CJ N2N]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 3:53pm

I always believed that the show used spring as a metaphor for adolescent years and summer as adulthood. To me, The Song of Purple Summer was sort of a song about reaching adulthood, and how it's so much better and more peaceful than being a teenager. But looking at the revised lyrics, perhaps it's about being a child, and you should always keep that innocence and playfulness through the rest of your life. To me this second theory makes much more sense, especially if Ilse sings it, seeing as shes the most innocent and playful of all the characters
Just my 2 cents...
Then again, I have no idea what the color purple has to do with anything. What is the whole shows obbsession with colors have to do with anything? i.e Blue Night, Blue Wind, Purple summer...

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 3/15/12 at 4:03pm

I remember doing some research on the lyrics because I didn't know what the hell the song was supposed to be about. Apparently, a purple summer is a flower that blooms in the summer instead of the spring, so it symbolizes not only a "late-bloomer", but the unexpected joy of beauty and life in a season when it begins to fade and wane. Something along those lines, I suppose.

But when I saw the show, I was completely confounded.

[East Village]

Posted: 3/16/12 at 7:20pm

Goggle "John Milton Grey Fly"