Curtain Up: Top 10 Overtures

Let's talk about one of the most crucial parts of a musical: The Overture. The overture sets the tone for the show. It features samples of songs that will be heard throughout the show and sets the mood for the next 2½ hours. It is a piece of music that basically says to the audience, “Hi there. I’d like to introduce you to this musical. I really think you’ll get along.” Then you say, “Holy Hell, what did I just hear!? I am so friggin’ PUMPED for this musical to start!!!!”

There is nothing like a super kickass overture. A great one feels like the opening of a Queen concert, the kickoff at the Superbowl, and a screening of Oprah’s “My Favorite Things”. Combined. I have scoured the annals of Broadway for overtures and opening numbers that simply peel the paint off the walls. I present to you (in no particular order) the Top 10 Broadway Overtures and Opening Numbers Of All Time.

1. "Prologue" - Ragtime

Ragtime tells several intertwining stories of the African Americans of Harlem, the upper-class suburbanites of New Rochelle, and the European Immigrants populating America at the start of the 20th century. The opening number portrays the three groups clashing (musically and physically) with each other as they express their respective ambitions and creeds at the start of a new century. The big “company front” at the end gives me chills every time I hear it. 

2. Phantom of the Opera

In all fairness, the overture of POTO only samples the titular song. But boy, is it a doozy! Just the opening six notes is like the clouds parting and Zeus popping out of his Olympus fortress with a Les Paul going, “Hey, mortals! Check out this tasty riff!” *metaphorically throwing panties on stage*

3. Jesus Christ Superstar

Yup, Andrew Lloyd Webber gets double love in this entry. Superstar puts the “rock” in “rock opera”. This overture sets the haunting mood from the very first note. But then the wicked horn, drums, and guitar action kicks in and I just wanna grab a lighter and wave it in the sky while head banging like Wayne’s World. 

4. “Tradition” – Fiddler On The Roof

This overture basically says “Here’s this detailed layout of our community’s simplistic-yet-moribund way of life. Stay tuned and see how it all falls apart! …plus we’re all Jewish! Hope that doesn’t have any repercussions in Tzarist Russia!” And you gotta love the ridiculously lively, klezmer-inspired score going on here! I triple dog dare you to breathe when the bottle dancers move to the ground.

5. “I Hope I Get It” – A Chorus Line

I wrote about this show last year, so I’m just gonna reiterate my crazy love for this musical here: From the first “Five, six, seven, eight…” when the dancers turn and face the audience for the first time, you can hear the underlying stress and anxiety among the flying arms and legs in the music and choreography. This reflects the characters’ desperation to land this job because it means one more opportunity to dance; they want this with all their heart and soul. This opening number hits the ground running with both guns blazing while yelling “ENERGY” in your face. ‘Nuff said.

6. “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” – Sweeney Todd

When I first watched the video recording of this show at the tender age of 9, I ran out of the room in fear at one point. Listening to the album alone gave me the creeps (mostly because of that friggin’ factory whistle). But super-creepy subject matter aside, this opening number is, in short, bad-ass. What other musical starts with the lead emerging from an oven and an ensemble calling us to the campfire for a gourmet scary story? There is not a single thing about this number that doesn't kick copious amounts of ass.

7. Candide

I’ve never actually seen Candide, nor do I know very much about it (except that it contains the greatest Broadway coloratura aria EVER). But this overture is arguably the liveliest, peppiest classical-fusion piece Leonard Benstein’s ever gifted to Broadway.  It doesn’t even give the audience a moment to breathe, so I can only imagine how the members of the orchestra handle it!

8. Gypsy

Two words: Trumpet. Solo. 

9. “Circle of Life” – The Lion King

This opening number is definitely more of a visual feast than an audio one, but Sweet Baby Jesus, it’s amazing! It almost makes the rest of the show a bit of a low because there are few points in the show higher and bigger than the opening. This number puts every Superbowl halftime show to shame ...and they typically do it twice a day.

10. West Side Story

Before a single note is played, Mr. Bernstein gets our attention with the show’s trademark short-long-short whistle (which I personally prefer as a gang signal over oddly-and-most-likely-dangerously-placed graffiti defacing public property). Then he unloads this loud, wild plethora of food for the ears with urgent tones and south of the border flavor. The clashes and interactions between the rival Jets and Sharks, the star-crossed lovers, and the law are represented in this pumping, beautiful traffic jam of an overture. *Fun fact: West Side Story didn’t do well its first time around on Broadway. Audiences weren’t quite ready for the “gritty, dark” musical genre. It lost the Best Musical Tony to Music Man that year.*

Sondheim Rules: Here's Why!

Today, we’re going to talk about who I believe to be one of the greatest composers/lyricists of all time: Stephen Sondheim.  I don’t think this blog can continue without my readers (both of them) knowing how much Sondheim means to me. I have been enamored with his work from a very young age.  Not many grade-schoolers know who Stephen Sondheim is.  I did.  I would watch VHS tapes of Into The Woods and A Little Night Music over and over until I had them committed to memory (I was a bit of a weird kid, if you didn’t already know).

Alas, there are still those who find his work to be overhyped or pretentious (stinkeye on you, Rose!) I say those people are either:

A) Ignorant fools

B) Jealous

C) Taliban

D) All of the Above

I now present 5 reasons why Sondheim is the man. The main man.

1)      He’s Fuckin’ BRILLIANT!

Sondheim’s work is very distinctive in the musical theatre world.  His big break came at 25 (Really, 25?! Are you SHITTING me?!) when he was hired to write the lyrics for Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story (sweet gig, huh?).  Even early in his career, his orchestrations and lyrics are sophisticated and more complex than most pieces on Broadway.

He lifted musical theatre to a higher standard; he stirred and changed the tried-and-true formulas and recipes that theatregoers had come to know and expect. He took your typical happy ending at the conclusion of a story and asked: “Are we really happy?” Into The Woods, for example, spends the entire second act wondering, What comes after Happily Ever After?  Do things always really fit into a perfect little box at the end of this 2-and-a-half hour journey? His musicals make people look inward and think. They may not always end happy, but the characters (and audience) always come away with a substantial experience from the journey…. Or dead.

2)      Lyrics

Sondheim delivers nothing but rich, witty, substantial, carefully-crafted lyrics to his compositions. Even if the show is no good (Anyone Can Whistle originally ran for 9 performances. *Ouch!* But on the bright side, it introduced Angela Lansbury to the theatre world, so not a total crapper!), he selects each lyric to painstaking perfection in order to convey emotion and tell the story.  In this snippet of Company, he marries the music and lyrics with the racing, hysterical, sheer panic a certain bride is feeling on her wedding day, contrasted by her friends’ serene bliss.

3)      He doesn’t pander

I’ll grant you, Sondheim is not always easy to listen to. His score and lyrics are multifaceted, saturated, fast-paced, in-your face, and command your attention. If you want a pretty tune with pretty lyrics, ALW and Frank Wildhorn are a few doors down.  Sondheim doesn’t do that.  He doesn’t just pick up a rhyming dictionary and throw a song together (not that there’s anything wrong with that. I hear “Dust in the Wind” was written in 15 minutes!).  Every note and word is complex and carefully selected to create the desired effect.  It’s never just a gay, musical romp.  There’s always something deeper to take away from a Sondheim show.

4)      He covers the breadth of human emotion

We know that he can write a hell of a love song, but he gives life’s hard parts a very real treatment too.  Sondheim seems able to convey any human feeling we experience; be it unrequited love, devastating catharsis, inner conflict, or even sexual frustration.  Not only does his work encompass any and all emotions, he can cover the breakneck speed in which our emotions can change. In “Epiphany” from Sweeney Todd, Sondheim covers frenzied rage, desperate grief, bloody vengeance, and manic resolve in a span of 3 minutes and you need not question for a moment the height and weight of Sweeney’s emotion.  You can tell from the dark, frantic tone in the music and lyrics that this very twisted barber is about to spontaneously combust. 

5)      He’s FABULOUS!

FABULOUS as in incredibly talented, or FABULOUS as in gay? Well, both.  I mean, gay AND Jewish?  He’s even got Neil Patrick Harris beat on that (I’m convinced that if NPH were straight, men of the world would have a much harder chance of ever getting laid again)!

Get this: a true perfectionist, He has expressed dissatisfaction for the lyrics he wrote for the song “Maria” because he found them "too consciously poetic” and ill-fitting to the character.  Let me repeat this: The guy who wrote the lyrics for one of the most beautiful, spectacular love songs of all time thought he could have done better!!!  I’m pretty sure Steve’s alone on that one!  When I went to a West Side Story Sing-Along last year, I thought I was going to burst into tears when that song came on; it’s so gorgeous!  But he really cares about what he throws out into the world. That’s quite a rare thing in a time when we’ve got Miley Cyrus “twerking” behind Beetlejuice.  He values art and doesn’t compromise his.

At Sondheim’s 80^th birthday concert at Lincoln Center, he quoted Alice Roosevelt Longworth, “First you’re young, then you’re middle-aged. Then you’re wonderful.”  You are wonderful, Mr. Sondheim. You are wonderful!

Why, yes. I AM fuckin' wonderful!