Happy Musicals vs Sad Musicals
Happy Musicals vs Sad Musicals
#1Happy Musicals vs Sad Musicals
Posted: 7/20/15 at 6:04pm
So I just saw a production of Pippin and fell in love with it. The score is one of the best out there and the story is pretty good. What I found most interesting was that little twist at the end during the finale. It just sorta made everything darker, but I think that's part of the idea to keep people coming back. The same can be said for Cabaret.
What do you all think of these twists that either make a show go from happy to sad or vice versa? What others shows are like that?
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#2Happy Musicals vs Sad Musicals
Posted: 7/20/15 at 6:07pm
Mack & Mabel is sorta like that
Mack Sennett invented the Keystone Kops among other things. The musical has its funny moments but inevitably turns tragic.
Poster Emeritus
#3Happy Musicals vs Sad Musicals
Posted: 7/20/15 at 6:09pm
The first about 10% of Next to Normal is pretty happy, then the bomb drops that really drives the show forward pretty early one...
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#4Happy Musicals vs Sad Musicals
Posted: 7/20/15 at 6:24pm
Most of Seesaw is happy but the ending is a downer
Poster Emeritus
Ranger Tom
Leading Actor Joined: 7/6/14
#5Happy Musicals vs Sad Musicals
Posted: 7/20/15 at 6:48pm
Into the Woods. People love the first act but many have mixed feelings about the second. I'm one of those that thinks Sweeney is a laugh-riot up until last few minutes. If the ending of Godspell is done correctly, it can take you for happy to sad to happy in a blink.
#6Happy Musicals vs Sad Musicals
Posted: 7/20/15 at 7:27pm
"A Chorus Line" is something like that as well. The finale number "looks" so happy, and "sounds" so happy, but if done correctly, it should make you cry.
"Follies," too, toes the line between happy and sad brilliantly--especially if you're just listening to the cast recording. So many upbeat songs compared to ballads, but even the "happy" songs read "sad" on stage if the production is a good one. "Mirror, Mirror," I think is the best example in that show.
Ranger Tom
Leading Actor Joined: 7/6/14
#7Happy Musicals vs Sad Musicals
Posted: 7/20/15 at 7:32pm
""A Chorus Line" is something like that as well. The finale number "looks" so happy, and "sounds" so happy, but if done correctly, it should make you cry.
Absolutely!
#8Happy Musicals vs Sad Musicals
Posted: 7/20/15 at 8:15pm
The version of ANNIE where she woke up at the end and it was all a dream!
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
#9Happy Musicals vs Sad Musicals
Posted: 7/20/15 at 9:24pm
Completely agree with RangerTom's sentiments on Into the Woods and Godspell. When I performed in the latter, I would have so much fun in Act 1, but then by the end I was just an emotional nutcase.
Urinetown openly pokes fun at the fact that it reads like a happy musical but is actually satire and tragedy.
Though I haven't seen it yet, the finale of Fun Home (at least as heard on the OBCR) is heart-achingly bittersweet.
I would say that Sweeney's turnaround occurs a bit earlier...the Fogg's Asylum scene is where it starts getting really bleak, at least for me.
And I never thought that way about A Chorus Line's ending. That is amazingly interesting!
http://puccinischronicles.wordpress.com
#10Happy Musicals vs Sad Musicals
Posted: 7/20/15 at 10:01pm
"The version of ANNIE where she woke up at the end and it was all a dream!"
Oh my God, is that real?
"Was uns befreit, das muss stärker sein als wir es sind." -Tanz der Vampire
#11Happy Musicals vs Sad Musicals
Posted: 7/20/15 at 10:05pm
I think MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, while an inherently flawed musical somewhere in it's construction, has a juxtaposition of emotions I've never found in another show that's solely due to it's unusual structure. Having the jaded cynics age backwards into hopeful young dreamers is frisson enough, but specifically the "Not a Day Goes By (Reprise)" which manages to feature not just the repurposing of a couple's bitter demise into the (soon-to-be-thwarted) promise of a life of love but also reveals the heretofore unheard, unrequited love of another in the very same moment. I can't think of another moment in any show that has so many conflicting and still equally overwhelming emotions simultaneously.
Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.
#12Happy Musicals vs Sad Musicals
Posted: 7/20/15 at 10:06pm
And I never thought that way about A Chorus Line's ending. That is amazingly interesting!"
Have you ever seen a professional production of this show performed live? Its tone is incredibly different as a complete work seen live compared to just listening to the cast recording (especially the OBC).
Wilmingtom
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/18/11
#13Happy Musicals vs Sad Musicals
Posted: 7/20/15 at 10:20pm
My favorite is a combination of happy/sad that translates to uplifting, like the finale of Catousel. I think A Chorus Line fits in there as well, as does La Mancha.
#14Happy Musicals vs Sad Musicals
Posted: 7/20/15 at 10:21pm
"I think MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, while an inherently flawed musical somewhere in it's construction, has a juxtaposition of emotions I've never found in another show that's solely due to it's unusual structure. Having the jaded cynics age backwards into hopeful young dreamers is frisson enough, but specifically the "Not a Day Goes By (Reprise)" which manages to feature not just the repurposing of a couple's bitter demise into the (soon-to-be-thwarted) promise of a life of love but also reveals the heretofore unheard, unrequited love of another in the very same moment. I can't think of another moment in any show that has so many conflicting and still equally overwhelming emotions simultaneously."
YES! And practically every other song in the show, come to think of it. . . .
This also reminds me of "Goodbye Until Tomorrow" from JRB's The Last Five Years: it's so joyful and uplifting as a standalone song, but in the context of the show, it's heartbreaking.
Other songs springing to my mind that masterfully "sound" happy but are "really" sad within the show's context include "One Plus One Equals Three" from Side Show, "Bye, Bye, Life" from the film All That Jazz (if you ignore the lyrics!), "Happy Talk" from South Pacific (at least, as performed in the most recent production with Kelli O'Hara), half the score of Cabaret (as mentioned by another poster), "Santa Evita" from Evita (from the most recent revival imho: when that little girl sang Eva's praises as if she were a deity while her parents gazed so proudly upon her, I lost my breath.), "What a Game" from Ragtime, and . . . countless others, but I"ll stop there.
#15Happy Musicals vs Sad Musicals
Posted: 7/21/15 at 2:04am
Chess is sort of like that. It starts off comedic and satirical and then gets darker and more serious, and ends on a sad and hopeless note.
A lot of shows have that sort of structure, where it's all light and fun in the first act and heavy and sad in the second act. Rent is a good example.
#16Happy Musicals vs Sad Musicals
Posted: 7/21/15 at 4:57am
Maybe I'm a sad musical guy but it seems the latest best theater is coming from the sad side. I love a happy ending but my three favorite musicals over the last ten years seem to be tear jerkers no matter how hard they try to make the ending uplifting.
Stephanatic
#17Happy Musicals vs Sad Musicals
Posted: 7/21/15 at 10:08pm
Admittedly, LuminousBeing, I have not. I know I am in the minority with this opinion, but I don't care for most of the score. I recognize how important it was in musical theatre history and Marvin Hamlisch is a very talented guy, but the songs in A Chorus Line just aren't my cup of tea.
That said, hearing this piece of information about the show's finale has made me want to examine it in the "new" light. (New to me, anyway!)
http://puccinischronicles.wordpress.com
