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Rousing Male-Male duets
Rousing Male-Male duets
#1Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 12:55pm
Last night, I was music coordinator and pianist for a gala fundraiser for high school theatre. One high school production featured was a cast of "Beauty and the Beast" so large that it had double-cast all its leads. The two Beasts tag-teamed "If I Can't Love Her," each one taking a verse, singing together on the bridge and then into the final chorus. When they hit the climactic key change, they split into a harmony, and the entire Broadway-sized theatre went nuts simultaneously, giving them a standing ovation when they hit the high notes at the end on "let the world be done with ME!"
I couldn't help but think, the "rousing non-romantic duet" is a female genre much more than it is a male one. The only one coming to me off the top of my head in that fashion is "Lily's Eyes," and maybe "You're Nothing Without Me." But audiences love these! Am I missing some? I feel like there are some obvious showstoppers for two male voices that I'm missing...
#2Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 1:05pm
Agony - Into the Woods
Pretty Women - Sweeney Todd
It Would Have Been Wonderful - A Little Night Music
Dirty Rotten Number - Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
We Can Do It - The Producers
No More/Running Away - Into the Woods (not really a duet, but it works in a pinch)
A Powerful Thing - Steel Pier
We'll Take a Glass Together - Grand Hotel
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#4Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 1:16pm
You and Me (But Mostly Me) from Book of Mormon.
Butter Outta Cream and Stuck Together (Strange But True) from Catch Me If You Can.
"Anybody that goes to the theater, I think we’re all misfits, so we ended up on stage or in the audience.” --- Patti LuPone.
BrodyFosse123
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
#5Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 1:17pm
"I Don't Need Anything But You" - ANNIE
"Tonight" - WEST SIDE STORY
"It's Our Little Secret" - PROMISES, PROMISES
"Conga" - ON YOUR FEET!
#6Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 1:18pm
"Dirty Rotten Number" is a great choice. I'm always surprised how much I forget this number exists, considering how much I enjoy it in the show. "Agony as well."
I thought about adding "Pretty Women" to the list, but like "No More," it ends with a whimper more than a bang (in fact, "Pretty Women" doesn't really end at all).
#7Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 1:42pm
You're Nothing Without Me.
It's the Act I finale so it definitely doesn't trail off at the end.
The harmonies of the two actors during the chorus is perfection.
....but the world goes 'round
Updated On: 5/5/16 at 01:42 PM
yankeefan7
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/14/12
pupscotch
Broadway Star Joined: 1/24/16
aimeric
Stand-by Joined: 8/7/15
#10Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 1:50pm
I guess "Confrontation" from "Jekyll and Hyde" doesn't count as a duet? 
Joking aside, though, I would guess that Wildhorn shows may have a few of these, since they have rousing everything...I can think of a few rousing all-male numbers like "Into the Fire" ("Scarlet Pimpernel", "Red and Black" ("Les Miserables", etc., and a few nice trios with two men ("Journey On" from "Ragtime", but yeah, hard to think of blow-the-roof-off male duets...I guess Radames has that duet with his father in "Aida," but I dunno, I wouldn't exactly say I was roused in any sense by that. :/ There are some great Jesus/Judas bits in "Superstar," but mostly recitative-type stuff. Are there any true male-male duets in "American Idiot" or "Spring Awakening"...?
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
#11Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 1:56pm
"Take Me Along"- Take Me Along
"Grand Old Ivy"- How to Succeed
"I'll Learn Ya"- Let It Ride!
#12Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 1:57pm
One Rock n' Roll Too Many - Starlight Express
Mine - On the 20th Century
What Would I Do? - Falsettoland
Be Yourself - Lend Me a Tenor
....but the world goes 'round
BroadwayKiwi
Understudy Joined: 12/27/12
#13Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 1:57pm
Lily's Eyes.
Why hasn't this been mentioned yet lol.
#14Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 1:59pm
I'm guessing Cabinet Battle #1 from Hamilton is not exactly a traditional "duet", is it? :)
I love Confrontation, from Les Mis.
Caption: Every so often there was a rare moment of perfect balance when I soared above him.
#15Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 2:01pm
Where are the Hamilton people with Dear Theodosia?
http://backstagebarbie.blogspot.com
#16Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 2:13pm
BroadwayKiwi said: "Lily's Eyes.
Why hasn't this been mentioned yet lol.
"
It was mentioned in the very first post.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
aimeric
Stand-by Joined: 8/7/15
ghostlight2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/5/04
#18Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 2:31pm
The Proposal/The Night Was Alive from Titanic.
"It was mentioned in the very first post."
I assumed that was a joke.
MrsSallyAdams
Broadway Star Joined: 11/12/13
#19Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 5:13pm
You've Got What I Need - "It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman."
I Can See it - "The Fantasticks"
Be a Performer - "Little Me"
threepanelmusicals.blogspot.com
mc1227
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/29/07
#20Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 5:32pm
"We Can Do It"- The Producers
The only review of a show that matters is your own.
#21Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 5:41pm
BrodyFosse123 said: ""I Don't Need Anything But You" - ANNIE
"Tonight" - WEST SIDE STORY
"It's Our Little Secret" - PROMISES, PROMISES
"Conga" - ON YOUR FEET! "
Actually none of those are duets for men.
"Contentment, it seems, simply happens. It appears accompanied by no bravos and no tears."
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#22Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 8:35pm
To a poster above, J/ H Confrontation should definitely be considered a duet albeit an odd one
Man #1 Jekyll
Man #2 Hyde
Poster Emeritus
Ranger Tom
Leading Actor Joined: 7/6/14
#23Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 9:30pm
Pretty Women from Sweeney
Never Say No from Fantasticks (maybe not "rousing" but fun).
Confrontation from Les Mis.
All for the Best from Godspell is fun too.
yankeefan7
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/14/12
#24Rousing Male-Male duets
Posted: 5/5/16 at 9:40pm
"To a poster above, J/ H Confrontation should definitely be considered a duet albeit an odd one
Man #1 Jekyll
Man #2 Hyde"
Very true, Mr. Cuccioli was quite amazing on that song. BTW - My wife knew him in his HS days.
