Unbalanced Musicals- Page 2

[Rinaldo]

Posted: 8/5/14 at 9:16pm

Urg, yes of course! My meaning was clear anyway, but my fingers apparently had a mind of their own, and that's embarrassing. Thanks much, henrikegerman.

[JohnyBroadway]

Posted: 8/5/14 at 9:16pm

I felt the second act of Mary Poppins is when the story really took off. The first act while ver enjoyable isn't as moving.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/5/14 at 9:27pm

To me, few if any shows have a bigger problem with this than RAGTIME. I understand why they felt the funeral had to close Act I, but there's only one song in Act II ("He Wanted to Say") that even begins to hold its own with that brilliant first act score.

It's been a few years, but I recall CARMELINA slowly falling apart in Act II as well.

***

Goth, I know what you mean about OKLAHOMA! I think R&H were taking a big enough chance killing off a major character in a musical comedy; having him sing as he dies would have been too much.

But we should recall that OKLAHOMA! was created during the push for national unity early in WWII. (We forget that until Pearl Harbor the country was quite split between "interventionists" and "isolationists".) In the context of a nation pulling together to fight wars on three continents and two oceans, songs like "The Farmer and the Cowboy" and the title number probably didn't seem so "frilly".