Your favorite Musical cliches.

[Forester]

Posted: 7/10/05 at 1:11pm

list them here folks.
Updated On: 7/10/05 at 01:11 PM

[Jon]

Posted: 7/10/05 at 2:32pm

Do you mean plotline cliches, staging cliches,or actual musical composition cliches?

One that falls into both of the last two categories is at the pak of a production number, when the tempo pulls way back, and the chorus breaks into a kickline.

[jasonf]

Posted: 7/10/05 at 2:36pm

I love the cliche of characters talking - and then just starting to sing....

Oh, wait...

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 7/10/05 at 2:36pm

As soon as a song is over, everyone resumes their lives as if nothing had happened. (This is funnier in movies because they don't have to stop for applause)

[little_sally]

Posted: 7/10/05 at 2:38pm

Not sure if this is cliche, but I love the fact that people can just fall in love in musicals after singing one song.

[joeybiltmore1]

Posted: 7/10/05 at 5:48pm

My favorite show cliches are trenches. OK, so they're a choreographic cliche, but what the heck. It's this simple running/arm swinging thing, but audiences always go nuts for it.

My other favorite cliches are song cues. Awkward lines that are usually said as the intro is fading and the actor is about to take a breath and sing the first line.

[Nath]

Posted: 7/10/05 at 7:52pm

someone always walks across the stage pushing a clothes/costume rack... lol

[One Song Glory]

Posted: 7/10/05 at 8:00pm

A tango song. There are so many musicals with tangoes in them.

[BabyJohn]

Posted: 7/10/05 at 11:10pm

Don't get mad...THE SONG THAT GOES LIKE THIS.

[justme2]

Posted: 7/10/05 at 11:15pm

My favorite musical cliche crosses over from movies to the stage.

The entire reason for the plot/show is "miscommunication" between the characters.

Examples:
I thought you meant, I misunderstood the message/cablegram/card, I heard from Nancy that you said such and such so I assumed, and so on.

The entire plot is based about the miscommunication issue and if the characters had just talked to each other, there would be no "reason" for the problem.

[Urban]

Posted: 7/10/05 at 11:51pm

My favorite cliché is actresses always seem to reach that impossible high note just before they cark it.

[CastAlbumFan]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 12:15am

If there's a nightclub scene, you can guarantee a big chorus song and number in that scene.

Boy meets girl in the beginning of Act I. Boy loses girl at the end of Act I. Boy gets girl back before the final curtain.

The lovesick, insecure male is ALWAYS a tenor!

[BreakingTheCircle07]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 12:20am

When HUGE chorus numbers come out of nowhere and take your breath away.
ie:
This is the Hour ~MS


When a song ends on "oooos" or "ahhhs" instead of words and it sends shivers up & down your arms.

ie:
The Producers
Les Miserables

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 12:27am

From Urinetown:

"Sometimes, in a musical, it's better to focus on one big thing rather than a lot of little things. The audience tends to be much happier that way. And it's easier to write."

"He's the hero of the show, she has to love him"

"The information must be oozed out slowly, until it bursts forth in one mighty cathartic moment! Somewhere in Act Two. With everybidy singing, and things like that."

"It's the Act One Finale...It's a big song-and-dance number involving the entire cast."

[CastAlbumFan]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 12:35am

I call this cliche "Jerry Herman Syndrome": A huge production number involving the arrival of a leading character into a show or to a familiar haunt (See HELLO, DOLLY!, MAME, MACK AND MABEL). "Here I Am" from DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, "Sid Ol' Kid" from TAKE ME ALONG and "Gee, But It's Good to Be Here" from HAPPY HUNTING are other examples.

[jczelyph]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 7:15am

In a rousing, super-major chord chorus number, I love seeing cast members give little shoulder jerks/vamps, in conjunction with what I like to call 'Fame eyes' (the eyes that you'd do if you're singing "I'm alive...and I will survive" from 'Hard Work' in Fame The Musical

[BwayBaby18]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 12:59pm

In an ALW show all the msuic is the same.....Whoops did i say that out loud!