Lady Day deemed a play and Hedwig deemed a musical?

[anthony95401]

I am wondering something. I saw Lady Day yesterday (which was astounding, by the way). I really don't understand why Lady Day was deemed (for the TONYs) a play and Hedwig was deemed a musical. Both are pretty much the same structure: a character performing a 90 minute "concert" and talking about their life and what brought them there to the audience in between 15 or so songs. I have not seen this version of Hedwig, but saw the original Jane St production, so maybe they have substantially changed the structure for the Broadway run? I am hoping someone can shed some light on this for me.

[Theater'sBestFriend]

To the best of my understanding, it's this: A play can be about music, but a musical creates a world through music. The task of the lyricist and composer in a musical are unique, and quite different from that of a playwright writing about music or musicians.

Lady Day is a play that is about songs sung in the real world and the person who sang them. (Master Class is another example that comes to mind.) If one wrote a play about Beethoven and included the Moonlight Sonata, it would still be a play.

In contrast, Hedwig's songs create a world in and through the music and lyrics, in which an imaginary artist's story is being told. The fact that the character is the artist singing them doesn't change what the lyricist and composer had to do to create a world and story through music.

[jnb9872]

I would actually be willing to consider HEDWIG a play with music were it not for the last twenty or so minutes, where the music and story mesh and meld into a theatrical transformation. LADY DAY, however, contains all of the music as diegetic (a key word in this discussion for me; all the music occurs in the time and space of the play.)

[Theater'sBestFriend]

Perhaps the test is this: Does its creation require a lyricist and composer? If yes, it's a musical; if no, it's a play.

[jnb9872]

This test rejects revues and jukebox musicals, but would include PETER AND THE STARCATCHER and ONE MAN, TWO GUV'NORS, which fails to capture what I'd call the distinction.

[Theater'sBestFriend]

Fair point. That may be precisely why people don't seem to respect revues and jukebox musicals as much. Perhaps they shouldn't be in the same category as works requiring a lyricist/composer. But they certainly aren't plays, and don't merit an award category of their own - hence the lumping with other musical genres.

I do think a musical uses music to create a world and convey character and action. That makes Bullets Over Broadway a musical, even though the music and lyrics are borrowed. Hedwig's music also does that - the songs demarcate his/her journey toward wholeness in a political, erotic and identity context that they create, even as Hedwig the character creates art before our eyes. In contrast, Lady Day's music is given meaning by the play, not the other way around.